Club 80-90 Forums

horns wrote:You only actually need to cut one small hole for the flue - the air vents can open to the van interior.

Yes, "air in" for the rear of the fridge mounting can come from within the van, but for gas operation it needs to be properly flued and vented. Please don't use anything gas powered without the relevant drop out holes in the floor, beneath both the bottle and the appliance.
If you don't want a full fridge, why not just get a 12v cool box? They work pretty well.

'Air out' can go into the van, too.

horns wrote:'Air out' can go into the van, too.

I still prefer venting through the side & the drop out, just in case of a build up of CO2 or in the event of a gas leak/failing burner etc, which you don't really want in your van when you're asleep

Venting into the van was good enough for Westfalia - who seem to have a rough idea of how to do these things properly...

My kitchen unit with drop out hole and front fridge vents visible


Yep, Westfalia knew what they were doing but it doesn't mean that it's worth not having drop outs or side venting

You cut a big fridge vent in the side of your Westy?

Ha,ha its only another conversion company! Vent wise you should go by manufacturers instructions [ of the appliance]. Mine tells me to have vents. A westys fridge might be smaller and not need a vent, or more likely german regs are different to ours and don't stipulate purpose provided ventilation

That's what people that own the other ones always say.

Anyway, I've not died in my sleep yet, so I'm siding with those reckless Germans on this one.

lloydy wrote:Ha,ha its only another conversion company! Vent wise you should go by manufacturers instructions [ of the appliance]. Mine tells me to have vents. A westys fridge might be smaller and not need a vent, or more likely german regs are different to ours and don't stipulate purpose provided ventilation

The OP says that the fridge in question is an RM120 the manual etc is all in the "Club Stuff" / "Downloads" section and it's clearly explained how the unit should be mounted as a permanent fixture (including flue, vents & drop out holes )

I think the earlier post about closed combustion chambers has a lot to do with this issue. To be fair, my fridge is a new Dometic after I took the old Electorlux OEM one out. So, yes, I have cut a vent hole in the side of my van and now I can have very nice cold beer, chilled foods and make ice as & when I want to

Nah, i like westy's. Hopefully a high top syncro next year. On my last camping trip, found out on the second night that the fridge flue had died of old age, and it was flueing into the van! Nice!, esp with wife and two kids in the van. That's when your grateful for the big 'ol vent behind it!

Having seen what mine was like back there, I wouldn't use one until I'd pulled it out and given it a clean and a service, even if it all seemed to work fine.

Please can I tag another fridge question onto this.

My 2 way fridge in my devon moonraker runs fine on gas. On the first overnighter one of the kids switched the fridge onto 12v, when I realised went into panic that the battey would be dead. Started no problem and I just assumed 12v not working.

Now some 8 months later I have had a light bulb moment and thought that maybe the fridge cuts out on 12v when the ignition goes off.

Got a 3 hour trip tomorrow and wondering if I should try the 12v on journey, instead on packing out with frozen stuff and ice packs.

skippy1089 wrote:Now some 8 months later I have had a light bulb moment and thought that maybe the fridge cuts out on 12v when the ignition goes off.

Bingo.

A pre cooled the fridge helps

on Alternator (12volt) it will keep a fridge cool, getting it there will take a lot longer.
so use your ice packs to cool the stuff down first.

I put a frozen bottle of water in the fridge 2 hours before I fill it