Dometic 4-Door 1350 Fridge Modifications to Help with Cooling

[howson]

Thank you Howard. The video that you posted is very helpful. I will definitely remove the baffle myself.

Does anyone have any pre & post experience with the fridge temps to share?

I've made so many mods to mine I didn't notice any difference with the baffle removal. A replacement (either 12v or residential) is in my future plans.

A couple of threads that may be of interest:

https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...ntenance-video

https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...a-2019-315rlts

https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...d-temperatures

If you've got a specific problem with your fridge, Jason, please feel free to start a new thread.

[jxwilliamson]

Thank you! This is very helpful information. My wife and I are in the process of downsizing and moving into our Reflection for full-time living and traveling. I'm attempting to read everything that I can and watch as many videos as possible before we hit the road.

[jxwilliamson]

Just reviewed the installation instructions for my Dometic fridge and although there's some conflicting information there appears to be some clarity as well. Page 16 simply states that for upper and lower side vent applications "a baffle should be added" (see picture attached). However page 22 section 5.5 recess depth says "Max. 1" (without baffle)", picture also attached.

Just thought this was worth sharing.

[hd1340m]

Just purchased a 2019 315rlts with Dometic 1350 4 door frig a month ago and am also having cooling issues. I did a lot of research the last few weeks and was able to improve the cooling slightly by adding 4 small radial fans to the top heat vent. My plywood baffle partially blocks the upper fins by about a 1/4 inch. I can't even see if the rear fans are operational because of this baffle. I seem to have issues with humidity also being here in the Savannah GA area. I noticed that the last post here was from Feb and was wondering if there was a definitive resolution to this issue. Has anyone finally been able to resolve this issue? Thanks in Advance HD1340m

[jxwilliamson]

Just purchased a 2019 315rlts with Dometic 1350 4 door frig a month ago and am also having cooling issues. I did a lot of research the last few weeks and was able to improve the cooling slightly by adding 4 small radial fans to the top heat vent. My plywood baffle partially blocks the upper fins by about a 1/4 inch. I can't even see if the rear fans are operational because of this baffle. I seem to have issues with humidity also being here in the Savannah GA area. I noticed that the last post here was from Feb and was wondering if there was a definitive resolution to this issue. Has anyone finally been able to resolve this issue? Thanks in Advance HD1340m

For what it's worth my positive changes only happened by placing a fan inside the fridge. I live in south Texas where humidity and temperatures are high. I started with a cheap $6 USB fan from Walmart then upgraded to a set of fans mounted on the fins. I tried baffle in and out with no noticeable differences.

First inexpensive attempt: https://youtu.be/BwuXY8U8e3I

Ultimate solution that I ended up: https://rvcoolingunit.com/RM1350-4-D...-P5920372.aspx

[hd1340m]

So today I finally took the top vent enclosure all the way off the trailer to see if I could get to the fan thermostat on the condenser. The wire that provides power to the fans had broken off the thermostat. None of the four fans were operating. I was able to fish the wire that had fallen down inside the cavity back out the top vent and connect both wires together. The fans started running leaving me to believe that the fans had not been running for some time and was the problem. Being I only had this 315rlts a month and it is only a little over a year old I would not have suspected that to occur. There is also no way to change out the thermostat without either removing the baffle or pulling the refrigerator out a foot or so. I am now in the testing phase with the fans running constantly. The volume of air coming out of the top vent is tremendous. I believe I will need to install some type of thermostat for normal fan operation when the temperatures are back down into the 70's and below though. Thanks for the reply and I will look into the interior fans also. HD1340m

[Todd Ford]

I feel your pain. We struggled with ours for two years, had it looked at at the rally by Grand Design and Dometic. Finally this spring on my way back from Florida I'd had enough. I removed the RV fridge and installed a residential unit. We're just back from a four month trip out west to California and back down to Florida and it performed flawlessly. Easily twice the usable space of the Dometic and it actually cools my food.

It's my form belief that the bigger RV absorption fridges just can't keep up in the hot weather, especially when in a slide.

Hello,

We have the same rig. Would use please share which refrigerator you replaced the dometic with. We are looking to do the same thing.

Thanks,

Todd

[howson]

After my recent rant about my Dometic refrigerator I turned on the Elitech RC-51H temp measuring device and popped it in the refrigerator. Just got home and ran the data.

TucsonJim posted in his refrigerator study that the temperature should be 40F or less. (If you haven't read the thread or his study, see https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...tures#post1846)

Here's my results (and I've got so many fans running my trailer sounds like a C-130 ready for takeoff):


I think it is easy to draw a conclusion from the evidence.

Howard

[ncitro]

After my recent rant about my Dometic refrigerator I turned on the Elitech RC-51H temp measuring device and popped it in the refrigerator. Just got home and ran the data.

TucsonJim posted in his refrigerator study that the temperature should be 40F or less. (If you haven't read the thread or his study, see https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...tures#post1846)

Here's my results (and I've got so many fans running my trailer sounds like a C-130 ready for takeoff):


I think it is easy to draw a conclusion from the evidence.

Howard

Well it works good at night I guess :(

[TucsonJim]

Manufacturers badly need to come up with a 4-door DC refrigerator. As a comparison. We had the main electrical panel in our house replaced a couple of days ago. So we knew we'd be without power for most of the day. I decided to move our perishable items from the house to the RV reefer. I turned it on, and 3-1/2 hours later, it was at 33°F. I moved our food into it and came back to check in a couple of hours. The temp in the refrigerator was now 29°F. I had to turn the temperature back up or our food would freeze! This was with the outside temperature at 104°F and the temp inside the RV at 109°F!

the problem is my reefer is only 10 cubic feet. Most owners want one larger than that. From what I understand, the 4-door versions are under development, and they may have a dual compressor set up. It will function primarily on one compressor, but the second one will kick in for added cooling when needed. Once they are introduced, I think we'll be spending a lot of time explaining amp hour usage, battery bank size and solar arrays to keep them running.

Jim

[ncitro]

Manufacturers badly need to come up with a 4-door DC refrigerator. As a comparison. We had the main electrical panel in our house replaced a couple of days ago. So we knew we'd be without power for most of the day. I decided to move our perishable items from the house to the RV reefer. I turned it on, and 3-1/2 hours later, it was at 33°F. I moved our food into it and came back to check in a couple of hours. The temp in the refrigerator was now 29°F. I had to turn the temperature back up or our food would freeze! This was with the outside temperature at 104°F and the temp inside the RV at 109°F!

the problem is my reefer is only 10 cubic feet. Most owners want one larger than that. From what I understand, the 4-door versions are under development, and they may have a dual compressor set up. It will function primarily on one compressor, but the second one will kick in for added cooling when needed. Once they are introduced, I think we'll be spending a lot of time explaining amp hour usage, battery bank size and solar arrays to keep them running.

Jim

I would gladly spend all day explaining that to go in that direction.

[TucsonJim]

I would gladly spend all day explaining that to go in that direction.

And just think. No more towing with the gas turned on. And as long as you have enough solar to recharge the batteries, you can run for years without shore power or propane.

Jim

[ncitro]

And just think. No more towing with the gas turned on. And as long as you have enough solar to recharge the batteries, you can run for years without shore power or propane.

Jim

I mean I’m essentially doing that now with the residential, I’m just wasting power making it into AC first lol. Would love to remove that step, although the space in the residential is nice.

[Whatzleft]

I just wanted to take a second and add to the baffle in the back thingie. After reading on here about the 1" clearance I removed mine as it was closer than a inch. Unbelievable difference it has made. I did this about 6 weeks ago, and was going to try and run some before/after test, and just got caught up in other things. But I wanted yo come back and comment on how well my fridge has done since then. Before it would stay 35-39, sometimes I would see 40-42. Now I am seeing a steady 33 degrees all the night and day, cloudy or sunny. A constant 33 degrees. For the last couple of weeks we've been home and have RV plugged in, fridge running, nothing in it, closed up, 90 degree days, in the sun.... Still hasn't come off 33 degrees. I did add fans some 18-20 months ago to the inside cooling fins which helped at the time.

What I seen was that this so called baffle had 2 of the 3 top vent openings closed off, so I'm wondering how much hot air even escaped. Fans were cycling every few minutes. With the baffle gone, fans don't cycle as much, and when they come on I can feel the air coming out of the vent openings. I thought at first the baffle was just placed too high up, so I saved it thinking I could lower it if taking it out didn't help. I still have that baffle but as of over 6 weeks or so monitoring these temps I'm cool and happy. And yes been on a couple of trips, fridge packed full of goodies, constant 33 degrees, in the sun.


So in closing, I wish I had took before/after fan cycle times, and heat numbers back there, but really without proper equipment, and perfect conditions ambient temp wise, sun shining, cloudy, humidity, ect. Not sure those numbers would have been real scientific. The numbers that really matter to me is that constant 33 degrees my fridge is maintaining. 6 degrees in the freezer. I will take it. Hope this helps, and thanks to those on here in this post that guided me to try some things concerning this. AZ Jim, thank you always for all you've done and do.

[Branog]

Our 315RLTS with the Norcold refrigerator is not cooling as expected. When I removed the upper vent cover, there is the wood paneling which seems to be blocking the vent cover. Should this be removed?