Refrigerator Fan Noise

If your fridge is in a slide or in diagonally situated in the kitchen (hence no roof top vent) , your fridge is equipped with a fan located above the burner outside to help move hot air out the upper exhaust vent on the sidewall of the camper. The fan is set to kick on at a certain temp (I have read 90) and is more apt to run when hot out or when the sun faces the fridge side of rv.
I have one of these fans and yes it is loud, but I got used to it. I have read about owners switching out the fan for a quieter PC fan

The noise is normal. As Steve said, it is necessary with the fridge in a slide. The solution is to camp in the winter and the fan will not run.:)

Moved from Forum Technical Support

YES you can hear the fan(s) running but they should just be a whirrrrl not a loud noise

Remove fridge upper vent cover...look down and you should see the 2 fans.
Maybe loose, maybe worn out etc. investigate and replace fan if necessary. They are critical to proper cooling

The refrigerator is not in the slide and our unit is only six months old. We've not used it in 90-degree weather yet, so don't think heat is an issue. The unit cools nicely; however, the fan is very noisy and just wondering if all the newer Dometic 4-door models with icemaker just have this 'problem.'

Open the vents, find the fan, and clean off the blades. I'm told this is one possible cause of the noise.

I replaced the fan with a set of computer quiet fans..

"hey we are getting complaints that the fridges are not cold enough"

"What do we do?"

"we get the cheapest fans we can find in bulk and wire them up to suck out extra heat, then tout our proficiency in all things RV, and add 100$ to the price tag"
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Lots of computer fans exist, and the range in quality and engineering is as widespread as a Yugo to a Bugatti.

The Yugo has shapeless angled vanes and a sleeve bearing and will protest at turning when horizontal and quickly wear out and buzz like a chainsaw.

The Bugatti has precisely foiled angled scythes for blades, a fluid hydrodynamic bearing and consumes 1/3 the electricity and moves twice the air for 1/10 the noise.

The difference, the Yugo costs 3$, the Bugatti, 20$.

There are literally hundreds of options available. Don't just go to Radio shack and say you need a 12v computer fan. What they will offer you is an overpriced version of what is already making too much noise for you.

Try the Silverstone FM121. It has a potentiometer you can use to dial back the speed to inaudible, or crank it up to aid in initial cool down.

If you want one with more bells and Whistles in the Mid range speed CFM category, Noctua NF-f12. 6 year warranty. It consumes only 0.05 amps!

They recently started offering an Industrial version of this fan which moves a bit more air, and has a dust and moisture resistant electronics.

In my experience, Dirty fan blades are actually quieter, as they are heavier, offer more resistance, and cannot spin as fast.

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Skipter wrote:
We have a newer Dometic series RM1350 4-door refrigerator/freezer in our RV that makes really loud noise when the fan kicks in. We've owned several RVs but have never experienced this noise before. Anybody have the same problem? Solution? The technician at CW says it's normal and not to worry; however, we've had other issues that were not solved correctly at this particular store.

My 2013 36CKTS and my friend Ike's 2014 36CKTS have the same loud fan.
I was going to change out the fans with quieter ones when it dawned on me to leave well enough alone. Now when they kick in I just think "well I know that's working".:B

I had all the same complaints... 2012 Fleetwood Storm; Dometic frig, in full wall slide, in & out vents in side of slide. Fleetwood mounted a computer type axial flow fan just below the condenser coils. To get to it without pulling the refrig, I had to do some minor surgery to a 1/8" plywood baffle that was blocking access, but that was only a minor challenge. One of the purposes of the fan is to start the column of air moving and keep it moving. Does not take a huge CFM to do this. At a local electronic surplus store, I located a blower fan (not an axial flow fan) canibalized from some high tech equipment. It happened to be a 24 volt fan, but on 12 volts it just runs slower and quieter. Because it had a ~5" square blank flat side, I applied Liquid Nails adhesive to it and glued it to a piece of 2" thick polyethylene foam packing material. And then glued the foam/fan assembly to the rear wall of the refrigerator and connected it where the axial flow fan had been connected. The result: Nearly silent fan operation and even better efficiency. Axial flow computer type fans typically used are high speed and noisy and any vibration is transmitted by the refrig and/or the RV sheet metal. The "blower style" fan axis is perpendicular to the mounting surface and minimizes forces that create vibrations, and the significantly slower speed almost eliminates noise from the fan blades or air movement. I think I paid $5 for the fan.