RV Fridge with No Temperature Controls

JulieB888 wrote:
There is a white slider thing on the fins, but from I read it only makes a difference of three degrees or so. I am just worried about my food freezing in when the temperatures outside get lower and/or spoiling when it gets really hot. Does anyone have any experience with that?

As for the fan, the manual says that it has to be in the back of the fridge.

The white slider thing is your temperature control. Our refrigerator stays above freezing, even in the winter. The Freezer stays about 5 degrees below zero all the time, winter and summer.

I leave the refrigerator on in the winter (at home) too. Even in the coldest weather, and there is no heat inside the camper, the refrigerator does not freeze anything. (It has caused ice crystals near the top of the compartment on packages sometimes, but only very rarely does that ever happen.) And things like ice cream and ice-cream pops on a stick stay frozen solid (not mush).

Edit:

When we purchased our last 2 campers, both of them acted exactly the same way. When I first turned on the refrigerator, it barely got cold, even after 24 hours to chill down.

I then turned it off for a few hours and turned it back on. It got much colder in a few hours.

After that, every time we went out on the road, it seemed to get colder and colder each time. Maybe running the thing on gas and bouncing down the road was a good thing for it??? Eventually, both refrigerators leveled out with a freezer temperature at 5 degrees below zero and got stuck there. I was a happy camper!

What I'm saying is, the first time you try using it, it might not get get REALLY cold. But keep using it (empty), and it will get colder and colder.

Good luck!

There is a white slider thing on the fins, but from I read it only makes a difference of three degrees or so. I am just worried about my food freezing in when the temperatures outside get lower and/or spoiling when it gets really hot. Does anyone have any experience with that?

As for the fan, the manual says that it has to be in the back of the fridge.

some of us put fans inside the fridge, cycling the air will give more consistent temps inside the box.

these can be run off the rv or you can get a camco fan for $15 on amazon- it takes 2 d cells and will run for weeks.

some fridges benefit from a fan kit on the exterior fins- better heat exchange to the air can make for more efficient cooling in the fridge.
( youtube will show you how- also the old dometic manual makes mention of air flow through the backside)

I have installed fans on mine and went through a whole rigamarol to find that 2 fans blowing out thru the top vent can get me 55º or 60º below ambient temps.( 3rd or 4th fans gave no advantage)

these fans are powered from the battery

most of our camping plans include shore power at night

mike

I have a two way compressor fridge (not a Dometic) that does not have a fan. We put one of the AA battery fans for RV fridges in and it did not do much. We took it out. We do have a temperature knob - like a home fridge.

See if there is a slide that fits on one of the cooling fins inside the refrigerator compartment. Temperature is regulated by sliding it up or down the fin. Down is colder, up is warmer. The other end of the wire should plug into something inside the refrigerator.