Not surprised, I think the real temp issue is the temp behind the fridge. I have many times camped for a week or more in Baja where daytime temps were in the high 90s, low 100s and night times in the low 80s or high 70s at the coolest. My Dometic has always kept thick frost on the inside fins, even when the thermometer inside the van said 100 for many hours. Our milk always stayed good for a week plus. We do have an added exhaust fan on the side of the van that I open in warm weather to extract the heat from behind the fridge. It has a small fan and an automatic temp switch set lower than the Dometic fan temp switch. In the kind of heat I talk about above, the exhaust fan stays on for days on end. The Dometic rear fan runs most of the time by day and cycles on a lot at night. I have long ago replaced the original Dometic fan with a similar looking slightly more powerful fan once sold by Camping World and elsewhere in the fridge accessory section. I originally added the exhaust fan to get the fridge heat out of the cabin for better comfort but I'm sure now it also helps the fridge. Mark Michael Elliott wrote: > Following up on the research Neil is doing to see if there is cooler air > under the van available to be ducted up to cool the radiator fins on the > back of the Dometic refrigerator, I did some measurements which model > the way I use Mellow Yellow when we go camping during warm weather > > ...................... > Conclusion. > Under these conditions, there is not a significant difference in > temperature. Anyone who camps like we do, with their windows and zips > all open during the day, should not count on finding cooler air under > the van. > |
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