Vitrifrigo C130L too warm

[crayiii]

We're in Grenada and it's currently pretty hot and humid so that's probably impacting this. This is a new to us boat (2017 Lagoon 42) so I'm not sure if this is a new issue or not.

The refrigerator runs continuously it really struggles to stay below 40F (remote thermometer installed). Last night, it was 53F when I placed three room temperature 1.5L bottles of water in the little freezer compartment. This morning the refrigerator thermometer still read 53 but all the water in the freezer compartment was frozen.

Why is the freezer (that I don't even want) so cold but the refrigerator isn't? Should I leave the freezer portion empty?

I had a service tech onboard and he checked the refrigerant levels and said it was good. I've opened the compartment where the compressor is to allow better circulation. The manual says it could be too full in the troubleshooting section but online people say it could be it's too empty.

Is this just how it is in the tropics?

[sailjumanji]

I have a new Dometic 130L refrig/freezer, that is from the Elegance line. We commissioned in Florida in February, then took the boat (and frig!) to Bahamas for a few months. At the dock in Florida, it worked great - of course the air con was running and ambient temp inside was high 70's, and humidity low. Once we headed across the Gulf stream and started cruising, we had same issues as you. Freezer section would make ice, but the refrig section slowly climbed from high 30's into mid 50's. We were convinced bad thermostat, but some other owners said they had some problem, and it was solved by defrosting. Appears the thermostat is near the freezer compartment, and in the humid conditions we would get ice buildup encasing the thermostat. Thermo apparently thought fridge was hitting the temp setting, so it kicked on infrequently. A hair drier and a Honda gen made quick work of defrosting, and we were back at 40 deg F in fridge. Had to repeat this process every 2-3 weeks while in the Bahamas.