Upgrade to 12V Refrigerator - Brand Reliability Question - Everchill / GE / Norcold

[IBEW Sparky]

Thanks for the feedback on running the wire. That is good to know in case I ever need to do something similar.

We got our residential Magic Chef installed today. I was impressed with how GD had made some design moves to help the two-way Norcold do its job. Ours had the metal flap you mentioned to direct air flow out of the upper vent. On the back of the Norcold was a 4 or 5 inch fan mounted horizontally to draw air upward, into the metal flap and out of the top vent. We bent the metal flap down, screwed it down, then sealed around it with special tape intended for AC duct work. We left the lower vent as is because the coil for the Magic Chef is on the bottom right by the lower vent.

The only glitch we ran into was that the Magic Chef was deeper than the Norcold. Once we slid it in, we realized that we could not use the 120v plug because it was blocked by the body of the new fridge. Fortunately, on the 29RS the outside entertainment cabinet is right next door to the compartment that we slid the Magic Chef into. We wanted to take out the TV and small dorm fridge from the outside cabinet to convert that area to exterior storage anyway. So we just removed those items, hole sawed a small hole from the inside fridge compartment, and fed the plug into the outside kitchen and used the plug from the outgoing dorm fridge. This reduced the space required behind the Magic Chef to only the width of the electrical cord. This will also allow to turn off the fridge completely when needed just by opening the outside compartment and unplugging it. For some reason, many of these small fridges seem to have now way to shut off the fridge from the inside controls.

Why would you close off the top vent? These residential refrigerators still put off heat and need to breath. Look at your clearance requirements on your new fridge.... built-in residential refrigerators have the highest failure rate due mainly to lack of airflow/ventilation.

[my12by60]

Why would you close off the top vent? These residential refrigerators still put off heat and need to breath. Look at your clearance requirements on your new fridge.... built-in residential refrigerators have the highest failure rate due mainly to lack of airflow/ventilation.

I am glad that you brought this up because I was wondering how to best handle the airflow at the back of the fridge. As I face the fridge from the inside, the coil is located on the back of the unit in the bottom left corner. So the heat produced will emanate from that lower rear corner. My thought was to place some insulation board above the lower vent between the coach wall and the fridge to prevent the hot air from rising up. Then I was going to use the vacated 12v line to wire in a small computer fan that will blow across the coil and toward the lower vent. This will keep air movement across the coil and force the heat out the lower vent which is directly behind the coil. I think that will help keep things from getting too hot behind the fridge and help it to operate most efficiently.

In our home, we have a Jenn Air fridge that is completely surrounded by cabinet trim on all sides and on the top. It is 20 years old and still going strong. I know good airflow around the coils can help with fridge longevity and efficiency, but the design of these fridges does seem to allow for some forgiveness. Of course, the home unit gets to operate in an ambient temp environment that is controlled year round to be 78 degrees. The RV fridge has to deal with much warmer ambient temps at times. That is why I want to help it out a bit with the fan idea.

What are the forums thoughts on the fan idea? Any lower power draw fan that somebody would care to recommend?

[IBEW Sparky]

@my12by60 ....why go through all of the extra work adding fans, etc. Just undo what you did at the top louver vent and let natural air flow do it's job. You could even remove the baffle that grand design puts up top to open up the top vent to its full size since your coil is located down the bottom. Hot air rises ...no need for added fans.