Residential Fridge install question

[samert]

For those of you that have installed a residential fridge in place of the traditional RV gas/electric absorption refers, did you close off the roof vent or leave it open for help in cooling the residential fridge?

I'm leaning towards leaving mine open and I'm not too worried about getting cold air dropping into the MH and getting around the gaps in the cabinet opening since I plan on sealing off around the fridge real good.

[Bill_Satellite]

I wasn't born yet and they taught us no such thing in school. Glad to someone knew about the reference.

[Planning]

Bill.Satellite wrote:

Planning wrote:

samert wrote:
Normally it drains into a pan and then the water just evaporates from the compressor heat.

Occam's Razor baby!

If you were as lost as I was, here's a definition from Wikipedia.

Lost? I learned that in fourth grade in the 50's.

[BarneyS]

UhHuh! :B
Barney

[Bill_Satellite]

Planning wrote:

samert wrote:
Normally it drains into a pan and then the water just evaporates from the compressor heat.

Occam's Razor baby!

If you were as lost as I was, here's a definition from Wikipedia.

Occam's razor (also Ockham's razor or Ocham's razor; Latin: lex parsimoniae "law of parsimony") is the problem-solving principle that, when presented with competing hypothetical answers to a problem, one should select the one that makes the fewest assumptions. The idea is attributed to William of Ockham (c. 1287–1347), who was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher, and theologian.

In science, Occam's razor is used as a heuristic guide in the development of theoretical models, rather than as a rigorous arbiter between candidate models. In the scientific method, Occam's razor is not considered an irrefutable principle of logic or a scientific result; the preference for simplicity in the scientific method is based on the falsifiability criterion. For each accepted explanation of a phenomenon, there may be an extremely large, perhaps even incomprehensible, number of possible and more complex alternatives. Since one can always burden failing explanations with ad hoc hypotheses to prevent them from being falsified, simpler theories are preferable to more complex ones because they are more testable.

[Planning]

samert wrote:
Normally it drains into a pan and then the water just evaporates from the compressor heat.

Occam's Razor baby!

[Bill_Satellite]

I have had mine draining into the pan for 18 years and it still works just fine! There is nothing wrong with doing as you suggest either, however.

[samert]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions based on what you've done. I think I'm going to leave the roof vent open for now and put some foam insulation over the access door but leave the door functional in case I need to get in there for any reason.

Another question I have is what others have done with the freezer defrost drain hose? Normally it drains into a pan and then the water just evaporates from the compressor heat. I have a hose fitting from the old fridge that drains into the grey water tank so I'm thinking of removing the current drain hose flapper valve and connect the hose to the fitting that dumps into the grey holding tank.

[Bill_Satellite]

I prefer not to have that extra heat inside the coach so I left the roof vent operational.

[TNGW1500SE]

I sealed my roof vent with great stuff foam. Took off the cover. foamed it in, then cut off extra foam and reinstalled cover. I also made sure my fridge got air flow from the bottom through the cabinets and then I added a vent inside above it. Air now comes into the fridge cabinet at the bottom and vents out the top into the RV. I sealed my old fridge side vent with a marine type hatch door.

[Bill_Satellite]

I sealed up the outside side vent but left the roof vent open. I have camped in temps below 0 at night and not above freezing for weeks at a time and I have had no issues with the cold causing problems. Even with an exposed water line for the ice maker it stays plenty warm back there to keep things above freezing. How your coach is setup and insulated could certainly effect your results. My fridge has coils on the bottom under the fridge and I have a couple of inches clearance at the back and maybe an inch or so on each side. There is also a bit of clearance at the top but there is a wooden support that closes all but a bit of this off to air circulation so air is forced to go in the front under the fridge and out the back with no where else to go but up.

[samert]

azrving wrote:
What model fridge

Insignia NS-RTM10BK8

Others have have put these in RV's and the manual doesn't say to not use in an RV. I ran it for 3 days on my Magnum 2000 watt PSW inverter without any problems.

It was only $299 on sale, so if it doesn't survive too long then not a big loss.

[Planning]

Left the vent on the roof as is, but sealed under it with plywood and foam insulation.

1" on all sides except 3 inches to back/rear of RV where the door/access panel was for the Nocold. Metal tape sealed the access panel vents, with 1" closed cell foam at the access panel to prevent temperature extremes.

[azrving]

What model fridge

[azrving]

samert wrote:

azrving wrote:
x2 on coil location. Look at installation instructions for clearances and install according to that.

1" on all sides which I have but the back is wide open and the vented outside access door for the old gas electric unit still in place so I'm not worried about ventilation to the compressor.

I sealed off the side and top and cut the opening for the required clearances. My coil is on the back.