Refrigerator question

[dan brooks]

I'm still fighting with the fridge in my camper. After talking to a friend who has a 5th wheel, I'm curious about what the "normal" temperature is for the refrigerator. Right now, mine is hitting about 58* - outside temps were close to 100*. At night the fridge will cool down to the mid 40's, with outside temps in the 70's. My friend's 5-er is getting down to about 53*.



Should I be concerned with these numbers, or am I just being paranoid?

 

[Prairie Dog]

Mine doesn't work very well when it's hot, only gets down to 44 or so but at night it will drop into the mid 20s if there's not much in it or, the mid 30s if its fairly full. This is on propane - it doesn't work at all on electric.

Hope this helps.



Scotty

 

[dewdo]

I have had some problems with my Dometic and had to have it repaired while I was in Alaska. The Company was generous and although it was six weeks out of warranty they shipped me parts to repair it.



Included in the parts was a fan with a thermisistor to turn the fan on when the temperature of the coils rose too high.



In a former RV I installed a small muffin fan from a computer under the coils with an external switch. When the outside temperature was hot (over 85%) I would turn on the fan to move air across the cooling coils. This worked fine, but after talking to several repair people. they suggest removing the panel when you are parked and you have a high temperature.



Good Luck



Dewdo in the other Washington

 

[dan brooks]

Thanks for the replies. The second new fridge is doing a little better - it was around 40* this morning, and about 45* when I got home from work, but it wasn't as hot today. I picked up a couple small 12-volt fans I'll install tomorrow and see if that does the trick.

 

[George D]

Having spent a couple of summers in Lake Havasu City I can vouch for the value of a fan to keep air moving over the coils. Make sure the fins are kept clean of dust buildup on the outside and frost buildup on the inside. These refrigerators do not recover nearly as fast as a compressor type. Keeping the door closed as much as possible really makes a difference especially in hot weather.

George

 

[RustyJC]

One factor you don't mention is whether or not your refrigerator is located in a slideout. In a conventional installation, the refrigerator has a roof vent and can usually draw a pretty good convection draft to cool the coils. When installed in a slideout, however, the refrigerator normally has a vented access door installed at the bottom and top of the slideout. In these slideout installations, a forced draft fan is normally needed to generate adequate airflow over the coils for cooling.



Our Norcold is located in one of the slideouts of our Jayco Designer XL 3610RLTS and came from the factory with a thermostatically controlled 12VDC forced draft fan - it works fine regardless of ambient temperatures or whether it's being powered by 120VAC or propane.



Rusty