Refrigerator woes again - so frustrating

[TheLexx]

Are you getting enough air movement over the cooling fins for the refrigeration to work? if you stack food or other objects that slow air flow down you will see increased temps. I am assuming you do not have a residential.

air movement or lack thereof is always an issue with these absorption refrigerators. I have a small cameo battery operated fan in the fridge in an attempt to move some air. When we get back I’m going to look at doing the fan mod at the back of the fridge and add some fans inside the unit as well.

If if that fails I’m getting a residential unit.

[Steven@147]

Funny we are talking about this. Here is one owners solution. Just read about it in Trailer Life. Had heard about it but never saw how someone would do it.
Notice the manufacturer of the RV?

Update: Markb777 asked in a private message how to get a hold of the guy that made this shade and how he done it or where he got it. The article indicated that the guy made it all himself. Can't copy pictures of the bracket he made in a private message, the article in Trailer Life was an online article not included in their magazine. The article was sent in to TL by Bert Hedrick of Colorado. No idea how to get a hold of him.

For those interested, the information in the article was fairly straight forward how he made it. The bracket he made out of 3/4 inch plywood with slits cut in it and just hangs on the slide molding. The shade itself he made out of vinyl and it looks like he sewed slip pockets at the bottom and top, then inserted wood strips through the pockets. At the top of the shade he just set the wood strip into the slit bracket he made. At the bottom tied small ropes around the wood strip and staked it to the ground. I am kind of backwards engineering how he made it from the pictures and the little info contained in the article. It doesn't appear as if its on an automatic roller like a window shade, but a manual roll up type of thing and isn't permanently attached to the slide. A person would have to get a ladder and set the bracket on the slide molding, then clip the top of shade on the bracket and then stake the bottom to the ground.

Trailer Life Magazine <[email protected]> Article contained here. Dated April 27 2019 online 10 Minute Tech Tip:Cool Fridge

[Appfan]

air movement or lack thereof is always an issue with these absorption refrigerators. I have a small cameo battery operated fan in the fridge in an attempt to move some air. When we get back I’m going to look at doing the fan mod at the back of the fridge and add some fans inside the unit as well.

If if that fails I’m getting a residential unit.

The 12v exhaust fan plus an internal recirculating fan, both combined, will make a huge difference. Especially if you get the ducting dialed in. I had to do the same in our previous rig (non-GDRV).

[5er Searching]

Does anyone know what temperature the rear exhaust fans come on at and what temperature they kick off. The other day the sun was beating on refrigerator slide and fans were not running. I thought maybe the thermostat was not working. I got a heat gun and heated the thermostat up and the fans kicked on and went off within a minute or so. Just thought maybe kicking the fans in at a lower temp might help before the fridge starts falling behind.

[JKellerJr]

Check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLiRZqNErSg

(In the video it consumed 200aH in 11 hours, so the Samsung uses ~18aH while the Dometic is up around ~33aH.)

Attachment 20671

I watched that video also when I was choosing between RV/residential fridge. I choose residential and I can tell you I’ve never had that rate of consumption. I’ve never done a true test like that but I’ve only ran the batteries out once and that involved also running the furnace all night. And I still ran longer than 11 hours. (I have 200 usable amp hours of lithium)

As far as a travel test. I left Orlando at 10am in mid August in very hot conditions and drove until 3am. stopped at a cracker barrel for about 4 hours of sleep, had breakfast and drove about another 8 hours home the next day. It was still running fine when we got home. We do get some charge help from the TV but I don’t know how much. We never shut the truck off for meals etc but did shut down when we slept. Didn’t have a monitor installed so I don’t know how much charge we had left.

With a lithium converter/charger they don’t take long to recharge. They can recharge much faster than conventional batteries

[dryfly]

In my previous trailer with a Norcold fridge I did several of the modifications to try to keep temps more reasonable in hot weather. I was fairly successful over the factory installation but never got to the point I could set and forget the temp control switch in the summer.

With that said my goal was to keep the fridge below 40 degrees and preferably around 38. I used a digital indoor/outdoor thermometer so I could keep the sensor on the inside of the fridge and monitor on the outside. Many times the fridge would creep up to around 45 - 47 and take a while to get back down to 40. this concerned me but in the many years of camping not once did we ever have food go bad, or suffer any ill effects.

I've often wondered how many folks in trailers who never watch the fridge's temps get by without food poisoning. You never seem to hear about any issues and you can imagine with kids opening and closing the door how high the temps get. I will continue to strive for a cold fridge but I'm not sure it's gonna happen.

[jjhays44]

I would say if you leave your food in the low to mid 40's you will be ok if you eat it within the next 24 to 48. You have to be cognizant of things that spoil quickly like milk and cheese and some meats. Keep things frozen as long as possible and use pickled/fermented items more. Bring on the Kimchi!

[TheLexx]

I swear something has to be wrong with the propane function. I hear the fridge running when I go in the trailer when we’re stopped for a rest while towing. But the fridge creeps up to the high 40’s by the time we get to our destination. This is about 6 hours of driving.

[Country Campers]

I would tend to believe that it has a lot to do with the double doors. There have been many complaints of the doors not sealing right.
Just 2 cents worth.

Brian

[howson]

I watched that video also when I was choosing between RV/residential fridge. I choose residential and I can tell you I’ve never had that rate of consumption.

The take-away is a residential (mechanical-compression cooling method) refrigerator consumes less power than an RV (absorption) refrigerator. The trade off, obviously, is propane is not an option with a residential model.

The reduced power draw of a residential would also be welcome when connected to a 30A shore power source (like I am now).

Interesting comments in this article on the RV vs residential debate: https://www.rvtravel.com/pros-cons-r...l-fridges-rvs/ (I'm now tempted to research for a replacement for my Dometic!)