Fridge not cooling enough in Flying Cloud 23FB

[switters]

We're (sadly) selling our FC 23FB. The buyers paid for an inspection yesterday by a certified RV inspector. He texted me during the inspection to let me know that the fridge temp was 55 F. This was after 24 hours of being on Auto (with shore power and LP both available). Outdoor air temps have been between 50-85 degrees.

I did some research on the forum and found these suggestions:

1. If the thermistor attached to the fins has slid down, move it up.
2. Clean out the "chimney" behind the fridge. (I'm not sure where this is?)
3. Put an electric fan behind the access door, pointing up. If this solves the problem, hardwire an electric fan.

#1 & #2 above seem straightforward and are things I can do to try to correct the problem before selling. I imagine #3 is something the buyer may balk at as a solution. They might argue the fridge should work without this modification.

Is there anything else I can do to diagnose (and fix) this problem before selling?

[GetawA-S]

On our 2020 23FB FC, there is no chimney on the roof. Airstream relies on ventilation out the upper compartment door. They included a 3” biscuit fan on a thermostat to help the air flow. If it goes out, performance suffers. I added a second 6” fan from Amazon behind the upper door (set in the drain frame to blow directly through the louvers) and bypassed the thermostat to run all the time, as long as the inside fan switch is on. It works almost too well- we have to watch to keep the lettuce from freezing.
Performance on these fridges varies widely! A selling point for the compressor models.

[Fungus]

Plenty of YouTube describe how to diagnose fridge problems.

But if you are unsure of where the guts of the fridge are located, I suggest that you hire an RV mechanic to take a look. And I say this even though I do all my own work. Any skills you acquire while going through the process will not be used in the future, plus, it takes time/trial/error to figure it out.

[switters]

Thanks. Part of the issue is I'm selling this to a long-distance buyer. I either need to fix it quickly or reduce the sales price by an amount that will enable them to fix it. Given the time constraint, it seems like it may be best to hire an RV repair person (there's a mobile one in my area) to come take a look.

I did find that the thermistor attached to the fins inside of the fridge was only about halfway down. I moved it up to the top. Could that alone have been the problem?

[uraljohn]

Lots of folks have installed fans to help ventilate the heat out of the cavity on backside of fridge. On certain models the compartment does not vent through the roof. Heat is supposed to escape through the upper compartment door. Bad design. Heat becomes trapped and refrig suffers. Couple of computer fans mounted in the upper vent door blowing out moves the trapped hot air out and refrig runs much cooler. Lots of threads about this on the 23D blog. Whoever buys the trailer is going to have to do this to get acceptable refrig performance. Surprised you do not know about this. Cheap, easy fix.

[switters]

The fan solution is easy enough, but I'm trying to determine if there's another problem.

I'm in the trailer now, and it's level. No shore power, but LP is on and fridge is on. I went around to the upper access compartment and nothing is happening in there. The biscuit fan isn't running and I don't hear or see any evidence that the fridge is on.

The power is on and the auto/gas button is set such that it is configured to run on gas. It's still cool in the fridge now, but it was cool in there before—just not cold enough for safety.

[GetawA-S]

Switzerland,
Nothing is going on in there…
Do you hear the flame at the bottom right kick on? (Preceded by the igniter clicking)
Are the coil banks warm? (Find a troubleshooting video - I believe the upper is cooler of the two).
The fan comes on when the thermal switch hits a certain temperature - around 100 (?). That’s what went out on mine.
Is your inspector knowledgeable about this at all? He should be willing to provide tech input, and seems to have more credibility with the buyer than us anonymous forum members.
Do you have a remote read thermometer? Just opening the door affects the temperature. An infrared (non contact) thermometer will be helpful for checking the coil operation.

[switters]

The inspectors came and went yesterday. They were general RV inspectors, not specific to Airstream, and their main task was to determine if things were working, not to diagnose/fix if they weren't.

I slid the thermistor to the top, and the fridge is running on LP now. I left a bottle of room temp water in there and will go back in the morning to check the temp.

If it's still in the 50s, I may just reduce the sale price by a certain amount so the buyer can take care of it. (They said they're open to that.) The problem is that, because I don't know what the issue is, I don't know how much it may cost to fix.

I'll check the coil banks tomorrow when I go back. I will also watch some troubleshooting videos. Thanks.

[AlbertF]

Originally Posted by switters

We're (sadly) selling our FC 23FB. The buyers paid for an inspection yesterday by a certified RV inspector. He texted me during the inspection to let me know that the fridge temp was 55 F. This was after 24 hours of being on Auto (with shore power and LP both available). Outdoor air temps have been between 50-85 degrees.



I did some research on the forum and found these suggestions:

1. If the thermistor attached to the fins has slid down, move it up.
   
2. Clean out the "chimney" behind the fridge. (I'm not sure where this is?)
   
3. Put an electric fan behind the access door, pointing up. If this solves the problem, hardwire an electric fan.
   

#1 & #2 above seem straightforward and are things I can do to try to correct the problem before selling. I imagine #3 is something the buyer may balk at as a solution. They might argue the fridge should work without this modification.



Is there anything else I can do to diagnose (and fix) this problem before selling?

With our old trailer, I found the refrigerator very inconsistent. Sometimes it worked well, other times we had spoiled milk. Oddly, it worked very well on 12v while driving (it was a 3 way unit).

As someone else said, the newer compressor units are desirable for this reason (but not for their power consumption off-grid).

I’d try shutting it down and restarting it, and putting your own thermometer inside to see how it’s really doing.

[switters]

Sliding the thermistor up to the top fixed the problem. Easy, peasy!

[Prettygood]

Offer $1500 off to replace the fridge with a compressor unit. Then sell as is and they can deal with the replacement or adding the workarounds like additional fans. One is expensive, one is cheap, but you have to choose whether you want to hold the price and risk a spooked buyer, or drop the price and close the deal.

[Shiny16]

Originally Posted by switters

The fan solution is easy enough, but I'm trying to determine if there's another problem.

I'm in the trailer now, and it's level. No shore power, but LP is on and fridge is on. I went around to the upper access compartment and nothing is happening in there. The biscuit fan isn't running and I don't hear or see any evidence that the fridge is on.

The power is on and the auto/gas button is set such that it is configured to run on gas. It's still cool in the fridge now, but it was cool in there before—just not cold enough for safety.

When you say biscuit fan do you mean a computer type fan is already installed but not running? If it is its is probably connected to a thermostat. Bypass the thermostat. The fan needs to run continuously.

[Shiny16]

Originally Posted by Prettygood

Offer $1500 off to replace the fridge with a compressor unit. Then sell as is and they can deal with the replacement or adding the workarounds like additional fans. One is expensive, one is cheap, but you have to choose whether you want to hold the price and risk a spooked buyer, or drop the price and close the deal.

It would cost more than that to fix the aluminum exterior. Not to mention the cabinetry work required to ventilate a new compressor model.

[Shiny16]

Originally Posted by switters

Sliding the thermistor up to the top fixed the problem. Easy, peasy!

Great! Just curious why the professional inspector wouldn’t catch that.

[field & stream]

Originally Posted by Shiny16

It would cost more than that to fix the aluminum exterior. Not to mention the cabinetry work required to ventilate a new compressor model.

Definitely. Plus, if they want to camp unplugged, thousands of dollars for solar and lithium. Plus a generator for times and places with poor solar conditions.

[Turbulence]

The fridge on our 2019 23fb would not cool when the weather was hot on electric mode. I tried all the things - (fans, thermistor, measuring voltages) but couldn’t make it work. Worked fine on propane under all circumstances so we just accepted it and moved on.

I think I read on another thread that somebody replaced the control board to fix it.

We upgraded to a 2022 with a dc fridge and have been pleased.

Scotty

[Prettygood]

Originally Posted by Shiny16

It would cost more than that to fix the aluminum exterior. Not to mention the cabinetry work required to ventilate a new compressor model.

I just installed one. No need to do anything with the existing exterior vents, and I am installing a nice drawer in the space above the new fridge to add more storage.

[Shiny16]

Originally Posted by Prettygood

I just installed one. No need to do anything with the existing exterior vents, and I am installing a nice drawer in the space above the new fridge to add more storage.
Attachment 437000

Does that model have built in ventilation? Most of the ones I’ve seen require ventilation on the top, bottom and sides.

[Prettygood]

Originally Posted by Shiny16

Does that model have built in ventilation? Most of the ones I’ve seen require ventilation on the top, bottom and sides.

It has more ventilation than any Airstream where the compressor fridge is standard equipment.

[Shiny16]

Originally Posted by Prettygood

It has more ventilation than any Airstream where the compressor fridge is standard equipment.
Attachment 437067

So I guess the answer is no.