Fridge fan

[j930]

Looking for any suggestions for a fridge fan for the norcold fridge I see some are battery and some wire into something?

[wiscampsin]

Battery operated fan placed on bottom shelf to keep air moving.


Wired fridge fan to help circulate air and keep fins from frosting up. Wired before fridge light switch to it stays on when door is closed.


Both are available on Amazon and both help.

[BillMc40]

This is what I have installed in my unit.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dometic-Ref...-/181208057633
I ran the wire thru the drain and only hooked the positive to the refrigerator board with a female spade adapter that turns one male into two. Hind sight I would fore go the lights on the fan and get the largest fan that will go across the fins. Ie a 3 fan unit.

[j930]

do you think two of those would be better.. it seems that those two fans do quite a bit form what I read.. I just ordered that yesterday.. but getting two is no issues especially at the cost.

[2edgesword]

I have the battery powered blue one shown in a post above. In provides gentle circulation of air (should be placed on lower shelf) and has continued to run for over a week on two D batterries.

[LuckyDuck]

Originally Posted by 2edgesword

I have the battery powered blue one shown in a post above. In provides gentle circulation of air (should be placed on lower shelf) and has continued to run for over a week on two D batterries.

I just bought one on a Friday after noticing the fins inside the fridge were a bit frosted up on our last trip. Doesn’t seem like the fan moves much air — will that prevent frosting? Thanks!

[hoppers4]

This is the best product by far. It's expensive but provides the best solution. It circulates a lot of air and you don't have to defrost the fridge. Just be aware that to defeat the fridge auto defrost, you have to turn the fridge off for about 5 seconds every day.

https://smartrvproducts.com/

It can be wired through the drain to the fridge circuit board.

[SkyBound]

Originally Posted by wiscampsin

Battery operated fan placed on bottom shelf to keep air moving.
Attachment 43719

Wired fridge fan to help circulate air and keep fins from frosting up. Wired before fridge light switch to it stays on when door is closed.
Attachment 43720

Both are available on Amazon and both help.

I have the bottom one, the hardwired version. I ran power up the drain tube from inside the fridge chimney hatch and the clip that goes on the metal fins is the ground. They work well, but I have had to peel back the little sticker on the back of the fan blade and carefully drop some thin machine oil in there for the bearings. They get noisy after a while.

I also have started leaving my fridge drain tube out the side of the chimney hatch. I opened it up on this past camping trip and the catch tray was full to the brim.

[bdreinv]

Best 50 bucks I spent, now food in the doors is below 40 degrees!Company offers a variety of sizes!Thanks

[2edgesword]

Originally Posted by LuckyDuck

I just bought one on a Friday after noticing the fins inside the fridge were a bit frosted up on our last trip. Doesn’t seem like the fan moves much air — will that prevent frosting? Thanks!

I get very light frost on the fins so it hasn't been much of an issue for me. The fan only provides very gentle circulation of air to help in the convection process. I'm not sure if it would be much help as far as a solution for frost build-up on the fins.

[Kozmo]

I have the blue battery operated which helps. Has anyone tried to move the thermistor to get the fridge cooler?

[CampNow]

Originally Posted by LuckyDuck

I just bought one on a Friday after noticing the fins inside the fridge were a bit frosted up on our last trip. Doesn’t seem like the fan moves much air — will that prevent frosting? Thanks!

Our last trailer had two small, computer-type fans mounted flush against the refrigerator's interior aluminum fins. When we camped in areas with very high humidity, the finned areas directly behind the fans were frost-free. However, the finned areas off to the side of the fans still retained quite a bit of frost. In areas with low humidity, we'd get light frost with the fans off. With the fans on there was little to no frost anywhere on the aluminum fins.

I'd venture to say small, battery-operated fans (that simply sit on a shelf) are not going to be very effective at controlling frost on the interior aluminum fins---especially in high humidity situations.

[j930]

got the little fan and put it in today. seems to blow enough air.. will be interested to try it out. took about 30 minutes to put in.. hardest part was getting the wire down the drain tube. I squirted a little WD 40 and it slid right through. here are some pics. thanks for all the suggestions.

[cabinetmaker]

We use two of these in the bottom of our fridge. Keeps the air gently moving which helps keep things cool and temperatures equal top to bottom. Works great. No frosting of coils. Batteries last for two weeks last trip and were still going strong when I shut them down. We left them going non stop the entire trip and never had to change the batteries. I bet they would have gone much longer. Cheap and easy!

[denn888]

My friend gave me a fridge fan that clips to the fins. The ground wire clips to the fins via alligator clip, I also ran the positive wire thru the fridge drain hose back to 12v on the back of the fridge, a Norcold N811. Observations from our August trip in Myrtle Beach, SC with temps and humidity in the low to mid 90s. The fans helped minimize frost build up on the fins where it was attached. Fridge was set to coldest #5. Top shelf temp read 25deg on TempMinder sensor. Bottom shelf was 40deg. I also have fans installed at the roof fridge vent controlled by the ARPRV fridge controller. I could definitely use another fan to circulate the air better or carry less food lol. Overall I'm happy with the mods to the fridge.

[bdreinv]

Great mod for a few bucks, great results!

[CampNow]

Originally Posted by denn888

My friend gave me a fridge fan that clips to the fins. The ground wire clips to the fins via alligator clip, I also ran the positive wire thru the fridge drain hose back to 12v on the back of the fridge, a Norcold N811. Observations from our August trip in Myrtle Beach, SC with temps and humidity in the low to mid 90s. The fans helped minimize frost build up on the fins where it was attached. Fridge was set to coldest #5. Top shelf temp read 25deg on TempMinder sensor. Bottom shelf was 40deg. I also have fans installed at the roof fridge vent controlled by the ARPRV fridge controller. I could definitely use another fan to circulate the air better or carry less food lol. Overall I'm happy with the mods to the fridge.

Very effective additions. If you're getting a 25/40 temp split inside your fridge they're obviously making a difference.

We installed the ARP RV "Fridge Defender" and the optional squirrel cage fan on our N811, too. I like the fact you can adjust the on/off threshold temps for the boiler and the optional fan. Best of all, no need to worry about damaging the N811 fridge due to off-level operation.

[JesseS]

Originally Posted by hoppers4

This is the best product by far. It's expensive but provides the best solution. It circulates a lot of air and you don't have to defrost the fridge. Just be aware that to defeat the fridge auto defrost, you have to turn the fridge off for about 5 seconds every day.

https://smartrvproducts.com/

It can be wired through the drain to the fridge circuit board.

I also installed the Fridge Fix unit, works too well, the fans are a bit too loud for me, so I installed a speed controller in the outside compartment to tone it down a bit, much better now. I also added a set of computer muffin fans in the top of the fridge vent in front of the condenser fins to help move the air better as mine is in a slide.

[hoppers4]

Originally Posted by JesseS

I also installed the Fridge Fix unit, works too well, the fans are a bit too loud for me, so I installed a speed controller in the outside compartment to tone it down a bit, much better now.

You're right about that. They are a bit noisy. The speed controller is a great idea.

[JesseS]

Originally Posted by hoppers4

You're right about that. They are a bit noisy. The speed controller is a great idea.

Here is the one I used, works great and you can select any speed from about 30% up to 100%. Anything below 30% won't self start, you can turnit down below that once running, I found about 50-70% is best.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1