Has anyone devised a way to enhance venting of the fridge heat by propping open the bottom of the top access panel and anchoring the top somehow to the camper? I don't have a fan in my Aliner Ranger 12 to upgrade, and was curious if enhanced venting would make a difference, while still maintaining rain protection.
My thought was to enhance air circulation by reducing the restrictions for the hot air to escape (being forced down through the horizontal rows of holes). Hopefully any air movement would more freely flow through the area with the heat dissipation fins.
My Expedition has the loud OEM fan. Wanting to sleep one night I got up and removed the upper vent completely and leaned it against the tire. Shortly thereafter the fan turned off. The fan hasn't turned back on yet. Anyone from the Deep South will tell you that a screened in porch is hot. The screen keeps the bugs out but it INHIBITS AIRFLOW. The vent is screened. The OEM fan blows air at the screen not necessarily through it. When you cool with a fan you put the fan in the window frame and not close to it pointed at it- basic aerodynamics. Look at the square inches of screened area. Now imagine a hole in the side of the Aliner with two or three times the area. Heat rises. Now what about rain? Campgrounds we stay at have trees. The road dust collects on the factory baffle just inside the vent hole. Look at the dust. If the rain was getting in it would wash the dust off. It hasn't. The plans are to make an awning this winter as a gullywasher would probably enter. Try it you'll like it.
Have not done this but can imagine it would be easy to construct a thin aluminum awning that attaches to the camper side with industrial Velcro to cover the area and prevent weather problems with the upper cover removed. There are articles on this forum on ways to improve pop up fridge efficiency by modifying baffles to increase convection airflow over the coils.
I don't think the problem is airflow or baffling. Its just hot air accumulation behind the vent. Was also considering an awning on the front side of a replacement vent to help with propane burning refrig while traveling Remember, Keep it simple like me.
I've been with and I've been without. With is better. However, after having the OEM fan in our NTU 2014 Aliner Classic and temps near 100 degrees, nothing will keep up with that. Traditional refrigeration (absorption) is the only choice in these temps for me. What I plan to do in later fall is mount two 120MM, ball bearing, 12v fans on the lower set of louvers on the exterior. To maximize force of air in and then out instead of just drawing out. Just my personal preference. On the Texas Gulf Coast, these adsorption refrigerators can't be very effective.
Did a simple mod last weekend. Drilled a small hole in the center top of the top vent cover, to align w the top center hole in the mount “border”. Added a thin machine screw and nut to allow tilting outwards with the three top tabs engaged. Used a misc lag bolt (or stick or anything) to simply prop open at a bottom corner (remove when traveling).
I measure it this way. It is plugged into 110 right now. THe fan was on the last time we took a load down there. I took the vent off and the fan was off on the next load. It runs constantly til I take the vent off. Its only 94*F right now.
Took a little 14 day trip on the Blue Ridge. 12.5 days boon docking. The vent cover was off. It rained several days. Water didn't get inside. Since the cover was off it was easy to stick my hand in the compartment. The major heat is coming from the chimney flue/ exhaust and the pipe coming up off the boiler that is heated by the flame. The cooling fin heat is minor in comparison. If the chimney was exhausted to the exterior and placed in its own separate compartment with the boiler the efficiency would be greatly increased.
