cooling the fridge in a hurry

[Jebby14]

I notice my fridge takes forever to cool down when getting ready for a trip. with the camper hot it takes several days for the fridge to get cold enough to stock. any thoughts on putting a block of ice in a bucket in when turning it on? im by no means great at thermodynamics but I would think the melting ice should produce enough btu to cool a small rv fridge (think just slightly larger than a bar fridge)

[DutchmenSport]

If you are able, just keep it running 24x7, even when you are at home. (Unless you have to keep it in storage with no electric hook up). We keep ours at home, plugged in 24x7 and the refrigerator is never turned off, except in the winter, only during the coldest months when we aren't camping. (we use the camper in the winter too). The freezer is always below zero, even when the inside of the camper is 95 because it's been closed up a while. We keep drinks and water in the refer all the time, as we also use the camper at home, almost every day when not camping in the Summer to sleep in at night! Very seldom do we ever sleep in the house any more.

[ReneeG]

In addition, I just watched a video on keeping your RV fridge cool and one of those little fans was recommended on keeping it a consistent temp inside PLUS it takes 50 percent less time to cool down. I bought one. I also turn on the AC when we are prepping for a trip, to keep the inside of the RV cool and hence cool down the fridge too.

[spoon059]

RinconVTR wrote:
GAS

GAS

GAS

Turn the fridge on GAS for the quickest cool down.

Not sure if anyone mentioned this yet, but running on gas tends to cool it down quicker. Another thing is to make sure your fridge is in the shade. Check your fridge exhaust vent and make sure its not clogged.

Oh yea, try running it on gas...=)

[time2roll]

Just start up a day or three before. Battery and propane should run the fridge for the start up or plug in is fine too but use propane.

I find as long as I pack full of cold food nothing gets too warm before it gets fully cold the next day.

Keep the door closed

[the_bear_II]

Dry Ice works

[Harvard]

Like Path1 our fridge also takes 4 hours to reach the target temperature.

[RinconVTR]

GAS

GAS

GAS

Turn the fridge on GAS for the quickest cool down.

[korbe]

coolbreeze01 wrote:
Ours seems to cool down quicker on propane. Never takes longer than overnight. Only 100 degrees out though.

If I start ours up in the afternoon, and put in some watered ice trays, the trays will be ice the next morning.

[coolbreeze01]

Ours seems to cool down quicker on propane. Never takes longer than overnight. Only 100 degrees out though.

[Jebby14]

I plugged in last night on max but its pushing 100 outside. no ac. ill see what its at when I get home tonight but im guessing not cold enough to pack. so ill ice it down for a few hours then fill it.

[SoCalDesertRid1]

Buy a couple bags of ice at the local market to put in fridge before getting ready to load camper for trip. That helps alot to reduce the cool down time. You can re-use the ice in the beer cooler after fridge has cooled down.

[braindead0]

Also if you can run the A/C, or a vent fan in the TT. Anything to try and keep the interior temperature under control. Even with 90+ degree days ours will cool down if I start it the day before.. however our fridge is fairly small as well..

[path1]

If you need something to compare to.

Here are the cool down temps on our Norcold 821 : (using elec not propane. Will do propane next defrost time)



Time............Fridge.................Freezer

750PM...........78.....................78 (and 78 is outside temp at time)

906Pm...........66.....................46

1010pm..........59.....................16

1108pm..........51......................7

1200 midnight...47......................-1

[Big_Katuna]

We usually have a frozen made ahead casserole or two or frozen steaks
and put them in the fridge to a. thaw b. help cool the fridge down.

And dont put anything warm in eg bottled water, beer, soft drinks, etc.

[3boxerss]

Freeze some water bottles and put some of them in there. Cool it down faster and u can use them when they thaw out..Also no dripping water mess like there would be to deal with using an ice block. I also put frozen water bottles in our cooler. It helps on ice and cooling the cooler as well.