Room sealed fridges (1 Viewer)

[stanley_1]

I'm interested to hear advice regards fridges not being room sealed, is it something to be concerned about?

Wandering around stalls at shows you will see more than a few van conversions with fridges that are not room sealed.

CClub offer advice here -
http://www.caravanclub.co.uk/media/1022772/refrigerators-mo.pdf

but is this over-cautious and something most people ignore?

 

[Techno]

They are most likely compressor fridges and do not need a room seal. Only fridges that run on gas need this

 

[stanley_1]

The fridge in our van ran was 3-way - hook-up, van-electric, or LPG from underslung tank and it wasn't room-sealed. When you say "need this", do you mean that if it is running of gas or LPG it is essential to be room sealed?

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[Techno]

Yes

EDIT that is not to say there aren't very many out there that were never sealed correctly from new and that responsibility lies with the converters.

 

[Jaws]

I have seen a couple of PCV's that APPEARED to have fridges not room sealed.. But looking at the back through the vents I could see they were ( weirdly ) sealed at the back all the way round.. The seals had been done with some sort of rubber stuff.. One was REALLY neat and the other looked a darned mess to say the least !

 

[icantremember]

The fridge in our van ran was 3-way - hook-up, van-electric, or LPG from underslung tank and it wasn't room-sealed. When you say "need this", do you mean that if it is running of gas or LPG it is essential to be room sealed?

Room sealed or not make sure you have a Carbon Monoxide alarm installed ... you can never be too safe!

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[FULL TIMER]

Up until a few years ago very few fridges were room sealed, in fact some of the smaller Electrolux fridges were designed to be vented within the vehicle with a vent at the top and bottom front of the fridge the newer dometic versions of the 122 models are still like this, HOWEVER this ventilation is only for cooling and the flue takes the exhaust fumes out through the side of the van , the original idea of the room sealing was I think to prevent draughts when external vents were fitted but more recently some of the modern fridges don't actually have the separate flue come through the sidewall and purely rely on the fumes escaping via the top external fridge vent hence the very important need to be totally room sealed

 

[stanley_1]

Thanks All. Comments so far seem to fit with my conclusion that room seal is a good idea, but is it essential I wonder. In our last van, removing the outer plastic cover allowed seeing straight through over the top of the Dometic fridge into the van. We only became aware of this when we took the van to someone other than the converter for repairs and they mentioned the fridge being not room sealed could have consequences for insurance.

 

[Techno]

Installation instructions for Dometic fridges are very clear

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[Techno]

Typical install

 

[stanley_1]

Thanks All,
If it is a potential hazard, I recommend people checking their fridges, ours was a very expensive PVC, bought new 2012 and was most certainly not room sealed - we used to get a draft blowing into the van over the top of the fridge if the wind was from that side.

 

[WillH]

Our fridge was never properly sealed from new, only discovered this when I removed it to change the 240v element. It is well sealed now, both front and rear, stopped a draught as well.

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