Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 13:13:58 -0500
Reply-To: Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Mini Fridge
In-Reply-To: <20130610134254.UAVPM.580277.imail@eastrmwml213>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Dave's right. They're not all that bad if they are in good condition. Yeah,
when it gets to be a hundred in the van, you're not going to get ask cold
as on a 50 degree day, nor will you with anything else I know of.
It's about like any camper refrigerator, really. If you really want cold
like you have at home, and I guess that's what people camping expect
nowadays, there are plenty of expensive modern all-electric refrigerators
that will really do the job. Be prepared to spend a lot of your resources
to get the job done. There is a ton of stuff in the archives on the subject.
On Mon, Jun 10, 2013 at 12:42 PM, Dave Mcneely <mcneely4@cox.net> wrote:
> Jim, what do you mean by, ".......... the Westy's, which is pretty weak"?
>
> If you mean the refrigerator is "pretty weak," I disagree. I just made a
> trip to SE Oklahoma, daytime temperatures in the low nineties. On the trip
> down and back, I ran the refrigerator on 12 V, the notoriously less
> effective mode. When I stopped for lunch on the way down, after driving 4
> hours, the refrigerator fins had frost on them, and all the food was cold.
> During three days and nights of camping, I used propane. I had to turn
> the setting back a bit at night, as I was concerned that the refrigerator
> would freeze my salad stuff and more importantly, my wife's insulin, which
> it has done before when ambient temperatures were running in the fifties
> and sixties F (when it is colder than that, we just don't use refrigeration
> for the salad stuff, or much else, though we do keep the insulin in an ice
> chest).
>
> There really isn't anything wrong with the Dometic. If you have an old
> camper (well, of course you do, they are all old), and the refrigerator has
> not been cleaned, then it may not cool well. If it is really hot, around
> 100 F or hotter, then it may not get cold enough when traveling and running
> on 12 V. But then why are you camping in 100 F plus heat? Oh, like me,
> you are traveling to get to somewhere cooler!
>
> I would recommend pulling the refrigerator and giving it and its
> environment a thorough cleaning. The heating element might need
> replacement to make electrical modes work better. Mine had dust, lint, and
> some kind of coating built up on surfaces. It cleaned up nicely, though,
> and I think the likelihood of fire from the accumulated grunge is mitigated.
>
> When preparing to travel, I precool the refrigerator on 110 V for several
> hours. Typically, I do that with the van parked in my enclosed garage.
> The cooling fins ice up. I put only already chilled foods in the
> refrigerator. If I am taking meats and will only be gone a couple of
> days, I freeze them first, than put them in the refrigerator just before I
> leave. Typically, unless it is up around 95 or hotter ambient, the meat
> will still have ice in it when I use it. It is always still cold. Butter
> taken from my freezer and put into the refrigerator just before I leave
> stays hard in the refrigerator.
>
> I keep a thermometer in the refrigerator, and in the bottom, it is usually
> between 34-38 F, but more like 40 to 45 if a brutally hot day and I am
> traveling on 12 V.
>
> I do not use the refrigerator for beer. I put that in an ice chest. I
> use heavy 4 liter jugs I have collected from people who have had to drink
> the prep drink used before a colonoscopy for the ice. Just fill them with
> water, and freeze it in my home freezer. When I returned home from this
> trip, the jugs were still mostly ice, only about 1/4 thawed.
>
> Some folks install a small fan to evacuate hot air from behind the
> refrigerator through the side of the van. I have not found that necessary,
> but it might help on hot days when on 12 V. There are several threads on
> the archives describing how that was done.
>
> mcneely
>
> ---- Jim Ogul <jimogul70@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> > Has anyone tried using a minifridge (the kind they sell for dorm rooms
> > etc.) pluggged into an inverter off the cigarette lighter. This seems
> like
> > a cheap alternative (since we already have both the fridge and and
> > inverter) to the Westy's which is pretty weak.
> >
> > Jim
> > 85 Westy
> > 87 Saab 900T (265,000 miles and going strong)
> > 68 Saab V4 (currently for sale on Ebay)
> > 99 Chevy s10
> > 2010 Suburau Forester
>
> --
> David McNeely
>
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