Expected Fridge Temps?

[ependydad]

I got a fridge thermometer with remote and haven’t liked what I’ve been seeing.

High 20s for the freezer, I can mostly accept.

Buy an average of 50 for the fridge seems excessively high. This was running off of electric with regular use. Overnight when no one was in it, it would get down to 48 or so.

Thoughts?

[5picker]

Absorption I'm assuming?

On the coldest setting?

Is your refrigerator in a slide?
Does it have fans? (inside and out?)
Fridge model?
How often is the door opened? Recovery time on an absorption fridge for an open door is a killer.

[ependydad]

Yes, Absorption. Double door Norcold.

Yes, in a slide.

I’ll have to look pics to see if I have the model... holed up in a hotel at the moment.

How often is the door closed, is more like it?! Family of 4-6 depending on who is with us. I know it’s killer but it’s like my dad shouting about the thermostat... just makes for joke fodder.

[nayther]

not good, should be about 0-10 and 35

[ependydad]

Good lort, I’m a freak with pictures.. model number shown on these:
https://flic.kr/p/27EhrEf
https://flic.kr/p/NhCvWA

The other thing to note- it consumes a 30lb tank of propane in a week running the water heater + fridge. That’s horribly excessive vs my old rig. I’m 99% positive it’s the fridge as I ran just the water heater on propane for a week and didn’t have a noticeable use of propane.

[fella10]

Originally Posted by nayther

not good, should be about 0-10 and 35

X2

[CincyGus]

What are the temps where your setup? If it's excessively hot, those temps might not be bad.

You didn't say what setting you had it on. Depending on the fridge, it should have a standard dial setting like your home fridge or a little slider on one of the fins inside the fridge. There is usually a sticker on the inside of the fridge indicating up for warmer, down for colder or vice versa.

Lastly, adding a fan to move air on the outside in the fridge vent area can dramatically improve performance of under performing fridges. Especially in warmer temp climates.

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by CincyGus

What are the temps where your setup? If it's excessively hot, those temps might not be bad.



You didn't say what setting you had it on. Depending on the fridge, it should have a standard dial setting like your home fridge or a little slider on one of the fins inside the fridge. There is usually a sticker on the inside of the fridge indicating up for warmer, down for colder or vice versa.



Lastly, adding a fan to move air on the outside in the fridge vent area can dramatically improve performance of under performing fridges. Especially in warmer temp climates.

Temps have been moderate - 70-80. Humidity has been wildly variable.

We have it set to 8 out of 9 on the fridge temperature selector. We have also tried adjusting the slider.

And the fridge does have some kind of fans inside of it. But I haven’t looked outside to see where/how I could add fans to it.

[Jayhawker]

Hi, read your post concerning your refrigerator not cooling well enough. We had the same problem with ours. I bought 4-120mm (4.72") 12 volt dc computer cooling fans (ball bearing type) and installed them on the refrigerator roof vent atop the mesh screen. Connected the fans together with 2 hole metal straps. Connected them in parallel to a waterproof switch that I mounted on the outside of the refrigerator vented access panel. Used foil tape placed around any openings around the installed fans to maximize the air flow. The four fans when running are very quiet.

[HONDAMAN174]

I too have fans in the chimney area. Also 120mm fans- one sucking in at bottom and two up top taking the heat out. Boy does it get hot up there. And that’s not even during summer heat.

Being that your fridge is in a slide, shouldn’t be too hard to install. I used small L brackets to hold the fans in place to the frame of the fridge access panel. I only use one as don’t want to blow out the propane flame. Put two up top the same way to suck the heat through the top access panel. I used thermostat wire to connect together and then to 12v. I did not add a switch as if power is on to my trailer then the fridge is being used.

I typically see 34 in the fridge and -7 in freezer.

[Beachbourbon]

Our Norcold was at 38 degrees today.

[CincyGus]

Here's a link to a search on these forums of "fridge cooling fan mod".

https://www.google.com/search?q=frid...iverforums.com

Read up and it will give you multiple options that I'm sure will work for you.

Basically the idea is to get better air movement through the stack behind the fridge so the air will conduct the heat away and through the heat exchanging system of the fridge. There are two main principles people use to do this.

Baffling- using something (sometimes cardboard wrapped in aluminum tape) to make ducting and eliminate dead air spaces that hold heat. Basically giving good routing of the fans air movement through the chimney area up through the fridge vent, being on the side of the camper or the roof.

Adding fans- Increasing the air movement through said chimney, drawing air in through the bottom vent and pushing it up through the top vent (since heat rises). This can be done relatively inexpensively with computer fans , a little wire and a switch (if you desire being able to turn it off when the additional fridge help isn't needed). Most folks use 120mm ball bearing fans. I've used as big as a single 200mm as it makes less noise and moves as much or more air (learned from trying to make my desktop computers I've built as quiet as possible).

You can expect a 10-15 degree improvement in your fridge temps doing this mod in most camping weather conditions. I did it on a popup fridge one time that I had a hard time keeping the fridge below 50 degree's in if it was 80 degrees outside and had to actually turn down the fridge temps to keep from freezing stuff in the fridge section.

It's a half afternoon project if you're not very handy, a hour project if you are.

[ependydad]

All good info and I’ll definitely start exploring the fans concept.

For the last couple of days, we have had temperatures with a high of about 70 and cooler than previously at night.

This morning is what the fridge was showing:


The freezer hasn’t changed much, unfortunately. But the fridge is down to where I’d expect.

[5picker]

There have been many discussions on fridge temps and the lack thereof.

As I eluded to and others as well, cooling fans in the back of the fridge compartment help tremendously.
It got me an average of 7-8 degrees cooler inside temps.

One note of caution.. adding cooling fans can help considerably.
Adding TOO MUCH airflow can have an adverse affect.
More is not always better.

A couple fans to the top area blowing out and one smaller at the bottom pushing air up is plenty.
You want to exchange air not create a wind tunnel.

Too much air flow can affect the natural heating of the chimney/condenser area when on gas too.

[nayther]

Originally Posted by 5picker

There have been many discussions on fridge temps and the lack thereof.

As I eluded to and others as well, cooling fans in the back of the fridge compartment help tremendously.
It got me an average of 7-8 degrees cooler inside temps.

One note of caution.. adding cooling fans can help considerably.
Adding TOO MUCH airflow can have an adverse affect.
More is not always better.

A couple fans to the top area blowing out and one smaller at the bottom pushing air up is plenty.
You want to exchange air not create a wind tunnel.

Too much air flow can affect the natural heating of the chimney/condenser area when on gas too.

Good advice here. The absorption cycle is a complex one, actually one I never really understood even after studying it at Cal Poly SLO. But it does rely on heat in the chimney for the process.