D333RTL Refrigerator Vent

With a fridge in a slide, it's pretty well required that there's a fan in there to pull air up and out.  That ~1' more distance you get with a roof-top fridge vent makes a huge difference in the convection volume needed for an absorption fridge to work well.  I do know people who have installed fans even if they do have the rooftop vent for better cooling.

I did watch a video on YT where a guy made a sheet metal shroud to both block off some of the excess voids around the top of the fridge as well as to help direct more airflow out the vent.  He did not add a fan(s), just made the airflow way more efficient.  Was a mobile RV repair tech.

Later: Found the video I was referring to: youtu.be/DxUnW7gudEE.

Lyle

Here is a video that most likely will show you the location of your fan, it's at the 1:45 mark. My 2015 Durango 345SE had the same type of fan in the same location. The video also shows you one way to mount your own set of fans which would probably work much better.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wVTP89-Btg&ab_channel=CharlesCoushaine


This is another pretty good video on the upgrade.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=urVLYzf-7jA&ab_channel=IBoughtaRV



I did this upgrade with a few minor changes this spring, but haven't had a chance to test it yet. Hope this helps.

The Norcold N400 in my 2019 Escape E161RB doesn't vent to the roof either and I learned, after losing all of my food several times, that it was incapable of keeping it'self cold enough to be used.  The dealer for some reason always said there were no problems with it, but I think they knew of this problem and just didn't know how to fix it or were unwilling to. When I questioned them about adding fans they told me they would add one fan to the lower vent and it would cost $150.  Yeah right that wasn't going to do it for me So, I drew up a schematic diagram of what I wanted to install and then went shopping for all of the parts and installed them myself.

The following pictures and links should help you out but please ask back if you have any questions.  First I needed to see what size fans I could actually install in these small spaces behind the wall vents.  I needed incoming ventillation at the bottom vent and outgoing ventillation at the top vent.  The top vents are actually a bit more important than the bottom so I wanted to get as much airflow as possible in this tight space. So measure the free space that you have and then go shopping on line for small computer boxer fans.  You'll most likely need to convert from cm to inches with most of the dimensions that the fans come in.  

Here are some pictures that will show what I installed and then I can describe them a bit.
Well, seems the pictures don't upload automatically so I'm unable to post descriptions below each picture.  

* The first picture is a conduit fitting that can be purchased at Home Depot and I used it to attach the fans to the refrigerator piping.
* I was able to fit one larger fan in the bottom compartment.  This fan needs to be installed so it's sucking air in from the outside
* This is a picture of a fused switch to turn all the fans on and off together.  It must be fused as a safety precaution and it all stays on the entire time I'm using the fridge.
* This is a terminal strip that I used to attach all of the wires to from the circuit that I created.  This is a bit complex in that there are jumpers needed but not something anyone can do.  Using the terminal strip I can easily change out a failed fan or switch and know what I'm doing by referencing my schematic and line diagram.
*  The two wires within the yellow circle are the incoming and outgoing power wires for the fridge.  This is where I removed incoming positive wire and connected it to my terminal strip.
* The upper vent space was alot smaller then the bottom space, but I was able to install two smaller fans in this location.  They must be installed to blow outwards.
*  This pictures shows how the conduit clamp is used
*  This is a picture of the schematic diagram I created along with a wiring diagram.

I'll try to post in another window since I have more pictures but can't post them now since it says I'm maxed out for this post.

That very small upper vent might be a problem, I have the larger vent at both the top and bottom but your smaller fridge probably doesn't have the room. What I found on mine was faulty installation, there was no top baffle and some more minor issues. In addition to the faulty installation, there was a large pile of insulation blocking air flow. My suggestion is for everybody, find the installation manual and carefully check all dimensions and baffles before adding fans that might restrict camping without hookups.