Fridge Vent Lets in Water - Normal?

[mm289]

Hi all,

whilst having all the interior out to do the sill and floor I have noticed that the louvers on the fridge vent panel don't seem to overlap the opening. What i mean is if you stand level with the vent you can see daylight through the slots which means if you have a windy & wet day rain seems to blow in through the vent.

I don't want this happening once everything is reffitted so wondered if anyone else had seen this, or if later panels improved the design (the edges of the moulding on mine are pretty wavy so wondered if it had been butchered at some point)

It looks like an original Dometic fridge vent, here are a couple of pictures..


Any thoughts?

Cheers,

MM

[dugcati]

you could put a secondary vent on the inside of the van or replace the whole vent for something else if originality isn't top of your list

[1664]

Most fridge vent slats are angled to deter water coming in but it's hardly a fool proof solution. I had my furniture out and was shocked to see how much came in the lower vent while driving on a rain soaked mororway. I've fitted vents with covers now and only remove the lower one when I'm driving if the weather and road are nice and dry.

I didn't notice any water from the upper one but I doubt it's impervious to water depending on wind direction, spray off other vehicles etc.

[Cruz]

Is this the modern equivalent to your vent?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ELECTROLUX-DO ... 1e6816c228" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'd assume with that you'd also need the up to date flue fitting kit too

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DOMETIC-ELECT ... 20bde153ee" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not cheap but beats spending £££££££££ on bodywork when the water eats it all away

[Plasticman]

blocked mine off a few years ago and cooling hasnt suffered that Im aware of
mm

[1664]

I think it depends on just how hot the weather is.............

[Plasticman]

agreed, this summer was very hot and I noticed a slight loss of cooling mid day/early aft. but it was allways cold,and made good ice cubes for the jd o/night and these kept well enough most of the time, I think it also depends on how well your fridge is performing etc,has it been serviced and so forth.
mm

[scottbott]

trouble is with the autosleeper vent it is 'shaped' to fit the panel,do not know if there is a direct replacement

[ghost123uk]

this summer was very hot

[mm289]

Thanks team, I will have to check out the dimensions on those new Dometic ones and see if they will fit.

Kinda puts another tick in the "new compressor fridge" box though......

Will have to see what vents they need and then maybe form a panel to drop in and close of the HUGE hole cut out for the original vent

MM

[1664]

A compression fridge will still need air flow over the heat exchanger. Some conversions did not vent the warm air externally but vented it into the van instead. Not sure how severely that would effected the temperature in the van during a hot summer.....