fridge and hot water tank

We have been full-timers for one year and love it.

We have a 3670RL Big Horn and love it.

We have been in Arizona and Nevada for a couple of months now and are having problems with the hot water tank and the fridge. Wondering if they are hot-weather related.

My hubby and I are from Oregon and have never had to deal with hot weather. I mean temperatures of up to 114 degrees. I love hot weather, but this has been insane.

We are having trouble with:

the hot water tank: It works with electricity, but all of a sudden does not work with gas. And still doesn't.

the fridge: is a 4-door Dometic, 8 cubic feet, has settings from 1 thru 5 with 5 being the coldest.

When the weather here in Las Vegas was running between 100 and 114 every day for a week, the fridge was having trouble staying cool enough.

It seemed that the freezer was doing pretty good.

However, the fridge temperature was slowly moving up to peak at 55 degrees. Way too warm.

Hubby opened up the outside door to the fridge and that eventually helped the temp. to go down.

Finally, a couple of days ago, the outside temperature went down to the mid 80's and the fridge is working fine. Showing temps in the high 30's and 40.

Question: Is this normal? when the outside temp gets that hot, to have to take off the outside door to the fridge to help cool it off.

Would love to hear comments from you all. You have helped so much in the past.

Thanks, Cheri

Cheri,
Cant help you with the water heater other than the obvious, check gas etc. There is a contol board taped to the back of water heaterm that is used to ignite the gas. You might check to make sure it is plugged in or hasnt been exposed to water.

On your fridge, from my experience that is normal. Your fridge is mounted in the slide which means your fridge vents to the outside on the wall of the slide. That is not the most efficent way to vent the hot air. Hot air wants to rise. With the vent on side wall the hot air has to rise, make a 90 degree turn and then exit the vent. These refridgerators do not have a compressor like you home unit does. They have to be able to breath. There is a fan monted on the fins on the top of the unit by your upper vent. This is supposed to come on at a set point to help move the heat out and away from the fridge compartment. if it isn't working properly then the fridge cant cool down very well. Even if it is working, it is not very efficent.

I added an extra fan and switch to mine. While we dont get to 114 here it still gets nasty hot (yesterday was 99 with lots of humidity) and the extra fan helped alot. Prior to The switch and fan, my fridge temp would climb up to the high 40s. Now it will stay right around 40 in the heat of the day.

As far as the water heater goes, check for any spiders or daubers thay may have made a home in the gas burner (pilot) section. It needs to be clean. Do you get any flame at all?
Larry is right about ventilation for the refer. Some have inlulated above the vent and have installed some new baffles to aid the evacuation of hot air.

Peace
Dave

The refrig will run cooler on propane also look at www.rvmobile.com/tech/trouble/vent.html for info on the correct venting of a refrigerator. Not sure how yours is vented but this may be a mod that should be made.

Thanks to you all for your suggestions. We are still greenhorns at this "full-time rv ing" and sure appreciate any help you can give us.

It sounds like the problem with the hot water tank will be one for an authorized dealer to handle.

What you have all said regarding the outside temperature makes a lot of since. So, with the outside door off, and a fan attached, we also put a battery-operated small fan inside the fridge. This all seemed to help. The inside temp of the fridge kept right around 40 degrees.

Do any of you use a fan inside the fridge?

Thank you all so much; Southern Nights, Cookie (dura-max, we agree, the best), and Wharton. Thanks to you for taking the time to help us.

We purchased a "swamp cooler". That thing really made a big difference. We only have one a/c and it just wasn't keeping up with the Vegas heat. But with the "cooler", we kept the temp inside of 20-30 degrees cooler than outside. Plus, with adding water to it every so often, it kept moisture in the air. The desert air is so very dry.

Has anyone else used this type of a "cooler"? What were your opinions of it?

As we were leaving Vegas on Hwy 93 yesterday, June 25, we passed another BIG HORN heading towards Vegas. We both waved at each other. I love that. Hoping that they have a really good trip.

In closing-----I loved Vegas, but maybe not so much in June. Just too hot.

Again, thanks for your awesome help. cheri ( Draco Dog)

I use a fan like this

Jimmyt5 said:

I use a fan like this



View attachment 9157

Click to expand...

Jim, where is that fan mounted? Inside on the coils? Can you give us some part numbers for it? Thanks!

I got the fan at a computer store about $6. I have it mounted on the side of the refer with the wires running thru the hole that the thermostat runs in. It is hooked up to 12 Volts in the refer burner compartment.