Date:         Sat, 1 Jul 2006 18:22:17 -0700
Reply-To:     mark drillock <drillock@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         mark drillock <drillock@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      Dometic cooling, was Temps under van vs inside
In-Reply-To:  <44A6F86B.1080708@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed

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.
>