Helium fridge????

[DirtyDan]

Anyone else having problems with their helium fridge taking a VERY long time to get cold?
We just bought the 22bp bullet last summer and it was like that brand new.
It takes several hours to get cold (8-10) but gets very cold eventually.
Maybe its the new helium technology????

[DirtyDan]

BTW....... its the same on AC, gas, or battery.

[JRTJH]

I'm not sure if you've had any experience with gas absorption refrigerators in the past or not, so I'll make the assumption this is your first. If it's not, and you have experience with ammonia absorption cooling systems, then you know the "score"...

Anyway, gas absorption refrigerators do not cool like the home refrigerator you have in your kitchen. They take at least 8-12 hours to cool sufficiently to stock with "cool/cold" contents. Most will have a "hint" of being cold if you lay your hand on the bottom of the freezer compartment an hour or two after you turn it on, but every time you open the door (with an empty refrigerator) you let all the "cold air out" and the system has to start over.

At home, your refrigerator blows cold air around in the refrigerator and colder air around in the freezer. As it blows this air, the warmer air is pushed out and replace by the colder air.

In your absorption refrigerator, there is no replacement air, the air that is inside must be "relieved of its heat" by a slow process of "absorbing the heat" at the flat plate in the freezer and at the fins in the top of the refrigerator compartment.

This takes a significant period of time, sometimes, depending on the outside temperature and humidity, it can take a day or possibly longer to cool sufficiently.

Many people who want to "hurry the process along" will place frozen water jugs in the refrigerator and freezer, and after a few hours, replace them with cold food from the house refrigerator.

Most of us just turn it on the day before we want to load it and never open the door until we're ready to load. Many (me included) simply turn it on before the first camping trip of the season and leave it on until we winterize in the fall.

I hope this helps you understand the slow and painful process of "watching a refrigerator as it cools"..... It's sort of the opposite of that old proverb: "A watched pot never boils"....

[dhn]

Most RV refrigerators are absorption type refrigerators. Yes, they will take time to get cold. We turn ours on a day or two before we put food in it. Here is a video that explains how it works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUNmDQu_fvY

[DirtyDan]

Thanks guys...... That put my mind as ease.
I thought I might have got a lemon....

[JRTJH]

Make lemonade, what you've got is what it's designed to be (and do)...

oh, and the 12 VDC doesn't cool the refrigerator, it only controls the propane operation. The actual cooling unit operates on 120VAC to power the heating unit or propane which heats the unit... The 12 VDC doesn't provide any heat to operate the refrigerator, it only turns the propane flame off or on.....

http://www.sherv.net/cm/emoticons/everyday/relaxing-smiley-emoticon.gif (http://www.sherv.net/)

[CUFFS054]

JRT, if you think about it, it is the same as waiting on a "watched pot". The absorption principle is not far different.