Cooling the refrigerant coils

I have a Norcold Fridge with the exhaust fan to keep the rear compartment cool. Living in Florida we have alot of heat and humidity and I can't get the fridge to get much below 45 in the sun, even with the exhaust fan running. I read somewhere about putting an additional fan in the compartment to blow on the coils to aid in the cooling process. Anyone done this?

That sounds about right. Best cooling I can get is 50 deg. below ambient. Try keeping the sun off that side of the trailer.

Get 1 of those little battery powered fans for the inside of your fridge....that, and packing the fridge lighter made a difference with ours. I got mine too cold on the last trip, and actually froze some stuff......although it was only got up to the low 80s during the day.

Chap

[Bill]

Originally Posted by AstroBruce

Try keeping the sun off that side of the trailer.

That will certainly help. And if you can't keep the sun off the entire side of the trailer, you can easily set up a small awning to keep the sun off the wall and the vents around the refrigerator. An additional fan blowing "cool" air (from the underside of the trailer up into the refrig compartment) couldn't hurt either.

I've had good luck with Chap's approach.

Beyond that, I'm not sure there is much you can do. The absorption refrigeration mechanism is less effective than the compressor in your home refrig, and can only go so far.

Bill

Originally Posted by Bill

I've had good luck with Chap's approach.

Who's ideas came from Bill originally.

Chap

Yep, got the little fan that you put inside the fridge and also purchased a fridge alarm which shows the air temp inside and outside the fridge. During the trial, the TM was sitting in my side yard in direct sunlight all day. We are going to a local campground for our first trip this weekend and the majority of their sites are very shaded so Ill be interested to see how much that affects the efficiency of the fridge.

My fridge was able to maintain 40 degrees when the outside temperature as 108. I was in the shade and the humidity was low.

We shall see how the shade affects the fridge's efficiency this weekend. I couldnt get much below 50 in the direct sun with high humidity and the temp in the mid 90's.

No matter what I do ( including booster fans) I can not get mine much cooler than 50 degrees. Is there any maintenance besides cleaning I should do? Does the ammonia need to be checked? I also see that it has good days and bad days regardless of the temp/shade.

[Bill]

Mike -

Is this true regardless of which of the three sources you use (battery, shore power, gas)? To my knowledge there is no maintenance you can do beyond keeping the fins inside clean, and keeping the air channels in the back free and open.

Everyone -

If you manage 50 degrees in the direct sun, high humidity, and temps in the 90's, you are probably doing about as well as you can expect. You can't do anything about the outdoor temperature or the humidity. But as many have pointed out, you can do something about the sun. Direct sun on the mechanism is probably the worst contributor to failure-to-cool.

And leave the door closed! If you open it every five minutes to check a thermometer sitting on the shelf, you'll never get the best performance it can give.

Bill