G'day Brad. I also have the Klevacool internal & external fans fitted to my van for my 183L Dometic 3 way fridge. Can I offer a couple of suggestions to improve the efficiency of your fridge with the fans fitted? (1) Grab some roof insulation from the BGS or similar and completely fill/seal the sides and top of your fridge to stop heat from going around the sides and over the top. (2) At the top of the fridge, you have a sizeable gap b/w the outside van wall & the condensor fins. Dometic states the fins should be from memory no more than 25mm b/w van wall & fins. You have what looks like about 100mm. Make up an angled deflector from thin sheet metal from the outside wall upwards to the fins of the condensor. This will force all rising air through the fins & not bypass them in the blank air space in front of them. The more air you can get passing through the fins, the more efficient the cooling process will be. I also made a curved shroud that sits on top of the fridge & curves outwards to the vent. This creates a smoother path for the rising hot air to be expelled through the vents. If you have a look at Dometic's install instructions, you will see these hints. Apologies for the long winded comment. Hard to condense everything down. Cheers. Dave
Hi Dave & appreciate the tips! I had a look in the manual and you are spot on. When park up for a bit I will definitely have a look at doing this. I have also heard positive things regarding the insulation. Thanks for the comment mate 😊
Cheers Brady! We are pretty happy with the benefits that come with these fans & will recommend them to anyone who has issues with their 3 way.. seems to be most people I talk to 😂 Also keen to see the longevity of the units, the fans don't seem to be running flat out so most likely programmed that way for a better life span.
Another great episode, thanks for your rundown on the absorption fridge. The fins up top on the outside of the fridge is the condenser, where you remove heat from the ammonium gas and condense it back to a liquid where it runs into the evaporator with heat collecting fins (extending the heat conducting surfaces) inside the top of your fridge. heat in turn from food stuffs and insulation heat leakage evaporates the liquid again to gas to remove heat from products being cooled, latent heat of vapourisation. The fans are a very good idea, but not much helps on those high temp and high humidity days. The internal fans are a good idea, without them all you have is convection heat transfer, energy travels from a hot spot to a cold spot.
Keep up the good work, my experience over the last 10 years with a 3 way fridge has been good, I have a Tropical rated fridge, check for a T on the sticker inside the fridge, I did fit computer fans but zip clipped then to the inlet and outlet vents with a small toggle switch inside the van, I am using Engel wireless thermometer to monitor the temps, with the 12 volt operation, I upgraded the wiring with a Anderson plug and heavy wiring from the towbar to the fridge, their was a bad voltage drop to the fridge from new, the way to test the voltage properly is the check the voltage with the car running, then turn the fridge to 12 volt operation, my voltage went down to 10.5 volts, get your volt meter out and test, my fridge will maintain 6 deg all day while towing. Your gas usage seems high, the biggest user of gas is the hot water, I only turn on in the morning for a shower and dishes then off till even shower then turn off, if your gas hot water is turning on and off 24 hours that would chew up the gas, I often hear gas hot water going even in caravan parks when you can heat the water for free on 240 volt, I hope this info helps
Hey mate! Thanks for leaving a comment & i value your input massively. I want to test this out, do i check the voltage on the fridge somewhere? As for the gas, I never give it much thought, just accepted we get 10/11 days out of a bottle. Admittedly we are probably pretty heavy users of the gas, run the hot water once or twice a day, use oven and stove inside regularly and fridge runs on gas 95% of the time. What sort of life do you get out of a bottle? Unfortunately for whatever reason our suburban unit is one without the 240v function... it is gas only which is a bit of a bummer!
Hi mate, first of all nice channel! To give you another advice...it's a pain in the ass job but get the fridge out...turn it upside down for 24 hours. (Has to do sth with chems inside the pipes) Also get the heatsink inside the fridge out and put on some new thermal paste on it! This + your fans will make your fridge ice cold on gas! I did the same with mine...best result! All the best from Germany! :)
Hey Jorji, I did try this after your suggestion in a previous video. It seemed to chew through our battery though. What sort of electrical system are you running?
Too right, new 12v compressor fridge is around $3000, plus an extra 200AH of battery to run it $2300, not to mention solar to feed that... it stacks up pretty quick! On the other hand $300/400 worth of fans is a no brainer for us at this point!
Interesting video I been thinking of doing that to my fridge but haven't found anyone who has done it to see if it works also where did you get the expansion ladder from thanks Ron
Gday Ron. Hope it helps in making your decision. Snowys.com. It is the ducks nuts. I just checked and they are out of stock. I'll leave the product description here: AUSTRALIAN RV TELESCOPIC ALUMINIUM LADDER 3.2M
Hi Brad this is a great review, a couple of questions. Does the internal fan stay fixed in position whilst traveling? as the clips on the video don't appear to be that strong. The other is do you run the factory fans along with the after-market product? and does this also help? Where do you recommend placing the internal thermostat?
The clips are metal and very solid & secure. The internal fan is really quite tight when attached to the fins and the fan shroud loops over the top of the fins stopping any up/down movement. We have been bombing some pretty corrugated roads too & have had no movement whatsoever. Yes I run the factory fans, I think why not if they are there.. Although the factory fans are much nosier. You can hear them running from the inside of the fan. The Klevacool fans are very quiet and you cannot hear them running. I have the thermostat mounted in the same place you saw in the install on the shroud as I have a secondary thermostat located in the door. If only running one thermometer, Split the difference I reckon and mount it somewhere in the middle of the fridge.
G'day guys ..first of all thanks for the great vids..question is there a mesh between the van and the fans at all? As 12 volt fans attract dust and clog easily plus bugs etc..also do you guys put an outside cover over them when not running in very dusty conditions while driving ? Thanks Adam &Julie ...
No mesh, that would probably enable the accumulation of dust etc. I run the fans non stop for 12mths without cleaning them & regularly inspected them. Strangely there was never an accumulation of dust there. We always used vent covers when travelling on dirt roads.
We have picked up an extra day on our gas bottles. I expect this to only increase as we run into the cooler months and run the fridge on a lower setting 😁👍🏼 I’ll be keeping and eye on & will keep you posted if I remember!
Hi Adam, we use dust covers over the vents when on dirt roads. However we do run the fans pretty well 24/7 & they have very minimal dust. The dust in SA is like talcum powder by the way 😂
I think its awesome that we spend 100000 on a caravan and you have to spend money on it to make the fridge work satisfactorily. My fridge in my caravan retails for 3500, its circulation is shit
@@michaelf5292 We most definitely will be back mate. We did spend a few hours in there when we stayed at Rapid Bay and filmed a whole section of an episode on SV. However some numbnuts deleted all the footage 😳😅
I find this highly uncompelling. The newer fridges will work up to 43 degrees C ambient temperature and cool down to -15. Maybe you should look into buying a newer more efficient model. LOL
@@our.australia.trip. but isn't that classed as false economy. The results were inconclusive the benefit didn't outweigh the cost and time to install that. You could say that's misleading what you stated. LOL
New compressor fridges cost 3000 odd dollars and their circulation fans aren't worth a pinch of shit. Almost useless. Very disappointing for the price. Mine is a dometic compressor. 1 year old.
G'day Brad. I also have the Klevacool internal & external fans fitted to my van for my 183L Dometic 3 way fridge. Can I offer a couple of suggestions to improve the efficiency of your fridge with the fans fitted? (1) Grab some roof insulation from the BGS or similar and completely fill/seal the sides and top of your fridge to stop heat from going around the sides and over the top. (2) At the top of the fridge, you have a sizeable gap b/w the outside van wall & the condensor fins. Dometic states the fins should be from memory no more than 25mm b/w van wall & fins. You have what looks like about 100mm. Make up an angled deflector from thin sheet metal from the outside wall upwards to the fins of the condensor. This will force all rising air through the fins & not bypass them in the blank air space in front of them. The more air you can get passing through the fins, the more efficient the cooling process will be. I also made a curved shroud that sits on top of the fridge & curves outwards to the vent. This creates a smoother path for the rising hot air to be expelled through the vents. If you have a look at Dometic's install instructions, you will see these hints. Apologies for the long winded comment. Hard to condense everything down. Cheers. Dave
Hi Dave & appreciate the tips! I had a look in the manual and you are spot on. When park up for a bit I will definitely have a look at doing this. I have also heard positive things regarding the insulation. Thanks for the comment mate 😊
Yep, I think this is a must have if you are running a three way fridge..
Well done on the review mate.👍👍
Cheers Brady! We are pretty happy with the benefits that come with these fans & will recommend them to anyone who has issues with their 3 way.. seems to be most people I talk to 😂 Also keen to see the longevity of the units, the fans don't seem to be running flat out so most likely programmed that way for a better life span.
Another great episode, thanks for your rundown on the absorption fridge. The fins up top on the outside of the fridge is the condenser, where you remove heat from the ammonium gas and condense it back to a liquid where it runs into the evaporator with heat collecting fins (extending the heat conducting surfaces) inside the top of your fridge. heat in turn from food stuffs and insulation heat leakage evaporates the liquid again to gas to remove heat from products being cooled, latent heat of vapourisation. The fans are a very good idea, but not much helps on those high temp and high humidity days. The internal fans are a good idea, without them all you have is convection heat transfer, energy travels from a hot spot to a cold spot.
Great thorough run through mate, explained it much better than I could have off the top of my head!
Keep up the good work, my experience over the last 10 years with a 3 way fridge has been good, I have a Tropical rated fridge, check for a T on the sticker inside the fridge, I did fit computer fans but zip clipped then to the inlet and outlet vents with a small toggle switch inside the van, I am using Engel wireless thermometer to monitor the temps, with the 12 volt operation, I upgraded the wiring with a Anderson plug and heavy wiring from the towbar to the fridge, their was a bad voltage drop to the fridge from new, the way to test the voltage properly is the check the voltage with the car running, then turn the fridge to 12 volt operation, my voltage went down to 10.5 volts, get your volt meter out and test, my fridge will maintain 6 deg all day while towing. Your gas usage seems high, the biggest user of gas is the hot water, I only turn on in the morning for a shower and dishes then off till even shower then turn off, if your gas hot water is turning on and off 24 hours that would chew up the gas, I often hear gas hot water going even in caravan parks when you can heat the water for free on 240 volt, I hope this info helps
Hey mate! Thanks for leaving a comment & i value your input massively. I want to test this out, do i check the voltage on the fridge somewhere? As for the gas, I never give it much thought, just accepted we get 10/11 days out of a bottle. Admittedly we are probably pretty heavy users of the gas, run the hot water once or twice a day, use oven and stove inside regularly and fridge runs on gas 95% of the time. What sort of life do you get out of a bottle? Unfortunately for whatever reason our suburban unit is one without the 240v function... it is gas only which is a bit of a bummer!
Another thought check your 12 volts element is working, remove and test direct to the battery, see if it heats up
Hi mate, first of all nice channel! To give you another advice...it's a pain in the ass job but get the fridge out...turn it upside down for 24 hours. (Has to do sth with chems inside the pipes)
Also get the heatsink inside the fridge out and put on some new thermal paste on it!
This + your fans will make your fridge ice cold on gas! I did the same with mine...best result!
All the best from Germany! :)
Thanks for the tips mate!! Hope your enjoying your weekend over there & getting into a stein!! 🍻🤙🏼
Thanks for that, Brad. I bought the fans, and your review vid was a great help to fit
No worries! Glad to help out 😊
spot on !! you gave all the answers I was looking for :) cheers mate
Glad to hear it! Thanks Andy 😊
@@our.australia.trip. …And have just bought the triple interior fan :)
Thanks again mate 👍👍
What a awesome video guys we will defiantly be looking into installing this before we start the lap later in the year
Thanks guys! How exciting 🙌🏼
See you on the road 😁
Great review Brad👍
Thanks Steve. Something different for the channel & hopefully helpful for the people like us who want to improve our 3 way fridges performance!
I run it on my 240v inverter while travelling and caravan parks. Gas free camping, not using 12v power anymore.
Hey Jorji, I did try this after your suggestion in a previous video. It seemed to chew through our battery though. What sort of electrical system are you running?
That would be a lot cheaper than buying a new fridge, awesome idea
Too right, new 12v compressor fridge is around $3000, plus an extra 200AH of battery to run it $2300, not to mention solar to feed that... it stacks up pretty quick! On the other hand $300/400 worth of fans is a no brainer for us at this point!
Interesting video I been thinking of doing that to my fridge but haven't found anyone who has done it to see if it works also where did you get the expansion ladder from thanks Ron
Gday Ron. Hope it helps in making your decision. Snowys.com. It is the ducks nuts. I just checked and they are out of stock. I'll leave the product description here: AUSTRALIAN RV TELESCOPIC ALUMINIUM LADDER 3.2M
@@our.australia.trip. thanks yes it does help all the best Ron
Hi Brad this is a great review, a couple of questions. Does the internal fan stay fixed in position whilst traveling? as the clips on the video don't appear to be that strong. The other is do you run the factory fans along with the after-market product? and does this also help? Where do you recommend placing the internal thermostat?
The clips are metal and very solid & secure. The internal fan is really quite tight when attached to the fins and the fan shroud loops over the top of the fins stopping any up/down movement. We have been bombing some pretty corrugated roads too & have had no movement whatsoever. Yes I run the factory fans, I think why not if they are there.. Although the factory fans are much nosier. You can hear them running from the inside of the fan. The Klevacool fans are very quiet and you cannot hear them running. I have the thermostat mounted in the same place you saw in the install on the shroud as I have a secondary thermostat located in the door. If only running one thermometer, Split the difference I reckon and mount it somewhere in the middle of the fridge.
@@our.australia.trip. Thank you, I appreciate the response👍👍
@our.australia.trip. did the internal fan stop the fins from icing up and which direction is the air flow blowing
@@grahamkemsley5381 It does exactly that & works a treat. The fan blows toward the door which is where you want to direct the cool air 😄
G'day guys ..first of all thanks for the great vids..question is there a mesh between the van and the fans at all? As 12 volt fans attract dust and clog easily plus bugs etc..also do you guys put an outside cover over them when not running in very dusty conditions while driving ? Thanks Adam &Julie ...
No mesh, that would probably enable the accumulation of dust etc. I run the fans non stop for 12mths without cleaning them & regularly inspected them. Strangely there was never an accumulation of dust there. We always used vent covers when travelling on dirt roads.
@@our.australia.trip. thanks guys appreciate it. Keep up the great work and enjoy yourselves ..thanks again
Good vid guys, off the topic, what brand of ladder did you go with?
Hi James. It’s an Australian RV 3.2m telescopic aluminium ladder. It’s the best 🙌🏼
I’m wondering if you have noticed any reduction in the amount of gas you’re using if the fridge is now running more efficiently?
We have picked up an extra day on our gas bottles. I expect this to only increase as we run into the cooler months and run the fridge on a lower setting 😁👍🏼
I’ll be keeping and eye on & will keep you posted if I remember!
@@our.australia.trip. Very interesting, it’s a win win because it will pay for itself!
Hi Brad just wondering if you've noticed a significant difference in the fridge temps
Hey mate, yes 16:10 onwards goes through our testing and results
Hi Brad, Does it suck in much dust on dirt roads ?
Hi Adam, we use dust covers over the vents when on dirt roads. However we do run the fans pretty well 24/7 & they have very minimal dust. The dust in SA is like talcum powder by the way 😂
I think its awesome that we spend 100000 on a caravan and you have to spend money on it to make the fridge work satisfactorily. My fridge in my caravan retails for 3500, its circulation is shit
Yeah they are pretty poor the old 3 ways. Some don’t have an issue, but sounds like we are the unlucky ones
Why cant I mount the INTERNAL fans on the side wall rather than the fins
Does runing the wire through the drain hole block it ?
It is a tight fit, but haven't had any issues with water in the fridge
Aldinga/Silver Sands! 🙂
Good eye mate! A cracking morning there by the way 🙏😁
I'm a local! LOL. If near Second Valley gimme a bell! 🙂
@@michaelf5292 We most definitely will be back mate. We did spend a few hours in there when we stayed at Rapid Bay and filmed a whole section of an episode on SV. However some numbnuts deleted all the footage 😳😅
@@our.australia.trip. That'll happen! LOL Best Wishes :-)
Hey guys does your discount code still work ?
Hi Sharon, we never had a discount code for Klevacool
hmmmmmm
I find this highly uncompelling. The newer fridges will work up to 43 degrees C ambient temperature and cool down to -15.
Maybe you should look into buying a newer more efficient model. LOL
I address this at 22:46. I think you missed the point though. This video is for the many people who do not wish to replace their fridge.
It’s not just a new fridge it’s lithium batteries to run a fridge for 10 days without any sun so 3,500 k turns into 10k quick.
@@our.australia.trip. but isn't that classed as false economy.
The results were inconclusive the benefit didn't outweigh the cost and time to install that.
You could say that's misleading what you stated. LOL
@@jorjimaco5331 I'm not sure what you're trying to say but these fridges run mainly on gas and 240v. 12v only during transport.
LOL
New compressor fridges cost 3000 odd dollars and their circulation fans aren't worth a pinch of shit. Almost useless. Very disappointing for the price. Mine is a dometic compressor. 1 year old.