I couldn't run my fridge in my mom's ( steeply sloped ) driveway during a recent trip, but wanted to pre-cool the fridge before we left, and found that stainless steel mixing bowls filled with ice, and then placed ( one in the freezer and one touching the cooling fins in the fridge ) so they were touching the metal fridge parts did an excellent job of transfering the heat, and pre-cooled the fridge to a nice low temp in just a couple of hours. I think the heat conducting properties of the metal bowls is the thing - the fridge was down from 75 to 45 in no time, and all the metal parts of the fridge were nice and cold before we lit it for the return trip. Hope someone finds this useful -
minor tip - pre-cooling the fridge
- Thread starter patsdad
- Start date
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Karl
Moderator Emeritus
Excellent tip (although I prefer to keep my ice cubes for other purposes ;D) You hit on the key item here - the metal bowls touching the metal fridge parts for maximum heat transfer, and very smart of you to not use it when the angle is too steep! Front-to-back and side-to-side are equally important.
Blues Chaser
Member
Curious - just installed brand new Dometic after death of 16-year old original. New instructions mention leveling but say "sufficient for comfortable living in unit" or words to that effect. Have they increased the off-level tolerance? On those black external level things gradeD 1, 2, 3 etc, what's an acceptABLE TILT?
Karl
Moderator Emeritus
Generally, 10 degrees or less tilt from vertical, fore and aft or side-to-side, would be acceptable. If you are able to stand or walk about without feeling a noticeable tilt, you're probably o.k.
Gasser
Well-known member
Any problem throwing in a piece of dry Ice to get the ball rolling? No water to worry with, don't need a bowl and should get it nice and cold in there. Small piece woiuld not get it below freezing but should get all the metal parts down to temp. My local walmart carries Dry ice for trips.
Just a thought
Just a thought
Karl
Moderator Emeritus
And a very interesting thought too! Wow, some of youse guys are pretty inventive 
One thing you might want to consider is placing it in the center of one of the racks so no single area gets too cold, and a small 12V fan to circulate the 'air', as CO2 would sink to the bottom. I installed a computer fan in mine, hooked up to the interior light power (bypassing the door switch so it runs all the time), to even out the temp throughout the unit. Works great!
One thing you might want to consider is placing it in the center of one of the racks so no single area gets too cold, and a small 12V fan to circulate the 'air', as CO2 would sink to the bottom. I installed a computer fan in mine, hooked up to the interior light power (bypassing the door switch so it runs all the time), to even out the temp throughout the unit. Works great!
Gasser
Well-known member
Great Idea. I will give it a try on my first outing.Karl said:And a very interesting thought too! Wow, some of youse guys are pretty inventive?
One thing you might want to consider is placing it in the center of one of the racks so no single area gets too cold, and a small 12V fan to circulate the 'air', as CO2 would sink to the bottom. I installed a computer fan in mine, hooked up to the interior light power (bypassing the door switch so it runs all the time), to even out the temp throughout the unit. Works great!
Jeff
Gasser
Well-known member
Jeff /Washington said:
Well, I bet that would get quite expensive as a sole method of keeping that thing cool as every time you opened the door, all the cold C02 gas would run out onto the floor. But for pre-cooling the fridge it may be a good jump start compared to the cost of propane or electricity overnite before departure.
Riverdog
Well-known member
I've found using dry ice works quite well. What I usually do is pre-cool with electricity then if I'm going on a long trip I throw some dry ice in for the day since my fridge tends to blow out during travel. It works great & keeps everything cool.Gasser said:
Carl L
Moderator Emeritus
Gasser said:
Be careful. Dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide CO2. From Wikipedia's article on carbon dioxide:
The U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safey and Health limits brief exposures (up to ten minutes) to 3% and considers concentrations exceeding 4% as "immediately dangerous to life and health." People who breathe 5% carbon dioxide for more than half an hour show signs of acute hypercapnia, while breathing 7%?10% carbon dioxide can produce unconsciousness in only a few minutes. Carbon dioxide, either as a gas or as dry ice, should be handled only in well-ventilated areas
The inside of an RV is not necessarily a well ventilated place. Carbon dioxide can kill.
Actually a good way to speed cooling is to run the fridge on propane as opposed to 12O VAC.
Gasser
Well-known member
Well, on our last trip to the lake we precooled our fridge with dry ice. worked great!!!!. My wife actually put in too much and we had a little ice in our milk. The milk was close to the chunk of dry ice. We kept it in some separate plastic bowls. There really would be no problem with CO2 gas considering how heavy Co2 is and the short time you will be using it. Also, an RV is not that air tight. It really worked well in the freezer. We only turned the fridge on when leaving and left it on while driving down to the lake. Once there, we took the dry ice out and let the kids play with it in some water in the sink in our friends double wide trailer. They thought all the heavy white smoke settling to the floor was great. Great opportunity to teach some science to the kids. Can we say sublimation! ;D
We buy margarita mix in a bag, fill it and freeze at home before a trip. The day before the trip we turn on the fridge and put one in the freezer and one in the fridge to help it get cold. The fridge gets cold quicker and you have a tasty beverage when you get to your campsite
Gasser
Well-known member
Now we are starting to think!!! ;D? I will try that next time.? I may need to make several batches to fill up my 4 door norcoldcopnurse said:
