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Keeping your RV refrigerator happy in warm weather is a matter of
paying attention to your environment and reacting accordingly. When we
say environment, we’re not just talking about how hot it is outside,
although that’s certainly one of the biggest considerations.
First, are you a boondocker, or does your lifestyle take you to an RV
park? When things get real hot, a lot of RVers drop anchor in an RV
park to benefit from relatively inexpensive electricity. After all,
firing up the generator in these high priced fuel days can easily
exceed the cost of the daily rate of some RV parks.
But with the convenience of the RV park means the sharing of the
electrical system with others. Beware! Not only can your air
conditioner unit be damaged by low voltage, your refrigerator--set to
run on shore power--may not cool nearly like you think it ought. What’s
the reason behind that? If the heating element in your refrigerator is
rated at 120 volts, and the shore power system is delivering less,
you’ll get less cooling power. Let’s say the high demand for
electricity reduces the delivered voltage to 108 volts, then the actual
available power at the heating element has been reduced by 10%, meaning
your unit will operate at 90% of normal. If you’re dealing with hot
outdoor temperatures, your cooling power will definitely suffer.
The answer? Run your refrigerator on LP gas, so it won’t be affected by
the "brownout" syndrome. And help your refrigerator along by keeping
the outside wall on the refir side in the shade where possible. Many
fulltimers find that throwing a sack of ice in a cake pan in the
refrigerator compartment will help keep those tender veggies happy, and
make the refrigerator not slave to keep up. We’ve found by doing so we
didn’t need to buy more ice because it had melted away, more for the
fact we’d use it to chill our drinks.
Finally, another trick that has stood many in good stead is to increase
the circulation in the back of the refrigerator. Some swear by
"propping" open the outside access door. We've had much success in
adding a small 12-volt fan in the back, pointing the flow up and over
the condensor coils. Small cooling fans like these are often used to
cool power supplies in computers, so check out Radio Shack or the
corner computer stand. Draw your power off the 12 volt terminals
supplying the refrigerator--use your voltmeter to verify correct
polarity and voltage!
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