Forum Discussion

towpro's avatar
towpro
Explorer
May 19, 2017

replacment refregerator fans

My refrigerator is in a slide out.
it works perfect temp wise
but there is a fan that is in the back cabinet that runs when its hot. I think it ran all night last night and you can hear it in bed.
my 5th wheel has the same setup, but its parked in the woods and the fan don't run very often. now my pickup camper gets used in open fields with no shade and this fan can run all day.

I see many (some) have put different fans in the top of the cabinet to replace the factory fan. Do these replacement fans use the same, or less power, and are they quieter?

Here is an example Fan I book marked reading about this mod.

Airflow up to 76 CFM and low noise level at 18 dBA running at 800RPM = .25amp
  • I'm not overly impressed with mounting the fans to the access panel. You want the fans as close to the evaporator as possible. in my case I mounted the case fans in brackets made from sheet metal and screwed them to the inner layer behind the Filon outer skin which puts them almost but not quite against the upper evaporator. I also added a lot of insulation to the cavity between the outer cabinet and the fridge body and fabricated an upper baffle to direct and smooth the airflow. In my case, my upper vent is not removable, it's fastened to the camper body with screws. I was looking for maximum airflow with minimal amp draw.
  • Go read my ammonia fridge mod thread. It's there about the fans.

    depending on what make of fridge you have, that will determine the temp that the snap action thermodisc on the evaporator opens and closes at. In my case, I have a Dometic and it opens at 60 and closes at 80. In theory it should cycle at night (provided there is enough airflow across the evaporator to drop the temp to 60. Problem is, most installations only use one fan and it's a sleeve bearing fan (noisy). You want 2 fans next to each other and you want Dynamic Fluid Bearing fans (which are basically silent) but you want a computer case mount style which has a 1" thick case with 4 mounting through holes for secure and easy mounting.

    I canned the stock sleeve bearing fan on my Dometic (noisy as hell) and replaced it with 2 120mm high flow CPU fans. Each fan draws .6 amps or 1.2 amps for both, well within the current range for the stock thermodisc.

    Towpro, I put a thread on the other Forum you visit as well.

    Mine cycle on and off day or night but usually after sundown when ambient temp drops and it's dark, they rarely cycle at all and when they do, it's not irritating at all.

    If I had a Danfoss unit, I'd be adding fans to it as well. Heat transfer is everything. Just ask your pickup truck motor.....
  • Not sure if you've tried to search here before but it sucks. Plus, if all we said was to search every time a question was asked, there wouldn't be much traffic here.
  • If you put 200 mm muffin fan in the computer top bar, it will bring up a lot of options, power usage db's etc. You could find what you are looking for.
  • I'm curious about this too. My fridge fan will run constantly in the heat and it seems to keep up. But if there's something more efficient and will do a better job I'm all for it.