Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 00:17:35 -0400
Reply-To: "Joe L." <jliasse@TOAST.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Joe L." <jliasse@TOAST.NET>
Subject: Re: Dometic Temps
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
I have heard of fridges with performance like yours but they are very
much the exception. Unless things have changed drastically since the
blossoming of the last Fridge Thread (last spring) the majority of Westies
here on the list have fridge performance closer to the "busted" one than to
yours. Up until you showed up I thought the owners of the "freezers" had
simply lucked out but if you know some way to increase performance I am sure
we would ALL like to find out what it is. I know I would.
I did get some improvement when I cleaned things out last year but
NOTHING like the performance your have. There seems to be nothing to "tweak"
or tune. What did you do?
----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Drillock <drillock@EARTHLINK.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, April 26, 1999 11:28 PM
Subject: Re: Dometic Temps
> This Dometic Tech was full of complete and utter hogwash. If yours works
> that poorly it is broken or you are blocking the vents. My RM182B holds
> at the low 40s inside when I camp in 120 degree heat that only cools
> down to the 90s at night for days on end. This is with the thermostat
> set at less than max to keep things from freezing to much. This is a
> 50-80 degree difference. My usual Baja buddy has the same results with
> his Westy fridge. I have taken 1/2 gallons of milk with me and kept them
> for a week in 100 degree temps. The tech's lies would indicate that my
> milk should go bad in less than a day. If anyone needs help getting
> their fridge to keep things COLD please p-mail me.
>
> Mark Drillock
>
> Davidson wrote:
> >
> > I was told by a Dometic Authorized Service Tech that you can expect the
> > RM182B to cool to only about 30 degrees below the ambient temperature
> inside
> > the van. Dometic has a web site with a technical assistance email button
> so
> > perhaps someone could get them to confirm this.
> >
> > Of course it's a little more complicated than that anyway... If the temp
> > gets down to 30 or 40 degrees at night the air inside the fridge may
drop
> > well below freezing... and then when the sun beats down and the van
heats
> up
> > to 90 degrees say for only an hour there is still some of that residual
> cold
> > from the previous night to keep the fridge air from climbing up to 60
> > degrees. Of course a lot of this depends on how often you open and close
> the
> > fridge door.. especially on hot days.
> >
> > I suggest that a big reason for the variation in the cooling ability
> > reported on the list is due to things like how cold it got the night
> > before.. how much mass (food) there is inside the fridge to act against
> > warming of the fridge air as the van air heats... weather the food was
> put
> > in there warm or cold... how often people open and close the fridge door
> > (allowing warm air inside)... whether the sun is beating down on the
> fridge
> > side of the van (very important).... how long it actually stays hot in
> the
> > van... etc. etc. etc. Not to mention the fact that such terms as hot,
> cold,
> > fast, slow, heat of summer, etc. are relative terms that are not
> > quantitatively comparable.
> >
> > Bill
> > 90 Westy Syncro
> >
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