Refrigerator Venting Fan

[mrsr71]

This is a shot in the dark. Has anyone installed a 12 computer type fan in the back of their Norcold refrigerator vent panel on the exterior of their rig?

I had a cooling problem last year in very warm climate (resolved by a re-set) and a small fan to remove the excess heat couldn't hurt

Pictures and/or advice would be appreciated....

[fun time]

Yep, did it in Jan of this year and I can honestly tell you it works just great. At first I installed one on top of the metal mesh wire cage inside the roof cover. Ran a wire down from the fan to 12volt source (fushed it) then installed a switch inside. Perfect! Made a huge difference. So much so that I installed another one inside the side vent cover to pick even more air. The idea was to capture the hot air from the low point and exhaust it up to the uppper fan. Works beyond my wildest imagination. Hooked the lower one to the same switch. Then a friend of mine suggested I install a temperature monitoring device in the same area as the lower fan. I did this using a digital thermomrter but only on a temporary basis. The reason was to see the actual difference the fans made. On hot days (85 degrees or higher) before I turned the fans on the temps would go up to 130 degrees or even a little higher at the lower level. After having the fans on for 20 minutes the temp dropped down 36 degrees. Removed the temp. thermometer and have not looked back since. I do not use the fans if the temps outside are 70 degrees or less. I wish I had some pics but if you do a search on this there are pics posted by others. Good luck

[CJ7ole]

I couldn't get the freezer temp below 10 F when running on electric (no hard ice cream). No problem when travelling, it would get below zero easily. So I installed 2 fans at the top of the reefer chimney to help with the natural draft. Made absolutely no difference. Still 10 degrees, fans on or off. It was a full days project too as I installed them from the roof and had to reseal the cap. Didn't need to be eating ice cream anyway...

You might check out this thread: Norcold.......How Cold?

[HD4Mark]

Here is how I did our fans. Norcold aux fan idea

["007"]

Here is another one for better cooling of vent area.
Make sure you have had the recalls done on either Norcold or Dometic.

[Sightseer 27]

My Sightseer has the refrigerator in the slide so venting is even more critical. I put 2 fans on a bracket I fabricated at the top of the vent area. They can be controlled from the inside of the coach from the storage area above the dinette. And what the heck, there is a flashing green led that shows when they are on. Usually I run one one day and the other the next day. If it's real hot both. I know they work because if I hear the fan that came with the refrigerator come on and switch a fan on, the original will shut right off. Hint-use real good quality fans-computer grade with ball bearings. HTH, Gary
More info here Adding Fans to back of fridge