Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 19:03:48 -0700
Reply-To: Bill Davidson <wdavidson@thegrid.net>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Bill Davidson <wdavidson@thegrid.net>
Subject: Re: Adding Fridge Fans
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Adam,
Mine seems to cool better with the three FridgeMate fans that I installed...
at least in hot weather.
If you ever look behind the fridge you will see that it is so tight in there
that one small fan will not create a lot of air movement.
But the real reason I got involved in this project is that I can't stand the
noise of the stock fan. I tend to camp in places where you could hear a pin
drop 100 yards away. In this environment the stock fan may as well be a
locomotive!
Yes, more fans will drain the battery faster if you are parked in a place
that is hot enough to keep the fan going (the fridge fan is turned on and
off by a temperature switch on the cooling fins behind the fridge weather
the fridge is operating or not.). But at about 200ma it would take about 300
hours of operating time to drain my auxiliary battery. So if you figure it
is hot and the fan runs about 10 hours a day (and not at night), that 300
hours translates into about 30 days. (this assumes that I never start the
engine or hook up my solar panel to recharge the aux batt) If I want to
store the van in a hot place for months at a time I can always pull the fuse
behind the driver's seat that protects the fan circuit.
Bill
----- Original Message -----
From: "Puzerewski" <Puzerewski@email.msn.com>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, June 24, 2000 6:42 PM
Subject: Re: Adding Fridge Fans
> The question that I have for those of you that have installed all these
> fans......
>
> what are the benefits? Cooler fridges? Mine seems do do OK with
> one....wouldn't more kill the battery when it sits for a while in the
heat?
>
>
>
> Adam Puzerewski
> 81 westy
> 74 beetle
> 86 cabrio
> Vanagon Partsmobiles
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Wes Neuenschwander" <wesn@eskimo.com>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Saturday, June 24, 2000 2:17 PM
> Subject: Re: [VANAGON] Adding Fridge Fans
>
>
> > Ditto here. In addition to verifying the amperages, I was able to semi-
> > quantitatively assess the airflows using an air velocity meter. The
stock
> > Dometic and the Fridgemate had roughly the same airflow, while the 3
> > muffin fans I checked all had substantially less. I installed the
> > Fridgemate fan and it seems to be significantly superior to the stock
> > Dometic in performance (based on on-off cycle times) and dramatically
> > quieter than the Dometic (I rarely hear it, period).
> >
> > -Wes
> >
> > Date sent: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 17:56:58 -0700
> > From: Mark Drillock <drillock@earthlink.net>
> > Subject: Re: Adding Fridge Fans
> >
> > > I found similar results. The Fridgemate fan works great even in 100
> > > degree plus weather and is much cheaper than I could get a stock
Dometic
> > > fan for. I have installed several in other people's Westys. Do not use
> > > the thermo switch that comes with the Fridgemate as it runs the fan
too
> > > much and will never shut off if you camp in very hot weather. Use the
> > > stock fin mounted switch and discard the Fridgemate one.
> > >
> > > Mark
> > >
> > > David Beierl wrote:
> > >
> > > > A Dometic fan drawing 220 ma is not "stock" for the RM182B -- 60 ma
is
> a
> > > > lot closer (I think it's specified as 0.67watts, too lazy to check).
> The
> > > > 220 ma fan is either not stock or is shorted internally. My rough
> > > > blow-in-the-face estimates are that the Dometic *standard* fan and
the
> > > > FridgeMate are similar, with some advantage to the FridgeMate (as
well
> as
> > > > it's much lower noise).
> > > >
> > > > :)
> > > > david
> > > > David Beierl - Providence, RI
> > > > http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
> > > > '84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
> > > > '85 GL "Poor Relation"
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > Wes Neuenschwander
> > Seattle, WA
> > wesn@eskimo.com
>
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