Fridge cooling

[Lizziwhizz]

Hi all, a bit of advice, our 2010 Cali SE has had intermittent fridge switch on issues, control unit removed and tested by penguin and found to be faulty. The point of the thread is that the fault was thermal related and after a discussion with a technician at penguin, have been asked if there is a fan fitted and adequate ventilation..This is where the fun starts, looking through the tiny hole and confirming no fan, plus the controller's fan connections are not used, confirms this. There is no inlet or outlet to draw cool air over compressor, and exhaust hot air? Penguin didn't want to comment as it's not their design, but they was concerned, not to mention VW's wonderful design of placing battery charger on top of a compressor that will get hot....
Does anybody have any info on make of fridge or whether the Cali design should have a cooling fan? I know some people haver relocated the battery charger, I have fitted a vent where round access panel is, wondering whether it's worth fitting a fan to either suck warm air out or blow air over compressor? The problem is the cabinet needs an inlet and outlet and controller will only power one fan, blowing warm air around isn't going to do much good?
Any thoughts? We just want to have an efficient fridge that won't break due to getting too hot because of a crappy VW designed system?
Best regards

 

[WelshGas]

Hi all, a bit of advice, our 2010 Cali SE has had intermittent fridge switch on issues, control unit removed and tested by penguin and found to be faulty. The point of the thread is that the fault was thermal related and after a discussion with a technician at penguin, have been asked if there is a fan fitted and adequate ventilation..This is where the fun starts, looking through the tiny hole and confirming no fan, plus the controller's fan connections are not used, confirms this. There is no inlet or outlet to draw cool air over compressor, and exhaust hot air? Penguin didn't want to comment as it's not their design, but they was concerned, not to mention VW's wonderful design of placing battery charger on top of a compressor that will get hot....
Does anybody have any info on make of fridge or whether the Cali design should have a cooling fan? I know some people haver relocated the battery charger, I have fitted a vent where round access panel is, wondering whether it's worth fitting a fan to either suck warm air out or blow air over compressor? The problem is the cabinet needs an inlet and outlet and controller will only power one fan, blowing warm air around isn't going to do much good?
Any thoughts? We just want to have an efficient fridge that won't break due to getting too hot because of a crappy VW designed system?
Best regards

Mmmm, crappy design that's still being used after some 20 yrs. There is no fan as it would/could be annoying if sleeping downstairs.
There were problems with the Mains Charger overheating so that was moved to the rear wardrobe.
The easiest way to produce more ventilation is to make a vent aperture above the already present inspection port so that hot air can vent into the kitchen cabinet and draw cooler air in via the inspection port.
To cut such a vent you really need to take the fridge out to avoid damaging it.
Forum members, a few, have written about it in the past.

 

[Lizziwhizz]

Mmmm, crappy design that's still being used after some 20 yrs. There is no fan as it would/could be annoying if sleeping downstairs.
There were problems with the Mains Charger overheating so that was moved to the rear wardrobe.
The easiest way to produce more ventilation is to make a vent aperture above the already present inspection port so that hot air can vent into the kitchen cabinet and draw cooler air in via the inspection port.
To cut such a vent you really need to take the fridge out to avoid damaging it.
Forum members, a few, have written about it in the past.

Many thanks for the advice, penguin are experts in their field, they work on these units all the time, granted not on VW designed ones, but they was surprised that there wasn't any fan or venting. Apologies if members take offence when we call the precious California in anyway shape or form, but the design is still very poor on the fridge, yes it does work, but will not be efficient.....the answer I guess is to fit hundreds of pounds worth of solar to allow the batteries to be topped up from the fridge that is drawing more power due to lack of adequate ventilation? best not use the battery charger either if you have an older van... I guess you could always leave side window open but they tend to leak on the seals, another quality VW design.... that stems back from the T5 through to T6..

 

[WelshGas]

Many thanks for the advice, penguin are experts in their field, they work on these units all the time, granted not on VW designed ones, but they was surprised that there wasn't any fan or venting. Apologies if members take offence when we call the precious California in anyway shape or form, but the design is still very poor on the fridge, yes it does work, but will not be efficient.....the answer I guess is to fit hundreds of pounds worth of solar to allow the batteries to be topped up from the fridge that is drawing more power due to lack of adequate ventilation? best not use the battery charger either if you have an older van... I guess you could always leave side window open but they tend to leak on the seals, another quality VW design.... that stems back from the T5 through to T6..

So you say.
Have you checked out many Campervans that use Compressor Fridge units?

 

[sidepod]

There was a fan fitted to some of the 4s and they all had vents through the floor. The point being, heat is clearly an issue. The fridge design is identical on all units. Surely the 5/6 has a vent somewhere.It’s a fairly easy mod to add a fan, it’s only a computer fan.