So how do you know when you fridge is cold enough? Well there are many different themes on this issue depending on who you talk to, but this is how I deal with the old question of, “Is the fridge cold enough”.
When getting ready for a trip there are many things to look at and address. The fridge is one of those things. Putting your food into a warm fridge is a recipe for disaster, especially if the food is warm. Warm food in a Warm fridge will certainly allow your food to spoil. While on the road a warm fridge will be incapable of cooling down fast enough to prevent your food from spoling. If you have a residential fridge then this issue only compounds itself. A residential fridge requires power to cool down, while on the road, you will not have electrical power in which to cool the residential fridge, so its a disaster in the making. In our RV we have a large absorption fridge and therefore I believe this is a better option for travelers that travel frequently, and don’t sit in one spot there entire time away.
With anything, planning and checklists are the way to ensure you don’t forget anything and that you don’t forget this important tip. Three days prior to any trip we make, I always turn on the fridge while it’s empty and let it run on shore power. By doing this you are maximizing the cooling efficiency of the fridge by using electrical power, and allowing it to cool without any food in it. I will also place bags of Ice in the freezer and cooler shock pads in the fridge. This helps the fridge to cool down with out strainig it too much. so once the fridge is on and cooling, this is the time we purchase our groceries. Now once you have your groceries place them all in your residential fridge at home, and allow them to cool off. This will allow you to place cold food in a cold fridge, thereby allowing you to keep a cold fridge while on the road. I have also heard that purchasing an inexpensive fridge fan can help with cold air circulation, though I have not found this to be a problem with our new RV’s fridge. Purchasing an inexpensive RV fridge thermometer is also a great idea that allows you to keep an eye on the fridges temperature while your using it. Remember while using your fridge out on the road try to keep the door closed at all times, when you open the door, know what you are looking for so that you can quickly get the item and then close the door again. Keeping the door opening to a minimum will help to keep the cold inside the fridge and not in your RV.
One other tip about fridges, is that it is very difficult for them to cool down beverages, especially if you have a lot of food in the fridge. Beyond having a couple of bottles of water in the fridge and maybe your milk, and your favorite beverage for traveling, we suggest that you keep your beverages in a cooler full of ice. This helps to off load the effort of cooling the beverages from the fridge to the cooler. Besides who doesn’t like an ice cold beverage at the end of their travel day.
Don’t forget on travel day to turn your abssobtion fridge from Electric to Gas. This will allow your fridge to keep working while you drive to your destination. Now some people will say this a bad pratice to leave your propane system on while driving. Over the 15 years of RVing we have done, we have always ran our fridge on propane (Gas) while driving and we have never had an issue. In fact while we are driving we typically have every system on in the RV, especially if we are travelling with guests.
Happy Trails
The Glampurs