Community Forums

DaveBunker · 02-06-2019, 12:15 AM

If you are adding heat to your RV parked up in the snow, outside temp in hi 20’s, maybe dropping to hi teens, should I fire up the Norcold on electric just to add another element of heat to the back of the fridge, maybe to keep the ice maker tubing from potential freezing. My inside temp is set to 45, snapdisk on and working. It could get down in the hi teens tonight, but I doubt it. Just thinking.

Timaz · 02-06-2019, 05:56 AM

I'm no pro but , it sounds like it should help.

K7JV · 02-06-2019, 07:35 AM

Assuming you have 120 VAC available and on to the coach, I would turn the fridge on. It probably won't run much, because the fresh-food part would already be close to where you keep it when you are using it. You would get a little more local heat if you put it on propane rather than AC. I'm assuming you are not in your coach, but that it's parked.

If I were in your situation with our coach, I would do all that you have done, perhaps even keeping my thermostats at 50 or 55 degrees. Where your water lines run under cabinets and likely close to the outside wall for some of their routing (like they do), the inside heat will be largely dissipated by the time it reaches where the plumbing is located. Another five or ten degrees would be more comforting, if it were me.

You don't say where you are located, but if it is getting at least fifteen to twenty degrees above freezing during the day, I wouldn't be nearly as concerned, as our coach structures are pretty good heat "reservoirs". But I would still take the precautions you are taking.

You might consider putting a sheet of cardboard or thin styrofoam on the inside of your refrigerator access opening. But don't forget to remove it when the threat subsides. I think if I did that, I would consider running it on AC rather than propane, however, if it is available.

We have encountered exactly the situation you are describing many times, and what you have above is what we have done, with the exception that I have never covered my refrigerator access opening. But our ice maker line and water valve has a heating wire and some foam insulation over part of it, to keep it from freezing. I suspect the refrigerator has to be on for that heat tape to function, so we absolutely keep the fridge on, and we've always done that with AC, and not propane, in that situation.

jacwjames · 02-06-2019, 08:26 AM

On my coach there is a heating wire that wraps around the ice maker water valve that is controlled b a snap disc. I believe it only works if the fridge is on.

In the past I've had the water line that supplies water to the ice maker freeze and develop pin hole leaks. Also had the ice maker water valve freeze and break.

I would try and block the vent to keep cold air out.

Keeping the refrigerator on may help.