Fridge and cold weather

[murphy38]

We most of the time do not stay where it is cold but be in March where the temp can get below freezing . At what temp will i neeod to co er part of the fridge panel?

[BobsYourUncle]

Ozarkwoods wrote:
That's not good Bob, I wonder if a small personal heater would have helped?

I did manage to get it going again.

Posted a thread about it here.

[Community Alumni]

That's not good Bob, I wonder if a small personal heater would have helped?

[BobsYourUncle]

JimM68 wrote:
Wow Bob, that's awful!
Did you have the light bulb in it?

I tried to keep my rig "running" all winter, it just makes me feel better. Early January I gave up, shut it down, and winterized, this winter in Chicago has been brutal.

I did the tape off most of the lower vent, and plugged a 100 watt light bulb in behind it. The fridge, a dometic side by side, did fine.

Yes I had a light bulb in it.
But I didn't plug the vents.....

But, thinking back to last November / December. Minus 34C with a light bulb and it survived.

So I guess I got lazy and assumed all was well... It wasn't.

Now I suffer the consequences of my own actions!

[JimM68]

Wow Bob, that's awful!
Did you have the light bulb in it?

I tried to keep my rig "running" all winter, it just makes me feel better. Early January I gave up, shut it down, and winterized, this winter in Chicago has been brutal.

I did the tape off most of the lower vent, and plugged a 100 watt light bulb in behind it. The fridge, a dometic side by side, did fine.

[mmiille]

I like Cookies BBQ sauce.

[BobsYourUncle]

DianneOK wrote:
Sweet Baby Ray's. 🙂

LOL, thanks, I'll try some! :B

[DianneOK]

Sweet Baby Ray's. 🙂

[BobsYourUncle]

Well, here is Bob, eating crow!

2 days ago my fridge died a catastrophic failure.

Seems it got too cold for it and although I took some preventative steps, evidently I did not take enough.

Sustained temperatures of over minus 30 C with a wind chill of in the minus 40's and my fridge packed it in.

Try as I might, I cannot get it to function now... I have tried everything I can think of to bring it back to life, including superheating the entire back and compartment area.

Looks like I'm up for a new fridge.

Can anyone recommend a nice BBQ sauce that goes with crow?

[shenandoahvalle]

Aha, so that's what happened. Left the TT plugged in, winterized, with the fridge running for a month or so and noticed some stuff in the freezer seemed to have thawed a bit and refroze...but it was when the temps got real low. Now I know.

[BeckyIO]

Huh, learn something new every day!

I noticed last December work camping in Kansas that the few nights it got into the single digits I had to crank the thermostat a little colder on the fridge to keep the freezer from thawing out. I thought it was just because I had more heaters running inside the RV to keep things comfortable and one of them sat right next to the fridge and having it running 24/7 was warming up the fridge it was sitting next to. Thought it was odd but couldn't come up with a better answer until now.

[BobsYourUncle]

In those warm temperatures you have nothing to concern yourself with. NOTHING!!

When the temps get down to below minus 10F, I start to take notice.
If it drops a bit more, then I stick a light bulb in my fridge compartment to warm it up a bit.

I have lived in my RV in temps below -25C and no issues. It is when I get to -30C that the fridge sometimes will falter a bit. Couple months ago at -34C my fridge started to freeze up. I stuck a light bulb in the compartment and it resumed normal operation.

Currently minus 24C here (-11F) Fridge is working fine. It is supposed to get a little cold tonight so I may go put my light bulb in the fridge compartment. Yeah, guess I should do that.
Wind chill is expected to be -42C tonight (-43F) yeah, suppose I should pay attention....

Really though, in the temperatures you mention, you have nothing to worry about and don't need to do anything. Your fridge will work fine.

[Ivylog]

What direction is the wind out of? Is the sun shinning on that side of the MH? Is it in a slide or not? I'd monitor the refer temps at the bottom and when they get above 45 I'd cover most of the lower vent.

[GordonThree]

Last I was camping, it was the end of Jan, outside temps were around 0F at night and in teens during the day. Fridge worked fine 2 days leading up to camping and 3 days while camping and 2 days when I got home but was too lazy to unload the fridge. I was on electric the entire time, I imagine the propane system would have worked without issue as well.

I'm sure there is some temperature point when the ammonia phase-change stops working but I don't know where that is. I've read on these forums of folks blocking the vents and putting light bulb heaters behind the fridge... not sure if it's out of necessity or just piece of mind.

[mmiille]

Our frig has a bottom and top vent.

I cover my bottom vent when it gets below 20 F. I have heat tape on the ice maker line and it seems to work. In the past, usually the frig quit working below zero.

Haven't had any issues the past two years and this winter has been quite a test!