Floor vent under Norcold

judymac

I have read several comments about cold air under the fridge vents. Is the vent drilled into the floor, under the frig, simply an air vent for the T@B? Our dealer placed our electric cable there and we discovered the vent yesterday. I am thinking it would be a nice storage space while hooked up to shore power. I can't decide if it is for simple air flow for the RV or has something serious to,do with the frig etc. Better safe than sorry, right?

Sgtjohn

The frige has to have air flow for it to operate efficiently but that is not where the cold air creeps in, it's the vent outside to the right of the entry door. And then there are the vents on the front of the T@B that someone mentioned also. I've cut a piece of metal a little larger than the vent to the right of the door and as soon as I can go to Lowes and buy some "adhesive backed foam" and use it around the edges of the "piece of metal" to pad the T@B so it won't be scratched. Then figure out how to afix it to cover the vent.

judymac

So is the hole in the floor, behind the bottom cabinet door, just a regular circulation vent or does it have anything to do with the frig. ? I do understand that outside cent, same principle as the outside air conditioning vent. This hole I am referring to is screened as well.

ChanW

Yes Judy, the screened hole in the floor in the cupboard is intended to make the fridge work more efficiently. 

The 3-way fridge, in any of the 3 modes, requires ventilation, to get rid of the heat that it's removing from the inside of the fridge. The outdoor vent behind the Tab's door, is supposed to let the heat out of the fridge area, and the hole in the floor, as well as the grating you can see below the fridge door, let's cool air into the fridge area.

In the winter the vents to the outdoors aren't as important, and the heat generated by the fridge can warm the inside of the Tab, and the cool air can mostly come from inside the Tab. 

But in summer, you're not going to want that heat to stay in the Tab, you'll want it to vent out the wall vent, and your going to want the coolest air available to help keep the fridge cool. Thus the floor vent.

HTH. :-)

judymac

Thanks Chan! Do you keep all of your vents open and clear in the winter or cool months? We have used propane frigs in the past, but not in such a small place.

ChanW

Hi Judy & Mike.

In cold weather camping we've closed off the waste-heat vent (behind the outside door), as well as the floor vent, and it's worked ok. We really haven't had a great amount of experience with it,  just a few trips in cold weather. We also use our ice chest in the back of the TV. 

The fridge is designed to work best with the vents open, however, so YMMV.

The 3-way fridge works by heating the refrigerant in all cases: in propane mode, or in 110V or 12V electric modes. So there's heat developed by the system in any mode, heat that needs to get away from the fridge.

The two round vents on the very front of the Tab are intake/exhaust vents for the propane burner on the fridge, so never block those.