I like ice cream. And really, who doesn't?
So when we travel in the Airstream, there's usually a pint or two in the freezer. And it's usually mushy, because the freezer just can't get cold enough on most warm days. This annoys me.
In my last Airstream, I installed a pair of cooling fans to help improve the air flow past the refrigerator's coils. They didn't make the freezer as cold as my home freezer, but they made a big difference on very hot days. My ice cream was no longer a mushy mess.
When we got a new Airstream in 2020, I had hopes that the factory-installed cooling fans would be sufficient. Our Globetrotter came with two fans. One is shown in the photo, and the other is located much higher up in the "chimney."
Alas, they aren't enough to keep the freezer very cold. At least not in our southwest heat. You can see in the photo below how small they are–about 3" square–and they just didn't seem to have the "oomph" to get the job done.
The Fix? Install Refrigerator Cooling Fans
This spring, my annoyance with eating mushy ice cream turned into a decision to finally do something about it. We're headed out for a month in July, so I bought an inexpensive pair of RV refrigerator cooling fans on Amazon and popped them into the Airstream's refrigerator bay. (We don't sell these fans.)
The purpose of the cooling fans is to help push air into the space behind the refrigerator, up and out through the rooftop vent. More air = better cooling, even on a very hot day. They act as boosters for the existing fans, if such fans exist in your model. In our Globetrotter they do, but not all Airstreams or RVs have them.
All of the cooling fans for RV refrigerators on Amazon are similar. The ones I purchased are 5.5" square each, mounted as a pair in a bracket, and they come with a nice control that offers manual and automatic settings.
Installation
Installation is pretty easy, if you're moderately handy. You don't have to remove the refrigerator. As placed in the photos, the fans create a "high-pressure" zone in the lower part of the fridge compartment, which gently helps the air move up and out the rooftop chimney.
You'll need to locate an always-on 12 volt power source, which on my refrigerator is front and center, once you open the outside access door. I piggy-backed the 12 volt positive and ground wires from the fans onto the refrigerator's power distribution block, and secured them in place with electrical tape. The boost fans pull so little power that you don't have to worry about overloading the circuit.
The standard fans sold on Amazon are designed to hang off a typical RV refrigerator access door, and that's not going to work on an Airstream. I simply drilled 9/64" holes in the base of the fan bracket, and riveted it right to the floor of the fridge compartment. The fans are light, so a pair of rivets was plenty. (Of course, I made sure the fans were blowing the right way—inward—before I riveted them in place.)
Tip: Shift the fans a little to the left, so that they won't be blowing directly on the gas pilot. It's shrouded, so that placement may not have been necessary, but I didn't want to risk upsetting the gas pilot when we're boondocking on a hot day.
The control box that came with the fan kit had some very lame adhesive tape that wouldn't stick to the aluminum of the Airstream, so after these photos were taken, I attached the control to the floor with some 3M VHB tape. It won't go anywhere.
Initial Results?
The fans are wonderfully quiet. I can't hear them inside until they are at their highest speed, and even then it's unobjectionable. With the choice of manual setting or "automatic" temperature-based setting, the fan setup should be very convenient.
But the real test starts in July. I've got 3 pints of Culver's that are earmarked for the Airstream's freezer. Our first night will be in a campground that is likely to be at least 95°F when we arrive, so if my boost fan modification works, I'll know it when dessert time rolls around that evening.
Will I suffer the curse of mushy ice cream this summer? Time will tell. I'll update this blog later in July with the results of my cooling fan test.