Forum Discussion

berndt's avatar
berndt
Explorer
May 03, 2016

Running wires down the refer vent pipe

I need to run wires for a sat dish from the rook to the inside of the RV. Is it OK to run them down the refrigerator vent pipe? Is there a better way short of drilling a hole in the roof?

Thanks
JAck
  • Depending on where you need the wires inside the RV, sometimes you can run wires beside the various gray/black tank vents. Note, beside, not in the vents.

    Wayne
  • RoyB's avatar
    RoyB
    Explorer II
    I used the top fridge vent on my trailer to route some cables. My top section has screen wire around the vent which I made a larger hole in it and ran some cables down into the trailer,

    The first time I did this I didn't take much effort of sealing up the screen wire hole I made and the following fall I got over run with Lady Bugs in my trailer. I finally figured out they were getting into the trailer down my RG cables going thru the hole in the screen.

    After sealing all of that up good haven't had any major problems since...

    Roy Ken
  • Yes, I run all my roof top antenna and other wires down the refrigerator vent. Just keep wires away from hot pipes.
  • Light your refrigerator on propane. Come back in a couple of hours climb on the roof and see how hot your vent is. Probably very hot in and around there. Refrigerator fires are fairly common.
  • I ran the wires for my solar thru the side of my bathroom vent fan, Drilled a hole about 1/4 inch up the side and used a compression fitting with gasket. removed interior trim ring and had access to the small attic space between ceiling and underside of roof.
    Fished wires into pantry and mounted my controller, ran the wires down the back side of pantry into the electrical panel below pantry.
    This was my easiest rout as my fridge vent is on the other side of the trailer from electrical panel.
  • Vent pipe?

    Every RV fridge install I have seen, the back of the fridge compartment is open all the way to the top vent cover
    There might be baffleing for control of air flow, to keep the air close to the tubing for cooling the fridge
    But I have never seen any vent pipes in the fridge compartment
    Do not attach or run thru the flue/chimney, that gets quite hot and will melt your wires
  • I am referring to the vent pipes for your gray/black tanks, not vent pipes for as fridge. These vents are usually found near the bathroom, kitchen sink area or holding tanks. I have a slide in TC and a 5th wheel. I could use either to run wires from the top of them down inside.

    Wayne
  • My original Freedom-10 inverter charger, was limited 20 amps input, the transfer switch melted down before tripping the circuit breaker
    That was about 6 months after we got this RV
    I installed separate components, and no more inverter problems
    Although I have replaced the converter several times

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