Norcold Refrigerator Ventilation (how important is the venting?!)

How important is the ventilation in the back of your refrigerator, you ask?!

VERY IMPORTANT, we say!

The venting or ventilation in the back of your refrigerator is more and more important the more extreme the outside ambient temperatures get. This being said, a poorly vented refrigerator will most likely have no issues if running in moderate ambient temperatures at all times. For most of you, this is impossible. Weather is unpredictable and when you add in the fact that RVs are typically moving, it just makes a well vented refrigerator crucial to keeping food cold. Your refrigerator has a gas absorption style cooling unit. The cooling is first initiated by a heat that is supplied at the back right hand side of the cooling unit (when looking at it from the back). This heat is either an AC heating element or a burner when operating it on LP mode. The ammonia vapors then rise up the rectifier tube on the right hand side and will make its way to the top of the cooling unit. Now if you take a look up from the back of the refrigerator you'll see a bunch of fins closely fit together at the top of the cooling unit. These fins are called condenser fins because this is where the condensation begins (where the cooling begins). Airflow across those fins is what actually causes the condensation in the first place. Poor ventilation prevents this process or at the very least hinders it. The typical symptom here would be a freezing freezer section and a poorly cooled refrigerator section. The reason for this is that there simply isn't enough ammonia solution flowing through the system (not enough condensation is being created at your condenser fins). The cooling unit is all gravity operated so if you know the cooling process has begun at the top in your freezer section, you can also know that it is very likely that you have a venting issue. If you plan on camping in very hot ambient temperatures we recommend installing a rear fan to help with air flow.

Below is the spec sheet for Norcold gas absorption refrigerators with a roof vent:

Below is the spec sheet for Norcold gas absorption refrigerators with double side wall vents:

 If you have any questions or comments, let us know in the comment box below!

Norcold Parts by Model Number (<click)

Norcold Parts by Category (<click)

New Norcold Refrigerators (<click)