How do I know if my fridge has the extra cooling fan?

lkc001

Hello all--I am picking up my new to me Tab 320S next Saturday!  It is a 2017 --how do I know if the fridge has the extra cooling fan installed from factory?  My Tab has the two round vents on the front of the Trailer, not the square vents outside behind the door.  Thanks for any info:)

dragonsdofly

@lkc001, you have the old style fridge (like mine). Your trailer was manufactured between April and June/July of 2016. By mid July,  NüCamp was installing the new style fridge. By that time, the old style fridges had the extra cooling fan as standard. There will be a black circular button toggle on the front of the fridge on the upper right hand side. You will have to run the cooling fan in outside temps beginning somewhere around 55/60 °F to keep your countertop cool and assist the fridge in cooling. My date of manufacture is listed as April 2016, and my last 3 digits of the VIN are: 415, so you can determine how close to the change of fridge model you came. Any other questions, just ask.

ScottG

At one time nuCamp was providing free retrofit kits to owner's of older T@Bs. I got one for mine. I don't know if the kits are still available, but there's not much to them and many owners have just done their own retrofit with parts the sourced themselves. It's a relatively easy install and I know there are some discussions about it here if you opt to go that route.

Note that there is already one cooling fan installed under the fridge fins that is thermostatically activated. I was under the impression that the extra fan was more about cabin comfort--whether it's necessary for proper fridge operation is unclear, but it's hard to imagine a little extra airflow doesn't help.

lkc001

@ dragons-- thanks so much for that great info!  Yes I believe i remember seeing that black toggle switch-- I will be getting a 2 hour walkthrough on all the systems next Saturday's pick up.  I have been researching & reading on this site for some time now and I remembered reading about the excess heat issue on the top of the fridge which could keep it from cooling properly and hot counter top on some model years-- glad I lucked out and have this fix already factory installed!

lkc001

@ Scott-- did you notice a difference in the cooling ability of the fridge after you installed the extra fan?

ScottG

@lkc001, I didn't care that much so I never made any effort to quantify whether the fridge was working any better. Food was cold before, food was still cold after.  :-)

I'm a power miser so I don't even use mine all that much unless it's really hot weather--not something I encounter with regularity in the northeast and Atlantic Canada where I've done most of my camping.

I have a vague recollection that somebody did collect some numbers on fridge efficiency--maybe related to the installation of an extra fan or fans. You might search around here and see what you can find.