Refrigerator Cooling Fans
- Thread starter JohnDar
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StephenKatSea
Active Member
I entirely agree. The air MUST flow up, over and thru the fins and tubes located on the uppermost portion of the Dometic. The "as built" configuration allows the air to escape at the base of the upper vent cover prior to passing thru the tubes and fins above. I followed the recommended deflection of the air flow, as mentioned on this forum, and we are now able to keep our fridge working great even in the summer heat of the Cal/Az desert.
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SilverRhino
Well-known member
Exactly what did you do to improve the air flow?? Do you have pictures, that you would be willing to share, by any chance? Any advice and or direction that you could offer would be appreciated.
SilverRhino
Well-known member
Bill;
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! That's a great thread with a lot of good information.
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! That's a great thread with a lot of good information.
57chevyconvt
Well-known member
Bill,
The RM1350 refer in my BH is not in a slide, therefore the air flow is drawn over the condensing coil fins very similar to the A/C condensing unit for your home A/C unit, i.e., is drawn/pulled across the condenser fins to remove the heat. The large high volume fans that I installed as shown in the pictures that John posted moves a lot more air up the chimney and out the roof vent. The initial cool down time/rate after installing the new fans was much improved. Since I have a switch to control the fans, I have been able to test the cool down rate with and without the fans. Worked for me.
The RM1350 refer in my BH is not in a slide, therefore the air flow is drawn over the condensing coil fins very similar to the A/C condensing unit for your home A/C unit, i.e., is drawn/pulled across the condenser fins to remove the heat. The large high volume fans that I installed as shown in the pictures that John posted moves a lot more air up the chimney and out the roof vent. The initial cool down time/rate after installing the new fans was much improved. Since I have a switch to control the fans, I have been able to test the cool down rate with and without the fans. Worked for me.
Ray LeTourneau
Senior Member - Past Moderator
Jim, great idea! I have a couple of questions though. Is there any reason you didn't mount the switches inside the rig? Maybe using a rocker switch similar to the others in the coach? What's the purpose of smaller turbo fan? Back-up?
When I had our reefer out for replacing the water line to the ice maker, I removed all the bat insulation and replaced it with styrofoam boards. I had a large piece up top that had come loose and was almost fully blocking air going up the vent. Thanks for the info. I'm sure it will be great for others.
When I had our reefer out for replacing the water line to the ice maker, I removed all the bat insulation and replaced it with styrofoam boards. I had a large piece up top that had come loose and was almost fully blocking air going up the vent. Thanks for the info. I'm sure it will be great for others.
57chevyconvt
Well-known member
Ray, Good question on switch mounting location. The first attempt to increase air flow across the condenser coil was to install a new Camco vent with solar panel and turbo fan. I installed a toggle switch for the turbo fan so that it would not run all the time and wear out the bearing on the small DC motor. You can possibly see this switch location on the RH side of the picture that shows the switch mount location for the new 8" fans. The turbo fan switch is located so that it can be operated from the outside of the trailer. The Turbo fan helped so slight, so I felt that more air movement was needed. That is when I bypassed the thermal switch located on the condenser cooling fins so that the two 3" Dometic supplied fans would run all the time. I also installed a toggle switch so that I could control these fans. I mounted this switch on the refer lower sheet metal base plate so the switch and wiring would remain with the refer when removed for whatever reason. Since I already had two toggle switched located at the rear of the refer, accessible from the louvered vent cover, I decided to mount the third switch in this same location. The location of all three switches were easy to wire at this location. The new cooling fans are mounted totally independent of the refer so that they don't interfere with removal of the refer. One other tid bit of info on the selection of the new fans and location of mounting, I initially thought about replacing the noisy 3" fans mounted on the rear of the refer with some larger fans so that they would blow up wards across the condenser coil. Decided not to go that route because of insufficient room between the rear wall of the refer and the inside wall of the trailer. I know some folks have installed small squirrel cage blowers to replace the 3" fans, which is a great improvement do to the increased air flow with the squirrel cage blower. I could not find where to purchase the small squirrel cage blows. I know that is more "beef" that what you asked for, but I hope it will help to answer your questions. BTW - my success with the durability of the original Camco turbo fan and solar panel wasn't that great. The solar panel cracked and failed after a few months. Camco sent a replacement panel that has a small aluminum frame that has worked well. I am on my second turbo fan, I cannot believe they sell this system (vent, solar panel, and turbo fan) to be installed to run continuously. That is why installed the in-line toggle switch so that I could elect to run the turbo fan if and when needed.
StephenKatSea
Active Member
In our BH3670 the refrigerator is in the slide making the proper flow of air more difficult. Bill (wdk450) "linked" you to the forum thread I used. I followed the sketch posted by Bill and the photos posted by wesley1963. Also as recommended, I filled the open void areas at the sides and top of the fridge with fiber insullation material, eliminating pockets of hot air.
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