Refrigerator Cooling Fan

[Wayfinder]

6 minutes ago, mossemi said:

Have you opened the 6" round hatch plate in the cabinet above the microwave and checked the switch wiring?

Mossey

I did months ago when I was troubleshooting that fan.  The wire going up to the switch provides no voltage at all and the switch itself seems to be working fine. Not sure when it comes from. Was not looking forward to pulling out the fridge just for that.  I may run all new wires to power on/off the new Beech Lane twin fans. We'll see.

Edited July 29, 2024 by Wayfinder

[Wayfinder]

@jd1923 and @Ronbrink did a great job laying out what they did to tie in the new Beech Lane fans.  I just wasn't "getting it" at first what @jd1923 had done, since we seem to have the same fridge setup.  Even with pictures in color I was not "seeing it".  LOL. Now I get it thanks to Mike adding my own picture back to me.  Nice!

I've just ordered my Beech Lane and will be attempting the same setup.

Thanks again, and again, and again, to everyone participating.  We need to get together someday and talk in person. Maybe a non-rally technical gathering.  

Heck, we could even do a Zoom call or something like that someday.  That would be fun too.

Edited July 29, 2024 by Wayfinder

[mossemi]

8 hours ago, Wayfinder said:

Now I get it thanks to Mike adding my own picture back to me.

Don’t take my word for any electrical source in your Ollie, be sure to verify your own voltage source!

Mossey

[Wayfinder]

On 7/29/2024 at 8:17 AM, mossemi said:

Have you opened the 6" round hatch plate in the cabinet above the microwave and checked the switch wiring?

Mossey

Yeah, I checked the switch and the wire going to the switch. Switch seems to work fine. No power from the inbound wire. 

I should check again to ensure I checked correctly. Sounds like someone else had the same issue. 

This full time job of mine has got to go away. It's cutting I to my fun time. 

Edited August 3, 2024 by Wayfinder

[jd1923]

2 hours ago, Wayfinder said:

Yeah, I checked the switch and the wire going to the switch. Switch seems to work fine. No power from the inbound wire.

Often toggle switches terminate the ground and will NOT show 12VDC. I never tested mine, since when it was ON there was no power to the fan even when bypassing the thermal switch. I ran new wires. I used the main switch to connect ground to the new Beech Lane fan circuit.

i suggest new wires everywhere. I cut off all the old blue and red 20 AWG wires and replaced with automotive grade 14 AWG wiring. Pics above and I’ll keep an eye here for any questions as you progress with your mod.

Edited August 3, 2024 by jd1923

[Wayfinder]

I have not installed the Beach Lane Twin fans yet, but I did just verify they work and noted how much they use per manual setting, at least indoors with ambient temps around 75 degrees. There are impressively quiet, even at 100%. And they move some serious air.  Make a nice decorative wooden enclosure and they'd be better than any desktop fan you could buy.  Would keep you cool at night for sure!  Hmmmm!

• Speed  - Watts Used
• 50%  -  0.6w
• 60%  -  1.2w
• 70%  -  2.05w
• 80%  -  3.2w
• 90%  -  4.6w
• 100% - 6.6w

Edited August 14, 2024 by Wayfinder

[Wayfinder]

On 7/29/2024 at 8:17 AM, mossemi said:

Have you opened the 6" round hatch plate in the cabinet above the microwave and checked the switch wiring?

Mossey

Yes, that's how I tested the switch. 

 

 

[Wayfinder]

For now, I have a problem my Domestic. It will not go to level 5 on the eyebrow board. I can only set it to #4. It seems like the lights sort of flicker when trying #5. The check like does not go on, but there's a quick flicker. 

Has anyone seen this behavior?  I've not found much on the Internet about that. So #4 setting really cannot keep temperatures down to proper level if the inside of the camper gets warm. The fridge will hover around 45 to 48 degrees when camper is warm but if camper is cool, say 77 degrees, then fridge will maintain 35 and freezer around 7 degrees. 

This behavior is on all three power settings, propane, AC, and DC. 

Could this be a board issue?  

 

[jd1923]

12 hours ago, Wayfinder said:

Could this be a board issue?

Given you cannot get the #5 position to stay on after selecting it, can only be the board. We usually run ours in the #4 position, saving #5 for when we might need it. Did you work the new fan installation? 

[Wayfinder]

14 hours ago, jd1923 said:

Given you cannot get the #5 position to stay on after selecting it, can only be the board. We usually run ours in the #4 position, saving #5 for when we might need it. Did you work the new fan installation? 

Not yet for the new fan but have a quick work around for the existing fan when needed. 

[Geronimo John]

On 8/3/2024 at 10:03 AM, Wayfinder said:

No power from the inbound wire. (At the existing switch)

Suggest jumping a wire from one of the other switche input terminal.  The Beech Lane does not pull much power.  

[Galway Girl]

Added a cooling fan following many other installations in our 3 way Norcold.

Fan mounted by bolting onto a shall sheet of screen door panel from Home Depot.
Air flows up from the heat chamber around back side of the panel and forced out vent slots by fans.
Unit held in place with high temp furnace aluminum tape.
Used high temp race for wires down to the bottom chamber where the control is mounted and wired into +12 / GND.

Hope this helps anyone else doing a similar mounting process.

Pix 1: Upper Vent area:  

Fans wouldn't fit directly onto vent cover due to space, so I chose to mount it at an angle that blows the hot air directly out the vents (which are slanted that direction). 

 

Wiring in the controller to the +12 and GND took a bit of cable splicing and re-building.
In hindsight, if I'd had 3-way cable crimp connectors it would have been easier to wire in the controller.

 

Craig - Hull 505

[Wayfinder]

On 7/29/2024 at 8:17 AM, mossemi said:

Have you opened the 6" round hatch plate in the cabinet above the microwave and checked the switch wiring?

Mossey

I did.  It's deader than a door nail. Would likely need to pull the fridge out to find the break or re-wire to alternate location.  Motivation low.

[TimD]

I'm continuing to work on the Beech Lane aux fan install.  I will post pics when done.  Meanwhile I discovered our trailer already has a fan on the 'fridge coils!  Not sure it is operational.  I don't think it is very effective.  The clue was the black & red wire pair running from the electronics module on the back of the 'fridge upwards towards the evaporator coils.  I did not RTFM to determine whether the fan speed is controlled by the 'fridge.

The Beech Lane fans should make this redundant but getting it out would require removing the 'fridge, which I'm unlikely to do.

Photo is looking up from inside the lower access panel.

Tim

 

[jd1923]

42 minutes ago, TimD said:

I discovered our trailer already has a fan on the 'fridge coils!

The Beech Lane fans should make this redundant but getting it out would require removing the 'fridge, which I'm unlikely to do.

Ours had what looks like the same single fan, but on the top of the coils, easy to remove (see pics on page 1, first post).

Yeah, leave it there and install the dual Beech Lane fans!

[TimD]

Finished the install.  A somewhat complicated project but definitely helped by all the great info posted in this thread and elsewhere.  Thank you very much!

To summarize:

As the brackets supplied by Beech Lane weren't going to work in our 2021 LE2, hull #701, I rearranged the fans to bring the cables to the front and then fabricated a mounting bracket from some ABS sheet I had in my shop.  ABS is great stuff, nearly indestructible and easy to glue with ABS glue (a mix of acetone, MEK, and dissolved ABS.  Don't drink it.). Nothing else works, including epoxy.

The fans and bracket sit atop the space, let's call it a plenum for simplicity, in which the 'fridge coils reside. The rear longitudinal piece, which has foam tubing on it in the final version (not shown) sits snugly in the vee of back wall.  The tabs on the lateral pieces sit atop the hull honeycomb behind the grille surround and are screwed vertically into the honeycomb with 8x1 1/2" stainless sheet metal screws.  The fan assembly isn't going anywhere.

The three cables from the controller run through a new 1/2" hole drilled in the cabinet wall and downwards.  One you find the right spot with the fish tape it is straightforward to push the cables & tape downwards until they are visible from inside the plenum.

The fan power cable and connector are routed to the right, wrapped in electrical tape, and secured against the wall using 3M 3340 HVAC tape.  From there it passes through the bubble wrap insulation and up to the area to the left of the upper cabinet, behind the 6" round access panel and switch panel.  It is necessary to pull the bubble wrap insulation and original HVAC tape away to access this space from inside the 'fridge upper vent area.

Meanwhile, the controller and fan power wires are routed across the top of the vented area and secured to the plywood.  It is necessary to remove a piece of foam secured by HVAC tape to access this space.  From there the power wires are routed down the aft side of the 'fridge coil space and secured with cable clips.

As suggested by @RonbrinkI spliced the power cables into the existing +12V and ground by removing about 1/4" of insulation, wrapping the fan power wires around the 10 ga. 'fridge power wires, soldering them in place, then covering with shrink wrap and electrical tape.  The power cable supplied by Beech Lane is too short to reach all the way down to the bottom of the 'fridge so you'll need to add length if you go this route.  I used 18-2 cable from a big box store.  The OEM Beech Lane cable is like 22-2 and somewhat difficult to solder, so be forewarned.  The controller & fan power wires were secured with cable clips and 8x1/4" stainless sheet metal screws.

The temperature sensor was provisionally mounted in the upper aft part of plenum and secured with 3M HVAC tape.  Not sure whether that's the best place or not yet, it may be better off further down the plenum.  The pink foam which had formed the front wall of the uppermost part of the area behind the upper grille was replaced and secured with HVAC tape.

Last, the controller was mounted to the rear wall of the cabinet using heavy duty Velcro.  I used two 1/4" wide strips of hook material on the back of the controller and two 1" squares of loop material on the wall.   There's no need for more than that as the controller weighs very little and using more hook material will just tend to pull the loop material off the wall if and when you need to move the controller.  We'll see, we're not going anywhere 'hot' until February when we'll be in central Florida.

Bench testing showed about 0.6 A draw, or the amount shown on the fan label, when the fans were set to run at 100%.

Thanks to everyone and I hope this helps.

Tim

 

Edited August 25 by TimD

[TimD]

Forgot one.  You can see the black & red power wires for the existing fan (mounted on the coil fins) rising vertically from the control box.   Perhaps it is thermostatically controlled.  I'd didn't bother to figure it out.

 

Edited August 25 by TimD

[Ronbrink]

Nice installation! Did you add the bubble insulation in the upper cabinet or did it come like that? My attic has the same exposed on the rear wall in 579. 

Edited August 25 by Ronbrink

[TimD]

We did not add that, but it is possible the prior owners did as they did a lot of deep winter camping.

Thanks
Tim