Thetford fridge is useless when its hot!

[Lunar Keith]

So just got home from a month in Italy and France. It was our first EU caravan trip and learned a lot of lessons along the way.
We had the van and car serviced before we left, had noisy towball issues on all the hot journeys 30-37deg but not on the last leg home which was raining and 17deg. I already have the list of fixes to work through now I'm home on cleaning or replacing the pads etc but towing issues when its hot don't seem to be a common issue when searched, so the other issue is the fridge!
Never had an issue with the Thetford fridge until we hit France, once the temp went over 25deg, its performance went downhill. In Italy it was 36-37 in the day and high 20's at night and spent a week of warm milk and cornflake breakfasts. Took the outside vents off the van and pointed a fan in there 24hrs a day so we could keep meat coolish in the icebox. It seemed all the Italian and French caravaners had portable fridges outside their vans. I'm assuming these are compressor type ones and not absorption fridges like the caravan Thetford one is I believe.
I'm assuming the fundamental issue I have is that the factory fitted Thetford fridge on my 2010 Lunar is useless in hot summer weather but it appeared as though many other newer van users were also having just as much trouble as they had vent covers off and fans blowing just the same as me but using these external fridges. Has anyone found a decent solution or replaced their fridge for a compressor type one?

 

[Bluetonic]

Yes, they are rubbish in hot weather.
2015 bailey with dometic fridge/freezer could not cope with the heatwave in the UK, 28-32°c.
Like you had the covers off but didn't have a fan.

 

[Lunar Keith]

Yes, they are rubbish in hot weather.
2015 bailey with dometic fridge/freezer could not cope with the heatwave in the UK, 28-32°c.
Like you had the covers off but didn't have a fan.

I read threads about people even fitting fans in the back as a permanent fixture but essentially I found only a slight improvement by using the fan. Essentially i was blowing hot air into the back to replace the slightly hotter air already in there.

 

[RogerL]

We were in Yorkshire during the heatwave, the outside temperature "only" reached 37 but our Dometic fridge was reading 17 inside - none of the food went off though!

 

[Hutch]

Sorry to hear your problems but my 2013 Coachman with a thetford fridge worked fine in France for more than 6 years every 12 weeks , summer at 35c and in winter down to minus 5 for 2 weeks , all without the covers. Eventually had to have a new PCb after 8 years but all still working well.
Edit, found it best to not over fill the ice box 3/4 full was best.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Its the UK caravan manufacturers who decide which type of fridge to fit to their caravans, and their choices would be based on the weather conditions typically experienced in the UK.

Fridge manufacturers will rate their fridges in terms of being able to maintain either a set internal temperature, or as being able to drop the internal temperature by a number of degrees below the prevailing ambient. Depending on the technology they use they may also set out a range of external ambient temperatures in which the fridge will operate.

Typical historical temperatures in the UK do not normally exceed about 30C so it could well be the case that the temperatures recently experienced may have exceeded the fridges specified operating temperatures hence their apparent poor performance.

I expect that producing a fridge that works in a wider range of ambient temperatures will cost more.