How many folks are having fridge issues

[cpaharley2008]

You are not spoiled, Alf……you are just plain rotten……….

[Jrn56]

No problems with our 4.3 although we haven't traveled in extremely hot weather. I am in Alf's camp, the only thing that has been spoiled is me.

[escape artist]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

you are not spoiled, alf……you are just rotten……….

Hi: cpaharley2008...

[daveandsandyclink]

Hi Larry,
We're close with 98 today. We just need that 2 minute afternoon rain shower. Come on down to my test lab.

[kstock11]

So far, our 4.3 has worked well. We camped at Lake Mead on Memorial Day Weekend @ 100 degrees with no hookups and the beer stayed cold. We have not used the freezer except to see if it makes ice and it has. If we happen to buy ice cream, we eat it all with the excuse that "maybe it will melt." We try to shop every 3 days. We travel with the fridge off and the food in a cooler. When we stop, we turn on the fridge & load it up. We try to not overfill. After too many years in a tent with only a cooler, the Dometic is a real step up!

[FishBioGirl]

First days out with ours and fridge worked fine, I did manage to break one of the plastic door shelves in it though.

[daveandsandyclink]

I am currently in the "no issue" camp too.
The 5.0 is parked on the side of the house.
I just got out of the pool with the grandkids.

[gbaglo]

Originally Posted by FishBioGirl

First days out with ours and fridge worked fine, I did manage to break one of the plastic door shelves in it though.

This may help, or it may not:
http://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f9...pair-2512.html

[Parker]

Originally Posted by daveandsandyclink

I forgot to add that my heater chimney has been extended near the top vent to help prevent heat buildup.

I should have known! I'd like to know more about the chimney extension. Does it connect directly to the exhaust stack? What sort of diameter? Does it bleed any air in around the base to mix with the exhaust on the way up? You can tell I've been thinking about this.

[bvansnell]

We have a Dometic 1.9 cu ft fridge in our Escape 13 and this is our fifth season of using it. Generally speaking it has worked well even in hot weather. Tips for getting the most out of a fridge:

• Precool the fridge before putting food in it
• Open the door as little as possible
• Use a cooler with ice for drinks and things that you want to get access to frequently
• Use an indoor-outdoor thermometer to see the temperature inside rather than opening the door to read a thermometer inside the fridge
• Use a fan to direct air to the cooling coils on the outside
• Park the trailer so that the fridge is in the shade or make a shade for the fridge
• Run on 120 volts if you can, propane when you are dry camping
• If you plan to use 12 volts while travelling watch the voltage on the battery or monitor the battery state of charge so that you don't run the battery down. Usually we don't bother with 12 volts while travelling -- the fridge keeps cool quite a long time if you don't open the door!

[daveandsandyclink]

Hi Parker,
It's not much. Just a trial at this point. I took a large sheet of heavy duty Reynolds aluminum foil and fashioned it loosely around a 4" tube. Then taped and slid it off. I just loosely slid it over the top of the chimney. The Dometic chimney has a baffle inside to help with heat absorption. My thinking was to exhaust this heat out close to my upper side vent. I am not sure if it has helped. Maybe a fraction.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Parker

I think that would be tricky when running on propane. There would be too many opportunities to get combustion exhaust in the living area.

I agree that any connection between the living space and the refrigerator vent side is problematic. Ironically, this also means using a compressor-based cooler (the air conditioner) to assist a struggling absorption cooler.

Originally Posted by Parker

If these operated on 120V only, it might be helpful....but then we could just use 120V fridges which would be way better to start with.

There are absorption refrigerators with only electric heat. They don't need external venting at all, and reject their heat to the living space like any ordinary refrigerator. These are generally pointless and thus uncommon, but are sometimes used (mostly in Europe) where especially quiet operation is desired (such as hotel rooms or dorms where people want quiet for sleeping in the same room as the refrigerator). With their higher power consumption, I agree that most people would be better served by a compressor refrigerator... whatever the voltage.

[azjack]

I'm sitting outside in 65* weather in Oregon writing this, very nice, the river just behind the trailer and our 6.7 reads about 5 to 10 freezer and the fridge is in the 30's. Now that many of you are jealous I'll tell you about the 105 days that will go down to about 80 for a couple of hours in the early morning, that's Tucson before the monsoon has finally hit. I have installed two fans in the back of the unit and one 12 volt fan inside and can switch them all on and that helps. I put 1+ inch foam insulation inside the outside wall and overlapped them to maybe cause a baffle to direct air flow over the coils. I think that also helped some. The first day here it was about 100 for a few hours and we opened the fridge too many times and it got up to about 40 and we did as son suggested and bought dry ice at the store, put it inside both compartments and the temps dropped immediately 10 to 15 degrees. Son tells me later I should have wrapped the ice in paper to keep air away so it would have lasted much longer. I believe in "average temps" everything should be fine and then on the hot, over 90* days I'll just use a little dry ice and try to not freeze more lettuce.
Jack

[daveandsandyclink]

So far this survey is a failure. No one in the southern US has responded.
The temperature problem manifests it's self in locations where night time temperatures never fall much more than 10 degrees. That is due to humidity and low elevation. Thus the unmodified refrigerator never really recovers over night. Mine worked well in the great lakes region last month. It works fairly well in the hot desert of New Mexico. Because it cools off at night. When you camp in BC and you have no problems, I believe it. There's no reason it shouldn't if you are operating it correctly and there are no mechanical malfunctions. This is a regional issue.
The real challenge is in the summers of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and east Texas. Travel down here in August and experience this first hand. Then tell me you are in the "no issue" camp. Again there maybe no fix for the ammonia absorption type RV refrigerator to operate satisfactory under these conditions.

[Parker]

Our experiences camping in hot humid weather mirror yours. Escape 19, 6.7 cu ft fridge. We did have some sort of malfunction this spring and essentially lost our LP operation almost entirely. The RV shop said the LP pressure was really low, and things did indeed improve after their service. What troubles me is that I checked the pressure before it went to the shop and it was really close to 11". Now it runs 11 1/4". Otherwise, ours works okay in warm but not hot temps. It really does poorly while towing on hot days. We have a single battery fan inside and the recent addition of a Valterra 12V on the backside. Fridge Fix fan on order.

[padlin]

It's not a failure David, the results so far echo what you surmise. The issue is for those who camp in summer in southern climes.

[bvansnell]

Originally Posted by daveandsandyclink

It works fairly well in the hot desert of New Mexico. Because it cools off at night.

Last summer we camped in the Oregon high desert near Bend, Oregon and the fridge managed okay. The night time temperature was cool (43 deg. F) although days were hot (88 deg. F), so perhaps your theory is correct. https://www.flickr.com/photos/brian_vansnell/9367758608

[escape artist]

Hi: padlin... Elevation plays a role in performance. Reace adjusted ours at the Escape rally as I think it was set at 9.5 and should have been higher. We used a tank of propane on the return trip where before with the 5.0 we only used one per season. Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[padlin]

Thanks Alf, something to check for before we head west. You'd think they would be set correctly at the factory

[Jrn56]

Originally Posted by bvansnell

Last summer we camped in the Oregon high desert near Bend, Oregon and the fridge managed okay. The night time temperature was cool (43 deg. F) although days were hot (88 deg. F), so perhaps your theory is correct. https://www.flickr.com/photos/brian_vansnell/9367758608

Brian, where did you get those nice chairs?