We are leaving on our last (before winterizing) weekend trip this Friday. I usually start and load the refrigerator a day or two in advance. It has been unusually cold here, 40's in the day upper 20's at night and I was wondering if running the refrigerator for a day or two in an unheated tt would cause problems or if it would even run correctly.

It should run fine. But do you really need to pre-cool the reefer for a couple of days if it's already cold out?

TucsonJim wrote:It should run fine. But do you really need to pre-cool the reefer for a couple of days if it's already cold out?I know, it sounds crazy doesn't it? I'm not so worried about the nighttime temps, just the days as it warms up. Don't want to question whether the meat and other perishables where cool "enough". Thanks TusconJim!

We were just running ours last weekend during a hunting trip at 9200 feet. The night time lows were 18-20 degrees. No problems at all.

I have always turned mine on normally. It just won't call for cooling when the box is already cold. Remember the fridge will not run full time in hot weather either but only when it needs to operate to reach its set temperature. Precooling isn't necessary if the box is already cool enough but nothing is harmed in turning out on just as you would normally. Keep in mind the fridge is operating at temps inside the rv, not the outside temps.

Res fridges need to be above 50F to work right and won't in a cold garage, according to their manuals. However, like others above say, not seen any problems with the RV fridge outside at 30-40F

Running refrigerator in cold trailer | Good Sam Community

DiskDoctr
Explorer
Nov 04, 2013
aruba5er wrote:
If it is 30 degrees in the camper the fridge will not run. It's cold enough Right? well the freezer is than 30 degs too. So in order to get the freezer cold and freezing the fridge has to run, so you need to heat up the camper enough to make the fridge run. won't hurt the fridge to run in outside freezing temps. I mad a lot of service calls to people that said their freezers wern't working and then find out they were talking about the one in the garage and it was 30 degrees in the garage or colder. Don't need to run. cold enough. Thermostat is in the refer, not the freezer/

Good point about themostat in fridge area. You can also turn on the anti-humidity setting on some fridges that keeps the internal light bulb turned on. Often it can be enough to overcome this problem- down to a point.
cannesdo
Explorer
Oct 28, 2013
+1 on the light bulb, or heat tape on the coils. My fridge got too cold during a winter storm in MT 5 years ago and the unit stopped cooling. I had heard if you turned the unit upside-down overnight it would remix the stuff in the coils it will restart. Was so sick of storing food in the snow drift so I pulled it out one day by myself (female, 5'7", 115 lbs) turned it over, and the next morning it fired right up. Been working great ever since. :) Learned from that to keep the back of the fridge warm when temps drop far below freezing. There was only one guy in that park whose fridge didn't freeze and his furnace was situated right under his refrigerator.
camperpaul
Explorer
Oct 23, 2013
Another problem occurs when the water in the absorber freezes.

A 60 Watt lamp and a Thermo-Cube® in the compartment behind the refrigerator will prevent this.
tbred
Explorer II
Oct 23, 2013
aruba5er wrote:
If it is 30 degrees in the camper the fridge will not run. It's cold enough Right? well the freezer is than 30 degs too. So in order to get the freezer cold and freezing the fridge has to run, so you need to heat up the camper enough to make the fridge run. won't hurt the fridge to run in outside freezing temps. I mad a lot of service calls to people that said their freezers wern't working and then find out they were talking about the one in the garage and it was 30 degrees in the garage or colder. Don't need to run. cold enough. Thermostat is in the refer, not the freezer/

Thanks Aruba, this makes sense. Being that our tt has not been winterized yet, I was getting a little concerned with our multiple 26-27 degree nights(days in 40's) so I went ahead and put an electric oil filled radiator heater in there yesterday to keep indoors above freezing. I plan to start fridge tomorrow morning and start loading food in evening for weekend trip.
aruba5er
Explorer
Oct 23, 2013
If it is 30 degrees in the camper the fridge will not run. It's cold enough Right? well the freezer is than 30 degs too. So in order to get the freezer cold and freezing the fridge has to run, so you need to heat up the camper enough to make the fridge run. won't hurt the fridge to run in outside freezing temps. I mad a lot of service calls to people that said their freezers wern't working and then find out they were talking about the one in the garage and it was 30 degrees in the garage or colder. Don't need to run. cold enough. Thermostat is in the refer, not the freezer/
ICamel
Explorer
Oct 23, 2013
I use a wireless weather station that has 3 remote sensors. One sensor resides in the RV fridge so I always know what the temperature inside it is. I can control the temp to keep within 35-39 degrees F.
BFL13
Explorer II
Oct 23, 2013
It is the inside temp that counts. ISTR a thread where their fridge wouldn't work right before a trip, but it was because the RV did not have the furnace on yet. No idea if related to the OP this time.

When it is cold out and inside too, it is hard to tell if the fridge is colder or just right. :)
Road_Runners
Explorer
Oct 22, 2013
We have run our RV refrigerator for weeks when the outside temperature at night was below freezing and had no problems.
tbred
Explorer II
Oct 22, 2013
BFL13 wrote:
Res fridges need to be above 50F to work right and won't in a cold garage, according to their manuals. However, like others above say, not seen any problems with the RV fridge outside at 30-40F

This was my concern. We always unplug our res. fridge in the garage for the winter months. Thanks to all!
nevadanick
Explorer
Oct 22, 2013
I never turn mine off and its been in temps as low as -12 and worked fine.