Refrigerator Not As Cold As It Ought To Be

pnichols wrote:
Doug,

I actually had a test going that I started yesterday and that had slipped my mind when I wrote my response above.

Early yesterday I had turned our RV's refrigerator temperature switch to it's max position 5. Outside temperatures have been in the upper 80's for several days here and today and tomorrow will be in the 90's. Our RV is sitting in the back yard plugged into an external outlet on our house. The refrigerator is on electric - which may make it be a bit less efficient than when on propane.

A couple of hours ago the freezer section read slightly under 0 degrees and the refrigerator section read slightly under 30 degrees. So ... it looks like I was correct in that the 5-postion temperature switch controls the entire unit's ON/OFF duty cycle - thus lowing the temperature in both sections simultaneously as the switch is set higher and higher. This makes sense as to how it should have been designed to operate.

What this means is .... in order to maintain the industry recommended standard for household refrigerators of 0 degrees in the freezer section and 38 degress in the refrigerator section ... I have to increase the temperature difference maintained between the two sections so that with the freezer at around 0 degrees, the refrigerator is raised up to around 38 degrees.

Do I slide the thermocouple UP or DOWN on the cooling fins to increase the refrigerator's temperature in relation to the freezer's temperature?

After I get that delta/difference to be about 38 degrees I can then, based on outside temperatures, tweek things merely by using the 5-position ON/OFF duty cycle switch ... just as I'm guessing that the designers intended. The only thing "wrong" with our propane refrigerator so far was that the factory-set position for the cooling fin thermocouple was not quite correct.

Sorry, but sliding the Thermister up and down has no bearing on the freezer OR the lower section. That is for AUTO temp refers ONLY. The Thermister reacts to the fin temp. The fin temp will be about 10 degrees COLDER than the temp in the refer. Now the ONLY way to test refer temps is by a glass of water, NOT the interior temp of the refer itself. Now, YES, the LONGER the refer runs the COLDER the freezer will get by those few degrees. That is why some models have an ambient temp switch that turns the interior light ON and that small heat keeps the lower section from freezing items. But your basic premise is wrong. The fact is, you might have a partially blocked cooling unit that is working pretty good but has enough of a blockage to prevent the lower section from operating correctly.
LINE 120 voltage can make a difference in optimal operation. WHAT is the 120 voltage in the RV? If less than 110, run the refer on LP. Doug