Refrigerator Cooling Time

[rfhall]

We have a 2020 28MKS and it seems that it is taking longer and longer for our refrigerator to cool after we hook up at the campgrounds. How long should it take for the refrigerator to cool down so you can start placing items in it?

[OurNewEra]

We have a 2020 28MKS and it seems that it is taking longer and longer for our refrigerator to cool after we hook up at the campgrounds. How long should it take for the refrigerator to cool down so you can start placing items in it?

When we bring our trailer home before a trip we plug it in and it will take our Dometic 24 hours to cool before we start putting stuff in it. While opinions vary, we travel with our fridge running on propane.

If we waited until we got to a campground on a weekend trip there would be no point in using it. We would be leaving before it was cool enough.

[BillinTexas]

Ours is about 24 hrs.

[flyfshrockies]

rfhall I agree with the above comment about not cooling until arriving at a camp ground. We have always traveled with the fridge on gas, though most of the new manuals warn against it, must be a liability and lawyer thing. 40 years and not a problem. You can find reports on line from Fire Marshalls and State Troopers about never seeing a fire from an r.v. accident that was caused solely by the fridge being run, just my opinion and YOU must decide, however, I think it is silly not to use the fridge, that is what it is for. I believe much of the current hysteria over running the fridge while traveling comes from folks who know nothing of real facts and have lots of internet opinion created by the ill informed. Our Dometic in our 2600RB gets seriously cool within 6 hours, freezer down to zero. You have a fridge, use it and have fun. This is kind if a soap box issue for me and my experienced friends.

Dave

[Yoda]

We have a 2020 28MKS and it seems that it is taking longer and longer for our refrigerator to cool after we hook up at the campgrounds. How long should it take for the refrigerator to cool down so you can start placing items in it?

Mine takes 8 to 12 hours to cool down and 24 to reach final temp and that is practically empty. I run down the road using the propane setting.

[Scott'n'Wendy]

While I haven't timed it, I always turn on the fridge at least 24 hours before loading it at home. Stays on until I get back from camping.

[Twinriver21]

We have a 231RK and we were wondering the same thing. The freezer gets cold really fast but the refrigerator takes forever. I am going to say at least 24 hours.

[NoPeeking]

I turn the refrigerator on the day before travel and place a bag of ice in the freezer and pre-chilled beverages in the fridge. This speeds up the cooling process. Avoid adding warm items initially.

[dmlconcord]

Thanks for all the responses! Very helpful. We just got back from our Maiden Voyage this past weekend. Great trip but was surprised how long the refrigerator took to get cold. I kept thinking I was doing something wrong. Good suggestion "NoPeeking" regarding the bag of ice. For what it's worth, we have an smaller refrigerator outside on our 2670MK and that thing cooled down quick!

[Dennis66]

What we do is pre freeze and cool everything going into fridge. I turn mine on a day before packing and travel with propane on. You can purchase a gas stop for propane bottle which shuts off propane if a leak is detected

[OurNewEra]

Thanks for all the responses! Very helpful. We just got back from our Maiden Voyage this past weekend. Great trip but was surprised how long the refrigerator took to get cold. I kept thinking I was doing something wrong. Good suggestion "NoPeeking" regarding the bag of ice. For what it's worth, we have an smaller refrigerator outside on our 2670MK and that thing cooled down quick!

The smaller fridge is a conventional 120v compressor fridge. So yes it will cool down much quicker than the absorption refrigerator.

[KrustyKush]

We've got a new 2022 Transcend 200MK with a Furrion fridge. We've only been out once, for a two day camp mainly to de-bug the new trailer. We treated this new fridge the same as we did our previous trailer, an Airstream Bambi with a much smaller electric-only fridge. Morning of departure, I move the trailer to level ground and turn on the fridge. I put a dish of ice into the freezer, and let it run until we leave. By the time we left six hours later, the fridge was nice and cold, the freezer had frost on the walls of it. Our fridge is 12v only, no propane. We run the fridge while running on the highway. It was nice and cold throughout the camp trip last week. I doubt that this fridge will take anything like 24 hours to get to final cold level. Six hours seemed to do just fine.

[Scott.n.Tira]

Just for comparison, I picked up our trailer from storage today, it was 105°, inside and out.

After 8 hours the freezer was down to 10°. WOW! Nearly 100 degrees drop!

However.....
The refrigerator was only down to about 81° inside. (78 high up according to my temperature gun, 85 at the bottom shelf)

16 hr UPDATE: the next morning the freezer was down to zero to 2 above, and the refrigerator portion was 55°

27 hr UPDATE: Went to load the fridge tonight, and the freezer was still hovering around 0°, and the fridge was upper 40's.


That is fine enough for keeping food cool, but I would have liked it colder for keeping beer cool. ;-)
Over the weekend camping trip (temps down to 70's!! it never cooled below 44 or so in the refrigerator.
I'll look up previous posts about seals sealing. (thanks John)

One thing I noticed, the inside left wall of the fridge near the outside of the coach, was 7 or 8 degrees warmer than the other wall.

I guess I should add it's a Dometic gas/electric and the above numbers were running on electricity.

your mileage may vary.

[JBill9694]

Scott.n.Tira you may want to check the door seals on the fridge, if you haven't already. From personal experience and several threads on this forum it seems to be fairly common for the fridge doors to require shimming to get a good seal.

[BillinTexas]

FYI about cooling the frig. We started it early afternoon yesterday prepping to leave in a couple of days. I placed 6 frozen water bottles on the shelf in the freezer and 6 in the door. By 6 PM, the frig was cold enough for food. I turned it down from 5 snowflakes to 3. Ours is a Norcold 7.0 cuft. and the outdoor temp was around 90. AC set at 78.