I quickly learned that RV refrigerators REALLY suck. I already knew that my spare refrigerator at home in my garage in Florida suffered in the 90 degrees + heat.
But what I didn’t know is that RV refrigerators use a different technology than a home compressor fridge.
In a nutshell, the freezer is generally marginally adequate but the main storage is not even close. In really hot weather it cannot maintain a safe temperature.
That said, if you go to extraordinary lengths you can learn to (barely) live with it. The rules are:
- Only put stuff that’s already cold in the refrigerator
- When you open it immediate shut it
- The more stuff (to a point) inside the better
- The 12V setting provides barely enough to keep it cool so if you plan on opening it switch to propane or AC.
- Continuously monitor the tempature
The last is achieved with this little amazing gizmo. You put these wireless monitors in the refrigerator and can watch the temperature continuously. You can even set an alarm so you will know when it’s stressing.
I’ve include an Amazon link below. Note that the AA Lithium batteries are required for the sensors for best performance in the cold. The remote temperature display uses AAA batteries of any kind but I chose Lithium also for longer life.
This gadget has worked out great. At least now I know when my fridge is dangerously warm because I parked the RV in the sun or simply put warm stuff in it.
I still hate the RV refrigerator though. I wish they had made it half the size with twice the cooling so it would work properly in the sun.
Update: May 2021
These things work great, but I upgraded to more advanced RV refrigerator monitoring. The new ones feature Bluetooth and I can see an activity graph not just the current temperature. For that matter I have also upgraded to a compressor RV refrigerator that works much better!
(Paid Links)