tundra fridge problem

[alex]

Hi guys,

First of all wishing to all rinker boat owners, pleasant trips, calm seas and have fun.

Here is the issue:

my rinker 270 f.v is equiped  with the standard refrigerator ‘ tundra’ (cannot remember the exact type), which unfortunately do not produce cold.

I turn the knob inside the fridge clock wise up to the end, considering that this is the max output position, I can hear a noise from the fridge which seems to be the compressor or motor , but there is no cooling.

I am thinking that the issue is the lack of  Freon.

Anybody knows how to refill Freon to the fridge? should i remove the fridge for this job?

Could it be any other reason?

I have check boats batteries and they are both o.k, moreover I operated the fridge with the generator charging the batteries, just in case.

Any advise is welcome.... the beers should not  be warm… .

Thks
Alex

[trich11]

Alex,
We encountered a similar issue with our salon frig. The issue was lack of refrigerant but there is not a nipple on most of these units to allow recharging. Lucky for us, one of our boating buddies is a HVAC/refrigeration guy and he put one in the system and recharged it. Works great!
Good Luck.

[raybo3]

Hey guys please know that if your system needs a charge then there is a leak somewhere. Its not possiable to "use up" freon. So just charging a system is not going to fix it.

[trich11]

Raybo is correct about the leak, I forgot to include that portion of the repair in my explaination. My guy used some type of red epoxy developed for the piping in these systems. He has been in the business for over 30 years and never used it before but he is a firm believer in it now.

[Capt Ron]

Take to someone who knows what they are doing. If you try and refill it it should be a dyed solution so the leak can be detected and repaired. I'm with Raybo, if it leaked out in the first place, just recharging will not fix the issue.

[trich11]

I agree that you MUST use someone qualified to do the work. I don't know anything about coolant with dye in it, but my guy has and I would assume all qualified repairpersons would have a leak detector that will pinpoint a coolant leak in the piping.

[alex]

tks for all replies.

is it freon or  some other kind of fluid that i should fill?

do i have to remove the fridge, or there is a kind of valve  to fill the refregerand fluid?

if there is a valve, maybe it make sense to fill and see how it works, until taking the boat ashore in autumn. i would like to avoid making the cabin a working site at this stage. maybe the leakage is quite small.

any ideas to the above (regarding valve)?

thks
Alex

[trich11]

In my 342 it was 8 screws to remove the frig. Any leak is to much and the coolant is measured in very, very small amounts so this is something a qualified refrigeration tech should tackle. It is not freon per say any more but either R7 or R22 I believe.

[Capt Ron]

I agree, it's not a big deal to remove the fridge. You may have to cut the 12v wires to remove and just crimp them when you re-install. You can always use a cooler while it's being repaired. Usually if it's a compressor issue shops can fix them pretty quickly. It's when electronics are involved it takes more time. My cockpit fridge control board went and it took the repair shop a couple of weeks to source a replacement. Having it repaired properly will make it run more efficiently, saving on battery power & etc.

[99FVBP]

When you pull the fridge, call Tundra customer service and they will trouble shoot with you. Have test light on hand.  I had the same problem and we determined it was an electrical part that went bad.  Once replaced, worked fine again.  I was pleasantly surprised by their CS.