Air duct on fridge?

nigelmercier

nigelmercier

RIP
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20 Jun 2007
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Live in Kent, boat in Canary Islands
www.bavariayacht.info
I've been playing with the fridge. The hot air from the fans blows around the cabinet (under the fridge), it is not ducted out of the vents at the front.

I've made a mock-up cowl out of cardboard. This fits over the fans, and ducts the air over the area of the slots. Also looks tidy.

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Is this a good idea?
 
May have missed it, but wouldn't it be better to have an air inlet at the bottom so that the fans drew air in at that point, up over the compressor etc and out at the top?

Just a thought.
 
I was thinking about this, but there is a vent on the other half of the cabinet. At the moment it draws air through a hole in the side where there used to be a platform (which I've removed to line the fans up with the vents.) You can see the hole in the bottom right of the first photo.

I've taken the duct off for the moment, as although the air inside the cabinet seemed cooler, the compressor and the vents were both hot. The latter is a good thing though, it means the hot air is getting there!
 
I rehashed my fridge arrangement last winter whilst rebuilding the galley. I put one teak vent into the bottom half of the locker door to let cool air in and another at the top of the locker to let hot air out. I also added another 3" of PU insulation to the fridge cabinet bringing isulation thickness up to 4". During the heatwave the week before last our ice remained frozen for the entire week and the compressor is only running around half the time it did last year, despite ambient temperatures up in the 30s. the best improvement you can make to your fridge is to upgrade the insulation
 
Heat rises, cold falls. Get the inlet as low down as possible and get the outlet from the fans as high as possible
Worked, well made a difference, on a similar set up for us.
Think about how you wire the fans - do you want them running all the time or do you wire them through the thermostat or similar to only run when the fridge compressor is actually running
We didn't do this and the fan, which is not silent in-spite of what is says on the box, runs all the time. Wish I had thought about this before refitting the fridge and now lay in bed as it humms away wishing I had thought about it. Then sleep intervenes so it cannot be that bad! Maybe a job for next winter
 
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I was thinking about this, but there is a vent on the other half of the cabinet. At the moment it draws air through a hole in the side where there used to be a platform (which I've removed to line the fans up with the vents.) You can see the hole in the bottom right of the first photo.

I've taken the duct off for the moment, as although the air inside the cabinet seemed cooler, the compressor and the vents were both hot. The latter is a good thing though, it means the hot air is getting there!

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Sorry, I just don't think that's a good/adequate location for the air inlet, even assuming it would never be blocked. Obviously I'm guessing because I don't know the size of the vent, but if is was my installation, I'd have a decent 'slot' inlet across the bottom to allow the upward flow of air across the unit as I suggested earlier. After all, for maximum efficiency you want the airflow over the whole unit, not just from one side.

Again, just my thoughts and good luck with wharever you decide. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
The compressor unit feeding the 12v boat fridge on mine has a fan already drawing air over the condensor but the space did get warm - to solve the problem I fitted a large brushless 12v fan in the top of the compressor space venting into a cupboard above (housing a 240v fridge/freezer). The door to this cupboard has had a couple of slots cut along the top and bottom edges providing ventilation. The forced draught keeps both compartments cool and both units work much better.
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Artificial Intelligence is no match for Natural Stupidity
 
The best effect for the cooling air is to use the coolest available. This is always from the deepest part of the bilge. Therefore duct the air from the bilge and exhaust upwards. This has another benefit that fresh air is blowing through the bilges!
 
I'd love to, but I can't see how to get in there.

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I did mine when I was rebuilding the cheap and nasty makers galley.I drilled through the counter top around the (top loading) fridge cabinet and injected Hi ex PU foam ( a bit at a time) until it expanded throught the holes I had drilled. You have to be careful, as the PU foam continues to expand until it is fully cured, so I did it 1 small can at a time over several days. At the bottom and front of the cabinet I built a plywood former and injected through this from the bottom up. After it was all finished, I glassed over the plywood and then covered with mural mousse. Looks great and works better than i had hoped for.
 
I'll look into PU foam, but I don't really want to drill holes in my "not too nasty" worktop.

I've had a re-think, and the next version will direct the hot air out of the top 2 slots, with added funneling to smooth the flow. This leaves 3 slots below for air to get in.

I'm going to remake the partition (it doesn't fit properly now the shelf has gone), so I will add vent holes along the top and bottom edges.
 
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