Refrigerator Vent Fan

Our refrigerator works well but not great, especially when it’s above 90F (which in Texas is quite often). Even on those hot days the freezer works well, just the refrigerator section is not a cold as we would like. We decided to add a vent fan to help improve the airflow over the coils to see if that improves things. When we know more we will post and update.

Pictures

We installed the fan to the wood frame so it is very secure. Ideally, you would mount the fan below the coils and push air through them. We could not see an easy way to do this so instead mounted the fan above the coils to pull air through.


In this shot you can see the fan, wire bundle and small solar panel which provides the power to the fan.


Bug screening put back in place, don’t want to forget this.


All done, the vent cap is put back on. Make sure you position the solar panel so that the cap does not cover it.

Update

The fan did improve the refrigerator performance on _hot_ days, allowing it to keep the interior several degrees cooler than before. However the small solar panel did not hold up well to the elements, failing after the first year. The surface crazed and hazed, kind of strange given that its intended to be placed in the sun. Anyone doing this upgrade should consider finding a better solar panel than what comes with this kit.