Fan for the norcold

[Eagleback]

Hello, All

I live in the Hot Florida climate and I have a Norcold double door fridge and it already has a cooling fan on the back. They say the hotter it gets the less efficient the fridge will become, so can I add an additional fan to the back. I think I can tie it in to the fan that is already back there. the fan came from a computer it is a brushless 12 volt with a .9 amp rating do any of you see a problem with that. I am assuming the fan that is already back there runs on 12 volts. Thank you all in advance and Merry Christmas.

[richard66]

I live in SW Florida and have no problems with my 2dr Norcold. I have traveled the southern and western states with no issues. You could be right about the unit becoming less efficient. I know during my week and month long stays in Texas, Arizona, N. Mexico and Nevada I noticed no difference in the cooling of the unit.

[jcurtis934]

There are two fans at the very top and they reside behind a short metal plate whose job is to keep any horizontal rain from getting to the fans. I think it would be much easier to install another fan at the bottom, behind the bottom outside cover. Now having said that...we spent the entire summer in sw florida and never had any issues...the fans would come on when needed and never ever ran full time...and this is with our model 1210 set at 5 on the control panel. If you did install one at the bottom, it would have to be positioned to suck in cool air...but I don't think you need to worry about it. John

[oldelmer1]

I mounted a 6 inch wire cage fan in the bottom vent to help blow the air up the back of the refrigerator. Seems to help when its really hot and the sun is shining on that side of the camper. Its 120V too.

[jlb27537]

I have the 8cf frig in my 3150RL. You have to realize how the frig works. The fins inside do not make the frig cold, they absorb the heat and in school we learned that the absence of heat is what? Cold.

So the fins inside absorb the heat and then transfer it to the fins on the back of the frig where it is dissipated to the outside air.

The more air you move past the back of the frig, either with the factory fans or one you install, the heat transfer is more efficient.

I install a small 4" fan from WM and plug it into the 120vac in the frig compartment. Point it so it creates a breeze up. You might have to get a 1 to 3 outlet block in the extension cord department if you only have one plug in. I have used small computer fans in the past. Both work fine, all you are trying to do is get more air flow past the back of the frig.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Optimus-F-...l-Fan/25209563

Jim

[mhs4771]

We've been in upper 90s and never raised our Norcold setting above 5 because any higher and we started freezing things.

[jlb27537]

quote:Originally posted by mhs4771

We've been in upper 90s and never raised our Norcold setting above 5 because any higher and we started freezing things.

That only says your frig is working. It does not say how hard it is working to maintain the desired temps.

The "5" settings only tells the control board you want to maintain a certain temp. You may be having a 80% duty cycle, where with extra cooling you might be having a 50% duty cycle.

Smoke'um if you got um.

[jlb27537]

I'm going to tell a bit of a story....

A young child was sitting on the curb of a southern town. He had a stick, that about every minute or so he would hit it on the curb. A guy saw him sitting on the curb with his stick, and after watching him, had to ask what he was doing.

The young boy replied that he was keeping the elephants away. Well since there are not many elephants in that part of the country, the guy said, there are not any elephants with in a 1,000 miles of here.

At that point the young child replied, see it is working.

So, I put a fan in the back of my frig, see, it is working.....

Jim

[Mudchief]

I did the same as Jim and added a small 4 inch fan from Walmart. It really made a difference. It runs on 120 volts and I leave it on all the time. The two fans at the top come on when the fins get hot but by that time the unit is trying to catch up.

[DQDick]

I thought about doing it, but so far with spending summers in Kansas and winters in Arizona I really haven't felt it would improve that much.

[TAKPAK]

Everyone is talking about the outside of the refrigerator. I have had no problems with ours cooling either. However, I did read recently that a company has developed a circulating fan unit for the coils INSIDE the refrigerator. Now that, I can see an advantage to. I've had moisture build up on those cooling fins, and even had some ice form on them. If you look at a residential refrigerator, ALL of them have circulating fans in them to maintain uniform temps. This unit appears to be a well built and well designed system. Not cheap, but might be worth it. I'm going to have to go back a couple of issues of Trailer Life and look it up again.

[snfexpress]

Here's a post I made in 2009...

http://www.montanaowners.com/forums/...earchTerms=Fan

[richfaa]

Same as DQDick. We are hardly ever in real hot weather. Ohio and points North in the summer and Florida in the Winter.

[Eagleback]

I see a lot of points to this issue. I find the duty rating a well placed point, the fridge will try to maintain a desired temp regardless of the strain it has to endure to keep it there the same as a auto trying to maintain a speed with the cruise on. The cruise will shift until the engine is practically redlined to try to maintain that speed even though it cost a lot of fuel and places stress on the engine. I think I will be looking more in to the idea of an added fan to the back. should I use the 12 volt tied in the where other fans or should it be a 120 volt fan and if I go with a 120 volt fan how do I control it. let the fridge do it with a thermo or just plug it in when it gets hot?.

[jlb27537]

quote:Originally posted by Eagleback

I see a lot of points to this issue. I find the duty rating a well placed point, the fridge will try to maintain a desired temp regardless of the strain it has to endure to keep it there the same as a auto trying to maintain a speed with the cruise on. The cruise will shift until the engine is practically redlined to try to maintain that speed even though it cost a lot of fuel and places stress on the engine. I think I will be looking more in to the idea of an added fan to the back. should I use the 12 volt tied in the where other fans or should it be a 120 volt fan and if I go with a 120 volt fan how do I control it. let the fridge do it with a thermo or just plug it in when it gets hot?.

I have used both, a 120vac and a 12vdc 4" computer fan.

We presently dry camp very little, so I have the 4" 120vac fan I linked to @ Wmart and leave it plugged in 100% of the time.

When I had the 12vdc one, I had a switch behind the lower outer grill and turned it on. I later connected it to a snap thermostat that would turn it on when the upper fin temp reached 110 degrees off @ 90

Snap Thermostat: http://www.grainger.com/product/Fan-...AS01?$smthumb$

Jim

[Eagleback]

Ok that is great advice so I want to tie it in to the existing 12 volt fan circuit that is already there the fan has .9 amp rating will there be any problems doing that? and place the fan at the bottom vent blowing up. again thank you all for the great information and Merry Christmas.

[chapman]

Have put a 12 volt fan in back of all my r.v.'s reefer's. with the idea that if it doesn't have to work hard ,it will work better and longer.

[jlb27537]

quote:Originally posted by Eagleback

Ok that is great advice so I want to tie it in to the existing 12 volt fan circuit that is already there the fan has .9 amp rating will there be any problems doing that? and place the fan at the bottom vent blowing up. again thank you all for the great information and Merry Christmas.

I would not do that.

I would tie into the 12vdc that feeds the ckt board and switch that ckt to the fan. (manual control of the fan)

OR: Install a switch and a snap thermostat and let the thermostat control the muffin fan. The switch would be used to turn the fan off when the rig was not in use. The snap thermostat would be installed either on or above the fins at the top of the frig.

Leave the factory fans as they are. It has to be really hot for the factory fans to turn on.

OR: If you only camp where you have shore power, get the $10 fan from Wmart, plug it in and forget it.

Jim

[chapman]

Fan power is provided by the solar panel on the roof.I just taped into the array side of the controller. So at night when sun and outside temps.go down the fan shuts off.