Seeking refrigerator tips... in AZ and heat is hampering...

[groundhogy]

.. its ability to keep cold.

I don't know much about these units, but I assume the idea is to keep the back coils cooler?

I have seen one guy with a fan in the outside compartment.
But that's just blowing 110 degree air on the coils.

I am kind of thinking of one of those tiny swamp coolers that they advertise on TV.

Any comments or education welcome.
thanks..

[otrfun]

Star Gazer wrote:
Many times these fridges are not installed correctly to begin with. The specs call for no more than a certain space in front of the cooling fins, this is so that as air moves up it actually goes thru the fins. If the space it too large then air goes past the fins and does not cool them enough. I have added a deflector to mine that forces air closer to the fins. And if is really hot I will set a fan pointing towards the bottom and remove both upper and lower vent covers. Shade is a must as well.

Yup, good point. On many units the entire rear baffle needs to be about an inch away from all the rear coils. Having the entire baffle that close actually improves air movement due to the venturi effect. One would think more space would be better, but not the case.

[Star_Gazer]

Many times these fridges are not installed correctly to begin with. The specs call for no more than a certain space in front of the cooling fins, this is so that as air moves up it actually goes thru the fins. If the space it too large then air goes past the fins and does not cool them enough. I have added a deflector to mine that forces air closer to the fins. And if is really hot I will set a fan pointing towards the bottom and remove both upper and lower vent covers. Shade is a must as well.

[azdryheat]

It's triple digits here in Tucson and my refrigerator has no trouble making ice cubes. It's plugged in to shore power if that makes a difference.

[otrfun]

Exterior fans will help. We've found it improves cooling about 2-4 degrees when ambient temps are really high.

We've camped in 110+ AZ heat many times. Even a perfectly operating propane frig with double exterior fans will have trouble maintaining 40 degrees in this kind of heat. If you access the frig more than once every 2-3 hours during the heat of the day you'll be lucky to stay below 45.

[_1Flyboy]

X3 on fan’s & get side in shade…

[larry_cad]

Propane refrigerator MUST be level also.

[harley-dave]

sch911 wrote:
I have two 12V computer fans blowing air upward in the back of the fridge. They are mounted about half way up the back of the flue. Getting the heat to rise out of the flue is the key.

X2 This is what we did also. Also keep the refer at maximum cold (9) setting, cool inside the coach, shade the vents outside the RV and don't open the refer as much as possible.

Dave

[sch911]

I have two 12V computer fans blowing air upward in the back of the fridge. They are mounted about half way up the back of the flue. Getting the heat to rise out of the flue is the key.

[valhalla360]

If the cooling unit is 150F (not sure of the actual temp but it's pretty hot).
- If there is minimal airflow, the air around the cooling unit may be 130-140F, so only a 10-20F temp difference.
- If you push 110F air in, that's a 40F temp difference which will extract more heat from the cooling unit.

That said, 110F can be problematic.

[MrWizard]

Fans help, the move more air over the coils, yes the outside air is hot, but the heat exchanger coil is hotter, the more air flow the more heat removed from the coolant, the better the absorption RV fridge will operate
Parking so the fridge side of the RV is not in the afternoon sun helps, put out the awning, hang a tarp, park next to a tree, anything that shades the back of the fridge, helps

[groundhogy]

mini swamp cooler.. see...

www.arcticairpurechill.com