Tips When Using RV Fridge Right After Buying It

Fridges are great for so many things. They keep your food cold and safe to eat. They also can cool beverages where you have something nice and cold to sip on during your trip. An RVer’s best friend can be found in a fridge as it can help increase the enjoyment of wherever you are road-tripping to or living with your RV. An added bonus is there is no one prescribed RV fridge that must be used, and you have the ability to look for what you desire within one, as a buyer you have a complete choice!

While you have complete choice over what kind of fridge to put in your RV it is good to know that there are some helpful tips to keep in mind. This article is going to go through some of them! Where you can be sure to know what to do when looking things up like “RV Refrigerator Canada”. 

Cooling the Fridge before Usage

Every fridge whether a full-size fridge you place in a house, or a Portable Fridge needs some cooling time before it can be used to its full capacity. How long it will take the fridge to reach that full cooling capacity varies due to a variety of factors. Some being size, brand, and type. The range of time it could take for a fridge to fully cool can take between a couple of hours to a full day. 

Since it can take so long to cool down the fridge some helpful tips to remember are to plug your fridge in and turn it on 24 hours before your camping trip and check it with a thermometer to ensure it is below or at 40 degrees Fahrenheit which is the safe temperature to store food at. 

Some types/brands of RV fridges that tend to cool faster are 12v Propane Fridges. They tend to cool faster because they conduct the evaporation cycle needed for cooling much faster. While you don’t have to use them it is good to keep them in mind especially if you want a fridge that will cool faster. 

Properly Packing Your Fridge

Kind of like when people pack for a trip, they think that they will be a pro at it right off the bat. This is often untrue. The same applies to packing a fridge, we often go in being overconfident about our skills and lead ourselves into situations where we don’t have enough room for everything, or we have too much of something. 

You have to be especially mindful of this when trying to pack an RV fridge. RV fridges are much smaller, and you have less space to work with when storing your food. When packing a fridge, you always have to make sure there is enough room for air to flow throughout. If there isn’t enough air present, you will run into bigger issues. A lack of airflow will cause food to spoil because without circulation it won’t keep cold. Not only will it cause these issues it can also cause the issue frost buildup which needs to be taken care of by defrosting. 

Not only does that aspect of storage matter but it is also important to consider that it is better to place cold materials inside an RV fridge as it will cause less strain on your fridge’s ability to cool down. Warmer items will cause more of a strain on the fridge than colder ones. 

Overall, as long as you plan properly and don’t go overboard with what needs to be placed inside the fridge you will be alright. That is why we recommend sticking to as many shelf-stable foods as you can while enjoying the RV life. 

Defrosting an RV Fridge 

Ice buildup happens. But it doesn’t have to be the end of the world. If you notice your RV fridge building up ice deposits run a hair dryer over them as ice buildup can impact your fridge’s working ability. 

RV Fridge Brands

You are probably wondering where to start looking. Here we are going to discuss some popular brands which will give you more insight into availability. Dometic Coolers and Dometic RV Fridges are all headed by the brand Dometic. This brand is very reputable and is known for selling 12v Compressor Fridges, small drawer fridges and generally portable fridges. 

Other brands sell different forms of RV fridges as well. Some forms available are 12v fridge freezers, 2-way fridges, 3-way fridges and 3 in 1 fridge. This should show you that the variety is endless, and you can customize your RV fridge to fit exactly what you need it to. That’s the beauty of it!

Tick… Tick… Tick…

Another key thing you want to keep in mind when using an RV fridge is time. Especially when it comes to the time that the fridge is left open. That is because every time you open the fridge it uses electricity. Therefore, the more times you use it and leave it open the more electricity that will be run and wasted. You should only be opening the fridge to grab what you need when you need it. 

Doing that will also help keep things fresher and longer. 

Conclusions

Overall, buying and utilizing your RV fridge should be an easy and enjoyable process. You shouldn’t feel overly stressed or worried that you will do something wrong either during acquiring it or using it. As long as you follow these simple tips you will experience a super easy setup and usage process. 

As mentioned in the introduction, you have a lot of freedom about what to choose when deciding on your RV fridge. Why not use that discretion and freedom to your advantage to get both the best deal possible and the safest fridge for your home? We hope that you are able to utilize these tips provided here to make your experience with RV fridges even easier than you thought it could be. Happy Travels!