Fridge cooling fan mod
Hello everyone, I thought I'd share my experience with building and installing an exterior fan mod for my Dometic RM2351 fridge in our travel trailer. I'm doing this in the hopes that it will keep...
Forum Discussion
Many, many popup camper owners do this frig mod with great success. I did it on one I had when I first graduated from tent camping. You have done a wonderful job in designing your's and I think you will be amazed at the improvement once you get proper "baffling" to eliminate the dead air spaces.
The secret is forcing the air through the cooling fins and eliminating anyplace for the air to go between your input ducts and the output ducts other than through them. Many have used different materials to block off, dead air spaces. I liked cardboard in my situation.
I cut a piece of cardboard from a large box I had, shaped it to fit the space I needed to block of above the frig (very similarly to your situation. I then wrapped it with aluminum tape. This is very thin but gives it a waterproof and clean surface. I then used small washers to act as grommets to run small self tapping screws through to attach it. Finally, going around the seams with gorilla tape to seal everything up.
I ended up improving my frig's performance to the point I could no longer run it at it's max setting without it being in the neighborhood of freezing my contents.
again, the secret is to force every bit of air coming in from the bottom (cooler air temps) to the higher top vent (hotter air temps) without letting it escape somewhere in the compartment. Come as close as you can to doing this and you will significantly improve your mods performance and that of your frig, I promise you.
p.s. Two other suggestions. 1) Build a switch into the system so you can turn it off on the cooler camping trips. If you don't, you will have to adjust your cooling setting all the time based on outside air temps. If you build the switch in, you can just turn it on when it's hot or your not in a shaded campsite. 2) Put a fan in there with a led light on it so you can tell when it's on. Ashamed to say a forgot a few times and left the switch on even after bring it home, draining my battery. Once I installed the fan with the led light, I never forgot to turn it off for more than a day because it glowed a nice blue at me at night if I did.
Best of luck.
The secret is forcing the air through the cooling fins and eliminating anyplace for the air to go between your input ducts and the output ducts other than through them. Many have used different materials to block off, dead air spaces. I liked cardboard in my situation.
I cut a piece of cardboard from a large box I had, shaped it to fit the space I needed to block of above the frig (very similarly to your situation. I then wrapped it with aluminum tape. This is very thin but gives it a waterproof and clean surface. I then used small washers to act as grommets to run small self tapping screws through to attach it. Finally, going around the seams with gorilla tape to seal everything up.
I ended up improving my frig's performance to the point I could no longer run it at it's max setting without it being in the neighborhood of freezing my contents.
again, the secret is to force every bit of air coming in from the bottom (cooler air temps) to the higher top vent (hotter air temps) without letting it escape somewhere in the compartment. Come as close as you can to doing this and you will significantly improve your mods performance and that of your frig, I promise you.
p.s. Two other suggestions. 1) Build a switch into the system so you can turn it off on the cooler camping trips. If you don't, you will have to adjust your cooling setting all the time based on outside air temps. If you build the switch in, you can just turn it on when it's hot or your not in a shaded campsite. 2) Put a fan in there with a led light on it so you can tell when it's on. Ashamed to say a forgot a few times and left the switch on even after bring it home, draining my battery. Once I installed the fan with the led light, I never forgot to turn it off for more than a day because it glowed a nice blue at me at night if I did.
Best of luck.
