Towing and fridge vent
Evening,
This is a last minute question, but we are off on our second trip soon and I've been told by the site that we can pitch up as soon as we can arrive. That being I was planning to turn fridge on during our journey there (only an hour drive).
Can I ask:
1. When towing with the fridge on does the exterior fridge vent need to be off or kept on?
2. I know you need to set the fridge setting to car, but do you need to turn the Master electric switch on or does the fridge car setting bypass those electrics? Guessing not.
Many thanks
Phil.
Comments
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You can leave your vent covers off when towing. Covers are only required when .....
No need to do anything with the electric, the fridge will be powered up regardless
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Hi Phil,
in my understanding, drawing from the car battery is too low to power the fridge enough to reach operating temperature. If you store at home, pre-cool the night before on gas, or electric from your mains (you will need an adaptor to plug into household mains). As we store away from home, I take a minimum of fresh produce in a cool bag with several cooler blocks and these go into the fridge as soon as I arrive. This helps bring down the temperature. Some people freeze milk or juice cartons and put them in.
I haven't had anything spoil. Happy caravanning!
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We do the same, as we store away from home. In one hour there will only be minimum cooling. We leave any fridge food in a cold bag with cold packs until we arrive and are able to power it up fully on gas or electric. Once fully cold the 12 volt cooling is fine for moving between sites in our experience.
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Thanks - was planning to plug into mains for a few hours before we go and then maybe turn over to car to keep it cooling. The actual food will be kept in a box to keep cool. Just from my experience it takes a long time to cool a fridge down so wanting to give it a helping hand before setting off and while driving.
Thanks for the link I notice it mentions "A vent cover for caravan fridge units is not just for overwinter storage. If you use your caravan in winter, when temperatures drop below 8 degrees C, absorption fridges lose their efficiency,". Since over the next few nights it is due to get to 2 overnight is it best to put the cover on overnight?
Thanks.
Phil.
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+ 1. It’ll be fine.
I’d not worry about packing your food in a cool box either. It’ll be chilled from your domestic fridge and will be OK in the van fridge which itself is an insulated box. Plug the van in and run the fridge on mains for several hours first and it’ll be cooling down nicely so your pre-chilled food will stay that way. Our first two caravans didn’t have fridges and we survived.
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Just to give an idea of how good a " cool box " a caravan fridge is, we left Dublin a couple of years ago for an 8 hour ferry trip back to Liverpool. Our fully pre-cooled Thetford fridge was turned completely off for the journey as per the P&O ferry requirements. On arrival back into the UK, when we turned it on again, the ice cubes in the ice compartment were still frozen and everything in the fridge was still chilled. Re the winter vents, I usually fit ours in November and have only just removed them ready for our May outing.
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I have never found the need to use fridge vent covers as the fridge has always operated fine with three different vans over last 14 years from end of March until start of October and two weeks each December. The longest that our fridge is off between sites is about 4 or 5 hours and even in 30c temps I never turn to car battery as the fridge as Justus says, is an excellent cool box
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The only time I had any problem in chilling the fridge was about 7 or 8 years ago when the caravan was on the drive ready for our December break. Night time temps -14 C and below freezing most of the day. I put the heating on in the caravan to warm it up and then the fridge worked fine.
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I think you will need to switch on the battery power and switch the fridge to Battery, take off the vents you won't need them till its very cold or when its stored, if you can plug your caravan into mains for a couple of days to cool the fridge and charge the battery thus saving your car altenator having to do all the hard work of charging 2 batteries running & Fridge from scratch
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I have never see much point in pre chilling the fridge, by the time you have filled it with food from the house fridge it will take on the temperature of the food you have just put in it. It iss usually the last thing I do before setting of and I have always done this and never had any problems.
Fitting fridge vents when below 8/10C is all about operating the fridge efficiently. I suppose if electricity is included in the pitch fee some are not too concerned about the extra power used to maintain cooling!
peedee
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Always pre chill the fridge. When on 12v the fridge will not cool down it just keeps it cool whilst you travel. I just turn 'master' off and switch fridge to 'battery' setting before we depart - part of my pre departure check. Never used vent covers as we do not do cold weather caravanning!
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I have never, ever used a fridge vent cover, and actually have never had one.
It's a good idea to switch the caravan fridge on at home to get it cold for the journey as the connection to the car will only do it's best to keep it at the same temperature. If you can't do that, put something really cold in the fridge, but if its ice, do make sure it is in a sealed container.
To be honest, e very rarely travel with stuff in the fridge anyway - we tend to shop as soon as we arrive on site.
Remember when you are towing, switch the fridge to battery. When you are on site switch it to electric or gas according to taste!!!
David
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After losing the contents of our fridge and small freezer compartment last summer when it failed to work on gas (non ehu rally) we discovered that the fridge should have been pre-cooled for longer than we thought and we had also over loaded it preventing cool air circulation. We always use vent covers below 8C as this helps the fridge efficiency too. So if you might be needing gas on a site it's worth reading the manual!
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Another reason we pre chill the fridge on mains is its just another pre check ticked off as two years ago doing it we found out that the circuit board on the fridge had blown it was replaced we went on holiday and as a precaution vent covers are now fitted while the van is stored
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We shop upon arrival so dont bother turning the fridge on - I put the covers on and leave them there whiilst the van is in store and also on the road until arrival on site. Not sure how weather proof the vents are whilst driving in rain without the covers so I just leave them in place until the fridge is needed.
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and when washing outside of vehicle