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Old 09-19-2011, 05:52 PM   #1
kingji
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Fridge buzz on 2011 Springdale

I've noticed a high pitched buzz that comes on and off regularly when the refrigertor is running. It's probably more noticable from outside the camper. It doesn't matter if it's on AC or gas. Is there a cooling fan on the condenser that could be cycling on and off. If not, any idea what it is. Everything seems to working great on the fridge.
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Old 09-19-2011, 08:00 PM   #2
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Most of the Dometic reefers are now shipped with a cooling fan and a thermistor to control it mounted to the back of the cooling unit. It is supposed to turn on and off based on the temps the thermistor senses. There is a red wire near the bottom of the outside of the refrigerator with a fuse holder in it. Remove your outside lower vent, look for that wire, and when you hear the "buzzing" remove the fuse and if the buzzing stops, you'll know it's the fan. There are several thoughts about that fan:

1) leave it alone, Dometic knows what they are doing.
2) remove the fuse if the fan noise is annoying. It's really not needed in ambient temps below about 90 F
3) remove the fuse if dry camping, it runs the battery down
4) disable it unless your reefer is in a slide. If you have the roof vent, it's not needed, but if you have the top and bottom side vent, you need the fan.

On my trailer, the fan only comes on for a couple of minutes every hour or more, so it's not really that noisy or annoying. I just leave it alone. But if we were going to dry camp for an extended time, I'd remove the fuse to conserve battery unless it was very hot outside. If I were dry camping regularly, I'd install a switch in the line next to the fuse to make it easier to control the fan.
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Old 09-20-2011, 05:07 AM   #3
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Fridge Buzz

I appreciate all the info and ideas for options. I'll probably just leave it alone and assume Dometic knows whats best. Thanks again.
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Old 09-20-2011, 05:41 AM   #4
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Someone mentioned this in another thread and one of the issues discussed was that the fan may not be mounted well and the blades might be rubbing on something or there may be another issue related to mounting and placement.

Mine makes a similar noise, but I have not had an opportunity to look it over yet as the unit is sitting at the dealer's for some minor warranty work. I am picking it up tomorrow and heading out for a long weekend with some trailer club friends. We'll be checking it out.
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Old 09-20-2011, 06:32 AM   #5
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Steve, It was me that commented on the possiblity of the fan rubbing something in the structure or on the reefer. I tried very diligently to see "way up in there" with flashlights and mirrors while looking up through the lower outside vent. It's a near impossiblity to see much past the cooling fins. The fan sits above them so it's extremely hard to see the fan. Easy to hear, hard to find. Anyway, to really see what's happening, you almost have to slide the reefer out of the space from inside the camper. That's probably not something you want to do in a campground.

Maybe you can get some idea of where the fan sits and maybe see a bit of it, but certainly no clear looks at what's there. Don't forget a good mirror and flashlight. Also, if the reefer is on, there's going to be some hot surfaces back there, so don't get burned.

According to the Dometic literature, the fan is "optional" (but it's on almost all of Keystone's installations) and intended to be used when there is no ability to install a roof vent. Apparently the venting in the slides isn't "optimal" and the fan helps keep the chimney cool. The easiest way to avoid the noise is to remove the fuse if the weather is relatively cool.
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Old 09-20-2011, 01:54 PM   #6
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On my Bullet Premier, I put a marine grade toggle switch on that wire, mounted it on the outside vent cover. When we go to bed we turn it off, first one out of bed in the morning turns it back on. I did this after corresponding with Dometic, they said this would be OK.
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Old 09-20-2011, 04:28 PM   #7
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Thats exactly what I did as well, but, I don't turn it on unless it's going to be over 90 that day. My logic for that is that the same referigerator has been in use for over 10 years without an auxillary fan and has been working quite well. The fan was included in "some" installations by Dometic to increase circulation mainly in trailers where the referigerator is installed in a slide where a roof mount is not practical.

I would speculate that the fan is not a necessary part of the installation on any trailer where the conventional roof vent is used.

At any rate, like you, I find the fan annoying at times, and even though on my trailer it doesn't run much at all, it still uses electricity that I could better use to operate LED lights or otherwise improve dry camping. The switch gives me that choice.
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Old 09-21-2011, 05:52 AM   #8
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Fan Buzz

We had our camper up in the mountains with after noon temps in mid 80's maybe and the fridge on the shady side. The fan was coming off and on probably every 4-5 minutes. I may unplug the fuse untill it's really needed.
Thanks again for the knowledge sharing.
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Old 09-21-2011, 06:37 AM   #9
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Kingji

As long as your camper has a roof vent for the reefer, you'll be OK without the fan, but if your reefer is in a slide with 2 side vents, I don't know if it will circulate air well enough not to need the fan. My suggestion would be to try it and see.

But as before, if you have a roof vent, the fan is not needed in "normal" ambient temps, just in extreme heat... To me, that's over about 90F.

I turn my fan on if the temp is predicted to be above 90, and just leave it off if it's below that. no problems yet, so I save the electricity when dry camping and don't have any "noise" to endure in the "peaceful environment" <LOL> of most state forest campgrounds
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Old 09-21-2011, 12:05 PM   #10
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The Cougar is now in the driveway as we get ready to head out tomorrow. I took this opportunity to pull off both vent covers and see what's what.

First, the lower vent area. The red wire that everyone mentions is the vertical one just to the left of the black box. The fuse is a black in-line fuse holder located just behind the horizontal tank in the upper part of the pic. The black corrugated tubing running diagonally to the lower right is the refer drain tube.



Now the upper vent area. The fan itself is mounted horizontally at the lower edge of the vent opening. The red wire from below actually goes first to a thermistor screwed to the cooling fins on the right side of the pic. It then returns to the fan. When I opened the vent, the first thing I noticed is that everything already has a light coat of dirt including the fan. This can quickly make the fan noisy if not cleaned regularly.



The last pic is the lower vent with the cover back in place and the refer drain properly hanging out. A number of folks mentioned this as an issue in some other posts so I thought I'd include the pic.

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Old 09-21-2011, 01:35 PM   #11
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Steve, Your reefer is installed in a slide and has two sidewall vents. The pix you included are great for explaining what's what. Unfortunately, with the slide installation, you're pretty much stuck with the fan unless it's going to be relatively cool outside. Like you said, dirt will certainly make the fan noisier than normal, I don't know what you could do to reduce noise other than replace the fan with a "whisper quiet" computer fan. There are a lot of 12VDC fans available and they are pretty quiet, but once they get dirty I'm sure they'll make as much noise as any other fan.

I'm glad I have a roof vent, solves the fan noise problem in all but the worst (hottest) situations.

Thanks for posting the pix.

John
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Old 09-21-2011, 01:52 PM   #12
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Fridge Buzz

Good pictures Steve, I'm need to learn how to post pics. I'll take a look at mine today and see what mine looks like. I don't have the upper vent like yours so I'm kind of curious where they stuck the fan in my situation. I saw in your profile you like to hunt, white tail i presume. I just did a almost 2-week elk hunt here in N.M..
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Old 09-21-2011, 04:33 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kingji View Post
Good pictures Steve, I'm need to learn how to post pics. I'll take a look at mine today and see what mine looks like. I don't have the upper vent like yours so I'm kind of curious where they stuck the fan in my situation. I saw in your profile you like to hunt, white tail i presume. I just did a almost 2-week elk hunt here in N.M..
Jk
Sorry, I am not a hunter.

If you have the traditional roof vent for a fridge, it is held on with 4 screws accessible from the top. They may be covered by some caulk which is easily pried out, and just as easily replace. It would be worth a peek.

Some of the aftermarket fans are installed right at the top of the fridge and are easily accessible from the roof vent. I suspect the RV manufacturer installed ones are as well.
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Old 09-22-2011, 10:58 AM   #14
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Thanks Steve for the pictures. I have had my lower frig vent open but have not climbed the ladder to view the top vent. I will do that soon and clean the fan. I also scraped a desktop earlier in the year and I pulled the fan & housing out just in case I wanted to use it somewhere else. I might add to this feature and have two fans running with a switch.
Again Thanks for posting.
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Old 09-22-2011, 01:08 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by byrdr1 View Post
Thanks Steve for the pictures. I have had my lower frig vent open but have not climbed the ladder to view the top vent. I will do that soon and clean the fan. I also scraped a desktop earlier in the year and I pulled the fan & housing out just in case I wanted to use it somewhere else. I might add to this feature and have two fans running with a switch.
Again Thanks for posting.
randy
Randy, Looking at your floorplan, you probably have a roof vent for your reefer. If that's the case, then you most likely wouldn't need to add another fan, in fact, you might be better off adding a switch and turning the fan off except on the hottest days. Dometic reefers have used the same "chimney effect" to circulate air over the coils for the past 20+ years with no problems. It's only been since the advent of kitchen slides and reefers installed in them (with no roof vent) that the fans have become common use items. Of course, that being said, there are some installations where the "chimney" was too large, thus no real convection air flow or too small, thus restricted air flow where a fan would help. Many people found that out with the older travel trailers when manufacturers started putting larger reefers in by just enlarging the cabinet size without regard to ventilation. If you look at your reefer installation, Keystone has pretty much engineered a chimney to increase cooling airflow. The fan most likely isn't necessary for day to day operation of your unit, and would be beneficial on only the hottest days.

Adding another fan (unless you're having cooling problems) would just increase noise and 12V drain without giving you anything in return. You won't see a measurable decrease in propane consumption or in 110VAC use by installing additional convection cooling.
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Old 04-16-2012, 09:31 PM   #16
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[QUOTE=SteveC7010;20188]
The black corrugated tubing running diagonally to the lower right is the refer drain tube.


QUOTE]

Hopefully you guys can help me. The black corrugated tubing on my 5th is breaking apart. I need to replace it but can't see where its hooked up at. I only have one vent cover and it looks like the pic.

Where does this start at. I removed the panel under the fridge and didn't see it. Any suggestions on how to find the starting point. I dont want water draining in the vent area.


Jerry
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