Will the Norcold refrigerator/freezer be able to chill down my "blue ice" pack?

[Nancy_D]

I'm getting ready for my first long trip with Hull #701 and am trying to set my expectations with respect to

the freezer's capabilities.  If I start off with a frozen "blue ice" pack and use it to keep my lunch cold, will I be able

to refreeze it in the Ollie's freezer?  I don't expect that to work if we're running off 12 volt power, but what about if

it's running on propane?  I have a few boondocking overnights along the way and wonder if I'll need to purchase

ice for those occasions.

Thank you for your input!

[SeaDawg]

Assuming by your hull # that you have a 3way.

Depending on the cooling attributes of your particular  fridge, you should expect a blue ice pack to freeze, overnight, with not much interference. 

Try it at home, first, to be sure, if this is part of  a pt regimen.

Altitude also changes everything up.

[Nancy_D]

Thanks, SeaDawg. You are correct, I do have a 3-way Norcold fridge.  

I'll give it a test run. I'm encouraged that it might work.  I'm planning to cool the refrigerator and

freezer down thoroughly before we load it up and prepare to hit the road.  

This is not a pt situation - but I've definitely used a bag of frozen peas for just that purpose in the past! 

i'm just hopeful that I can keep lunches cold on travel days.  It would be great if I don't need to purchase ice regularly.

Thanks for your thoughts.  

 

[Mike and Carol]

If you have the 3 way Dometic it runs the most efficiently on propane.  When we’re boondocking it goes on propane and stays there, never had any issues.  Mike

[Steph and Dud B]

Our Norcold 3-way will freeze things. Shelf work for you.

[John Dorrer]

10 hours ago, Nancy_D said:

I'm getting ready for my first long trip with Hull #701 and am trying to set my expectations with respect to

the freezer's capabilities.  If I start off with a frozen "blue ice" pack and use it to keep my lunch cold, will I be able

to refreeze it in the Ollie's freezer?  I don't expect that to work if we're running off 12 volt power, but what about if

it's running on propane?  I have a few boondocking overnights along the way and wonder if I'll need to purchase

ice for those occasions.

Thank you for your input!

In my opinion placing a warm object in the 3-way fridge freezer will cause the temp to sky rocket. This comes from testing I did. Why not have that frozen in the freezer and use frozen water bottles for sandwiches, or just make a stop and get the sandwiches out of the fridge. We have a truck fridge and have been using it on fridge only and a small cooler to hold traveling drinks. We try not to put anything warm in the trailer fridge. We give our dog pure pumpkin and placed a new can in the truck fridge to get it cold before placing it in the trailer. Lots of trial and error.

 

[MAX Burner]

10 hours ago, Mike and Carol said:

If you have the 3 way Dometic it runs the most efficiently on propane.  When we’re boondocking it goes on propane and stays there, never had any issues.

Same here - LPG mode is our boon docking configuration as well.  We've yet to experience any issues with either keeping items frozen or freezing thawed items in any of the 3 modes of our Dometic fridge.  We normally travel with the fridge in the DC mode and a bag of ice in the freezer to accommodate the occasional adult beverage at the end of those long tow-days.  

FYI: We had a 3-way Norcold with separate/dedicated freezer compartment in a previous TT and it was awesome for freezing items fairly quickly in any of the 3 modes of operation.

Cheers!

[dhaig]

@Nancy_D, we have a Norcold 3-way refrigerator and use it to freeze the blue freezer bricks.  We typically use 6 bricks, in 2 groups of three and rotate the groups as needed to refreeze them.  Typically this is a daily rotation.

We have added supplemental fans mounted at the rear of our Norcold refrigerator, which make a significant improvement in the cooling capabilities of the Norcold refrigerator, especially when outdoor temperatures are high.  If you encounter problems with you refrigerator, I recommend use considering the Beech Lane Refrigerator Fans

The freezer bricks always refreeze overnight.  I don't know exactly how long they take to refreeze, which will vary somewhat depending on the outside temperature and activity opening the door.

[ThomB87]

2 hours ago, dhaig said:

@Nancy_D, we have a Norcold 3-way refrigerator and use it to freeze the blue freezer bricks.  We typically use 6 bricks, in 2 groups of three and rotate the groups as needed to refreeze them.  Typically this is a daily rotation.

We have added supplemental fans mounted at the rear of our Norcold refrigerator, which make a significant improvement in the cooling capabilities of the Norcold refrigerator, especially when outdoor temperatures are high.  If you encounter problems with you refrigerator, I recommend use considering the Beech Lane Refrigerator Fans

 

Top or bottom vent? How easy to attach and wire up?

[Ray Kimsey]

We have hull #676 with the Norcold 3-way refrigerator and usually have no problems. We do freeze blue ice to take with us to keep lunch cold. The only time we have had problems with the refrigerator cooling is when we are parked in the sun with very higer temps (90+). To solve that I added to fans in the upper vent to pull air up through the refrigerator as @dhaig mentioned. I also used the same fans as he mentions. For wiring I just connected to 12 volts and ground wires below and open the lower vent to turn it on or off. I have thought about wiring it up to the panel on the wall at the door, but so far I don't turn it on or off that much so I haven't bothered.

[Geronimo John]

12 hours ago, MAX Burner said:

We normally travel with the fridge in the DC mode and a bag of ice in the freezer to accommodate the occasional adult beverage at the end of those long tow-days.  

Amen to that!

GJ

[Geronimo John]

12 hours ago, John Dorrer said:

Why not have that frozen in the freezer and use frozen water bottles

I pre freeze at the Ranch ten small water bottles.  Then put them into the freezer and refrig compartment they aid in the cool down process GREATLY!

GJ

[SeaDawg]

9 hours ago, ThomB87 said:

Top or bottom vent? How easy to attach and wire up?

Most folks add a fan interior, to circulate air, and a fan in top vent to aid in exhaust. 

[dhaig]

10 hours ago, ThomB87 said:

Top or bottom vent? How easy to attach and wire up?

@ThomB87, the fans are installed in the top vent.  When they are running the movement of ward air from the upper vent is noticeable.  There is very little fan noise.  As @Ray Kimsey describes, only a 12VDC and a ground connection are required to run the fans.  Attached to the fans is what looks like another wire, but is a temperature sensor.  This is run down behind the regfrigerator.

A small remote control panel is also attached to the fans with 5 or 6 feet of wire.  I ran wires for the remote control up behind the  main control panel near the entry door.  There is an access hole behind the control panel, with a round cover.  This is inside the forward most storage compartment above the refrigerator and microwave oven.

I did not like having to remove the lower panel to access the fan controls.  Also, the fan control has a bright blue LED which is visible outside the trailer if located behind the lower panel.  Access from inside the trailer requires only opening the storage compartment and removing the round cover.  This location also contains the annoying blue light on the remote control, which cannot be turned OFF.

 

[johnwen]

On 2/28/2024 at 10:01 PM, dhaig said:

@ThomB87, the fans are installed in the top vent.  When they are running the movement of ward air from the upper vent is noticeable.  There is very little fan noise.  As @Ray Kimsey describes, only a 12VDC and a ground connection are required to run the fans.  Attached to the fans is what looks like another wire, but is a temperature sensor.  This is run down behind the refrigerator.

A small remote control panel is also attached to the fans with 5 or 6 feet of wire.  I ran wires for the remote control up behind the  main control panel near the entry door.  There is an access hole behind the control panel, with a round cover.  This is inside the forward most storage compartment above the refrigerator and microwave oven.

I did not like having to remove the lower panel to access the fan controls.  Also, the fan control has a bright blue LED which is visible outside the trailer if located behind the lower panel.  Access from inside the trailer requires only opening the storage compartment and removing the round cover.  This location also contains the annoying blue light on the remote control, which cannot be turned OFF.

 

Hi dhaig,

We are hull 996, also 2022 elite2.  It appears there is not enough room to mount this fan on the upper vent.  The space above the condenser coil has a slanted roof that interferes with the upper mounting of the fans.  Yours must be the same design.  How did you get yours in that space?  From what I can see in your pictures it appears the 2 top mounting screws/tabs are just screwed into the upper slanted panel.  Is that correct?  I can get the fan assy into the space behind where the screen mounts to the frame but I need the bottom of the fans up off the fins and tubing as it gets pretty hot there at times.  Is it possible to post a picture of the lower section to see the mounting of those lower screws?  I wonder if that slanted piece of fiberglass/plastic can be modified to give me a little more room in that area.  After looking at your picture a little closer, yours might not be slanted like mine is.

Thanks,

John

Edited March 14 by topgun2

[johnwen]

Sorry...got 2 of the same pictures in there 

[topgun2]

John - 

I'm not sure why that pic of yours was duplicated since it appears that there is only one copy of the pic when your post is edited.

I'll try something else to fix it shortly.

Bill

p.s.  OK - got it fixed (I hope)

Edited March 14 by topgun2

[MAX Burner]

12 hours ago, johnwen said:

It appears there is not enough room to mount this fan on the upper vent. 

Last summer, we mounted the same low-amp draw Beechlane double-fan assy in our upper fridge compartment with the remote mounted in the lower compartment similar to how @Ray Kimsey has done.  With the Dometic, it was a better to mount the fan assy on the upper cover/vent itself.  The wires wiring is fixed with Anderson quick disconnects to make for easier inspection/cleaning, etc.

Before/after interior temps in fridge have dropped several degrees (both in main storage and freezer areas) with the Dometic temp setting at "7" out of "9".

@johnwen - FYI:  We had to trim about 1/4" of the upper compartment cover/vent moulding away for a proper mounting position of the fan assy.  Accurately and effeciently done with the trusty Dremmel Tool...:

The remote can either control a manually-set RPM percentage or a manually-set "temp ON" range.  The red LED indicates power to the controller, blue is the "temp-on" setting.  These LEDs can be observed at night through the lower cover/vent - hasn't bugged us too much.  If it does become bothersome in the future, the LEDs will be fixed with a small piece of black electrical tape.  Hope this helps...

Cheers!

[johnwen]

1 hour ago, topgun2 said:

John - 

I'm not sure why that pic of yours was duplicated since it appears that there is only one copy of the pic when your post is edited.

I'll try something else to fix it shortly.

Bill

p.s.  OK - got it fixed (I hope)

Thanks, Bill :)

[johnwen]

Thanks MAX Burner,

I think I follow you.  I see where you have dremeled out the receiver.  I think I'll give this project a try.  Question for the community...can I leave the Oliver factory fan setup as installed and just find a power source to connect the new fans.  And then just set a temp on the Beech remote control that is slightly less than the value that turns the Oliver fan on so that maybe the Beech fans will keep the Oliver fan from ever coming on?  I'd really like to avoid any rewiring of the original setup..an electrician I AM NOT!

Thanks for all the help,

John

[Geronimo John]

1 hour ago, johnwen said:

Question for the community...can I leave the Oliver factory fan setup as installed and just find a power source to connect the new fans. 

Yes.

[MAX Burner]

@johnwen - Thanks for the "follow", brother!

SUGGESTION:   Try taking the DC power for the new fans right from your fridge's power block connection in the lower left of the (lower) compartment (power block circled in below pic - this a Dometic application, if you're running a NORCOLD, its in a similar location as I recall).  

This way you can control the "ON/OFF" functioning of the fans using the remote control.  For example, if you don't need the fans running for any particular reason, you can select a high "ON" temperature on the remote.  This is how we've been doing it - which is meeting our needs.  You can always wire in an "ON/OFF" switch on the "+" wire to the remote controller.

Good luck!

[johnwen]

44 minutes ago, MAX Burner said:

this a Dometic application, if you're running a NORCOLD, its in a similar location as I recall).  

We do have Norcold but I know where you are talking about.

[dhaig]

18 hours ago, johnwen said:

Hi dhaig,

We are hull 996, also 2022 elite2.  It appears there is not enough room to mount this fan on the upper vent.  The space above the condenser coil has a slanted roof that interferes with the upper mounting of the fans.  Yours must be the same design.  How did you get yours in that space?  From what I can see in your pictures it appears the 2 top mounting screws/tabs are just screwed into the upper slanted panel.  Is that correct?  I can get the fan assy into the space behind where the screen mounts to the frame but I need the bottom of the fans up off the fins and tubing as it gets pretty hot there at times.  Is it possible to post a picture of the lower section to see the mounting of those lower screws?  I wonder if that slanted piece of fiberglass/plastic can be modified to give me a little more room in that area.  After looking at your picture a little closer, yours might not be slanted like mine is.

Thanks,

John

@johnwen, The fans on our LEII mount to the inner edge of the flange around the vent opening.  Not to the slanted panel inside the vent opening.  There was no cutting of the fiberglass.  In the three photos below you should be able to see the screw heads which clamp onto the edge of the fiberglass.  There are also small metal "ears" fastened with hex screws to the fan frame.  The combination of the "ears" and the large  screw head serve as a clamp.  The fans are quite secure using this mounting mechanism.

Regards, Don

[Geronimo John]

1 hour ago, dhaig said:

The fans are quite secure using this mounting mechanism.

I have installed similar fans, and am thinking of doing both sides.  Purpose obviously is to reduce the bypass of outside air into and then out of the fans so that they pull fresh air in below.  I also know that there have been changes in the grills between your and my older OE2.

Hard to tell, but it looks like you have blocked off airflow on the aft side of the fans, but maybe not on the fore side.  Is that what I'm seeing?  IF so, what's your thoughts?

Thanks

GJ