You did the right thing. Baffles to force the air your fans pull through the fins would make things even better. Just bend some flashing as shown in other videos and you’ll be amazed. Good vid.
I put insulation around the slideout where the fridge is at. Put a shade on those vents Put a small fan in the bottom facing up. Replaced all 4 fans facing the fins with some bigger and stronger fans Put insulation on top and on the side were there was a 2inch gap. I just ordered a small fan for the inside of the fridge and a 10" exaust fan to put on the top vent. A Dometic mechanic basically told me.that these refrigerators work on a 2 to 1 ratio. Ex. If its 100 then the temp will be 50. My fridge is on a slideout but regardless a 5600 dollar refrigerator like mine should work fine regardless of the weather and it being on a slideout. It has caused me so much stress and frustration. But Im thankful for TH-camrs like yourself that have given me good Ideas.
I did the same thing for my old dometic 660 from 1983. Now get to 37 degrees from 45. Plus double check your rv level. It's only got to be off by a hair. At least, that's the way it is for mine
I did this install several years ago and placed a small toggle switch inside. The fan is on only when needed and to conserve the battery as we boondock frequently. I also have a fan inside the refrigerator to move air across the fins. As others have mentioned, baffles do help but sometimes access is almost impossible.
They used to have a solar fan to do what you’re doing the panel mounted on refer vent on roof . Also try to shade refer side when parked if possible. You’re a thinking camper.
Also another huge tip, if you can keep the fridge full, fill up some bottles of water cold water is best as the fridge doesn't need to work as hard. Anyway the reason why is that if theres more cool thermal mass inside the fridge the less it needs to work to keep empty space cool. On our fridge freezers i will cycle frozen bottles of water between the freezer and fridge on really hot days putting the frozen ones on the top shelf of the fridge, drinking the cool ones and then of a night time (when the ambient temp. outside is cooler freezing cool bottles we drank all day.) that way we have lots of ice incase of a problem or a really hot day.
Where those exaust fans or regular fans?? And BTW ive seen about 50 rv refrigerator videos and by far your looks to be the cheapest least complicated most efficient and least viewed video. Great Job. One thing though about those fans, are they on all day and night. Reason I ask this was that dometic told me that they dont need to be on at night when its cooler. I have my 5 fans on a thermostat regulator and set it to go on after it passes the 70 degree mark. This would be a perfect setup for me if somehow I could add a thermostat to the fans.
manuel meza Hi! They are computer fans, and yes, mine run all the time, but I’m plugged in all the time too. You could easily add a thermostat switch so that it would turn off like you mentioned.
Very clever! These Domeric refrigerator can be very picky. Keeping our fridge level has been our biggest help. Where did you pull power from off the board. Thanks for sharing! -Will
There are hatch fans made for boats that have a solar panel on top and a switch for pull or push the air. I'm thinking of adding one to the roof vent. No wiring and it will run when the sun shines :)
Having it only run when the sun shines might not be good. What if it is a very hot day, like in Florida, and it is cloudy at the same time? Or you park you RV in a shady area and it is still hot outside? If you have solar panels, you must have batteries. Best to connect the fans to your solar battery and have an automatic thermostat attached to the fans.
Only thing is with 3ways that they actually need heat, if you take the heat away from the boiler too much, it will run using more gas/electricity (we call propane gas) so you just have to be careful to help the exhaust exit without forcing it.
We want to renovate our Alpha See Ya. Do you have any videos showing your renovation? If so are they posted? Even pictures would work. Your color theme is exactly what I want. 😃
Hi there. Almost all of the pictures I have are in the 3 videos I have posted. The main thing was painted the walls a shade of white; painting the upper kitchen cabinets white, and the base a darker color. We used a high quality Sherwin Williams paint for the cabinets. Neutral color flooring. We removed some of the shelving doors as you can see to open up the shelves. We did very little to the upper bedroom area. We didn't paint up there. We didn't mind the area where we slept to be darker. Biggest 2 items are the flooring and the painting. Those 2 things can completely change the look of your RV.
The weak point is those long screws attached with crazy glue. Driving down the road creates a lot of vibrations to break the super glue. And moisture and heat from the outside will also attack the crazy clue and weaken it. I can see the two screws breaking away from the vent very easily during your first (or second) RV trip. Might be better to make the mounting more secure by getting some longer stainless steel bolts and make the bolts go through the vent itself. Then you can add some ss washers and ss lock washers that will help keep the bolts and fans from wiggling side to side while traveling.
great video...I followed your directions exactly...and I'm getting 70 degrees in Florida after running it for a day...exact same fans, fridge fan next to thermostat....freezer freezes, but cooler section...no bueno.....I guess it's 'results may vary?'....btw, this is in a 2 year old Air Stream...
Hi Ed, sorry you're having trouble, especially with such a new RV. Can you feel the hot air being blown out of the top vent outside? What model fridge do you have in your Air Stream?
@@iboughtarv6570 sorry about long delay...we just did a trip and I used frozen stuff to help cool down the fridge for a day...I also bought a new fridge thermometer...which now seems to have been part of the problem...the fans worked great!
Awesome video. I just got my blue fans and going to install them. Our last trip we had things go bad in the fridge so I’m hoping this works. Plus the LEDs look cool at night
Good idea, good comments, lots of improvements and siggestions. I'd redo the video without the cheap music. it takes away from the quality of the video
Thanks for the great idea. Do you know how I would instal a thermostat inline to turn the fan on and off rather than leaving it on all the time? Thanks again.
I don't know, I'm sorry. I remember when I was planning to do this project seeing a guy somewhere on YT who talked about that, but I remember it meaning that I'd have to somehow tap into / wire in to the fridge. But installing a thermostat is a great idea.
This is my problem with these refrigerators, 40 degrees is not a safe temperature for food. It usually does not stay at 40 degrees with propane either. Food should be kept at 32 degrees. I personally think these refrigerators suck.
If you want your food frozen, sure. Water freezes at 32 degrees. 39-40 degrees is optimal for a fridge. For the freezer, the closer to 0 the better. 9 degrees is the magic temperature that ice cream remains ice cream.
When it’s hot, remove the bottom vent first to see how much difference it makes. The fans up top won’t last long in 100 plus degree exterior heat. Need a thermostat on there too.
Can you explain and show a little more of what I wire which wire to. I just want to make sure I do it right. No experience doing this. But definetly need these fans for my refrigerator since I live in an area where it is super hot and has been over 100 degrees for the past month and a half.
this is all low voltage wiring. You should be able to see coloring on the wiring identifying that you have the same wires from each fan. Use a 9 volt battery to test that it works. It's a safe way to test that you have your wires together correctly.
Thanks for sharing, I'll be doing this next week. Only nit-pick I noticed: Black Zip ties are UV protected, white will disintegrate when exposed to sunlight or fluorescent light. Just wondering if you tried to disable the LEDs? Seems like it might be a distraction on those nights you want to watch the stars.
gary a. usher I didn’t try to disable the LED’s, but it was on the other side of our RV, so it didn’t bother us. It’s an easy way to check and make sure it’s working.
Hi. No, the fans are blowing air out of the vent on the top. So it's drawing the air from inside and pushing it out the top vent, creating an airflow from bottom to top over those coils.
So not sure what i'm doing wrong but i bought the same exact fans (except the blue LED)....tried to test it with the 9v battery and neither fan works. Only so many combinations with 3 wires and i did ensure the 9v was working and had juice. I'm lost
Hi. Sorry you're having trouble. that is strange. Sounds like you did everything right. You stripped the wires properly I'm sure...There might be a better video on YT showing how to test something with a 9v battery. Hope you can get it resolved! The fan I had only had 3 wires, and they were marked pretty well.
West Texas Raider Hi. I didn’t add a switch, but I think it could be wired in between the power block (source) and your fans. Test it when connected to a 9 volt battery. Hope it goes smoothly for you! Thanks
Tracie Harris Sorry you’re having trouble with that. Do you have a ladder high enough to see down from the top vent? You should be able to see some kind of opening...I’m sure you’ve probably tried something like that. Tie something heavy to the end of your wire, or tape it to a stretched out wire coat hanger and carefully fish it down....🤔
I just got these in the mail. Wired them up. But the speed is very low. Straight to car battery. Still jist enough to move the hair on ur hands. Did I wire them wrong or do these just not put much out?
Carson Klick They don’t push a lot of air like a normal fan. There is an extra wire for high speed. Make sure you have that connected and you should be good. It just has to generate some air flow over the coils in the back.
I'm a little confused. I can do this project no problem but how do you wire the 12 volt power so it goes on and off as needed. I don't want a fan on constantly 24 hours to unnecessarily drain my battery as I boondock often. Thanks
You’ll have to add a switch in between the fan and the power block. I didn’t because I’m plugged in all the time. If you could figure out a way to locate the switch inside, that would be convenient. Hope it works for you.
@@philc.9280 Phil, you'll want something like this: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000PY7T7I/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 You can mount that on the fins and set at what temperature the fans will kick-in.
the goal is not to suck air in necessarily, but to push it out. the fans pushing the air out is what keeps the constant flow of air over those coils. because the warm air rises, the fans are there to push it out.
You did the right thing. Baffles to force the air your fans pull through the fins would make things even better. Just bend some flashing as shown in other videos and you’ll be amazed. Good vid.
I put insulation around the slideout where the fridge is at.
Put a shade on those vents
Put a small fan in the bottom facing up.
Replaced all 4 fans facing the fins with some bigger and stronger fans
Put insulation on top and on the side were there was a 2inch gap.
I just ordered a small fan for the inside of the fridge and a 10" exaust fan to put on the top vent.
A Dometic mechanic basically told me.that these refrigerators work on a 2 to 1 ratio.
Ex. If its 100 then the temp will be 50.
My fridge is on a slideout but regardless a 5600 dollar refrigerator like mine should work fine regardless of the weather and it being on a slideout.
It has caused me so much stress and frustration. But Im thankful for TH-camrs like yourself that have given me good Ideas.
Thanks! YT is the best for solving problems like this!
I did the same thing for my old dometic 660 from 1983. Now get to 37 degrees from 45. Plus double check your rv level. It's only got to be off by a hair. At least, that's the way it is for mine
Those are some beautiful fans.
I did this install several years ago and placed a small toggle switch inside. The fan is on only when needed and to conserve the battery as we boondock frequently. I also have a fan inside the refrigerator to move air across the fins. As others have mentioned, baffles do help but sometimes access is almost impossible.
They used to have a solar fan to do what you’re doing the panel mounted on refer vent on roof . Also try to shade refer side when parked if possible. You’re a thinking camper.
Also another huge tip, if you can keep the fridge full, fill up some bottles of water cold water is best as the fridge doesn't need to work as hard. Anyway the reason why is that if theres more cool thermal mass inside the fridge the less it needs to work to keep empty space cool.
On our fridge freezers i will cycle frozen bottles of water between the freezer and fridge on really hot days putting the frozen ones on the top shelf of the fridge, drinking the cool ones and then of a night time (when the ambient temp. outside is cooler freezing cool bottles we drank all day.) that way we have lots of ice incase of a problem or a really hot day.
Where those exaust fans or regular fans?? And BTW ive seen about 50 rv refrigerator videos and by far your looks to be the cheapest least complicated most efficient and least viewed video. Great Job. One thing though about those fans, are they on all day and night. Reason I ask this was that dometic told me that they dont need to be on at night when its cooler. I have my 5 fans on a thermostat regulator and set it to go on after it passes the 70 degree mark. This would be a perfect setup for me if somehow I could add a thermostat to the fans.
manuel meza Hi! They are computer fans, and yes, mine run all the time, but I’m plugged in all the time too. You could easily add a thermostat switch so that it would turn off like you mentioned.
Heat rises it'd be hotter towards the thermostat cold air is always at the bottom of the refrig
You need to change out the white TY wraps to black. They are probably super brittle by now. Black ones last 10 times longer.
Yes, you're right. Thanks for pointing that out.
Very clever! These Domeric refrigerator can be very picky. Keeping our fridge level has been our biggest help. Where did you pull power from off the board. Thanks for sharing! -Will
Thanks Will! That 12 volt power block behind the fridge runs some electrical on the fridge itself if it's running on propane.
the top vents on that model RV do need some help. our old RVs have a nice vertical stack, and all steel (aka rodent proof)
There are hatch fans made for boats that have a solar panel on top and a switch for pull or push the air.
I'm thinking of adding one to the roof vent. No wiring and it will run when the sun shines :)
Having it only run when the sun shines might not be good. What if it is a very hot day, like in Florida, and it is cloudy at the same time? Or you park you RV in a shady area and it is still hot outside? If you have solar panels, you must have batteries. Best to connect the fans to your solar battery and have an automatic thermostat attached to the fans.
Only thing is with 3ways that they actually need heat, if you take the heat away from the boiler too much, it will run using more gas/electricity (we call propane gas) so you just have to be careful to help the exhaust exit without forcing it.
We want to renovate our Alpha See Ya. Do you have any videos showing your renovation? If so are they posted? Even pictures would work. Your color theme is exactly what I want. 😃
Hi there. Almost all of the pictures I have are in the 3 videos I have posted. The main thing was painted the walls a shade of white; painting the upper kitchen cabinets white, and the base a darker color. We used a high quality Sherwin Williams paint for the cabinets. Neutral color flooring. We removed some of the shelving doors as you can see to open up the shelves. We did very little to the upper bedroom area. We didn't paint up there. We didn't mind the area where we slept to be darker. Biggest 2 items are the flooring and the painting. Those 2 things can completely change the look of your RV.
@@iboughtarv6570 thank you
The weak point is those long screws attached with crazy glue. Driving down the road creates a lot of vibrations to break the super glue. And moisture and heat from the outside will also attack the crazy clue and weaken it. I can see the two screws breaking away from the vent very easily during your first (or second) RV trip.
Might be better to make the mounting more secure by getting some longer stainless steel bolts and make the bolts go through the vent itself. Then you can add some ss washers and ss lock washers that will help keep the bolts and fans from wiggling side to side while traveling.
great video...I followed your directions exactly...and I'm getting 70 degrees in Florida after running it for a day...exact same fans, fridge fan next to thermostat....freezer freezes, but cooler section...no bueno.....I guess it's 'results may vary?'....btw, this is in a 2 year old Air Stream...
Hi Ed, sorry you're having trouble, especially with such a new RV. Can you feel the hot air being blown out of the top vent outside? What model fridge do you have in your Air Stream?
@@iboughtarv6570 sorry about long delay...we just did a trip and I used frozen stuff to help cool down the fridge for a day...I also bought a new fridge thermometer...which now seems to have been part of the problem...the fans worked great!
@@badmarvinfl Great to hear!
SUPER helpful!!! thank you 😃👍
You're welcome!
Awesome video. I just got my blue fans and going to install them. Our last trip we had things go bad in the fridge so I’m hoping this works. Plus the LEDs look cool at night
Thank you! I hope it works for you too. It's been great for us, and yes, the lights are very cool! Blue will look awesome.
Good idea, good comments, lots of improvements and siggestions. I'd redo the video without the cheap music. it takes away from the quality of the video
Awesome! Thanks for sharing. I will be doing this soon.
Thanks for the great idea. Do you know how I would instal a thermostat inline to turn the fan on and off rather than leaving it on all the time? Thanks again.
I don't know, I'm sorry. I remember when I was planning to do this project seeing a guy somewhere on YT who talked about that, but I remember it meaning that I'd have to somehow tap into / wire in to the fridge. But installing a thermostat is a great idea.
Great job it does work ..
These fans are 2 speed (hi and low). Use an on off on switch and wire it properly and you get two speeds.
Thanks for the info, I just finished my installation of the fans. They work, but they don't turn very fast.
i know it's kinda off topic but do anyone know of a good place to stream newly released series online?
@Dennis Johnny I watch on FlixZone. You can find it on google =)
What a great job Thanks
Thanks for watching!
Good job.
This is my problem with these refrigerators, 40 degrees is not a safe temperature for food. It usually does not stay at 40 degrees with propane either. Food should be kept at 32 degrees. I personally think these refrigerators suck.
If you want your food frozen, sure. Water freezes at 32 degrees. 39-40 degrees is optimal for a fridge. For the freezer, the closer to 0 the better. 9 degrees is the magic temperature that ice cream remains ice cream.
I replaced mine with a residential unit the absorption refrigerators are garbage
When it’s hot, remove the bottom vent first to see how much difference it makes.
The fans up top won’t last long in 100 plus degree exterior heat. Need a thermostat on there too.
Can you explain and show a little more of what I wire which wire to. I just want to make sure I do it right. No experience doing this. But definetly need these fans for my refrigerator since I live in an area where it is super hot and has been over 100 degrees for the past month and a half.
this is all low voltage wiring. You should be able to see coloring on the wiring identifying that you have the same wires from each fan. Use a 9 volt battery to test that it works. It's a safe way to test that you have your wires together correctly.
This would be great if my trailers had an access panel at the top like that. Which neither one does.
you should probably get yourself a larger thermometer
haha! it is ridiculous that's the only one I had!
I like it!
Had anyone thought you were having a fire with those red leds?
I had one kind but inquisitive neighbor :) kinda looks that way
Thanks for sharing, I'll be doing this next week. Only nit-pick I noticed: Black Zip ties are UV protected, white will disintegrate when exposed to sunlight or fluorescent light. Just wondering if you tried to disable the LEDs? Seems like it might be a distraction on those nights you want to watch the stars.
gary a. usher I didn’t try to disable the LED’s, but it was on the other side of our RV, so it didn’t bother us. It’s an easy way to check and make sure it’s working.
Nice!
Am I wrong or do you have the fans blowing into the compartment?
Hi. No, the fans are blowing air out of the vent on the top. So it's drawing the air from inside and pushing it out the top vent, creating an airflow from bottom to top over those coils.
So not sure what i'm doing wrong but i bought the same exact fans (except the blue LED)....tried to test it with the 9v battery and neither fan works. Only so many combinations with 3 wires and i did ensure the 9v was working and had juice. I'm lost
Hi. Sorry you're having trouble. that is strange. Sounds like you did everything right. You stripped the wires properly I'm sure...There might be a better video on YT showing how to test something with a 9v battery. Hope you can get it resolved! The fan I had only had 3 wires, and they were marked pretty well.
I will be doing this diy fix this weekend, but was curious to see how I could make this run when a switch is flipped versus constant running?
West Texas Raider Hi. I didn’t add a switch, but I think it could be wired in between the power block (source) and your fans. Test it when connected to a 9 volt battery. Hope it goes smoothly for you! Thanks
When you put your fans in do they run all the time or are they wired into the same as fans on the Refrig?
Hi. Mine run all the time. Some have added a switch. they are not wired in to the fridge.
Where did you put the on off switch. Did you wire it up the stock way and just added a switch?
I did not install an on / off switch. I'm plugged in at the RV park, so I just let it run all the time.
I spent two hours trying to fish that line down-how and where did you get it down
Tracie Harris Sorry you’re having trouble with that. Do you have a ladder high enough to see down from the top vent? You should be able to see some kind of opening...I’m sure you’ve probably tried something like that. Tie something heavy to the end of your wire, or tape it to a stretched out wire coat hanger and carefully fish it down....🤔
Why wouldn't you add the link to the fans in the description?
www.amazon.com/dp/B009XERH8C/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_MYP4Eb4PHXFBX
I just got these in the mail. Wired them up. But the speed is very low. Straight to car battery. Still jist enough to move the hair on ur hands. Did I wire them wrong or do these just not put much out?
Carson Klick They don’t push a lot of air like a normal fan. There is an extra wire for high speed. Make sure you have that connected and you should be good. It just has to generate some air flow over the coils in the back.
Have you wired them in parallel?
I'm a little confused. I can do this project no problem but how do you wire the 12 volt power so it goes on and off as needed. I don't want a fan on constantly 24 hours to unnecessarily drain my battery as I boondock often. Thanks
You’ll have to add a switch in between the fan and the power block. I didn’t because I’m plugged in all the time. If you could figure out a way to locate the switch inside, that would be convenient. Hope it works for you.
@@iboughtarv6570 OK thanks. I wished I could figure a way to put a thermostat in so it would be automatic.
There is a fan on amazon that has a thermostat and switch.
@@philc.9280 Phil, you'll want something like this: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000PY7T7I/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 You can mount that on the fins and set at what temperature the fans will kick-in.
@@Appfan42 THANKS!!! I've been looking for one of these!
You should definitely have the fans sucking in from the bottom and exhausting from the top...
Heat rises
the goal is not to suck air in necessarily, but to push it out. the fans pushing the air out is what keeps the constant flow of air over those coils. because the warm air rises, the fans are there to push it out.
@@iboughtarv6570 again, the fans on the bottom vent should be blowing in towards the unit. The vents at the top should have exhaust fans
At least if your goal is to cool the unit
no clue@@Skiers_Snowboarders_Midwest
@connectasap trolling comments from 2 years ago... 🤣
And it's not rocket science, this is common knowledge on every RV forum.
So do the fans run all the time?
Mine do because I’m plugged in all the time. But you could easily add a switch in between to turn it on and off.
Make more!!!
Working on it! Thanks!