fridge temp ?

[john fran]

I will make this brief ,I own a 2008 Winne View ,the fridge temp only goes to 40 Degrees F. The freezer is working fine .
What is the coldest temp with the control set at 4 ?


I was thinking more like 33-36 Degrees F



Thanks , John

[powercat_ras]

I have a Norcold 2 door 6 cubic ft. 2-way AC/Propane refrigerator in my Vista. Some how-to information to have success with your Norcold:

- Refrigerator control board will let refrigerator warm up to 40 every 48.1 hours to keep ice from forming on the refrigerator fins. Power off and power on the refrigerator at bedtime to make sure that that cycle happens at night and not during daytime. Can power cycle every night to prevent the defrost cycle from happening at all.

- Keep an air space between the back interior wall of the refrigerator all the way from fins to bottom, this is very important to cool the entire interior of the refrigerator.

- Use a Valterra A10-2606 FridgeCool 11.28 mA Fan to circulate more air around in the refrigerator compartment, I put on back of the shelf above the bin.

- I monitor it with the AcuRite 00986A2 Refrigerator/Freezer Wireless Digital Thermometer.

- Make sure all your door seal gaskets are working. You can use a strip of paper, close the door on the strip of paper all around and make sure you can't easily pull it out. If you can there is something wrong (Door hinges or latches need adjustment, door bent, or door seals got damaged some how).

- In hot weather, keep the side of the RV where the back of refrigerator is shaded, in particular park so the outside wall behind refrigerator is shaded in the afternoon heat.

- The fins on the back of the refrigerator get covered in dirt, pollen, etc. over time and this reduces heat transfer. You can remove the top vent cover and gently spray water over the fins to make them cleaner, this will help the fridge work better in particular in hot weather. Just don't get agressive and use high pressure spray in there, and don't spray down into the exhaust tube of the propane burner. This does not need to be done often, every couple of years is plenty for this.

My current situation:

Refrigerator will stablize at about 33 F. In warmer weather I raise the Temp, right now with outdoor temps in the 90 F range I have it set to 7. In cooler weather 5 is plenty.

Refrigerator will warm to about 40 when opening door to get/put away food then cool back down to 33 F. Will cool back down in less than an hour.

Freezer will stabilize about 2 F Will warm some when freezer door open but not as drastic a temp change as refrigerator compartment.

[davismills]

Randy gave you great advice and mine works similarly to his. I did add a double fan exhaust system on the upper outside vent and also added a triple fan arrangement over the fins on the inside of the fridge.

Mine is 7 years old and doing pretty well. I really hate the way the defrost cycle works.

[john fran]

Randy ,Your feedback is invaluable, I will follow your advice in hopes this solves the problem .
BTW my fridge control only goes to 4 . Your Vista is newer than my View , perhaps they upgraded the controls on the fridge.

Thanks Much , John M

[ThomB]

I believe that we use the same temp gauge as Randy. Depending on the direction that we park it does make a difference there. We're now sitting at setting 4 (of 5) and running at 41 fridge and 1 freezer. I've got all the components to wire up a couple computer fans to a thermostatic switch that will be set to auto-cycle the fans. I'm still working out where to mount the fans (top to draw air or bottom to push). The one thing that we do with the refrig thermometer is keep it in the drawer at the bottom with my wife's meds as they are temp sensitive so the fridge is a bit cooler than the 41.

[LarryW]

Try a battery operated fan in the fresh food compartment. Worked great for me over the last 40+ years.

[powercat_ras]

Originally Posted by LarryW

Try a battery operated fan in the fresh food compartment. Worked great for me over the last 40+ years.

That's what the Valterra A10-2606 FridgeCool 11.28 mA Fan is. It uses 1 D size Alkaline Battery and the battery lasts well over a month before it dies and battery has to be replaced. Quiet enough running inside fridge that it does not interfere with sleeping at night.

[Phil G.]

For what it's worth, the recommended temperatures for refrigerators is 38 degrees F in the refrigerator sections, and 0 degrees F in the freezer sections.


Of course you're not going to achieve these ideal temperatures all the time in an RV's propane refrigerator.


In our RV's Norcold refrig I can usually hold the refrigerator section in the 35-38 degree F range by setting it's temperature switch at 3 or 4 (out of 5) - depending upon the outside temperature and sun exposure. However, then the freezer averages around only 7-12 degrees F. I can use a higher switch setting to get the freezer section down to around 0 degrees, but then liquids in the refrigerator section start to freeze.



I've posted about adjusting this "refrigerator section/freezer section temperature differential" in varous RV forums, but so far no one can explain how to change this temperature relationship such that our Norcold is averaging around 0 degrees in the freezer while at the same time averaging around 38 degrees in the refrigerator.


It doesn't seem like it should be Rocket Science to get these long term average temperatures closer to the ideal 38 degree F separation between them such that the temperature switch merely maintains (per outside conditions) - or moves up or down in tandem (per operator descretion) - both section temperatures ... but maybe it is.