The answer to keeping an absorption fridge rally cold

Hi Graeme

You have just found out the basis of gaining the best from any fridge & particular absorption types
THAT is getting the condenser as cool as possible
Adequate ventilation
A draught over the condenser fins either natural or forced with fans can led to a dramatic improvement
Most fridges are not even installed to the makers recommendations
Peter

Hi,
I am having drama's with our fridge not pulling down cold enough. Just where did you "flip out the vent". Did you remove the lower plastic vent altogether ?

Graeme,
This works really well.

Have a look HERE

Used this on my 3 way and it worked well. I now have a 12v fridge but I still have the fan hooked up to pull air over the evaporator.

Have a good one,
RA.

Hello Graeme
As Peter said, these fridges are often installed incorrectly. When our first one did not cool properly we took it to a Dometic agent for a wrrenty claim. They found there was no insulation packed around the fridge and it was just sitting inside a box surroundes by a large gap full of hot air! The van manufacturer reinstalled the fridge according to Dometic instructions and put a fan in to improve the ventilation. This made a huge difference. So check your installation. (We changed manufacturers second time around!)
Also check if your fridge is Tropical Rated - some people are still selling the non Tropical fridges - fine in Europe but not much good in Australia. The idea of taking off a vent cover is good but you could not do that while travelling because of dust etc. I suspect we would forget to replace it when we left camp!
Another thing is that while travelling and running on 12volt these fridges only maintain their temperature but do not cool. So in hot weather, whenever we stop for lunch or anything taking more than a few minutes, we switch the fridge to gas to cool it down. This works well so the fridge is still cold at the end of the day's travel. Lynne

What material is used for the insulation of the sides of the cabinet. Fluffy stuff or a polystyrene product?

Every single fridge ever made including the one at home works massivly more efficiently if the external heat exchanger is properly vetilated.

Everybody just want to jam them in the smallest hole they can....


As for 3 way fridges not running well on 12 volts......the majority fail to install heavy enough wire alll the way back to the car battery....thus considerable voltage drop and very poor performance.

cheers