HELP!...What can I do to keep fridge cold and food safe?

We have been dry camped in lower NM and at about 6200 ft and the temp is at about 95 outside. Cools down at night. What we have done is go and get some PVC pipe and make a frame and cover it with a tarp held on with bungee cords. Lean it at an angle (to keep air flow) up against the slide out so it covers the fridge vents and side so the fridge wall is covered. It keeps the sun from heating up the outside of the fridge. Makes a big difference on the temp inside the RV Norcold 1200 fridge. We have been able to keep the fridge cooling not rise above 38. Think about it if the side of your rig is facing the sun in the afternoon shade it with some PVC and a tarp. Just feel the side without the shade HOT and under the shade COOL to touch.
Also move the sensor on the fridge fins to the last one on the right and at its top. Happy cool fridge to YA.
BTW I also added a 12v computer fan inside the outside fridge enclosure to help air flow upward.

Baja Man wrote:
It really is a sad situation for such an expensive rig. The summer temps in the Southwest are indeed brutal.

Guess I'll try frozen gallons of water. Won't they expand when freezing and bust open the cap? Two in freezer and two in refer and alternate as needed.

Years ago, when I had boat and TT in storage at lake, I was bringing food in big cooler and restarting the fridge at 3-digits was not making it easy.
I liked the 5l beer cans, so froze them at home and by the time I was ready to seat at campfire, they melted.
Full can would bulge when frozen, but drinking one mug at home and then freezing did the trick very nicely.

In Ciudad Obregon August 1996, outside temp was ONE HUNDRED TWENTY TWO DEGREES, inside temp was absurdly hot. Had to stop and get a hotel with A/C

But the FREON based refrigerator had a door shelf temp of 39F, inside temp of 35 and the freezer remained at -5F. The units have cabinets sealed, and have each, one 24 volt 160 CFM fan passing over the condenser coils. I was worried about the 4 L-16's so I got up at 0400 and started the engine for a half hour. That Niehoff alt went to full regulated voltage instantly. BTW the outside temp was 103F. I stayed for a second night, glued to the 20,000 BTU hotel A/C unit. The local Chinese restaurant delivered food. It arrived piping hot (just imagine).

A good case of "switch-quick" food poisoning plus a wallet flattened from throwing away spoiled food will sooner or later convince the skeptics, no matter how hard the head :)

Also, what should baffles be made with...sheet metal, block foam, ???

Can they be installed without removing refer?
'
Anybody have any pics of baffles they installed?

I will begin work on rear baffles soon.

I will add EXTERIOR fans to improve air flow through condenser fins.

Which fans are preferred? The clamp on style are easy to install but several feet from condenser fins which are at top of refer. Should fans be installed midway between absorber coils and condenser OR at bottom of refer (such as absorber coils clamp on style), or above condenser fins?


Exterior fan clamp style

Exterior fans universal mounting with brackets

exterios fans mounted above evaporator



Thinking of adding INTERIOR fans as well...


Interior fans with LED light

My Dometic works great if it is LEVEL.
At 95 degrees outside it can maintain 34-36 in the frig.
Only if it is level when parked.
If it is not level, it will steadily climb above 45 degrees (not safe)

Baja Man wrote:
Can refer be damaged running it like this in this heat?

I don't think so, but get a fan (preferable a big one) on the coils in the rear. Interior fans aren't going to cut it.

This is not unusual. RV refers really don't do well in such intense heat. How's your a/c doing?

Can refer be damaged running it like this in this heat?

well it is 108F here today!!! hotter tomorrow!

Refer is st 50F. This is with ice maker turned off and some ice cubes in refer. It's just too **** hot!!!

Until I can fabricate and add the correct baffles in rear of refer, this refer is going to suffer when temps are this high.

I will try things mentioned and see what happens. Going to add an interior Camco battery operated fridge fan and see if it helps at all.

All answers are good and employing a combo of them works even better. Here's some info regarding personal experience. We are on are second fridge In 4 years. The first worked well but had an exterior coil fan failure and when the fan was replaced it was the wrong type and/or failed to operate properly. New fan plus two more installed. They didn't work properly. New fridge installed with 2 new and better exterior fans. Added 2 free-standing, battery operated interior fans. Works fine now. Problems were compounded by a number of factors. 1 dark exterior sides, fridge in slide out that vertical wall at top of slide not out roof. There was also a dead space at the top of the venting chase that trapped the hot air. When three fans were installed two thermostat switches were use. One was defective so only one fan worked.

Don't pack the fridge where no interior air flow can occur. Minimize time door is open. Depending on the conditions It could take up to one hour to reduce temp one degree. Keep a reusable freezer block in the freezer to use in fridge when temps climb. We also purchased a 12/110 volt fridge for basement to keep extra drinks and items not used regularly cool. Good units will maintain temps for a couple of hours even when not plugged in.

With our previous A and C units we never had a propane fridge problem but the exteriors were always white and/or light color and they vented up through roof. Operation was noticably better as evidenced by the minimum amount of time the exterior coil fans operated.

Hope this helps. Good luck