Replacing a fridge... any ideas &/or suggestions

Hi Craig n Jan,
We were faced with that exact same scenario about 4 years ago when our 190L Coolmatic stopped working altogether. After a lot of searching and measuring and head scratching, we found nothing that would fit and had the size we wanted without major changes to the woodwork.

We contacted a local fridge mechanic who looked at it for us and he advised us to try a replacement Black Box first before we looked into the compressor. His experience was that the earlier black box had a history of failures and the compressor rarely gave trouble.He was able to bypass the Black Box and get the compressor running as a test.

In light of the results of our fruitless search for a replacement fridge, we were prepared to replace both black box and compressor if we had to as the fridge cabinet was in perfect condition and required no modification to framework.

In the end the Black Box was the culprit as the fridgee had suspected and the repair including the replacement Black Box cost us around $400.00 which was more than acceptable to us four years ago....And it's still working well to this day.

Hope this helps in a little way.
Cheers
Rick n Julie

Same experience, had to replace the black box, cost about $200 and relatively easy job provinding you have double jointed elbows and 15" fingers. In retrospect I should have just slid the fridge right out onto the floor of the van and done it the easy way. There is not much more to the fridge than the compressor and the black box. Probably cheaper to replace both than replace the entire fridge.

Regards

John

Hi everyone,

It seems the faithful old Coolmatic 190 litre frig has a use-by date. We noticed ours playing up at the recent Rydal Muster. The freezer was over cold and the frig was a bit warmer than normal.
A day before our next trip, I started up the frig as normal, but found we had a freezer & a room-temperature storage cupboard.
I took frig & BT to a frig service company, who traced the fault yo an unrepairable gas leak within the cabinet.
Managed to find the only replacement that would fit in the existing cabinet was a 160 litre Waeco. Apparently, the 190 litre is no longer produced, and you either go to a 220 litre, or a smaller model.
Our departure was delayed by a day, but seeing it was only to be a relatively short trip, the frig was secured in the cabinet with four eye-hooks and a length of rope. This worked until we got home.
The Waeco has a 40mm clearance all the way around the cabinet opening, so how to mount? Fortunately my son has an engineering business, and made up for me four stainless steel angles 50 x 50 x 1.6mm.
After some considerable time in getting four 45 degree angles cut & ground, I used pop rivets and sikaflex to attach the angles to the frig. It was also necessary to sit the frig in a 20mm plywood base, then apply foam tape around the edge of the angles and screw them onto the cabinet.
Works well, and we really haven't really noticed the reduction in frig size.
The real nasty bit was the replacement cost of $1750.00!! Maybe if we had had the luxury of time, we could have shopped better, but its done now.
I have photos of the mounting of the Waeco, and if anyone is interested, I could post these, but at present they are still in the camera.
The old frig is waiting the next council cleanup, so if anyone needs a working compressor, its yours!

Neil

Hi Boystoy,
Do you have glass or wire shelves in that old fridge. We noticed over the Christmas break that our fridge compartment, with glass shelves, wasn't as cool as it should be. Having said that, the temperatures at the time were in the high 30's to low 40's.
I just thought that wire racks would allow an unrestricted flow of cool air throughout the fridge.
Chris.

Well guys,

We have made a final decision on the fridge... the CoolMatic HDC-221... it is the same width as the old CoolMatic (550 mm), but around 195 mm higher (or 175 to 180 mm if you dispense with the top cover of the fridge). It has a 171 litre fridge and a 41 litre freezer... a small gain of 22 litres over the old one.

It comes with a few complexities of fitting, with no real specific anchoring points. There is also very little access to the back of the fridge space in the van... it is (unusually) mounted across the rear of the van immediately to the right of the entrance door. The fridge only has side ventilation. I think I'll need to cut through the ply between the cupboard to its left and patch over afterwards. Never a dull moment is there!!!

The dispensing of the over head door and cupboard that is only 140 high x 500 wide and 660 deep is not too big a compromise to make.

There are no brackets provided and one has to be extremely careful to not drill through the side walls of the fridge. Now if I was a contortionist with 6 arms and 30 fingers that where 5 feet long!!!

I will try and remember to take a few photos in progress and get them onto the BOG site for all to see if they wish.

Thanks for the input,

Regards,

Craig and Jan
Alias, FUGLY

Hi everyone,

Well, here we are just over 6 weeks on, and we’re still dealing with the fitting in of the new fridge!!! We knew it had no real means of attachment and that we had to essentially "make it up as we go along", but it has been become a real challenge.

The “old fridge” just slid in on its base with angle aluminium siliconed around the sides, top and bottom to then screwed into the opening... not so simple with the new one!!! The fridge is not dissimilar to any standard home fridge in its “freedom” to just sit on the floor on “rear rollers and front legs”. It also has the capacity to lean at up to 30 degrees!!! (How the hell do you stop the fridge from moving about in that situation???)

The “mechanicals” in the back of the fridge sit on cross-members that protrude around 25-30 mm below the base and has two rollers amongst the cross-member with around 35 mm total protrusion. The front has two screw-in, “rise and fall” adjusters that are around 45 mm in height, adjustable to 50-55 mm... Thus, there is an auto “lean backward” angle of the fridge.

However, to attach the fridge into the opening one has to make a decision... do you want the body of the fridge “plum” with the opening, namely, vertical, like the old fridge was or to sit it at an angle??? We chose the former!!!

We have made up some spacers to “silicon” on the 40 x 25 white, angle aluminium with an accurate 3 mm thick “super silicon adhesive”, all flush with the vertical front body of the fridge... what a challenge.

Then there is the problem with the bottom itself with a space between the front, flat fridge base and the van opening of around 30 to 35 mm at the front (via the rear rollers and removal of the front screw adjusters). The outcome has been to sit the fridge on strategically placed and very stiff 30 mm foam at the front and some timber of appropriate thickness between the rear cross member and rollers and the opening. The front angle brackets are screwed to the opening with 10 stainless screws on both sides. The fridge is then screwed to the floor with some angle brackets at the back of the fridge to hold it in place. We will need to squeeze in through the side vent to do all this.

All-in-all, this has been one real challenge which we would not wish on our worst enemy... whoever that may be!!!

...and, to cap it all off, the top “clear plastic” shelf unit inside the door has a crack in it... already, and before use!!! Makes us feel a little conscious of the future of these things. Covered by warranty at the moment but after 12 months since purchase we will have to pay for this sort of thing!!! Some things just aren’t what they used to be!!!

We have taken some photos as we went along and we will hopefully find the time somewhere to add them for all to see.

Regards,


Craig and Jan
Alias... Fugly

Hi everyone...

Well, as for the fitting in of the fridge unit... what an exercise!

We pulled out all the fridge shelving and fruit/veg basket to lighten the load a little (and not to break anything!!!) and fitted the fridge into the opening.... all OK and the angled aluminium fitted perfectly around the opening. Proceeded to screw it all into the opening and then went to open the fridge door to fit the shelves! The damned thing would not open far enough because the van door handle stopped the door from opening fully.

Remember that the fridge is mounted across the rear of the van, just inside the door.

OK!!! Let’s open the door! Still not enough opening and had to remove the upper and middle receiving door catches too!!! Finally, only just fitted the shelves in and re fitted the door catches.... phew!!!

Now of course, the fridge door won’t open ideally and makes continued contact with the door handle... damn!!!

I have now thought about refitting the fridge into the opening by “moving” the fridge as far to the left as the cabinetry will allow (approx 25mm), and bringing the whole assembly around 25 mm “out” by fitting some 25 mm square Mountain Ash to the Top, Left and Bottom of the fridge opening and an “L-shaped” angled piece 50x 50 x25 thick to the right hand side. This “mountain ash” should be “screwed and glued” to the opening from the inside. This should allow for the wider, if not complete opening of the fridge door. This exercise is a little way down the “To Do List”!

Anyway, the fridge works.... still having a few hassles ironing out the fridge settings, but that is another story.

Regards,

Craig & Jan
Alias ... Fugly