How early to turn fridge on?

[ryand]

Heading out Friday.....with forecast highs around 105 for today and thursday...how early should I turn the fridge on?

[Mark and Linda]

Now, would be a good time. I always keep two bottles of frozen water to put in mine when I start it to cooling to aid in the process. When we had our PUP I would start it up about two days prior to heading out. Now we have the tt, I plug it in anytime and slowly start adding things. Happy camping....

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by ryand

Heading out Friday.....with forecast highs around 105 for today and thursday...how early should I turn the fridge on?

24 hrs before minimum.

[Herk7769]

Even the manual says it will take a minimum of 4 hours to begin getting cold from initial start up.

Day before at a minimum and I pack the freezer with ice in plastic bags to give it a head start before putting food in it.

[tentcamper1]

we always turned ours on 2 days before. now I just leave it on all the time (on electric), really doesnt cost all that much.

[Triguy]

I would hook up to AC and turn on the fridge today so that its cool by the time we wish to load the fridge and freezer on Thursday (to depart on Friday morning).

[4bnabird]

We use to have a TT that we would have to turn on the fridge at least a day or 2 before. With our old fiver I could turn it on first thing in the morning and 8 hours later it was cold and starting ice in trays if you put something cold inside. If it normally takes a bit for yours to get cold with this heat I think I would give it 24 hours or the night before when it is cooler outside. (probably hard to cool it down with the heat in the middle of the day and not having the ac on in the camper.) Maybe put a bag of ice in it too like the others to help it along a little faster.

[KyDan]

Mine will get pretty near as cold as it's gonna get in about 6 hours on LP.
Slightly longer on AC.
If you want to be sure, turn it on 1 day ahead.
IF your refer takes 2 days to get cold it's got a problem IMO.

YMMV.

I read here where some folks leave theirs on AC all the time. That's fine if you
full time but I am old school. I believe these RV ammonia units have a definite
life span and I'm not going to leave mine on when it's not needed for days or
weeks at a time.
Just my opinion and not based on any research at all...... plus at my home I
lower the tongue jack so the roof really drains well.
I wouldn't want my refer running that much out of level.

[Oakman]

I turn my on the evening before we leave using propane. It should be down to the correct temperature in the morning.

[rkswyo]

I'm one of those that leave mine on all the time. I turn it on in April and usally turn it off at the end of October. I have been doing it that way for the last 30 years and have never had an issue.

[ironj]

In 100 temps and trailer in sun, i turn mine on about 24hrs before leaving......i dont put ice or anything in it ( though that would prob cool it faster)....i run a/c. While loading for maybe 3 hrs total...after that, the blue mountains on my coors light stay cold!... :-D . I also have the small dorm fridge on the outside and that lil thing gets cold quick (3-4 hrs)....but only runs on 110v... i put a days worth of drinks in the inside fridge, then when i get to site i plug in and get outside fridge going, then transfer all the beer and soda to outside unit after a couple of hours....works perfect.

[ryand]

Went and fired up the Fridge this am....Might be a little early but we should set a heat record today. Will see how cold it gets after work.

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by ryand

Went and fired up the Fridge this am....Might be a little early but we should set a heat record today. Will see how cold it gets after work.

Turned mine on yesterday morning as we are leaving tomorrow morning for the Wisconsin dells @ 5 am.

Supposed to be 104 today! Without heat index.

[3 Happy Campers]

Originally Posted by rkswyo

I'm one of those that leave mine on all the time. I turn it on in April and usally turn it off at the end of October. I have been doing it that way for the last 30 years and have never had an issue.

X2 - here in eastern PA.
Turn it on in March & turn it off the end of Dec.
We keep it well stocked with all the staples & an extra 8# bag of ice in the freezer.

[latner]

Originally Posted by 3 Happy Campers

X2 - here in eastern PA.
Turn it on in March & turn it off the end of Dec.
We keep it well stocked with all the staples & an extra 8# bag of ice in the freezer.

same here.

[ryand]

Update on fridge performance for those who would like to know:

8:00 am
Fridge on
Ambient temp inside 89 F
Fridge temp the same

4:30 pm
Ambient temp inside 108F
Freezer temp 23F
Fridge temp 62

All taken with lazer temp gun.

[gbpacker]

I find that 8 to 12 hours are adequate to lower the temperature of the refrigerator and freezer. Everything that goes into these unit come from our home refrigerator and/or freezer so that it just has to maintain the temperature of the stuff I put in.

[RV Wizerd]

Larry Cavens here Well here's where allot of people are going to run in to trouble
there are two things that happen when you shut the fridges down.
First the foam pack that surrounds the evaporator dose not have any drains so the ice that builds on the tubes remains in the foam as water and you know what happens to steel
meets water = RUST that will eat away at the tubing. Secondly there's a special chemical
that's in the solution called Sodium Chromate that is used in preventing decay on the inside of the tubes from the Ammonia solution, as long as the unit is in operation this protective chemical is doing its job but once the unit is shut down for a lengthy period the ammonia will eat away at the metal tubing and if the tubing develops a pin hole the hydrogen gas charge will be lost and the cooling unit will become in operative so to save your money keep your fridge on and running either on gas or electricity, you should also note that these fridges will run better an gas as it won't get the boiler as hot as the heat is dissipated through out the chimney or flu, where as if run on electric the heating rod get hot enough to make the steel glow lite red at this temperature two things happen first the composite and structure of the tubing will begin to change and become evidently weaker at the boiler area as the metal is cycling in heating and cooling / expanding and contracting the metal is and will over time become brittle,secondly the sodium chromate chemical can turn to a glaze and if run off level eventually will starve the boiler and cause it to over heat thus a crack can form causing failure, don't forget the unit is also under high pressure of 350lbs of gas, so if operated on gas mode the metal in the boiler area doesn't get nearly as hot and the chimney acts as a heat sink to dissipate the heat over a larger area of the boiler thus there less stress on the boiler tubing
and fatigue is greatly reduced thus longer life span of the cooling unit. So to lengthen the life of your RV Fridge don't shut it down .

[johnleann]

I have to shut mine down since I cannot store in my yard or neighborhood. It is only 2 blocks away to the storage place and thankfully we try to get out at least once a month. I orefer to run it on gas even when we have elec because gas works so much better to cool.

[OldCoot]

We start ours when we get the camper and very rarely shut if off except to defrost. Run on propane and rarely ever on 120v.