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Old 06-04-2015, 12:29 PM   #1
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Refrigerator temperature

It's finally drying out and our maiden voyage is tomorrow.
Turned on the fridge Tuesday and went to start loading it today

I was putting meat in and decided to double check the temperature, it was 63*

Waited about 30 mins and it is only down to 53*. My freezer is 22* and my thermometers are calibrated.
Now my trailer was kind of hot, but is that normal for a refrigerated to not recover?
Just checked, it has been another 20 minutes and it is now 57*. Obviously can't put food in at that temperature.

It is running on AC, I have a Vibe 268RKS and it is a Dometic fridge.

Any suggestions or input?
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Old 06-04-2015, 12:58 PM   #2
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Just to clarify, you started it Tuesday (the 2nd) and then opened it today (the 4th), so 48 hours of constant running? The freezer seems right but the fridge doesnt to a point. How long was the door open until you took the reading? were you packing it up with the door open and then thought it wasnt cold enough so then you took the reading? Waiting 30 min and rechecking and it read 53 leads me to believe it is cooling. What is your temp set too, thermistor? it wont recover in the 20 min when you did the retest though. Was it cold when you first opened the door to pack it?
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Old 06-04-2015, 01:47 PM   #3
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Refrigerator temperature

Correct. It had cooled for two days. I did take a reading a month ago when we brought it home and it was around 35.
Today, trailer was hot and upon loading I thought it was not cool enough. Door was open for about a minute whe loading then I went to get thermometer to check. Had a 65 reading at that time.
I do not have a thermostat.

What is typical recover time?
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Old 06-04-2015, 02:08 PM   #4
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It has now been an hour and a half and is only down to 51.
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Old 06-04-2015, 02:15 PM   #5
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What is your or where is your thermistor set at? If it was cooled down to 35 before (this seems normal) then it should have been cooled to that within the 2 days you had it on. Is there anyway it would have been shut off by accident and now back on? Mine takes about 30 hours to cool unless it is really hot then it takes 35-48, for every degree it heats up when the door is open I was told to figure an hour to cool it back down by a degree.

By it being 90 minutes later it does seem to be working and that seems right for the time fame and amount cooled, I would check the thermistor, you move it up the fin to cool more (if I remember right).
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Old 06-04-2015, 02:22 PM   #6
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On my old TH we used a fan to move more air on the fins which seem to help a lot. They are cheap and we didn't have any issues in the Texas heat. They run off the 12vdc in you fridge,
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Old 06-04-2015, 03:45 PM   #7
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Thanks, I have moved the thermistor up as well as switched to propane.

I guess when I opened the door to load with the trailer so warm that warmed the fridge up. I will check it in 4 hours and then just load all the cold stuff in the morning right before we leave.

That is concerning that they take that long to cool back down when you have meat in there.
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Old 06-04-2015, 03:57 PM   #8
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Ok, where was the thermistor at? All the way to the bottom? Once totally cool and at operating temp it usually isnt that bad for recovery or popping the door open to grab something, the problem is when leaving it opened an extended amount of time which doenst seem to be the case here, I really have no good reason for why the temp disparity other than it seems to be going in the right direction now.
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Old 06-04-2015, 04:03 PM   #9
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There is almost nothing in an empty fridge to absorb heat except the fins. Opening a fridge in a hot environment will substantially heat up the fridge. It will take some time to cool back down. Try to always load fridge with pre-cooled/cold food. If you plan to travel with the fridge off, try to have it close to full. At a minimum put all the water,soda and beer in the fridge when you start it, After a day or so you will have cold drinks and mass to absorb heat when loading at just prior to departing.
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Old 06-04-2015, 05:51 PM   #10
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We almost always put a few frozen water bottles in the fridge when we're loading food, but after the fridge has already cooled down for several hours. While camping, we keep a few in the freezer and trade them to the melted ones in the fridge in the morning. It helps keep the fridge cooler during hot days.
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Old 06-04-2015, 08:08 PM   #11
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Good ideas and thanks for the input. It's down to 44 now so i think we will be good. I put some cold sodas and waters, etc. in so when we add the meat and other stuff in the morning it won't be such a shock.
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Old 06-04-2015, 08:18 PM   #12
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Maybe your door wasn`t sealed shut?
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Old 06-04-2015, 08:57 PM   #13
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Fridge

I replaced the single 80mm fan in the back that cools the coils, with two 120mm fans, both wired to the same wires that run the single small fan. Made a huge difference in how fast the fridge pulls down. The two 120mm fans run quieter than the single 80mm fan. Go figure!
Regardless how cold the unit is, if you load it with room temp food, it will take a long time to extract the BTUs from the food and settle down to a "normal" operating temp.
Any foods we upload to our fridge before a trip has spent the night before in our home fridge or freezer and transported to the unit in a cooler.
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