Am i missing something ?

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Vicdicdoc

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(hopefully not a stupid question) - if top & bottom ventilation vents are required to dissipate the build-up of heat from the rear of the fridge, why then cover the vents come wintertime ? Ok I get that some vents leak cold draught into the habitation space but where the fridge is properly sealed in surely there's no need for clip on vent covers
 
In my caravan owning past I always clipped on the fridge blanking plates during colder weather the reason being that the darned vans were so terribly made that a darned gale would blow in is they weren't covered and that isn't best practice in the cold winter months. On my properly built 'Millie' no such plates are needed as the fridge is in basically a sealed unit.
 
Fridge works on heat and during sub tempretures ( Below 10 deg ) the baffle plates help to keep the fridge exchanger up to temp, without them the exchanger would be running in an inefficient manner. The vents without the covers are there to dissipate excess heat during warm/hot weather and its a bit of a compromise situation. Phil
 
Hmm, we’re not ‘cold’ weather vanners & much prefer the sun and as my fridge is in its sealed unit it seems a 6 of one & half a dozen of the other whether to use vent covers (but I will build in a 12v fan back of the lower vent for those really hot days 😎
 
To be factual, we have travelled through Italy in one of their record breaking heat waves and the fridge performed faultlessly for the whole time, my view is that these fans are a pointless exercise. 😉 Phil.
 
Squiffy said:
To be factual, we have travelled through Italy in one of their record breaking heat waves and the fridge performed faultlessly for the whole time, my view is that these fans are a pointless exercise. 😉 Phil.
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I see the fans as not helping to keep the fridge working right there and then, but reducing the stress on it so it lives for longer (with most devices involving electricity, the cooler it runs, the longer it lasts).

My fridge does indeed work fine at 40C (highest recorded inside (the van, not the fridge!)) and my previous Weaco hit 50C on a few occasions, but for the reason I gave earlier, I have a fan pointing at the back that comes on at a preset temperature.

Simple Controller like this with a little 12V Fan - when it kicks on, I see the temp reduce rapidly.
PP - Fridge by David, on Flickr
For a cost of around £15 I think it is worth it, especially for those folk who have invested in excess of £500 on their fridge.
 
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Well the motor home we had at the time was a Swift sundance, we had it from new and held it for ten years before I sold it and all I had to do to it was service the exhaust once in ten years, its still going strong now as far as I know, point being that if a fridge lasted 10 to 12 years thats fine by me. 😜 Phil

P.S. I thought we were talking 3 way Not electric ?
 
think it was a Fridge in general discussion - and with electric compressor ones I think they have 1) a lot more electrics and 2) a lot less venting on the typical install.
 
With electric ones I thought the reason in the main for using them was so that vents cut into the van wall was unnecessary plus those that worry about gas install can rest easily, at least thats what I've heard from those folks that swear by them. Phil
 
External vents are redundant with compressor types (though heat dissipation is still necessary to a lesser or greater degree)
Installation is thus easier and performance far superior.
Absorbtion type fridges are frankly old technology let alone being power hungry and often temperamental.
IF you've got one already then fine it can be improved in hot climes with the addition of extra fans....

Overall ill be ditching the one in the Swift ASAP and replacing it with a 12v compressor one
 
Thats my point in my post I said that in Italy it reached 38 deg and higher in sheltered spots and my absorption fridge worked faultlessly with out the use of any fans. In my self build with my absorption fridge again I've been in some horrendous tempretures in France and again it performs without a hitch, with my under slung gas tank I can refill cheaply with gas at countless fuel stations, we have today just returned from Brittany after 14 days and I used 10lts of GPL as they call it and that included using the fridge 24hrs a day, heating every night and cooking every day and not having to worry about the state of the battery because the sun didn't shine or find an expensive camp site to recharge the battery, all in all, old tech or not its far less stressful and LPG will be readily available for my lifetime so I'll just continue to use the solar panel to charge the battery for lights, TV, Sat dish, radio and phone charging. 😜 Phil

By the way it was grey and raining for 11 days while we were there, but even so we had a great time.
 
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Squiffy said:
Thats my point in my post I said that in Italy it reached 38 deg and higher in sheltered spots and my absorption fridge worked faultlessly with out the use of any fans. In my self build with my absorption fridge again I've been in some horrendous tempretures in France and again it performs without a hitch, with my under slung gas tank I can refill cheaply with gas at countless fuel stations, we have today just returned from Brittany after 14 days and I used 10lts of GPL as they call it and that included using the fridge 24hrs a day, heating every night and cooking every day and not having to worry about the state of the battery because the sun didn't shine or find an expensive camp site to recharge the battery, all in all, old tech or not its far less stressful and LPG will be readily available for my lifetime so I'll just continue to use the solar panel to charge the battery for lights, TV, Sat dish, radio and phone charging. 😜 Phil

By the way it was grey and raining for 11 days while we were there, but even so we had a great time.
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Horses for courses as always.....

Our Waeco compressor coolbox has run 24/7 365 since we bought it 3 years ago from the solar/split charge...
Sat ready to go loaded with beer etc.... (only needing a top up mains, charge if we didn't head off for more than 2 weeks or so)

Swapping to the Swift with its absorbtion fridge was a revelation....
Like going back to the dark ages....

Select mains/12v/gas depending on what you're doing.... Certainly no way its sat outside through the week ready cold and fit to go.

Archaic practices.... Let alone wind blowing in wrong direction or not level enough and gas useage (even with gaslow bottles)
 
Marvelous to have the choice of three different means of working though, and have yet to have a problem of levelling with modern absorption fridge plus with an under slung you would have to be at such an acute angle for liquid propane to be a problem you would need climbing tackle to move about the van. As for draughts its sealed off totally wind proof in my self built at least, but as you say horses. 😄 Phil
 
No need for 3 pfaffy means of working if your electrics are set up right....

But you're right....

Some folks love the old ways.... Gas lights made a, loverly noise back in the day lol
 
mistericeman said:
No need for 3 pfaffy means of working if your electrics are set up right....

But you're right....

Some folks love the old ways.... Gas lights made a, loverly noise back in the day lol
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And don't forget the amount of extra cooling fans you could afford to buy by not getting a 3-way antique. Must be well over 500 at least (although that is a spare 499)
 
wildebus said:
I see the fans as not helping to keep the fridge working right there and then, but reducing the stress on it so it lives for longer (with most devices involving electricity, the cooler it runs, the longer it lasts).

My fridge does indeed work fine at 40C (highest recorded inside (the van, not the fridge!)) and my previous Weaco hit 50C on a few occasions, but for the reason I gave earlier, I have a fan pointing at the back that comes on at a preset temperature.

Simple Controller like this with a little 12V Fan - when it kicks on, I see the temp reduce rapidly.
PP - Fridge by David, on Flickr
For a cost of around £15 I think it is worth it, especially for those folk who have invested in excess of £500 on their fridge.
Click to expand...

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Hi, can you tell me where you got your fridge fan controller ?
 
Vicdicdoc said:
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Hi, can you tell me where you got your fridge fan controller ?
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it is this one:
https://amzn.to/2FQpXyj

I've bought 2 DC ones and one AC version (to control a mains powered Heat Pad) and they have all worked perfectly.
The installation and user manual is a little confusing on first reading, but apart from that a great bit of kit.
 
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