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Thread: Reefer Inside Fan Kit Install
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09-08-2019, 03:39 PM #1
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Reefer Inside Fan Kit Install
Again a big thank you to all who have posted "how to(s)". Learning from others allows us to tackle the jobs we do.
Again, fair warning, this is a long post too and will likely need a couple posts to get all the pics uploaded...
Okay, here's the story. We full time and our fridge is a Dometic 2862, 2 door, 8 cubic foot, using either 120vac or propane. It's about 11 months old and we turned it off for maybe 2 months around the holidays. It is located inside the slide-out of our Reflection 29RS. By definition, this means that it struggles to exhaust the hot air out the upper access panel. During July and August, we were in a few locations that had 100-105 degree days. In some locations, the sun was beating down on the reefer side; in other locations, the reefer side was in the afternoon shade. Regardless, the inside of the reefer struggled to keep things cold. Nothing I hate worse than warm milk. Our model has only one fan, and its hooked to a thermostat mounted high on the back of the fridge, which I think is a 130 or 135 degree on/off switch. The fan would come on, but it was infective. I decided to install both outside fans to help move the air up the chimney and out; and inside fans to help circulate the cold air near the cold-sync on the inside back wall of the fridge. One or the other fan kit "may" have been sufficient, but I decided overkill was the way to go. I should mention that sometimes we put too much food inside the fridge, but we're full timing, that happens.
All that said, I think I should break this up into two threads so that other readers do not confuse the two modifications.
Inside Fan Kit:
I bought a 13 inch wide 3-fan kit from rvcoolingunit.com. I'll admit, it seems expensive at $72; but having a warm refrigerator while full timing is simply unacceptable. On the plus side, it is all plug and play. And, I liked that it had 3 fans that you can turn on 1, 2, or 3 at a time. I did not care that it has an LED light kit built into it. Our fridge has an adequate inside light.
I think the only step I didn’t like was having to turn off the fridge and warm up the cold-sync fins so that there was no condensation on the fins. This fan kit is installed by putting heavy duty Velcro strips on 2 fins; and you don't want the Velcro to "not stick" because you applied it to a damp fin. Of course, I'd take on this project in the heat of July/Aug summer. Go figure.
I chose to feed the power source wire down through the condensation drip tube. Others may decide to tap the power from the inside reefer light. Ergonomically, that was just too tough for me. Maybe a younger more slender person, LOL. I held up the fan assembly and marked the two fins I wanted to Velcro the unit to. I just marked the edge with a black permanent marker. Then I waited, dried the fins, waited some more, dried the fins some more. Finally things were warm enough I applied the Velcro and installed the fan assembly. Then I began to route the power wire harness.
The seller said the wire is 6ft, mine was 5ft, but that was more than enough. It did help to pour a little water down the tube as a lubricant, and it did help to have a second person outside hold, bend, and flex, the drain tube to help get the wire through it. I forget to properly route the wire inside the fridge before feeding it down the hole. So. I learned how to take the shelves out, push the wire where I wanted it, and then re-install the shelf. Not a big deal. I should also mention, I chose to send the wire all the way out the drain tube, then double back on the outside of the drain tube into the lower compartment to power it up. See the pic. I have read that others have poked/cut a small hole in the drain tube while still inside the lower compartment. Then route the wire to power and (try to) seal the hole in the tube that the wire then comes out of. I didn't want any chance of water draining inside that compartment should I fail to adequately seal a hole in the drain tube.
Finally, I decided to tap the pos and neg wires from the outside fan kit, being sure to tap them BEFORE the 85 degree thermostat. I used posi-tap connectors. I've used these a lot on modifications to scooters and my Goldwing. I like how they work and have a small inventory with me of different sizes. See the pics.
We're in Moab now and it's been in the high 90s and a couple days in the low 100s. Before here we were in a Utah State Park near 100, and before that Evenston WY, again hot days. I experimented with having only 1 fan, then 2 fans, then all 3 fans on. I do not think the 1 fan or the 2 fan setting did enough on those really hot days. But 3 fans worked great. So now, for days we've had all 3 fans on 24/7. I think that is the setting we'll use until winter gets here.
For boondocking concerns: these 3 fans are marked .11a each. Three fans on for 24/7 would equal 7.92ah. But somewhere in that 24 hours your solar system should have more than taken care of it.
My total reefer fan amp hour estimator:
.46a OEM fan (x1) x 10 hours = 4.6ah (on a very, very, hot day, else it's off)
.17a (x2) outside fans x 15 hours = 5.1ah (again, hot days)
.11a (x3) inside fans x 24 hours = 7.9ah. (come winter, I may cut back to 1 or 2 fans)
Total 17.6ah
17.6ah sounds like a lot. But remember most of this run time occurs during the day. I think the solar panel excess generation will take care of it. Come evening, our batteries are essentially full. Depending on the outside temp, the OEM fan will definitely be off, the two outside fans may run for a few hours but won't be on for long, and only the inside fans will be on all night. And that might look like 3.3a x 10-12 hours = 3.3ah~3.96ah night time drain.
Questions?
another post with pics to follow...
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09-08-2019, 03:44 PM #2
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09-08-2019, 03:46 PM #3
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09-08-2019, 04:52 PM #4
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Nice work..Ill be honest I read your post title and was thinking something totally different which is why I opened the post lol. It still blows my mind the work/mods needed to get an oem refrigerator to work the way it should from day 1.
Ryan and Alison
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09-08-2019, 05:09 PM #5
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Did I miss it? What difference in interior temps have the fans made?
2017 Ford F450 - our kids call her "Big Red"
2018 Grand Design Reflection 28bh
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09-08-2019, 05:30 PM #6
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Great write up. I will caution you to check your interior temps with some other thermometer and not just go by the digital readout on the fridge (if you’re has that). I installed the 4 fan unit in my 4 door dometic. With fans running it will show the fridge digital temp dropping but it’s actually raising interior temps. Not sure that happens to everyone but that has been my experience. I believe it is fooling the unit and causing it to shut off therefore increasing temps.
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09-08-2019, 05:34 PM #7
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Sorry to say I can't give exact temp numbers. My digital temp gage died. It uses a LR 1130 button battery which I can't find locally anywhere we've stopped. I need to order it online and we're moving from place to place faster than I trust promised delivery dates. Because of that I can only say in the 90-105 degree days before the fan kits the Milk was warm, the salad bags would go bad and we worried the food would go bad before we could eat it all. After I did the outside and inside fan kits close in time. Now we've had 100-105 degree days and the Milk is very cold and salad bags are not going bad.
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09-08-2019, 05:36 PM #8
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09-08-2019, 05:38 PM #9
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Ryan
<< Ill be honest I read your post title and was thinking something totally >>
That cracks me up!
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