Rain blown in thru refrigerator outside louder vents when stored.

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decaturbob

decaturbob

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 31, 2015
Posts
532
Location
central Illinois
Recent rains with significant winds has blown water into refrigerator compartment and leaking out onto my floor. I know previous owner had new fridge put in a couple of years before I bought the Tioga so I'm not sure if something was left out from the install. I see nothing stopping this from happening. No collection pan under the unit, no deflector/shield redirecting the wind blown rain thru the louvers on the high and low panel vents. Any ideas?
 
Photos of the upper and lower vents would help. Most are designed to adequately deflect blown rain, though they aren't foolproof.

I wonder if yours was mounted upside down, so that the vent holes are at the bottom rather than under the overhang? This photo shows an upside down sidewall vent/access panel.

https://www.amazon.com/Dometic-3109492-003-Polar-White-Lower/dp/B004MEB6KS

It should be installed like this:  http://www.dyersonline.com/dometic-polar-white-20-side-vent-assembly.html
 
The vent covers are mounted right. I had a problem here the first few months and did some rigging on the inside of vent cover, which help a lot. I was just curious if the fridge unit sat in a pan assembly that would capture rain water and drain it out. Right now, I don't see how a driving rain would not come in and leak under the fridge onto the floor.
 
Typically there is no pan. It would take a real strong wind to blow the rain upwards to get into the vent holes. Whatever you do, DO NOT plug these holes up in any way at all or install any type of baffle. You need the holes for proper ventilation.
 
Agree with Rene. It should be rare that enough rain gets blown in there to need a pan, and where would the pan drain to anyway?    I've seen some wetness after a storm, but never enough to need anything to catch it.  There must be something unique about your location that is causing the wind to drive upwards along the sidewall and pushing a lot of rain into the vent holes.  I suppose you could fashion some sort of external baffle to divert the wind. Even a second mesh screen on the outside might do it, breaking the wind force and splattering the water before it reaches the vent itself.
 
Gary RV_Wizard said:
Agree with Rene. It should be rare that enough rain gets blown in there to need a pan, and where would the pan drain to anyway?    I've seen some wetness after a storm, but never enough to need anything to catch it.  There must be something unique about your location that is causing the wind to drive upwards along the sidewall and pushing a lot of rain into the vent holes.  I suppose you could fashion some sort of external baffle to divert the wind. Even a second mesh screen on the outside might do it, breaking the wind force and splattering the water before it reaches the vent itself.
Click to expand...

that describes what I put on the louvers on the inside and worked pretty well into we some big winds and 3in of rain.
 
If the unit is in storage. FRIDGE OFF.. Why not remove the door slip a big plastic bag over it and replace it. Just punch through for the locks

That way the lovers are covered. then come spring when you go to de-weinterizer. remove bag?

No muss. No fuss and one trash bag (About 1 cent)
 
so this only happens when in storage and not while you are using it??
 
I think the direction the RV is facing in storage is the big influence at this point. We have had issues before and my first try at fixing made a difference.
 
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