Fan in the Fridge-

[Max Hubrich]

I read about this little item in a post from "FreeByrd". I noticed that Oemy had done this years ago in his rig.

I ordered several of these units, only $18 apiece, and just received them.

Here are pictures on how I installed one in my rig.

It comes like this- Your looking at the back side. Notice the green wire to the alligator clip. I cut the silver wire off holding it to the frame. Although not shown here, I placed four strips of the "cloth" part of Velcro on the four corners of the blue mounting frame.



I placed four small pieces of the "wire" portion of Velcro in four places on the Fridge fins. notice the alligator clip also- This is the ground connection for the fans.


The one wire from the fans ties into the Fridge door switch/light. Just pull the red spade wire off, and bend the exposed wire from the fans over the female portion of the spade connection. Force the red spade wire back on its male terminal. The switch pushes out easily by compressing the "ears" on the back side of the switch mount


Installation complete. I placed the fans over the area I had most of my freeze up occur. If I decide to move it to a different location, I just pull it forward off the velcro mounts. Then add a few more pieces of Velcro. The alligator clip (ground wire) is clipped on to a fin in between the two fans- out of sight.



I had to wait to get to the home place where I could shut down the Fridge for awhile.

These fans are super quite, super light and they run all the time that the Fridge is turned on.

It'll be awhile before I can comment on the effectiveness of this little gem. Six months in coastal Maine should do the trick- stand by-

I am debating about putting a fan in the freezer to have a "frost free freezer", such as my three units in the stick house. Any comments on that idea from anyone reading this thread? It might not work or I'm sure Dometic/Norcold would have some now in these smaller units.

Good luck,

[Crabby Mike]

OK, forgive my dumb question, but if you're wiring it to the light, isn't that only energized when the door is open?

[gg]

The door switch has a 12v hot side, when the door is opened the switch feeds the light. so the fan is connect to the hot side.

[Max Hubrich]

Crabby Mike,

Like GG said- the red wire is hot all the time. After the connection is made, close the switch by hand - the light will go out and the fans will still run- just like when the door is closed. You'll know you have it right then-.
Again, the entire fridge must be up and running.

[Max Hubrich]

Okay- Time for an update

Here are pics of the fridge being on for two months now. As you can see we keep it full of food since we're in it for 6 plus months at a time.

NO ICE UP-!





Before the fan install, The right side (where I mounted the fans) would be frozen solid.


I'm thinking about mounting one in the freezer to prevent ice in there. Since the area of the freezer is about 1/3 the size of the fridge I would only have one of the two fans running all the time-

What do you think about that idea guys and gals?

I bought a couple extra when I ordered this fan-

[ralper]

I went to Radio Shack and bought a 2" X 2" 12 volt fan that draws 1.56 watts. I hung it from the shelf by the wire and hooked it into the light as shown above. It can be aimed where you want it and does the job for $ 9.00.

[Sammie]

Max, I just bought the same fan setup for my fridge. Haven't yet installed it, but I was wondering if it made any noticeable difference in temperatures?

Sammie

[Doc Mark]

Oh Max you evil person you.

Maine Lobster Bisque? ? ?

Mark

[stearn]

I too installed this 12v fan, no more frosting up ! Where do you plan to find power in the freezer ? I would like to have air moving in the icemaker compartment.

[Max Hubrich]

Hey Mark-

I see your from Eastport- . I got the bisque the other day from "Hann-a-fords".
We have a place (Robinson's Wharf) here on Southpot Island (Booth Bay Harbor Region- They went nuts here years ago when they named the towns around here ie: BOOTH BAY, BOOTH BAY HARBOR, EAST BOOTH BAY and WEST BOOTH BAY)-selling Lobster right now for $5.50 a pound, ANY SIZE, COOKED-. Hard to believe with fuel being so high.

Sammie and Stern-

That will be a project for "down time" at home (NC) in October. I don't know yet, but here are my thoughts:

1- Fish a wire through the icemaker wiring, plumbing hole to the rear and to a 12v source, and ground, then re-seal.

2- Drill a hole down into the fridge and tap onto the wire I now have for the fan in the fridge and seal the hole. I need to find a good ground also, maybe on the icemaker. I think I would hang it on the rack, near the rear of the freezer.

Right now I'm on a #4 setting (out of 5 max) reading a +4 degrees in the freezer.
The fridge is reading +32 degrees.

I have two red liquid type therometers- mounted in both sections on the fridge (one each place). I notice the freezer temps change slightly as the Dometic unit goes through it's defrost cycle. Sometimes the freezer will be a -2 degrees.

I used to run it on a #5 setting.

I'll post here occassionally to update this thread as the summer goes on-

I also have a small freezer, or fridge in a storage bay. I got it from Compact Appliance- It is a great unit.

[OSP1268]

Hi Max,
Looks like you have a Dometic fridge. Have you left the fans on the right side of the fridge fins, or have you moved them around for a better location?
I am getting ready to install the same in our Dometic fridge. Also considering adding one to the freezer portion, but not sure if I want to loose what little room there is in there.

[Max Hubrich]

Roger,

Yes, it's on the right side almost up against the the white sliding thermistor (like in my first photos).

That's the place it froze up solid in the past.

[FreeByrd]

Max,
Glad that the Blue Fan has worked out for you too. We have had 2 running in our Norcold 1200 with an Amish Cooling Unit since March and have had NO ICING.

The high humidity of the Northeast should be a really good test. Let us know how they work.

Mike
Hope to see you out there.

[336muffin]

I have a 4door fridge, there is two light switches. They are snapped in where the top of the doors touch. My question is how does the switch come out without breaking it? If I could see the back of the switch I could figure it out. Just not wanting to break things.