Fridge struggling to cope with Spanish heat

[Pudsey Bear]

Our 12v 90L Vitrifrigo Italian fridge has always been pretty useless, as you say 15° in warmer temperatures. 10° is good for ours even in a far cooler climate.
So we have to buy just 1L of milk at a time. To replace it is expensive, so we soldier. Maybe a fridge fan on the exchanger could di the trick....., but many are now forced air cooling anyway as is ours.

It will depend muchly on the quality of the flame and van position or the age of the element but on a new fridge not much between them.

 

[Robmac]

Our 12v 90L Vitrifrigo Italian fridge has always been pretty useless, as you say 15° in warmer temperatures. 10° is good for ours even in a far cooler climate.
So we have to buy just 1L of milk at a time. To replace it is expensive, so we soldier. Maybe a fridge fan on the exchanger could di the trick....., but many are now forced air cooling anyway as is ours.

Strange because our 60L Vitrifrigo has always been excellent - I thought they were rebadged Waecos but could be wrong. It has performed superbly even in very hot weather.

Perhaps the larger capacities are underpowered?

 

[Tezza33]

A 3 way fridge needs to have the gas side of it serviced so that it works efficiently even before you fit fans, my flame is blue and you can hear it roaring, I posted a video of it where you can distinctly hear it, when I arrive home I will find it

 

[r4dent]

Fact is fans dont realy make much difference as you will be pulling hot air from inside the van, so if its 30c out and in all you are doing is moving air.
I have done tests of this with a fan in the house, room temps stayed the same, all i was doing is moving air, so unless you have one of the ice aircon units then just wasting your time.

Disagree.
Cooling Fridges
Without fans, air will enter the bottom grill at 30 (ambient outside), absorb heat from the fridge coils, this warmer air moves by convection to the top grill and out to exterior. Taking heat with it.
With fans (either pulling in at the bottom or pushing out at the top) the volume of air being circulated increases and so does the amount of heat removed from the back of the fridge. This means the fridge removes more heat from its interior .

Cooling Rooms
Fans can cool a room when the internal air is hotter than the external air.
Which is the usual situation because
a) Human beings and electrical devices produce heat.
b) After sunset the rate of cooling is greater outside than inside.
To use a fan to cool a room you need to have two opening and place the fan to blow air out of one of them.
Our house in Cuba frequently experiences internal temperatures over 30C.
The windows don't have glass (wooden slats which are not air tight). Placing a fan to blow out of a window makes an incredible difference. The internal air is exchanged for the slightly cooler external air.

Cooling a Person
I do agree that placing a fan in the middle of a room just moves the air around, but even this can cool you down (but not the room).
The air next to your skin is heated by your body temperature and replacing it with air at room temperature results in your skin being cooled.

 

[trevskoda]

Disagree.
Cooling Fridges
Without fans, air will enter the bottom grill at 30 (ambient outside), absorb heat from the fridge coils, this warmer air moves by convection to the top grill and out to exterior. Taking heat with it.
With fans (either pulling in at the bottom or pushing out at the top) the volume of air being circulated increases and so does the amount of heat removed from the back of the fridge. This means the fridge removes more heat from its interior .

Cooling Rooms
Fans can cool a room when the internal air is hotter than the external air.
Which is the usual situation because
a) Human beings and electrical devices produce heat.
b) After sunset the rate of cooling is greater outside than inside.
To use a fan to cool a room you need to have two opening and place the fan to blow air out of one of them.
Our house in Cuba frequently experiences internal temperatures over 30C.
The windows don't have glass (wooden slats which are not air tight). Placing a fan to blow out of a window makes an incredible difference. The internal air is exchanged for the slightly cooler external air.

Cooling a Person
I do agree that placing a fan in the middle of a room just moves the air around, but even this can cool you down (but not the room).
The air next to your skin is heated by your body temperature and replacing it with air at room temperature results in your skin being cooled.

Fan been on in my living room all week, and its a big one, did it make any diferance, no and even with the front door open, 23c inside and 17c out side.
AS i said a cooler unit behind a fan makes a big differance, i think you can buy these units for home these days.

 

[r4dent]

Fan been on in my living room all week, and its a big one, did it make any diferance, no and even with the front door open, 23c inside and 17c out side.

a) was the fan blowing air out of the open door?

b) was there another opening so that cool air could get in?

To use a fan to cool a room you need to have two opening and place the fan to blow air out of one of them.

 

[1 Cup]

I'm not a fan.

 

[Glynno]

Do you remove the outside weather vents?

 

[Robmac]

Fan been on in my living room all week, and its a big one, did it make any diferance, no and even with the front door open, 23c inside and 17c out side.
AS i said a cooler unit behind a fan makes a big differance, i think you can buy these units for home these days.View attachment 133527View attachment 133528

If it's cooler outside Trev you need to place the fan in the doorway or an open window, that way it will draw in the cooler air from outside rather than try and blow the warm air out.

In that respect it should work on a 'fridge if placed correctly.

 

[trevskoda]

a) was the fan blowing air out of the open door?

b) was there another opening so that cool air could get in?

Nop blowing out, even left the widow open all night with it behind me as im sleeping on a camp bed in the living room due to giving bed up to wifes mother suffering dementia for a week or two to we get home help sorted, paddy dont do heat.