Dometic Propane Fridge

[bajaphile]

Hey there

Well my friend gave me a propane powered fridge for my month long road trip. I have an exhaust which goes out the window. However, I can't figure out if its still a hazard to be driving with the propane on?

I've read if the burn is clean, there is no carbon monoxide. When the burn is not complete, thats when problems arise.

Does anyone have experience with running a propane fridge? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

BTW -- The thing runs at like 20F after a few hours, and its so cool! I just am freaking out about getting killed by the CO !!

 

[firetruck41]

I would not use it without a CO monitor! Should be available at an RV supply place, I would think.

As far as experience, it did not fare to well compared to the compressor types, in our impromptu 'mud test we did a few years ago. It should work OK as a fridge, but may have trouble freezing, with a low temp of 32F, when ambient temp was 80F. Where as the compressor types (norcold/engel/ARB) go to single digits, or even zero or negative F.
https://forum.ih8mud.com/camping-ou...nce-fridges-engel-etc-3-way-some-numbers.html

 

[FJ40_owner]

Hey there

Well my friend gave me a propane powered fridge for my month long road trip. I have an exhaust which goes out the window. However, I can't figure out if its still a hazard to be driving with the propane on?

I've read if the burn is clean, there is no carbon monoxide. When the burn is not complete, thats when problems arise.

Does anyone have experience with running a propane fridge? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

BTW -- The thing runs at like 20F after a few hours, and its so cool! I just am freaking out about getting killed by the CO !!

Most Absorption type portable refrigeration units are required to be level or very nearly level to operate. This allows the flame to fire into the heat exchanger.

I would be very hesitant to operate one while moving.

RV type units usually are triple powered, 120 VAC, 12 VDC for mobile operation and Propane powered while stopped.

 

[e9999]

got one of those.
good for normal refrigerator use when stationary.
Yep, not made for moving around or use tilted.
In a pitch, if stopped I would not hesitate to run it with the exhaust outside -if you are sure the propane shutoff works well and you have the windows open or not inside -, but doing so moving is probably not a great idea. After all there is flame going on.
Keep in mind, mine will run a battery dead in something like 5 hrs if ran on 12V.

Better, you could run it full blast at night and just use it as an icebox during the day when moving.
I have managed to freeze stuff with mine after a long time (coupla days), but not obvious.
And of course if it's running around 34F, say, it will take a long time for things to thaw out, so put something already frozen in and you're good for a while.

 

[Brentbba]

Remember from ages ago a checklist my mom used preping her RV. One of the first items was to shut off the propane to the fridge before traveling. This was 10-12 years ago...don't know about today, put the properties of propane haven't changed any, perhaps the fridges.

 

[bajaphile]

Thanks for the replies.
This is a unit from the 70's... it works great when stationary. I've been testing it for a while outside. Its only about 70-80 here though, but the propane brings the fridge down to 20F and the freezer down to 0F! Its amazingly cold.

Yes, this fridge also runs from 110V, 12V and Propane. I need to wire it up for 12V when driving I believe.

I'll be driving down to Cabo for a month, where the temps are in the 90's to 100's so I hope it will still stay cold enough. I have 4 large computer fans ventilating the cooling fins, and 1-1/2" extra insulation wrapped around the fridge.

 

[Bogo]

Thanks for the replies.
This is a unit from the 70's... it works great when stationary. I've been testing it for a while outside. Its only about 70-80 here though, but the propane brings the fridge down to 20F and the freezer down to 0F! Its amazingly cold.

Yes, this fridge also runs from 110V, 12V and Propane. I need to wire it up for 12V when driving I believe.

I'll be driving down to Cabo for a month, where the temps are in the 90's to 100's so I hope it will still stay cold enough. I have 4 large computer fans ventilating the cooling fins, and 1-1/2" extra insulation wrapped around the fridge.

When you wire it up, put it on a relay switched circuit and control the relay with the ignition switched circuit. I'd also run good heavy wires. Use 10 or 12 AWG for the least amount of line loss.

From what I under stand most propane RV refrigerators suck in 12VDC mode. That is because the heater element isn't large enough. It will hold temps, but not cool things down much.