Blocked fridge vent

[dwimberley]

My 4 door fridge in my 3610RE has trouble staying cold. At the upper air vent there is a large piece of sheet metal attached to the outer wall blocking access to two cooling fans. One of the fans has failed. The only way to gain access to the fan was to remove the metal. It appears to me the metal was restricting air flow to the vent. Question to Heartland. What was the purpose of attaching the sheet metal to the outer wall behind the fridge in front of the upper vent door?

 

[danemayer]

Hi dwimberly,

The metal sheet is a baffle that directs air through the fins so that there's an effective heat exchange. By removing your baffle, you're likely to run into refrigerator cooling issues.

I've attached a drawing from the Norcold manual. Dometic is the same.

 

[boatto5er]

On our Landmark the baffle is also there but it was not angled over toward the refrigerator at all. Thus, it was accomplishing nothing and our refrigerator had difficulty staying cold. I manually put angled blocks of wood between the baffle and the wall forcing the baffle over toward the cooling fins. This forced the air to flow through the fins. Now the fridge works better.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TandT]

Dan and Connie,
The sheet metal on our slide mounted 4 door Dometic extended to within 2" of the top of the upper vent. Hardly any warm air could escape the top vent at all. A RV tech determined that the sheet metal configuration was for a roof mounted vent, not intended to be used for a slide, rear vent installation. He cut away about 6" of the sheet metal horizontally. This was 4 years ago and the refer has been operating 200% better with no problems ever since. Trace

 

[dwimberley]

Thanks to all for your replys. I just found the fan replacement on the web. Exact same Sunon fan $17.00 dealer wanted $127.00! The baffle is back in but is not angles tword the fins and covers all but two inches of the top vent. Once i get the fan installed i will mod the baffle and hope it works better. As it is now we cannot get the fridge under 40 degrees. Local temps are mid 90s with humidity more like 105. Got the park to agree to let us move to a shady spot next week which will put the fridge slide out in shade most of the day!

 

[wdk450]

The important thing on ammonia adsorption RV refrigerator external venting (heat exchange) is that ALL of the upflowing draft air from the lower vent to the upper vent flows over the heat exchange fins, AND DOES NOT BYPASS THESE FINS BY FLOWING IN THE SPACE BETWEEN THE BACK OF THE REFRIGERATOR AND THE SLIDE OUTER WALL. Of secondary importance is that all dead air spaces to the sides and above the refrigerator be packed with insulation (I used fiberglass batting). I also used insulation behind the cooling fins to help stop bypass cooling heat exchange air. A RV refrigerator website now taken down had a page on refrigerator cooling venting. They recommended 0 to 1/4 inch clearance from the fins to the wall, and top and side spaces filled with insulation. The metal top baffle piece you have helps direct the airflow as not to bypass the heat exchange fins. Here is a baffle and insulation design I made myself, but I want to relocate or add more fans to the top vent area to help exhaust the hot cooling exchange air: http://manuals.heartlandowners.org/.../Refrigerator in Slide Baffle System Mod..pdf

I have wondered why the refrigerator manufacturers don't put a piece of sheet metal over the back workings of the refrigerator to better channel this draft air.

Note on edit: Ignore the messed up attached thumbnail. I can't see how to delete it (it doesn't show up in this editing pane), and it is the same as the linked document.