Darn, lost my fridge in this cold weather

Well dangit anyways.

My fridge went south. I noticed the freezer wasn't quite there yesterday. It has been over minus 30C and a wind chill into the minus 40'sC. I have a light bulb going in the compartment, but guess I should have blocked the louvers as well, but didn't.

Inside the rig I have a heater aimed inside the compartment under the fridge to try and warm things up but I guess it isn't enough.

Pulled the cover off the outside and there is a flame in the burner, but all my hand tools are on the job and I need a #1 Phillips to pull the screw out so I can see how big the flame is. Don't have one handy here. Don't think there is enough flame.

Put my hand on the flue, it's warm but I don't think warm enough.

Something is askew here. Perhaps gas flow is restricted, I don't know. Lost my propane flow to the furnace in the night last night. Got up and switched tanks and it came on again. I have a heating pad on the tanks and dummy me forgot to switch off the Auto Off feature. Did that this morning and furnace is ok now.

Tried switching fridge to 110 this evening. Finally blew the breaker on my shore power feed. The circuit I have has been good but I guess with a 1500W heater, a heat tape on my dump pipes, the heating pad on the tanks, light bulb in the fridge compartment, that the heating element for the fridge is the straw that broke the camels back.

I've done pretty good actually with all that stuff loaded on one single breaker.

I went in and reset it, knocked the heater back to 750W and turned the fridge to 110 again.

Waiting game now to see if it comes back or not. It will be a while before I can tell if it is freezing again. Going to head out and block the louvers to see if that helps.

Something appears to be making the burner flame too small I think, therefore not enough cooling.

Meanwhile I have a big mess to clean up. Gotta empty my freezer into the garbage and likely half my fridge contents. There is liquid from ziplocs of chili all over the place. A few chicken breasts are still partly frozen so I can likely salvage them if I cook them right away.

My grey tank is full and coming up into the tub. Black tank getting there. Looked down the hole and it is a solid block of ice nearly up to the neck.

Nearly at the limit here guys! But I keep going. I'm determined to make it through this arctic freezup here. It is cold, really biting darned cold!

Should have just put all my food outside! It would be frozen solid!!

I know some of you have more experience with fridges than me.

Any thoughts?

65 Replies

SteveAE
Explorer
Mar 07, 2014
Bob,

While I guess it would accomplish the task, buying a new RV is sure an expensive way to fix a refrigerator.
Once you figure it all out, please don't leave us hanging as we want to hear "the rest of the story".

Stay warm,
Steve
BobsYourUncle
Nomad
Mar 07, 2014
JiminDenver wrote:
Bob

What you have gone through needs to be condensed and made required reading for anyone even thinking they can go through it themselves. I use to regret not buying a 4 season rig but now realize I have no intentions of camping in weather any colder than my 3 season will handle.

Well, yunno, sometimes necessity is the mother of invention.....

I came out here in search of work. Found it, and have been doing it!

Truly, a 4 season unit would be the epitome of the finest way to go here, but my old 97 isn't intended for year round use, especially in frozen tundraland.

Time to upgrade, I am looking.

But then, where would all of Bobs stories come from, if I didn't have all this fun to report??
JiminDenver
Explorer II
Mar 06, 2014
Bob

What you have gone through needs to be condensed and made required reading for anyone even thinking they can go through it themselves. I use to regret not buying a 4 season rig but now realize I have no intentions of camping in weather any colder than my 3 season will handle.
trail-explorer
Explorer
Mar 06, 2014
pianotuna wrote:
Hi Bob,

Dollerama has nice multibit screw drivers. A pair of linemans pliers, and a pair of needle nose. (and of course--the handyman's secret weapon!)

One of them there multibit sets is what I carry too.
SteveAE
Explorer
Mar 06, 2014
Bob,

Maybe you can just replace the cooling unit?
A quick Google search reveled this site
I bet there are others out there.

Steve
BobsYourUncle
Nomad
Mar 06, 2014
pianotuna wrote:
Is there a fridge in the workshop? Perhaps you could freeze water bottles and use them to keep the (postmortem) Fridge working as a cooler?

They do sell 12 volt coolers, perhaps one of those could be a help?

Yes there is a fridge in the shop. And I have the full blessing of the owner to use it.

I have a 12V cooler, but it is at home at the coast. They really are not the most efficient things. I actually abandoned it in my garage because it wasn't the best. It only goes a few degrees below the ambient temperature. And it sucks a lot of 12V. I pulled into Fort Mac late one night a number of years back and forgot to unplug it. 5 hours later, I got up in the morning to go to work. Both batteries, dead. Truck wouldn't even turn over. Walked a long ways to find a auto parts store and bought a battery charger.... long story, not positive!!!! kinda put a taint in my mouth!

I can make it for a few days here without my fridge, maybe a week. By then I should be able to exhaust all means of trying to get this thing going again. I really don't feel like pulling it out and dorking with it. Likely should though as I may save myself a gobba change. I'll try the upside down deal and see what happens.

I can use the shop fridge for now. My cold storage compartment is actually working quite well!!
BobsYourUncle
Nomad
Mar 06, 2014
Lantley wrote:
Bob I have been following your chronicles,with the others. At this point I would ride out the winter with coolers or use the ice box idea. If you plan to continue your arctic camping I would focus your dollars on the new four season rig and avoid putting any serious funds into your current unit.
While you are making the most of it and surviving your current rig was never built to survive the conditions you are in.
Do what is needed to make it through this winter but plan to abandon ship for a more capable 4 season unit during the thaw!

Bingo, buddy, you nailed it!

I never intended to be in the frozen tundra for extended time, however, my situation changed and I had to drop it on the hitch and head here.

I made it ok in -33C last November/ December, but it only hit those lows for a couple days. This time it was sustained for a while. Guess that is what made the difference.

But I have 6500 bucks into this thing and aside from a broken fridge, it really is a nice unit. gotta fix it before selling it. Everything else is in perfect condition. I can't just discard it for nothing. It is a nice TT, for 3 season use.
Lantley
Nomad
Mar 06, 2014
Bob I have been following your chronicles,with the others. At this point I would ride out the winter with coolers or use the ice box idea. If you plan to continue your arctic camping I would focus your dollars on the new four season rig and avoid putting any serious funds into your current unit.
While you are making the most of it and surviving your current rig was never built to survive the conditions you are in.
Do what is needed to make it through this winter but plan to abandon ship for a more capable 4 season unit during the thaw!
pianotuna
Nomad III
Mar 06, 2014
Is there a fridge in the workshop? Perhaps you could freeze water bottles and use them to keep the (postmortem) Fridge working as a cooler?

They do sell 12 volt coolers, perhaps one of those could be a help?
BobsYourUncle
Nomad
Mar 06, 2014
As an interesting side note:

I have a storage compartment at the foot of my bed. It is in the right front corner of my TT. It is past the heat duct run and there is no way for heat to get in there.
So it is subject to the outside cold working its way in when I have the door shut. I usually leave it open so it doesn't get too cold in there.

Hmmmmm Idea....

I put my remote temperature sensor in there and all my various fridge perishables and closed the door, and draped a towel over the door. This cabinet is counter height with a shelf on top.

Well well well! In these freezing temperatures, this little compartment hovers around 32 - 33 degrees F! So I have a temporary fridge, for now.

It is going to warm up here a the end of the week and we will see temperatures in the plus 10C range on Saturday. Yahoo! Finally.

May have to take the suggestion of using my fridge as an icebox, as my little compartment will be too warm then.

But I found this rather amusing and thought I'd share!