Fitting a 12V cooling fan on a fridge vent.
Hi all.
Following on from my experience with fixing the gas on my fridge I decided to fit a 12v fan on the fridge vent to improve the cooling in hot weather.
When the weather gets very hot in France – mid to high 30’s, the warm air in the area behind the fridge can’t escape quickly enough. Many manufacturers recommend fitting a fridge fan inside the top vent to draw out the air faster.
Before we went to France this summer, I set about installing a fridge fan.
I wanted a thermostat so I could set the temperature for the fan to click on and off automatically. I also wanted an on/off switch so that I could turn the fan unit off completely.
Here is what I did.
The camper accessory shop in Cork was out of fridge fans so I went to Maplin Electronics and bought a 12V computer. 12 Quid.
I also bought an on/off rocker switch. 2.50 I think.
I bought an ordinary room thermostat from an electrical store. It was about 12 euro.
They didn’t have an inline fuse holder so I bought one in Halfords. This is just a small inline fuse holder about half the size of a cigarette with a three amp fuse. About 3 euro.
I had wires and connectors already.
1. I disconnected the 12v power supply in the van.
2. I needed a power source to wire it all together so I decided to use the wiring loom going to the light in the cupboard alongside the fridge.
3. I drilled a small hole from the compartment behind the fridge into the cupboard alongside.
4. I cut the wires to the lights (remember I had already disconnected the 12v supply).
5. I connected my new red wire to my connector block with the existing red wire for the light. When finished with this part I had one wire coming out of the connector block going to the light and two red wires coming out of the opposite port on the connector (they were both coming out of the same port. One of these two was the existing red wire that I had cut, the other was the new red wire that I routed through the hole that I had drilled and fed it into the compartment at the back of the fridge.
6. Next I cut a small hole on the other side of the fridge compartment to hold my rocker switch.
7. I drilled another small hole behind where I was going to run the wiring from behind the thermostat.
8. Both the thermostat and rocker switch are side by side next to the existing control for the water heater.
9. I wired the red wire that I had taken from the light onto the top connector on the rocker switch.
10. I wired a wire from the bottom port of the rocker switch to the thermostat. There were 3 connectors on the thermostat so I had to play around to find the right ones. I did this by connecting the thermostat to my car battery and wiring it to the fan to make it go on and off correctly when I adjusted the thermostat. After fooling around for a while and ably assisted by my 8 year old son, we figured out the correct wiring.
11. I was now able to run a wire from the bottom connector on the rocker switch to the correct port on the thermostat.
12. I ran another wire from the other connector on the thermostat to the inline fuse and then onto the red wire for the fan.
13. I connected the black wire from the fan back to the original light wire but this time connected it to the blue wire for the light in the same format as I had connected the red one.
14. With everything connected but not fully secured, I switched on the 12v supply and tested my new fan. To our delight, everything worked. The fan came on when I set the thermostat lower than the air temperature and went off when I set it higher. Everything went off when I turned the rocker switch off.
15. I disconnected the 12v supply again and screwed in the thermostat firmly and tidied up all the wiring. I sealed all the holes that I had drilled with sealant to prevent any fridge fumes from entering the van.
16. I secured the fan to the inside of the top louvre vent with electric tie wraps.
17. I checked that none of the wiring was anywhere near the back of the fridge to prevent them from melting.
18. That’s it – job finished.
19. It took about 1½ to 2 hours including messing around with the thermostat to figure out the correct wiring for it.
Was it worth it?
Well we were 6 weeks in France this summer, sometimes hooked up to mains, sometimes on gas. I set the thermostat to just over 30 degrees and it came on and off perfectly. It had definitely improved the ability of the fridge to stay nice and cool during the high temperatures. I didn’t notice any major drain on the battery either.
After a while however, I set the thermostat to just below 30 degrees as the air behind the fridge was obviously hotter than inside the van so this compensated for the difference.
Best of all – nice cold kronenbourg !
I’ve made a wiring diagram but I can't seem to find where I can attach it or paste it into the post.
If someone helps me out on that I'll post it up.
Denis.
Hi all.
Following on from my experience with fixing the gas on my fridge I decided to fit a 12v fan on the fridge vent to improve the cooling in hot weather.
When the weather gets very hot in France – mid to high 30’s, the warm air in the area behind the fridge can’t escape quickly enough. Many manufacturers recommend fitting a fridge fan inside the top vent to draw out the air faster.
Before we went to France this summer, I set about installing a fridge fan.
I wanted a thermostat so I could set the temperature for the fan to click on and off automatically. I also wanted an on/off switch so that I could turn the fan unit off completely.
Here is what I did.
The camper accessory shop in Cork was out of fridge fans so I went to Maplin Electronics and bought a 12V computer. 12 Quid.
I also bought an on/off rocker switch. 2.50 I think.
I bought an ordinary room thermostat from an electrical store. It was about 12 euro.
They didn’t have an inline fuse holder so I bought one in Halfords. This is just a small inline fuse holder about half the size of a cigarette with a three amp fuse. About 3 euro.
I had wires and connectors already.
1. I disconnected the 12v power supply in the van.
2. I needed a power source to wire it all together so I decided to use the wiring loom going to the light in the cupboard alongside the fridge.
3. I drilled a small hole from the compartment behind the fridge into the cupboard alongside.
4. I cut the wires to the lights (remember I had already disconnected the 12v supply).
5. I connected my new red wire to my connector block with the existing red wire for the light. When finished with this part I had one wire coming out of the connector block going to the light and two red wires coming out of the opposite port on the connector (they were both coming out of the same port. One of these two was the existing red wire that I had cut, the other was the new red wire that I routed through the hole that I had drilled and fed it into the compartment at the back of the fridge.
6. Next I cut a small hole on the other side of the fridge compartment to hold my rocker switch.
7. I drilled another small hole behind where I was going to run the wiring from behind the thermostat.
8. Both the thermostat and rocker switch are side by side next to the existing control for the water heater.
9. I wired the red wire that I had taken from the light onto the top connector on the rocker switch.
10. I wired a wire from the bottom port of the rocker switch to the thermostat. There were 3 connectors on the thermostat so I had to play around to find the right ones. I did this by connecting the thermostat to my car battery and wiring it to the fan to make it go on and off correctly when I adjusted the thermostat. After fooling around for a while and ably assisted by my 8 year old son, we figured out the correct wiring.
11. I was now able to run a wire from the bottom connector on the rocker switch to the correct port on the thermostat.
12. I ran another wire from the other connector on the thermostat to the inline fuse and then onto the red wire for the fan.
13. I connected the black wire from the fan back to the original light wire but this time connected it to the blue wire for the light in the same format as I had connected the red one.
14. With everything connected but not fully secured, I switched on the 12v supply and tested my new fan. To our delight, everything worked. The fan came on when I set the thermostat lower than the air temperature and went off when I set it higher. Everything went off when I turned the rocker switch off.
15. I disconnected the 12v supply again and screwed in the thermostat firmly and tidied up all the wiring. I sealed all the holes that I had drilled with sealant to prevent any fridge fumes from entering the van.
16. I secured the fan to the inside of the top louvre vent with electric tie wraps.
17. I checked that none of the wiring was anywhere near the back of the fridge to prevent them from melting.
18. That’s it – job finished.
19. It took about 1½ to 2 hours including messing around with the thermostat to figure out the correct wiring for it.
Was it worth it?
Well we were 6 weeks in France this summer, sometimes hooked up to mains, sometimes on gas. I set the thermostat to just over 30 degrees and it came on and off perfectly. It had definitely improved the ability of the fridge to stay nice and cool during the high temperatures. I didn’t notice any major drain on the battery either.
After a while however, I set the thermostat to just below 30 degrees as the air behind the fridge was obviously hotter than inside the van so this compensated for the difference.
Best of all – nice cold kronenbourg !
I’ve made a wiring diagram but I can't seem to find where I can attach it or paste it into the post.
If someone helps me out on that I'll post it up.
Denis.
