RV Refrigerator Keeping It Cold
RV refrigerators are a passive type cooling system. What I mean by that is that there is no electrical motor pushing a coolant to make the cold happen in the box.
Almost all RV refrigerators tend to be an absorption type refrigerator. A flame is used to heat an ammonia mixture in a sealed containment vessel to make the cool happen. So that means that there are no moving parts and the system can not be taken apart for part replacement. So as an RV owner it becomes all about air flow or the lack of it and the flame. Those two things will determine how well your refrigerator works.
A Short Video on How an Absorption Refrigerator Works
Safety First
When working on any propane systems make sure you have turned off the propane to all the appliances. Also if there are any electronics anywhere on the appliance disconnect the power be it 12 volts or 110 volts. Disconnect all the power modes, don’t destroy an expensive control board or experience electrocution due to an accidental arc or spark. Follow all safety guidelines according to the appliance manufacturer.
First Steps to better cooling
If your rig is not new a good blowdown of the outer unit to remove any dust coating the cooling coil is a good first step. This way there will not be anything covering the coils that will degrade the heat transfer process. A blowgun and an air compressor will make short work of this task.
While you are there, the other things that can be cleaned are the burner, flue, and orifice. Having the burner and orifice clean will ensure that the flame is perfect for boiling the ammonia solution. The following video explains how to accomplish this task. You will need alcohol or Goof Off for the orifice and a can of compressed air for the burner.
Dometic type orifice and non-tube type burner cleaning
An important note before you loosen the thermocouple take a picture of it. Measure from a place on the thermocouple to a fixed point on the burner assembly write down the dimension. With that information, you will know how far it is positioned into the burner flame. This way you can put it back into the same position it was before it was disconnected. The same goes for the automatic ignitor.
When he is reinstalling the burner there is a small screw that he starts with his fingers. There are different types of screw starters available that will make that part of the job easy.
Norcold and Dometic tube type burner cleaning
An important note mentioned in the video is that the burner be centered on the flue pipe(burner tube in the video) for proper heat distribution.
The flue pipe cleaning is not so straightforward. It consists of carefully tapping the cover of the flue pipe(called chimney stack in the video) to dislodge any scale that has built up. It is best to do this while the burner is out of the unit as the scale will fall onto the burner if it is in place.
Ventilation, Ventilation
The last step if needed is to increase and direct the hot air away from the refrigerator. This is not a maintenance task. There are many methods to doing this but essentially it is removing any standing hot air away from the top of the refrigerator box and out the vent. A unique product has combined solar technology with a normal looking refrigerator vent cover to make it super simple to add a fan to evacuate the hot air from around the box.
Once you have completed all of these maintenance tasks you will need to measure what your work was worth. A good refrigerator thermometer will determine how successful your efforts were.
Related Article: Long Live Your RV Refrigerator
Related Article: Storing Your RV Refrigerator
(By Nikhil Singla (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)
(By Nikhil Singla (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)
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