I'm sure most of you know that RV refer's aren't very good at keeping things cold in the summer months. I bought one of those gizmo's that circulate the air in the box (inside).
Anyway i wasn't very impressed. It has a mini squirrel cage blower and runs on 2 D cell batts. The batterys last 2 or three months. Last week before going up to the Black Hills, knowing it would prolly be hot, I moved the little fan to a different place. MAJOR improvement. I placed the intake against the "fins" on the top shelf, (the part that gets cold inside near the top). The milk on the bottom shelf is several degrees colder now and the overall temp is more even. Putting the little fan anywhere else had very little effect.
Has anyone put a fan on the outside to blow the hot air from the tubes up??
Don & Sheila
Hi Don,
That's a great idea... The same fan on the outside would not have the same effect because the more heat generated in the back the
more cooling you should get in the evap. If your reefer is not cooling well, maybe it's time for the old flipperoo....
You know, yank it out, flip the unit up side down for 24 hrs and reinstall. The amonia gells up from sitting at the bottom from being off for
long pieriods. The best thing for absorbtion reefers is to leave them run their whole life. Not only will it keep the amonia from gelling, but also
it will keep the steel tubing warm and from getting damp. The dampness is what rotts out the steel. The unit Will outlast most by doing so..
Good Luck
Nick-
Thanks Nick,
I didn't know about long periods off would do that. I scored this fridge, Dometic, that was an '04 unit which the guy had for three years and hadn't used. It was basically new. $600 great deal. But I have had to run it on 5 out of 5 to keep my milk cold enough for my taste. (just shy of freezing) It's a RM 2820 which I believe wasn't part of the recall.
Don & Sheila
That is good info!!!!!!!!! I have a Dometic Americana (5622 or something like that) that I may be selling to a buddy. (500.oo) I will pass that info along with it as well. By the way, it was a recall and they checked it out and it works fine.
I want to go with a conventional fridge.
Chaz
I took a fan out of a desktop computer and installed it to move the hot air up and out the roof vent behind the fridge it works great. The fans are 12 volt and I installed a switch inside the coach where I can turn the fan off when it is not needed.
Nick,
My fridge sat for three years without running. I installed it and it has been running full time since. Can the amonia still be gelled as you said... Or will it work out in time...
It is installed properly, clearences etc... I just think it should be colder at a lower setting. The old one (20years old), would freeze things at a 3/4 setting, before it died.
Don & Sheila
Hi Don,
If I were you, I would take it out and flip it for a day. When the amonia gells up, it doesn't ungel by it's self.
Good Luck
Nick-
It amazes me that people put up with the absorption type reefer in their RV. Except for maybe some remote cabins with no electricity, RV's are the only use I know of for absorption reefers. With the problems of the ammonia gelling, having to be careful to park on the level, slow response time for thermostat changes, not liking hot and humid weather, having to take the unit out to turn upside down for a day, having the boiler crack (had a friend have this happen on a wash board road in Alaska [try to get a new absorption reefer in Alaska-many days]), risk of propane leaking, and just look behind any Camping World at the pile of reefers that have been replaced. There are some nice compressor type reefers from Norcold, Dometic/Tundra, Novacool, and the most efficient- Sunfrost ($$$$). Most when running only take about 5-6 amps that average out to about 3 amp hours. You usually have to run the gen to charge up the batteries or could install a couple of extra solar panels, then you'd have the reliability and no problems like your home reefer. Course some just plainly use a home/apartment type reefer running through an inverter. In my opinion the absorption reefer is just a big pain in the you no where. Good Luck, TomC
TomC,
Although I respect your opinions I must reply for my circumstances.
I do not have a buch of money set aside for an expensive inverter or a bank of batteries at this time.
For some of us maybe the RV type works, for those of you who chose to go all electric, the household would be my choice.
I bought our Norcold at a very reasonable price. If at some point in time it takes a crap I will go the other way. I have had no experience with the RV type yet, maybe I will change my mind.
You always have valuable information, I just thought I would share my experience.
Respectfully,
Paul
The Amish use them with power in front of the house
Ya know maybe I'm just slow but I really don't understand the problems with RV style reefers..
My 78 class C reefer has and does work fine, never had any issues. The propane side does
work better than the 120 side....always has and I never leveled anything.
Maybe if I was fulltiming it would be different.
FWIW
Skip
Quote from: luvrbus on September 06, 2007, 09:15:43 AM
The Amish use them with power in front of the house
In driving thru Amish country you seldom if ever see electric lines coming to the house.
Richard
Richard, i didn't say too the house i said in front of the house like around Pryor Ok on highway 69.you will also see payphones outside the yard on state property but no telephone in the house. if your ever around there they have the best food that is served family style ate in one place years ago and would like to go back some day
Had a friend with a Norcold that was off for a couple months. When he started it it made a gurgeling sound that I was told is a death rattle that cannot be corrected. In the process of that adventure I read up on "recovering a malfunctioning absorb. refer" in an RV book. The process went somthing like "lay the refer on its left side for no less than 2 hours. Invert the refer for 1 hour. lay the refer on ta da ta da.... if you have any other brand other than a Dometic in which case you should simply drive down a rough road. Turning it will only work 1 time out of 5 at best for all the others and they are mostly scrapped". I hear Norcold is better these days but a repairman said they are not but that when they work they are as good as a "Dometic."
My Dometic is 25 years old and been off and stored a hundred times and will still freeze the milk on 3. I am amazed! It isn't a shorty but it is still too small. I put one of those little blue bladed fans in the bottom shelf of my refer and it corrected the freeze problem. The fan stops being effective if there is anything on a shelf directly over it. It must get a clear draft at the cooling fins and move the bottom air to the top. Bats lasted 3 months. I think the freezer goes to minus 70 but that is just a hunch. I like'em but I will get a small compressor rather than spend a couple grand for a big absorb.
Hey, that is why we have horse races.
John
Quote from: luvrbus on September 06, 2007, 10:48:37 AM
Richard, i didn't say too the house i said in front of the house like around Pryor Ok on highway 69.you will also see payphones outside the yard on state property but no telephone in the house. if your ever around there they have the best food that is served family style ate in one place years ago and would like to go back some day
Sorry. I misunderstood.
There are several branches of th Amish and they are someshat different in different parts of the country. In PA , for example they can drive cars i believe. In OH I do not recall ever seeing power poles even in the yard. I did visit a machine shop and they had electric for their machines, but seems like they did not have electric lights in the shop. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
Richard
Like so many other things it depends on how you use/plan to use your bus. Our first bus had an electric refer. It died and we replaced it with a Norcold 3 way. It just works much better for the way we use the bus. Keeps things as cold as we want and has been trouble free. If you are like me and consider ice cream to be THE only important food group, you gotta have a good refer.
With all the RVs over the years in our extended family there has not been a propane refer failure. Mean anything, probably not.
One thing to consider with an electric frig is the added heat load it puts in the coach. Ever put your hand on a compressor that has been running for a while? Do it quickly, they can be very hot. Never took the time to calculate it but the added heat is considerable. A remote mounted compressor and condenser in the bay would help but complicate things a bunch.
With propane frig and hot water we can stay off grid for days without the genset unless AC is needed. Not that we do all that much because most of our bus time is summer and the AC is as important as the frig. With the propane frig you never have to think about battery charge status. Need to walk away from the coach for a while, no problem be it a few hours or a few days.
Don 4107