This might be a bit long, but if you have any experience in this area please let me know what I can do to remedy my chilling issue (my perceived issue, perhaps). I’ve been communicating w/ an ARB tech rep, he has been good to respond in a timely manner, just not sure I’m comfortable w/ dragging it on nicely if it should just be replaced.
The fridge does not cool down to proper temps. I first plugged it into my vehicle (has a 10ga wire setup, 15 amp fuse and a Marinco locking plug) and set it to 45*, it ran for a few minutes and my red 'check' like came on the face of the fridge. I looked at the troubleshooting info and it said I may have a weak battery. I checked my vehicle battery and it load tested fine. I unplugged it, reset it, it ran for no more than a minute and the red light came back on...not solid, but blinking every couple of seconds. He recommended I use the medium protection and not the high, I’ll try that later, on to testing it in the house.
I then took it inside my house, plugged it into the home outlet, set it to 37* and placed two thermometers in it; one in the bottom basket and one in the top area. The two thermometers were placed in water, the water temp was at 110* when I placed it in the fridge, checked 2 hours later it was only down to 70*. I let it stand over night and it was only at 46* after several more hours of cooling. I thought these temps should be closer to the preferred setting w/in 30 minutes to an hour, at the very least.
Then, after having it plugged in for over 12 hours the thermometers I have in there both read 46*...with the temp gauge set at 37*. I do notice the face gauge bounces between 35-39* throughout the evening but the internal temp read just 46*. He recommended I turn it down more:
“turn the fridge colder. I've used these extensively over the past couple of years and find that the ideal setting for refrigeration is 30-32 degrees. The sensor for the temp is in the middle of the floor of the fridge, essentially the coldest spot which makes it difficult to correlate with a second temp gauge due to the position. If you set it near 30 you will find have a safe temp range throughout the cabin without actually freezing your food. At 37 the top of the cabinet could be several degrees warmer, combined with different calibrations (and locations) of the various gauges easily explaining the differing numbers you're seeing here.”
I have also been told that it is more efficient when full so I placed enough stuff in the fridge to consider it fully packed w/out over filling it (soda, fridge goods and even a few small ice packs), turned it down to 31*, it has been bouncing between 29-33* throughout the night. It has been on now for over 40 hours and my thermometer is sitting at 40*. So, it has come down about 6 more degrees but not what I'd consider reasonable, since that wouldn't suffice to keep things where they should be during refrigeration on a trip as things are removed from it (right?); I'd be as well off w/ a plain cooler w/ ice if that were the case.
My thermometer in the basket is sitting at 4" above the floor, centered...the one in the upper portion is centered and reads 44*, just 2* cooler than previous temp setting.
While to the touch the contents feel cool, I drank a soda after it had sat in there for over 12 hours and it certainly wasn't cold enough to say that it would be acceptable had it been a beer after a long hot day at the end of a journey.
I have not tested again in my vehicle yet, I will do that once I'm comfortable knowing that the temp is where it should be in the house first. I just don't know that setting it at 31* and having a temp at 40* inside is acceptable. And I don't think turning it down, again, any lower is the answer.
What am I missing here? I don't believe it should be this difficult to get it to proper temp. And I even thought my thermometers could be off some, but they are good from -40* to 160* and each measures the same temp while inside. I find it hard to believe both could be wrong yet read the same.
Anyway, what more can I do to feel comfortable that my contents are being properly chilled?
Lastly, am I overreacting and this is actually within tolerance and I’m getting worked up over nothing? I just dropped good coin on this, I want to know that I’m not paranoid
Thanks for reading all that!!! Thanks in advance for any helpful and/or constructive comments!
B
