DIY 3 way refrigerator venting (drawing)

ScottG wrote:
It looks like the back of the fridge is too far from the wall. The installation instructions want the back of the fridge within something like 1/2 to 1" (check instructions). Otherwise the flow of air may go around the tubes rather than through them.
Also, since the top vent has to go around a corner, I would add a fan.

Yes I have red about that also, actually I drew the fridge from the online PDF manuals, I don't have actual scaled drawings of the fridge itself but if you look closely at my drawing there's a dashed line near the rear top, that represents the rear components, I planned on leaving 1/2" clearance with the plywood wall, so the air will sweep thru the backing and capture the heat.

For the fans, in my design I have 120cfm total (40cfm x 3) the space in the back of the fridge is about 3 cubic feet, so basically it will take under 1 second to evacuate all the air in the back of the fridge and replace it with fresh air, you think that's not enough? I wonder how long gravity takes to vent the back for those without fans?

jrnymn7 wrote:
Why not make that 12" x 12" access door a vent, instead? These work well, and are screened:

soffit vent

They come in aluminum, white and brown.

You could even hinge it on the bottom, and have 4 screws along the top. And put some 1/8" x 1/2" foam gasket in behind to keep the rain out.

I have several of these on my minibus conversion. I cut them to size... one, two, or three sections.

Two of those fans should be plenty... and only required during hot weather.

I don't want the air to short circuit the route, if the air is coming from the bottom (like my design) it has no choice to sweep the whole thing before being evacuated, but if I install vents on the access door the air could come from the top of the door and miss the bottom part of the fridge. does that make any sens or am I over-thinking it?

Anyways I forgot to mention one important thing, the access door is right next to the vehicle's gasoline inlet...
I think the law says to be at least 36" away? by being on the bottom like this I'm adding distance between the air intake and the gas inlet, I will even add a baffle under the van to add separation.

TakingThe5th wrote:
There are current installations in RVs that do use a fan(s) to dissipate heat from the back of the unit. My installation uses a thermal switch to control the fan in the back.

So you have the two big rear vents with a fan installed, and your fan only comes on when the thermal switch is triggered right?
In my case I wouldn't have those two big vents, my fans would have to be triggered every time the fridge comes on, right? I didn't invent this design, I know people have been plugging PC fans somewhere behind the fridge DIY style, I just gotta figure out how and where to plug the wires.