altitude limit

[NMroamer]

Has anyone used their fridge at 10,000 feet or higher? Seems it would take longer to cool.
Have used mine at 8500 with no problem but here at the South end of the Rockies high altitude camping
is what we do.

 

[Aladin Sane]

I have never used mine above 8000 feet, but I would be curious as to why you think it would not work as well at higher altitude. The cooling system is sealed, and can not tell what altitude it is operating at. I guess there could be slightly less heat transfer due to the thinner air, but with a fan moving the air, I think it would be minimal.

 

[bearman512]

Does not make any difference. We camp at 10K+ all the time in Colorado.

 

[link81]

the only possible issue i cold see, is the air is thinner at 10k feet, so it will pull less heat from the coils. but i don't think you'll see a difference, especially if you have the fan mod.

 

[tombiasi]

At 10,000 feet the ambient temperature is probably going to help it cool better.

 

[Aladin Sane]

the only possible issue i cold see, is the air is thinner at 10k feet, so it will pull less heat from the coils. but i don't think you'll see a difference, especially if you have the fan mod.

That sounds familiar.

 

[dion]

I don't have a fridge in the PuP now, but had a 3-way fridge in the camper van we owned previously. I used it at over 12,000 ft several times, and it worked fine. It was sometimes a bit fussier to light at high altitude, probably because of the thinner air. Maybe the flame was less energetic with less oxygen up there; I don't know. But on the other hand, ambient temperature wasn't so high, especially not at night, so the fridge had no trouble keeping contents cool.

 

[link81]

At 10,000 feet the ambient temperature is probably going to help it cool better.

agreed.

 

[kitphantom]

We discovered that the Dometic 2-way 'fridge in our TT has ignition issues above 7500-8000'. It actually cools very well at any altitude, but at higher altitudes, it can take a couple dozen attempts for the burner to light.
I emailed Dometic about the issue, since the manual states that power should be used above 5000', which is not practical for us, since we live at 6K, camp higher, and usually without power. The issue is supposedly that the LP is actually blowing out the flame, due to the lower air pressure at altitude. The only solution Dometic had was to have someone adjust the water column pressure. That's not a real solution, since we camp all over the place - this year alone we've been at 500' to over 9000'.
Apparently the ignition "snapper" may wear out sooner rather than later, but there is not other damage occurring, the 'fridge and freezer work fine at all altitudes.
Too bad someone hasn't invented a simple adjustment lever for these 'fridges.

 

[MileHigh]

Agree with Dion and Kitphanton that they are a bit tougher to light at altitude but seem to work fine for us. The other thing we have found is that regular coolers seem to work better also as the ambient air temperature is a lot lower than in town (Denver). Example in Leadville high may be 67 and in Denver it's probably going to be 87.