Troubleshooting
Kevin, I have some very good experience with trouble shooting this. 1. You have replaced the thermostat. This pretty much states it's operation is okay. The t'stat is a "close on temperature drop" automatic switch. This means if you actually remove the two wires from the refrigeration end terminals the refrigeration should cease to operate. This verifies that the t'stat and it's interconnecting wiring is okay. (note: you will need to roughly trace out the t'stat wiring from the direction of the fridge. If you have trouble identifying it at the unit terminal board, you may need to re remove the stat and check out the wire colors at the fridge. It should be a twin cable, like lamp cord.) 2. If the unit stops running when you remove the t'stat wires from the connector, then the wire from the frig to the terminal board is shorted or the wiring is touching each other. You know how sometimes when you strip the wire, a stray strand or two can cross over. 3. If the unit continues to run after removing the thermosatat wiring connections, something is stuck. Our boat fridge was wired wrong from the factory and I had to ring out the wiring and reconfigure to fix the same issue. Some units have a relay that can hang up. I thing that the stat on your fridge is a line voltage stat. This means that the electric going to the compressor actually passes throught the stat. Some units are equiped with relays. The stat is a lower wattage swith that just activates a relay. The relay, in this case, carries the electrical load for the compressor, not the stat. Relays have a tendency to hang up and stick. Sometimes rapping them with the side of a wrench will free them. If this is the case, replace it. You are more likely to not have a relay, in which case, believe it or not, the wiring is hooked up wrong. You can trace it. the poweer should go to the unit terminal block. From the terminal at the unit, it can next go to the stat. From the stat it goes right to the compressor. It is that simple. Sometimes ther is overcurrent protection on the compressor. This protection is to keep the compressor from running, if a fault occurs, It is very unlikely to be involved with your problem. Next, I believe they sometimes put a switch in series to prevent the unit from running, should the pressure or temperature go too high. This would be symptomatic of a blocked water line or an unopened sea cock.If you have the dual air.water cooled unit, this switch is often eliminated.) Here again not your problem. This would keep your unit from running and have nothing to do with it running continuously. Lastly, there is another paralell circuit that turns on the pump for the sea water cooling (if equipped on your unit). And another manual switch in series somewhere on or near your electrical panel. I know this is wordy but it is fairly simple. Write me (owners directory) if you get stuck further. 12v (+) -----Terminal------T'stat---------protection device-------compressor------- (-) or 12v (+) -----Terminal------T'stat-------compressor---------protection device------- (-) Mike D
