How to keep fridge cooler?

[RoyBell]

I noticed over memorial day the fridge was slow to cool down after constant usage (and kids) when the temps were in the 90s. On my pop-up I was able to put 2 computer fans on the coils and it helped a lot moving the air across them. On my trailer, I don't even see the coils.

There looks to be a vent on the roof as well, is that for the fridge? There's not much on the side vent/door other than the power plug.

Is it possible to put a fan and draw air through the vents? Has anyone done this? It seems I would need to put it facing up to suck in through the side and blow out through the top. Correct?

I don't see a couple computer fans cutting it anymore. Which stinks because when dry docking I only have 12 volts.

Any suggestions?

[RoyBell]

Cocky_Camper wrote:
When we got our hybrid years ago, we discovered that the Fridge didn't keep up to well with the southern heat. We placed a small "personal" fan behind the fridge and just plugged it into the exterior outlet when we get to our destination.

We now have two 8 year old twins, and no matter what you do, the fridge will not stay cold when it is opened every 20 minutes. We purchased a Coleman Extreme 120qt 5 day cooler about 5 years ago. We pre-chill the cooler and drinks with ice, drain and top off the morning that we leave. The cooler can easily keep ice for 5 days in 90 degree southern heat as long as the kids COMPLETELY shut the lid (which never happens). Our neighbors had a yard sale a few years ago and had a mini Fridge/freezer they were selling. We purchased that to use while camping to place the drinks for the kids in for $25. Best purchase ever. There drinks will stay cold, if they shut "their fridge", our food stays cold in the camper fridge, and the adult beverages stay nice and cold in the Coleman Extreme Cooler (which will last almost as long as a Yeti or Yeti equivalent ($50 cooler.)

Pre-cooling helps a ton. I used to do that all the time with the cheaper coolers. Now I don't have to worry 🙂

My buddy picked up two of the extreme 70 quarts this year for the trip

One for food and one for drinks. He said his food one had all the ice melted by the second day. The drink one last till Sat morning (3 days). Same environment as my Pelican which still had ice when I got home Monday.

A lot of these cooler tests just aren't realistic in real-world testing. In real world you are going into the cooler often. A lot of these tests close the cooler and open it once a day to check ice. Real world use includes kids opening and closing just to look inside and not get anything and then repeat. Or going in and looking for a drink every 15-30 minutes.

My 65 quart 2 years ago was $300 from amazon prime (now $400) My buddy paid $60 ea for his extremes. Yea, it seems like a lot but the hinges are amazing and I really like the latching system. There is a place to put a padlock as well so if you leave it outside you don't need to worry about someone stealing your booze (and people WILL do that at some places). Good warranty (LIFETIME!) and made in the USA. The only drawback is it's heavy as hell. You need two people to move a loaded cooler. I'd like to get a smaller one for shorter trips, but not sure it's worth the price since most any cooler will hold ice for 2 days. The main reason for getting it was these concerts where you had no electricity and camping.

Also, do the math. If you go camping 10x a year and save one bag of ice each trip in the cooler, that's roughly $50/year savings. Over the course of 10 years you save $500 in ice. It does add up and I used to have to get a bag when camping to make sure the food stayed cold or I got a bag to pre-cool it, or I needed 2 bags to fill the ice to the top to accomodate for melting. Now I just need one 22lb bag of ice and I make a couple blocks as well for $0 and I don't worry about filling it up all the way. The return in invest is not needing to buy as much ice at $5/bag.

However, last year I ended up getting a TT with a nice fridge with freezer. My use went down quite a bit, but I still use it a couple times a year, just not every camping trip anymore.

[2012Coleman]

RoyBell wrote:

2012Coleman wrote:
I camp all summer long in the Florida heat and humidity. Not knocking your mod - in fact, it is pretty neat! But seriously, all I do is use one of those battery powered blue interior fridge fans from camping world. I didn't check temps, but vegetables in the bottom drawer have frozen if I don't watch it.

I have one of those fans (you can see it in my picture above). It's not enough though. Put a temp gauge in there and you might be surprised how how it really is at the top of the fridge.

All I can say is that my veggies have frozen(not solid, but enough to ruin them) due to the fridge being on it's highest setting while using this fan. Don't need a temp gauge to tell me that's cold.

I run on electric when camping.

Guess I got a good fridge, or maybe it's performance will degrade with time.

[Cocky_Camper]

When we got our hybrid years ago, we discovered that the Fridge didn't keep up to well with the southern heat. We placed a small "personal" fan behind the fridge and just plugged it into the exterior outlet when we get to our destination.

We now have two 8 year old twins, and no matter what you do, the fridge will not stay cold when it is opened every 20 minutes. We purchased a Coleman Extreme 120qt 5 day cooler about 5 years ago. We pre-chill the cooler and drinks with ice, drain and top off the morning that we leave. The cooler can easily keep ice for 5 days in 90 degree southern heat as long as the kids COMPLETELY shut the lid (which never happens). Our neighbors had a yard sale a few years ago and had a mini Fridge/freezer they were selling. We purchased that to use while camping to place the drinks for the kids in for $25. Best purchase ever. There drinks will stay cold, if they shut "their fridge", our food stays cold in the camper fridge, and the adult beverages stay nice and cold in the Coleman Extreme Cooler (which will last almost as long as a Yeti or Yeti equivalent ($50 cooler.)

[RoyBell]

For coolers, I bought a Pelican (like a Yeti). It keeps the ice forever. I also make blocks of ice using tupperware and it helps a ton. Heres my beer cooler from the weekend. 2 cases of beer, 1 large bag of ice and a couple blocks of ice. You can see I didn't even bother filling it up all the way. I put the ice in Thursday 7am. By Sunday it still had ice but ran out of beer in it. 92 degrees for 4 days and it held the ice no problem. I've had it still have ice after 6 days no joke. Not many coolers can do that when you are going in them.

My buddies all ran out of ice by the Sat AM and they had ice all the way up to the top. I also brought a second cheaper cooler for non alch. drinks and my ice was gone in that one by Saturday as well. I should had brought more beer had I know my buddy was going to drink mine instead of his cheap stuff :R

A good cooler goes a long way. 2016-07-27_07-19-58 by RoyBelluomini, on Flickr

[rickm]

Rolling Condo wrote:
Hint: put drinks in cooler, especially for kids. Keeps the number of times the refrigerator door opens down.

..... and buy one of those ice makers. We did that two nweeks ago, the ice maker ran all week making ice and keeping the items in the coleman cooler cold!

[Jetstreamer]

RoyBell wrote:
Just wanted to update this thread.

This weekend was out boondocking and running the fridge off propane.

Temps were in the mid 90s and very high humidity. Heat index was 110. We did run the generator to get the inside dried out. Couldn't get it under 82 in the camper though.

The fridge though, it stayed at 28ish degrees consistently. It was hotter than Memorial day and the fans seemed to have helped tremendously. Memorial day I had a hard time keeping it under 40. Also no kids this trip which helped I am sure, but not as much as the fans. Another benefit of the fans is that it recovers much quicker as well. I highly suggest this to anyone that camps when it's above 70 degrees out!




2016-07-26_07-32-28 by RoyBelluomini, on Flickr

Also added a speed control and on/off switch for when the temps drop and I don't need the fans running full blast or even at all.

2016-07-26_07-35-04 by RoyBelluomini, on Flickr

Double check that thermometer.
I relied on that same fridge thermometer for years until I verified it with a better thermometer immersed in water. Found out it was reading 10 degrees low.

[RoyBell]

2012Coleman wrote:
I camp all summer long in the Florida heat and humidity. Not knocking your mod - in fact, it is pretty neat! But seriously, all I do is use one of those battery powered blue interior fridge fans from camping world. I didn't check temps, but vegetables in the bottom drawer have frozen if I don't watch it.

I have one of those fans (you can see it in my picture above). It's not enough though. Put a temp gauge in there and you might be surprised how how it really is at the top of the fridge.

[2012Coleman]

I camp all summer long in the Florida heat and humidity. Not knocking your mod - in fact, it is pretty neat! But seriously, all I do is use one of those battery powered blue interior fridge fans from camping world. I didn't check temps, but vegetables in the bottom drawer have frozen if I don't watch it.

[RoyBell]

BillyW wrote:
I will eventually do this, but it will be strictly solar powered with no need for on/off switches.

1) it can be hot and not sunny
2) why waste running the fans if the weather doesn't require it?

I would put a 3 position switch. Off, Solar, 12V.

Draw is very little for the 3 fans. Plus the motor control can drop the speed down if you don't need them running full blast, making the draw even less.

[TurnThePage]

I will eventually do this, but it will be strictly solar powered with no need for on/off switches.

[Jebby14]

replace all contents with beer.

[RoyBell]

westend wrote:
Roy B,
I think you ought to be able to fiddle with the fridge controls and raise the temp inside the fridge box by a couple of degrees. 28f seems a bit on the cool side.
For the "fridge gawkers", an alarm when the door is open might keep them from leaving the door open. The seatbelt alarm in my Ford truck would be a good choice. That one is very irritating, lol.

I can raise the temp if I wanted to, but I don't see the point. At 28 degrees it's right between fridge/freezer temp. It keeps everything nice and cold and nothing really freezes at that temp. Then when you open the door and loose all the cold air you don't need to worry as much while it recovers. I would say that's about as cold as I would keep it before moving it up a notch.

There is a door alarm, but it doesn't work if the fridge light isn't on...so the door can be cracked a little and never go off. No alarm/light on the freezer door.

[westend]

Roy B,
I think you ought to be able to fiddle with the fridge controls and raise the temp inside the fridge box by a couple of degrees. 28f seems a bit on the cool side.
For the "fridge gawkers", an alarm when the door is open might keep them from leaving the door open. The seatbelt alarm in my Ford truck would be a good choice. That one is very irritating, lol.

[RoyBell]

Just wanted to update this thread.

This weekend was out boondocking and running the fridge off propane.

Temps were in the mid 90s and very high humidity. Heat index was 110. We did run the generator to get the inside dried out. Couldn't get it under 82 in the camper though.

The fridge though, it stayed at 28ish degrees consistently. It was hotter than Memorial day and the fans seemed to have helped tremendously. Memorial day I had a hard time keeping it under 40. Also no kids this trip which helped I am sure, but not as much as the fans. Another benefit of the fans is that it recovers much quicker as well. I highly suggest this to anyone that camps when it's above 70 degrees out!



2016-07-26_07-32-28 by RoyBelluomini, on Flickr

Also added a speed control and on/off switch for when the temps drop and I don't need the fans running full blast or even at all.

2016-07-26_07-35-04 by RoyBelluomini, on Flickr