Lenny's Modding the new Gin Palace

Poutie57 said:
Hi Lenny, what a great post, I've read front to back several times and picked up loads of tips, just 2 questions concerning the fridge set up, 1) did the wiring for the external fans come with the fans or controller 2) could you post the link where you brought the internal fan and PCB controller as I am certainly going to do these 2 mods
Click to expand...
The external fans are computer case fans and only come with the standard Molex type computer socket I just cut them off and soldered the leads, no leads on the controller either.
The internal fan is just one I had around, the ones I used for the external fans would be ideal for the internal one.

External Controller
 
Lenny HB said:
The external fans are computer case fans and only come with the standard Molex type computer socket I just cut them off and soldered the leads, no leads on the controller either.
The internal fan is just one I had around, the ones I used for the external fans would be ideal for the internal one.

External Controller
Click to expand...


Silly question but how can they make some of these items and sell them for a couple of quid inc postage?

Even the expensive bits are cheap!
 
Lenny HB said:
Finaly got around to fitting the internal fridge fan. Spent several days measuring temperatures first and quite an improvement with an internal fan. This was the hot week where outside temps were 27 - 30 deg.

View attachment 171454

Decided to use one of the mini PCB controllers so tha everything could be mounted inside the fridge with only a power feed required.

View attachment 171455



Original plan was to pick up power from the door switch but only 10v measured there so must be fed from the control electronics so that was non starter.
Took off the fins and it was easy to feed the cable through the hole when the fridge sensor came through.

View attachment 171456


Mounted the fan and controller on one of the useless strips they give you too hold things on the shelves, just fits on the shelf no fixing required. Set initial temp to 6 deg.

View attachment 171460
Click to expand...

Great stuff, it would be interesting to know if the fridge is working harder and uses more gas..?
 
Coastal Cruiser. said:
Silly question but how can they make some of these items and sell them for a couple of quid inc postage?

Even the expensive bits are cheap!
Click to expand...
Probably because they get a couple of 60 hour weeks out of a chinese worker for the cost of 1 hour in Europe.

Smith and Sharp said:
Great stuff, it would be interesting to know if the fridge is working harder and uses more gas..?
Click to expand...
Difficult to answer that one, without weighing gas cylinders or running on mains with a power meter inline. Not too worried I would rather have cold beer than worry about 50p's worth of gas a week.
What does seem odd is with the fan running, the top of the fridge gets colder as well as the bottom. You would expect it to even out and the bottom get cooler while the top gets hotter. I can only assume that with the air blowing around the the fridge the sensor sees a higher temperature and the burnner/heating emement works harder. With the fridge ½ full the temperature at the top with & without the fan is staggeringly different far more than I would have expected. Also noticed that the temerature rises far less when you open the door.
 
Lenny HB said:
Probably because they get a couple of 60 hour weeks out of a chinese worker for the cost of 1 hour in Europe.


Difficult to answer that one, without weighing gas cylinders or running on mains with a power meter inline. Not too worried I would rather have cold beer than worry about 50p's worth of gas a week.
What does seem odd is with the fan running, the top of the fridge gets colder as well as the bottom. You would expect it to even out and the bottom get cooler while the top gets hotter. I can only assume that with the air blowing around the the fridge the sensor sees a higher temperature and the burnner/heating emement works harder. With the fridge ½ full the temperature at the top with & without the fan is staggeringly different far more than I would have expected. Also noticed that the temerature rises far less when you open the door.
Click to expand...

I think there are a few extra factors too:
How full is the freezer?
Is the freezer element covered in ice?

I reckon both would have a bearing on the effectiveness of the fridge as the freezer cools before the fridge.

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The freezer is empty but once it is down to temperature I don't think it would have a lot of effect. Not a very big area to to worry about air cirulation and freezers are supposed to run best full, also in use door only gets opened once a day at most often remains closed for 2 or 3 days.

I'll have a play.
 
Apologies if this is a stupid question but looking at the Arctic fan that I think has been suggested (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Arctic-F1...840532&hash=item28375669fd:g:JGwAAOSwSzRZPobQ) this is a temperature controlled fan designed to keep the PC cabinet between 35 deg and 40 deg (and it seems to do this internally without control by the PC. Given that the fridge needs cooling from, say, 25 deg, does one simply cut the heat sensor cable?
 
OK - I'll answer my own question - I was looking at the wrong Arctic fans! I should have been looking at these -
... which are not internally temperature controlled
 
Hi lenny, thanks for the info on where to get the PCB from and I've ordered all the parts from eBay I also noticed that you PCB was in a clear cover where did you get that from
 
Poutie57 said:
Hi lenny, thanks for the info on where to get the PCB from and I've ordered all the parts from eBay I also noticed that you PCB was in a clear cover where did you get that from
Click to expand...
, it's not ideal.

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Lenny HB said:
Probably because they get a couple of 60 hour weeks out of a chinese worker for the cost of 1 hour in Europe.


Difficult to answer that one, without weighing gas cylinders or running on mains with a power meter inline. Not too worried I would rather have cold beer than worry about 50p's worth of gas a week.
What does seem odd is with the fan running, the top of the fridge gets colder as well as the bottom. You would expect it to even out and the bottom get cooler while the top gets hotter. I can only assume that with the air blowing around the the fridge the sensor sees a higher temperature and the burnner/heating emement works harder. With the fridge ½ full the temperature at the top with & without the fan is staggeringly different far more than I would have expected. Also noticed that the temerature rises far less when you open the door.
Click to expand...

As I'm on gaslow and move on a lot so not a concern for me especially on cost but I was thinking of the one that has non-refillable gas and sitting on a site in Spain for a few weeks, if this mod took 2-3 days of a bottle full of gas it would be a trade off...
 
Smith and Sharp said:
As I'm on gaslow and move on a lot so not a concern for me especially on cost but I was thinking of the one that has non-refillable gas and sitting on a site in Spain for a few weeks, if this mod took 2-3 days of a bottle full of gas it would be a trade off...
Click to expand...
If it used that much gas I would think you would have a major problem:D
September in Europe we normally use about 28Lt (14kg bottle) in 3 weeks that is with the fridge on gas (no EHU, try to avoid prison camps), hot water every morning and often camp in the mountains so heating sometimes on in the morning.
Normal use acording to Dometic's figures fridge consumes 420g/24hr which is 5.76 Lt per week which is about 60% of my gas use over 3 weeks. If it increased by 20% that would only be 1.15 Lt per week.

I have been running my tests on mains as in the UK's freezing temeratures no differance running on mains or gas in performance. I'm running some tests with stuff in the freezer at the moment (all @Robert Clark fault).
When I've finised I'll put it on gas and see if I can tell if the burner runs longer. Normal use the burner appears to be running most of the time anyway.

Yesterday I tried turnning the fridge up to 5, not much difference with temerature at the bottom of the fridge, min 3.3 verses 3.9, max the same 6.0.
 
Last edited:
Lenny
Have you noticed any difference in internal temperature during the day?
 
Robert Clark said:
Lenny
Have you noticed any difference in internal temperature during the day?
Click to expand...
Not really not really appears to cycle most of the time between 4.5 - 5.5 with the ocasional excursion down to 3.9 and up to 6.0. same overnight.
 
I can understand you calling British campsites prison camps cos they're so regulated and character less but we've been on lots of Europeon ones where you feel as though your actually wide camping especially in the Scandinavian countries, we've just spent 11wks up here and 75% was spent wild camping or on stellplatz

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Oh forgot to say thanks again for your advice on fridge fans all brought now ready to be put on when we get back home
 
As the Dude said if only we had 1% of your skill/knowledge we would put the motorhome agents out of business - no more Lamborghini's for them!:whistle:
Must say think you have done a fantastic job. I have yet to get onto our roof!
 
Robert Clark said:
I think there are a few extra factors too:
How full is the freezer?
Is the freezer element covered in ice?

I reckon both would have a bearing on the effectiveness of the fridge as the freezer cools before the fridge.
Click to expand...
I've been running some more tests, the freezer doesn't really have any effect on the fridge, sorry Robert the fridge does not cool before the fridge.
The freezer is a slave to the fridge, there is no control on the freezer side it just relies on the what the fridge is doing. It only freezes due to there being 5 times the amout of cooling available, the freezer is 20% the size of the fridge with the same size cooling unit.

On mains the freezer has been maintaining -6.9 to -14.
Swapped over to gas 2 days ago last couple of days weather has been hotter, bottom of the fridge has been running at 4.4 to 6.4, on mains it was 5.7 to 6.4, so even with hotter weather it does perform a bit better on gas which I would have expected.
Now on gas the freezer has been in the range -8 to -17.3, so it looks like when at the lower end with the fridge running 1.3 deg cooler it has quite a knock on effect on the feezer.

What is quite noticeable is after having fridge door open the temerature gets back down to 8 deg within a few minutes compared to ½ hour without the internal fan running.
Well pleased with the results well worth the effort.
 
The things we boys do for a cold beer
 
Wonder if that will work on a Waeco compressor fridge? Hmmm......

Alistair

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Diabalo said:
The things we boys do for a cold beer
Click to expand...
Also useful to keep the tonic cool for the G&T.

Women don't understand man logic when loading the fridge. In our tugging days going away for the weekend I told the boss I'd loaded the fridge. Arrived at site with two young kids in tow, boss opens the fridge and says "where's the food?", FOOD! Well there was beer, gin, tonic & wine, thats a man loading the fridge.:D2
 
Has anyone got a link to the instructions for the fridge fan controller as I have lost mine and cannot even remember how to get it to go to work to operate the fans. I can switch on and alter temperature but that's it.
 
michndan said:
Has anyone got a link to the instructions for the fridge fan controller as I have lost mine and cannot even remember how to get it to go to work to operate the fans. I can switch on and alter temperature but that's it.
Click to expand...
Which one?
 
michndan said:
For the one that controls the external vent fans.
Click to expand...
I asked which one as there are loads of similar ones for sale. If it is the same as mine a AL8010F I've scanned them for you.

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Attachments

Latest mod, not quite, I'm in the middle of 2 others:).
Fitted a shower in the garage.

P1110231.JPG


Easy access under the floor in the under bed wardrobe.
P1110236.JPG


Connected one pipe under the base of washroom cupboard.
P1110232.JPG


The other one behind an inspection hatch in the same cupboard.
P1110233.JPG


Black dot in my fuzzy pic is a switch I fitted in line with the microswitch, also the shower head is a trigger one so no chance of flooding the garage - hopefully.
P1110234.JPG
 

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