An RV fridge is one of the most essential components of your RV. It will keep your food and beverages chilled, making it important to know how your refrigerator works so you can keep it working well for years to come.
There are two main types of RV refrigerators – compressor fridges and absorptions fridges. The difference between these is what power source they run on and how they cool.
Compressor fridges use a small motor to spin a condenser coil that cools the air inside. These fridges are made for RVs and typically have both a freezer section and a refrigerator section. They also have a digital control panel with settings that increase energy efficiency or decrease noise.
Absorption refrigerators use a chemical process to cool. Silver chloride is in an absorber and a small amount of ammonia is in the water tank. When the heat is turned on in your fridge the chemicals begin to react and the vapor that is produced moves through the refrigerator and freezes the food in the freezer section and ices the water in the refrigerator section. This cycle repeats itself over and over again. Some newer RV refrigerators have a feature that uses propane to heat the chemicals when electricity is unavailable or you want to conserve energy.
Both types of fridges can take a while to get cold, so it’s important to not overload your refrigerator with food and drinks. It can also be helpful to add an aftermarket internal fridge fan to help circulate the air better. Also, keep in mind that the temperature of the outdoors can affect how quickly your fridge gets cold. If it’s really hot outside your fridge will need to work harder to keep everything cool.