Extra Ventilation For Fridge - Sanity Check

[Ayjay]

My wife reminded me that I said I’d think about some extra ventilation for our Dometic CRX50 in the hope that it might help a bit when we are on trips to much hotter climes such as Spain, South of France or Greece (where it hit the 40s on our visits over the last couple of years making the fridge work quite hard!). First off, I’ll say that I know that fitting a 12V fan in the side of the cabinet might be the best option but I want to avoid it so please do not suggest it.

Our furniture is what I would call a ‘normal’ side kitchen conversion with the fridge to the left and a vent /grill in the side of the furniture behind the drivers seat - Pictures 1 and 2. In addition, there’s a series of holes drilled into the panel over the top of the fridge which only really lets hot air to escape into the drawer compartment which cannot go anywhere else unless the drawer is removed so I’m now wondering whether it would be worth drilling a few 10mm holes into the back of the worktop above those already in the panel above the fridge. I’ve measured the drawer and when fully in, it doesn’t go as far the holes so I’m hoping that at least some of the hot air coming up through them might continue to vent out of the new holes - Picture 3 shows the close drawer, Picture 4 the existing holes venting into the drawer compartment and Picture 5 where I would intend drilling the additional 10mm holes (not sure that I could drill any further without a hit on the structural integrity of the worktop!).
BUT IS IT WORTH DOING? Any comments woud be much appreciated.

 

[T6ChrisO]

Cant comment on if its worth doing BUT what I would suggest if you decide to go down that route is a small metal vent on your worktop rather than a number of drilled holes. Purely down to aesthetics

 

[ginkster]

Is it getting warm in the drawer area from the fridge? If not then there is nothing to vent further. If it is then I’d start with some vents in the rear of the drawer compartment so the air can vent behind the cabinets and I assume (can’t see from the pics) up behind by the sliding side window. If a vent must go in the worktop then I agree with Chris about making it a neat, flush vent for aesthetics.

Different to you, but I did similar to increase the potential airflow for my top-loading fridge by putting air vents in the bottom of the cabinet.

 

[Dellmassive]

Or side panel had these slots routered into it for the fridge... They line up withl the compressor and rad.


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[Dellmassive]

We also cut out the rear panel.

Which adds air volume..

But for us we made a small garage area for electric stuff..

 

[Stay Frosty]

Is it really an issue as you're going to be ventilating the van during the day and possibly using the AC while driving, at night you'll be dragging the internal ambient temperature down various ways.
Our camper is chestnut brown and in 6 yrs so far we've not killed the fridge yet despite temperatures nearly going above 20C... aah, British summertime.

 

[Ayjay]

Thanks for all the responses people.
@T6ChrisO. TBH, a series of neat holes drilled in straight lines wouldn't bother me too much. Indeed, I think I'd prefer that to having to cut a larger piece out of the worktop to accommodate the grill.
@ginkster. Yes it does get very warm in the drawer compartment. TBH, it din't occur to me to put some holes in the back of it but now that you've mentioned it (and thank you), I've had a look and reckon there's maybe 10mm between the backboard and van which might well be enough to let some hot air out - there's also some cables in the void but I can ensure that they're out of the way before drilling. I've also got a sheet of 6mm aluminium that I can get the Mrs to hold in place in the void to make sure that the drill doesn't go straight through the backboard and into the side of the van (or maybe I'll just gaffer tape it to her hand to ensure she doesn't drop it onto the void to rattler for ever more. Your suggestion on using some extra vents looks neat but I'm not sure how much use it would be to me in practice as the hot air rises rather than staying at floor level to be vented out. Again, thanks, first suggestion might have cracked the problem.
@Dellmassive. You solution looks smart but it would be a lot easier to do when the furniture hasn't already been fitted. I don't fancy dismantling the van so I'll try the simple solutions.

 

[drinfinity]

The Dometic installation instructions have details on the are of the vents required. It will use less energy if you can vent effectively. Vent at the top will be more effective as you get a chimney effect. Even better if you can vent to the outside.

 

[Ayjay]

An update. I finally got my aris in gear to look into this venting business a bit further and in the end decided to drill a few holes in the back of the drawer compartment. I've done it on the basis that hot air will get into the drawer compartment (via the holes in it's base and above the back of the fridge) where, hopefully, at least some of it will then find it's way out of the drawer compartment and up the rear of the back panel. I purposely avoided the left had side as I couldn't see down into the gap on that side and suspect there's some cables down there . Time will tell if it improves things and I'll report back in due course.

 

[Kind of Blue]

More venting might be achieved with ducting to allow the flow of air to escape to the out side. It might be impractical to achieve that but if possible would be more efficient.

 

[Ayjay]

@Kind of Blue Good suggestion but, as you say, impractical! That said, when we're pitched up somewhere and it's hot enough to need it, the side window will be open whenever possible and that's directly above the vent holes.