Refrigerator woes again - so frustrating

[Markb777]

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.

I believe the OEM control comes on at 130F which to me is much too high. By that time the fridge is already behind. I replaced the OEM version with this one which comes on at 85F. Made a significant difference.
https://rvcoolingunit.com/Fan-switch...-P4850272.aspx

I also installed and wired in 2 fans blowing out attached to the top grill, and wired them to run every time the fridge is running. I have not had any problems since then with outside temps ranging from 5F-110F. Yes, 110 - I live in Las Vegas and sometimes it can get that warm, which by the way we, the locals love!

Mark

[TheLexx]

I believe the OEM control comes on at 130F which to me is much too high. By that time the fridge is already behind. I replaced the OEM version with this one which comes on at 85F. Made a significant difference.
https://rvcoolingunit.com/Fan-switch...-P4850272.aspx

I also installed and wired in 2 fans blowing out attached to the top grill, and wired them to run every time the fridge is running. I have not had any problems since then with outside temps ranging from 5F-110F. Yes, 110 - I live in Las Vegas and sometimes it can get that warm, which by the way we, the locals love!

Mark

Could you post more detail about how this was wired? I’m terrible at electrical.

[Canyonlight]

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.

Very good post. Yes, some fridges do seem to perform better than others or have issues but in general this post is a good one and important.

We have learned that keeping items away from the cooling fins makes a huge difference in performance over the years regardless of fridge make/model. Even when the fridge is loaded quite full, ensuring that items do not touch or better yet stay away from the cooling fins an inch or so is important to cooling.

In our case our fridge stays in the mid to high 30s vs low to mid 40s when the shelf by the cooling fins is loaded high and close or touching the fins.

Dan

[Markb777]

Could you post more detail about how this was wired? I’m terrible at electrical.

More detail about the thermostat wiring or fan wiring?

[TheLexx]

More detail about the thermostat wiring or fan wiring?

Both please.

[5er Searching]

i ordered an adjustable switch off amazon I will set it around 100 to come on.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[29roadster]

The RV 12 volt system is normally tied to the tow vehicle 12 volts when the 7 pin cable is connected. This should keep the RV batteries charged when traveling.

[Canadiansteelman]

After our fridge stopped working after parking out of level at an orchard, I let the thing run all winter long and it showed 33-34F all winter long.

So I figured the fridge would be ok for our summer trip.

My wife overpacked the thing honestly, but the temps got up to 50 degrees on propane during a 7 hour drive in 100F temps.

When we got to Las Vegas, I went and got 20 lbs of ice for our ice chest and transferred our perishables into that while the little outside refrigerator got cold.

We let the inside fridge run all night on electric (50 amp site) and by this morning it was down to 39 F. My wife reloaded some of the stuff into the fridge LOOSELY packed. The unit is showing 40 F.

Is this normal or do we have an issue with this awful fridge again?

I feel like next year we're going to ditch this POS and get the Samsung to replace it. But that's a big expense considering I will probably need solar and batteries. UGH!!!

We had a problem like this on a Keystone Alpine in hot weather. The dealer installed a second fan at the back compartment of the fridge along with better baffles to move the air out and that fixed the problem.

[SolarPoweredRV]

After our fridge stopped working after parking out of level at an orchard, I let the thing run all winter long and it showed 33-34F all winter long.

So I figured the fridge would be ok for our summer trip.

My wife overpacked the thing honestly, but the temps got up to 50 degrees on propane during a 7 hour drive in 100F temps.

One thing about these fridges is that you need to be certain the food you put into them is cold before you put it in. Don't put in a case of warm beer and expect to drink it before tomorrow...

[thompson71]

Is this thread pertaining to boon-docking? We have a Norcold RV 4-door refer that is 18cf capacity. It worked fine the first 6 months but the last 6 the refer section was hard pressed to maintain 40 deg. About 3 wks ago it shot up to 55 then 62 overnight. We replaced the thermistor and it's now maintaining ~41 deg. (However right now it's up to 45). The freezer works fine. We added two muffin fans to the outside lower compartment, no noticeable change. We don't think it's working right. Since we live in it full-time, things get complicated. We have a cooler we move things to when it gets too warm but don't feel we should have to do that. It's on shore power 50amp 90% of the time. It is quite warm where we are at and will get warmer when we go to AZ in October. We are considering buying/making a outside screen for the two vents to deflect some of the heat but are not sure that's going to help much. Any thoughts out there on next steps, short of having a tech come out.