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Thread: Fridge Vent Fan - With a Twist!
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06-15-2020, 09:05 PM #1
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Fridge Vent Fan - With a Twist!
So we are into our hot months here in Texas. Back in May I was camping at a State Park in OK. It was about 82 degrees out and my 8CF Dometic fridge was a little warmer than I like. Freezer was hovering in the low 20's and fridge was around 40. I've been watching Youtube many years and have seen several vent fan installs. Looked easy, so when we got home I ordered a 120mm fan from Titan. My plan was to install it in the upper vent. My fridge is in the slide, so no roof vent.
Got the fan, drove out to the rig and figured 1-2 hour install, right? As soon as I took the vent off it was obvious my plan would not work...
The back of the fridge (the fins) were nearly touching the back of the vent cover. And to make things worse, there is a solid metal heat shield going about 2/3 of the way up the opening.
There was no way this fan was going to fit behind this vent cover. I thought about raising the white flag and just installing it in the bottom vent and push the air up. But everything I'd seen said the the biggest improvement come with fans near the back fin (the hot area). So after a few nights of strenuous mental exercise, I came up with this idea... Make the vent cover and fan forever one. Bonded together for all of eternity...
The first thing I did was look to see how much a new vent cover would cost in case I screwed this up. $45... ok now I've got a safety net.
So I cut out a section of the cover so the fan would sit flush against the flat portion of it. But this still left half the fan blocked by plastic. So I then drilled holes on an angle (rain protection). All the time I'm doing this I'm thinking $45 gets me back to where I started...
Now I needed to figure out a simple yet effective way to keep the rain out. I know! A cover for the cover!
Next I put in some screen material and buttoned it all up with some clear silicone to secure and seal everything. It's not going to win a beauty contest but here are the pics:
So 2 weeks ago we went back out for 5 days. It was 86 degrees and little to no shade at our site. This was what our fridge temps were:
Yes, that is 5 BELOW zero in the freezer! Needless to say, I was VERY pleased. Normally I would not show a DIY job that looks, well, so-so at best. But the results made me feel I had to share for those that have a fridge in the slide and no room for the typical fan install.
Boomer
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06-15-2020, 09:41 PM #2
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Nicely done. For those who don't understand what the metal shield is, here's a photo of said shield.
As Boomer stated, there's very little clearance between the back of the vent cover (the horizontal rows of vent holes protrude into the space) - about 0.5" by my measurement.
I've been struggling with how to get some fans in there to draw the hot air out, and get them to fit. Boomer's method is excellent, but it does require cutting into the vent and there is of course, the worry about rain getting in there even with angled holes. I know they do make fans that are weather resistant.
The Noctua NF-A14 140mm High Performance Fan will run at 2000 RPM, exhausting 107 CFM, and the noise level is 32 dB. Two of these suckers are going to be like a vacuum cleaner lol.
https://www.quietpc.com/nf-a14-ippc-2000
I like the idea of modifying the vent cover, as there is no other way to affix any sort of high performance fan.
The only other thing I could think of was to use some radial fans, but they are small 50mm units and they makes lots of noise while not offering that much performance. The 50mm fans could sit in the recess between the rows of the exhaust slots of the vent cover. I measured the area and I can fit 6 of these fans in-between the horizontal vent rows.
In either case, my plan is to add either:
1) Two of the 80mm radial fans to the lower compartment to direct air up through the channel vent or
2) Install two of the high performance Noctua fans to intake the outside air on the lower vent cover (where there's no issue of space)
I will also use a programmable thermostat such as this one:
2017 Ford F450 - our kids call her "Big Red"
2018 Grand Design Reflection 28bh
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06-16-2020, 06:09 AM #3
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Thanks for the reply and pic showing the heat shield Lexx. It looks like you have committed some grey matter to the same problem...
Let us know what direction you go to solve the problem. The velcroed cover and angled holes I did has proven to be good rain protection. We've had a few storms pass thru and the inside compartment remained dry as a bone.
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06-16-2020, 06:28 PM #4
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06-16-2020, 07:31 PM #5
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I ordered a 12"x12" piece of ABS black plastic from Amazon and cut it with snips. Cost me like $4 including shipping. For the hinge I'm using some Gorilla super strength duct tape. So far the set up has seen several inches of rain and about 7 hours of 65mph highway driving. Nothing has loosened or changed positions.
On a side note, the fan is whisper quiet. You can't hear it from the inside and you need to be right below it outside to hear it.Last edited by Boom 'r Bust; 06-16-2020 at 07:38 PM.
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06-16-2020, 10:27 PM #6
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06-16-2020, 01:19 PM #7
The radial fans may be a good option. I'm trying to work out a fan solution and I'm thinking about using them. I was originally looking at high flow fans in the 70 - 100 cfm range. I got to thinking about it and there is really not that much space in the area behind the fridge. If you were moving 30 cfm you would probably be circulating the entire area at least once per minute.
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06-16-2020, 06:25 PM #8
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Radial fans have 3 issues:
1) They would have to be small - about 50mm to fit between the horizontal rows of the vents. This limits their output.
2) They're quite a bit noisier than a conventional computer fan
3) They use way more electricity. The Noctua AF-A14 uses 0.18 amps. I couldn't find a rating on the 50mm radial fans, but the 80mm versions use 0.95 amps, which is quite a bit more for quite a bit less performance. That's why if I were to use them, I would use the 80-120mm radial fans in the lower vent compartment to direct the air upward through the channel to the upper vent. As evacuation fans for the upper vent, I'm not sure the trade-off in decreased performance that comes along with increased energy usage, makes sense.2017 Ford F450 - our kids call her "Big Red"
2018 Grand Design Reflection 28bh
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06-22-2020, 04:13 PM #9
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06-15-2020, 10:59 PM #10
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Nice work around. Did you consider removing that heat shield/baffle to gain access to the fan? I removed my baffle, it was wood, but may install another one with L brackets to the existing framing. Removing it let me see the fan and initially I thought removing the baffle would help with air flow, but it's supposed to concentrate the fan air movement toward the fins.
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