The last week of August I was camping on Lake Livingston, TX and the peak outdoor temp was 104F and my PC was in full sun. I noticed a few things about my fridge.
1. The Freezer was higher than normal and hovering around 28F. My ice cream was getting soft.
2. The Fridge was much higher than normal and hovering around 43F.
3. I had already raised it to number 6 and it running on 120V electric.
4. The cabinet around the fridge was getting hot. On the right side (facing the couch) it was easily 5 (probably 10) degrees warmer along the portion of the wall which was between the back of the fridge and the outside RV wall. On the left side where the burner is, this backs up to my shower and it was at least 10 (probably closer to 20) degrees warmer along that 4 inch wide strip. I can't give precise numbers because I don't have a IR camera to measure surface temps. Side Note, I had also noticed this same section of the walls to be cold when in Illinois in 15F freezing temps.
5. I checked it from the outside and there was a bit of a draft in the bottom (Kleenex test confirmed this), but it was really hot in there.
A bit of history here. I bought my 2010 2900D in 2020, so it was 10 years old at the time. There were no appliance insect screens on it at all and I found some mud dauber nests in the fridge back (and furnace!) and cleaned those and all dust/dirt out the first week I owned it. Very soon after, I added a "Fin-Fan" that attaches to the fridge fins and it really helped keep an even temp throughout the fridge. I was happy.
https://www.amazon.com/DutchAire-RV-Refrigerator-Fin-Fan/dp/B089BWZ3PX Up until August I never parked in such a hot spot with zero shade on my fridge. But, this told me I needed to improve the situation.
Hence, I thought I would writeup my "rebuild the fridge" adventure. I know this will be lengthy, so I'm breaking this up into 4 parts.
- this posting with history, original config and what I discovered
- what I insulated and installed
- my test results, before and after
- and later I may add a 4th posting if I decide to add exhaust fans in the fridge roof vent
I did a lot of research and found that other RV owners who encountered the same issue benefitted by:
- cleaning the back of the fridge and the the inside of the cabinet
- adding insulation
- improving the baffles, or adding them if missing
- adding fans, sometimes at the bottom, sometimes at the top and sometimes both.
So I decided to pull the fridge out and see what I found and what I could improve. I removed the doors. I emptied the fridge of as much as I could including all shelves & bins, because I knew it would be heavy. I removed 6 screws inside the RV, and 3 in the back. After disconnecting the 120V, the 12V and the propane (as well as turning off the propane at the tank FIRST), everything was disconnected and the fridge was moveable.
With the anticipation that it would be heavy, I had 2 large buckets upside down in front of the fridge and slowly wiggled the fridge out. However it was stuck. I could only move it about an inch. After about an hour of frustration I decided to give it a jerk and dislodge whatever was holding it.. That worked. The fridge came out and I set it on the buckets... caught my breath and then set it in the middle of the RV on the floor.
It turns out,,, there were LARGE mud dauber nests in the gap between the fridge and the ceiling. The fridge was glued in place by these nests. I threw out more than 2 pounds of dried mud nests as well as a large handful of paper wasp nests. They were all up and out of view and reach from the outside access door. One small one was inside the heating tube. One was embedded in the rear fins.
The rear wall wallpaper was peeling off the wood baffles. It had evidently got hot enough to release its glue. You can see it curled up in the photo below. The baffles themselves were almost up to spec. I found a large gap on the right side that should be closed to eliminate wasted airflow that should pass the fins. The parts of the wall that are visible to a person looking through the door are spray painted black. At first I thought the heat had charred it, but it is black paint. The insulation is all un-faced fiberglass and fills the left and right side cabinet gap. There was NOTHING on top except the carpeted ceiling. There was no insulation on the side walls or outside wall behind the fridge. I totally understand why there is nothing on the outside wall, you want as much heat dissipation as possible. But, the side walls are basically my interior walls that I found be transferring a lot of heat.
The back of the fridge and pipes were not too dusty. The top was very dirty. The fins were not bad, except for the one nest. There was only a very thin layer of insulation on the back top half of the fridge.
See attached photos of inside the cabinet and back of the fridge AFTER I cleaned it out. Sorry, I didn't think to take pics before cleaning.