The most Fridge help

[Jay2504]

I have an 8 cubic foot Norcold fridge in our 2020, 24RBS. The fridge is not in a slide, having an opening on the side of the trailer and the traditional “hat” on the roof. In hot weather, the fridge struggles to stay cold. It does better on gas than electric. It does eventually get cold enough. My question is what mod would help me the most, fans on the outside like in the roof vent, or a fan(s) on the inside helping circulate air around the fins? Thanks in advance. Jay

[RoadrunnerII]

I would add a fan in both.
Inside to circulate the air so no hot spots, outside to help the process. You will need a snap switch mounted near top of fridge fins outside. Temp 130*F switch should be fine. Then a 12 volt computer fan blowing up.
Make sure the seals on fridge are good do the dollar bill test in the doors all the way around.

RoadrunnerII

[Jay2504]

Thanks for the reply. For the outside fan(s) is it better to blow up from the bottom or mount them in the roof vent? I just did the dollar bill test and got drag on the bill all around both doors. I probably will do both, I was wondering which one would help me the most. We usually go to the store after arriving at a place, then the fridge (pre-cooled,running during driving, and part way full) has to cool down more stuff like bottled water bought at the store. When we carefully and quickly add stuff, especially warm stuff like pop and water, that is when it struggles the most. That is why I was leaning towards an inside fan first. Jay

[RoadrunnerII]

I dunno which position on the back is best.. From a mounting prospective bottom is easier. Top is likely better at pulling heat out.

To help your fridge to cool down faster and take on warm stuff...
Buy some ice packs. Freeze them and put in freezer and fridge.. Acts like a cool sink. Once fridge is cooled down and ice Pak melted switch them from fridge to freezer and freezer to fridge.
It does help. Limit the number of warm soda, water, beer you put in it at a time. Bring a cooler with ice throw them in it first.
Or bottled water freeze them in advance. Act as cool sink.
Remember it takes about 12 hours to cool down an rv fridge. Not the same as residential with compressor pump. It's all vapourization process on a liquid to a gas and back.

RoadrunnerII

[Jay2504]

I have some ice packs at home. Because we are on the road, I’m freezing water bottles and letting a couple of frozen steaks defrost in the fridge compartment. Looking at the light for the fridge, the wires would be easy enough to to use for an inside fridge fan. Either the light is controlled by power or ground, either way I only have to run one wire out the drain tube. Jay.

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by RoadrunnerII

I dunno which position on the back is best.. From a mounting prospective bottom is easier. Top is likely better at pulling heat out.

Yep, anything to improve the air flow across the coils. If on the bottom make sure it is pointing up.

[RAurand]

Here is what I did to my refrigerator.
Put 2 cooling fans on the fridge sucking air up and then blowing it over the fins and down.
Mounted 2 computer power supply fans in the outside lower fridge access panel blowing air up.
It's 97 degrees outside. 33 in my fridge and 70 in my trailer. Fridge is only set to # 2 and 5 is the coldest setting.
I cant complain.

[Duke4857]

Even a cheap battery operated fan in the fridge is better than nothing. We have one that does the same as this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Camco-Fridge-...5089617&sr=8-1

This page has alot of options to look at:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=battery+i...ref=nb_sb_noss

[norty1]

The outside fan I added on mine blows upward and is mounted in the lower part of the outside compartment. It just supplements the natural draft of hot air rising. Mine also came with another one in the top from the factory. I seldom hear them running.

[Jay2504]

Thanks a lot Duke4857. Once I saw your post, I realized that the DW had a small portable fan in the picture. I put it on low, and put it in the fridge, blowing on the cooling fins. That was last night at about 6:30. This morning at about 6 AM I checked the fan (it had stopped working, batteries down) and the fridge was down to 40F, way better than yesterday. We are going to get a longer charge cord for it so it can stay running. I have also switched back to 120 volts this morning to see how it does with the fan. Looks like in my case at least so far, the inside fan helps. Jay

[RedHorse1]

Your Norcold may have a fan in back. Our 4 door model has two and when they had both died the fridge performed poorly. Without a little help moving the air an absorption fridge struggles when it’s hot and the sun is beating down on the side with the fridge.

[Jay2504]

Thought I would give everyone an update about the fridge. We bought a 6 foot charge cord for the fan. ( It uses a mini USB like an Android phone). Got the fan partially charged (warmed it up first) and plugged it in, letting the cord go through the fridge door seal. Not ideal but we are camping a long way from home, this will do until I can fix it right. The results: first I went back to 120 volt electric, then I reloaded the fridge with 15 warm bottles of water and 10 cans of warm (not pre cooled) pop. Went out for the day and when we got back it was 40 degrees inside the fridge. Opened the doors the normal amount in the evening and went to bed. This morning, the fan is still running and the temp of the fridge is at 31 degrees. These readings are from a fridge thermometer hung down from the second shelf,same place as always. Because of this I moved the control from 5 snow flakes to 4. I have also noticed that the fins don’t have ice on them like before the fan. When we get home I will be doing a permanent fan install. Next I will look outside for any fans I can find. Thanks again everyone for helping me. Jay