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Unplug it and turn it upside down overnight or for 12 hours or so. Then try again. The coolant goop can settle or get airlocked or some such thing after sitting unused for a while.

Check that it's set to coldest, of course. On the electric dial, of course. There is a seperate one for use with gas.

It will only normally freeze water that is sitting on the cooler bar at the back. A new one would come with a tiny six cube metal ice tray to sit on this bar...if you have it, try that. If not put a freeze-pop or a square of wet cotton wool on the left hand end where the bar gets coldest. You'll soon find out if it's working.

Finally the Combicool usually only freezes carrots and milk solid if it's on the less controllable gas; if the outside temperature is cold already, like a cold night and finally if the object is in the far away left hand corner of the fridge where the bar gets coolest. It's best to keep fruit and veg away from this corner!

I normally alter the thermostat setting low at night & high in the morning.....just common sense that it's warmer in the day and the fridge doesn't get opened durning the night...

My fridge normally takes a good day to get cold, but does depend on how full it is

Quote: Originally posted by Bickers on 15/6/2009

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Thanks for the advice, I think I just need to learn a bit more patience. After leaving it on over night it did eventually get cold. I'll just have to see how effective it is in the south of France this summer, having thought it cooled to 30 degrees below ambient temperature, I realise now that the model I have cools only 20 degrees below ambient temperature.

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Well that's the one that I have and it's not at all bad even in heatwaves. Just be a bit careful about what you use it for in very hot weather ie don't keep things like shellfish in it to the next day, or things like pate. Try not to open it too often, shut the lid asap, don't leave food around on worktops to get to room temperature before returning to the coolbox if you can help it and try to put only coldish things into it.

This last was a particular problem for me the first year we got the fridge till I discovered that Hubby was using it to chill down beer that was sitting in a warmish part of the tent...he would take one bottle out to drink then replace it with a luke warm one. Constantly. We got on much better when we kept the beer in a bucket of cold water on the shady side of the tent and only put the bottles into the fridge when they were as cold as possible first.

Talking about airflow....

How do you get around packing it in the boot and running on 12v ??

I'm alway worried that something will overheat.

Quote: Originally posted by davidli on 15/6/2009

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Talking about airflow....

How do you get around packing it in the boot and running on 12v ??

I'm alway worried that something will overheat.

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I don't bother plugging mine into the 12v in the car either. As long as its good and cold before you start off (chill it down for 24 hours at home) then as long as you keep the lid down it will stay pretty cold for a day. You can always insulate it deliberately by packing the sleeping bags round it.

On the trip home I either carry the wine in it, or the soggy beach towels etc. They don't need cooling, nope!

We've used ours on 12v in the car and it runs very efficiently indeed especially if you plug it in at home first to chill it down.  We pack ours with the vents to the rear of the car and just leave that free and pack over the rest of it - no problems! 

Our tent in Cornwall a couple of weeks ago was reading 40degs and it had no problems whatsoever you just need to use it sparingly and not cram it all in otherwise salad stuff won't last 5 minutes.