Warm fridge

[Adam Hicklin]

We are in Zion with 103 degree temps. My fridge is having a hard time keeping cool. Electric or gas doesn't seem to make a difference.  Everything appears to be working fine: level, nice blue flame on gas, no birds nests in vent cap, shading the fridge side with awning, etc.  Fridge has always worked perfectly.  Two fold question.  Can heat affect it this much?  (Lucky to keep it at 40 over night) and, any tips for helping it along in the heat?  It's a Dometic New Dimensions.  I'd give you the model number but I don't want to open the door!

[Larry Dedrick]

Adam
           We had problems with ours in our 2001 Beaver. What solved our problem was two fold. Initially we did not have the coach leveled appropriately. Coach needs to be within 3 degrees for and aft to operate properly. However, there was another problem with the thermistor on the cooling fins. Temperature is controllable depending on the position the thermistor, that helped a bit, but eventually we replaced the thermistor and all was well. So, we really had a compounding problem, not being level within tolerance and a failing thermistor. Hope this helps.

                                            L Dedrick

[Matthew Harger]

Adam-

I was having the same problem and added 3 of these fan units to the inside of the refrigerator on the fins.   Now the fins don't ice up at all and the fans circulate all the cold air much better throughout the interior and I find I actually have to turn the coldness setting down a bit. 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Norcold-Refrigerator-Deluxe-Fan-with-Grill-to-INCREASE-cooling-inside-/390661070734?hash=item5af536df8e&vxp=mtr

I also added the largest plug-in muffin fan that I could find to the compartment area behind the refrigerator to blow air across the cooling element up towards the roof vent.

[Joel Ashley]

Yes, you would have trouble with any RV fridge keeping it to even 50 degrees in that kind of ambient heat.  Nature of the beast, and from our forecast even up here in Portland, the West is gonna get much hotter pretty quick as the pressure zone moves north.  Even Canada is in for it.

The additional mini-fans Matt suggested are about as good as you could do beyond what you've already done.  Adding ice cubes in bags to the fridge can take some of the load off too. The best fix is to head for the nearest mountains, but even that may not do much - it's definitely an extreme weather year.

Joel