Refrigerator condensor shrouding

[Rickf1985]

My turn to ask a question. My expertise is chassis mechanical and electrical so when it comes to things in the coach I generally have to ask. In the back of my fridge where the condensor is it is like all of them, a shaft with a vent on top with the condensor in the upward airstream. On mine on one side there was apparently a piece of wood that has disintegrated from a leak around the vent and this has made the opening much wider in the back. In other words the airflow going up and out the vent can now go partially around the coils. My symptoms are this, during hot weather my fridge burner is on just about solid, all the time. It maintains good temp and it does respond to the thermostat, if I ask for colder it gets colder. If I ask for warmer the flame will go out until it reaches the warmer temp and then it lights and stays lit again. I am thinking this may be because not all of the incoming air is going past the coils and is not cooling them as it should be. Am I on the right track here and have any of you had this problem before? If so were you able to fix it without removing the fridge? I do not have enough time before my trip to be tearing the camper apart. I have heard of using a small fan but I am boondocking and do not want to have to run a fan constantly which will run down the batteries.

[DaveVA78Chieftain]

Rick,
See if this write up answers your questions
Refrigerator Venting

The link to the home page of the fridge section is at the bottom of that page.  I recently added all that information to my website.

[Rickf1985]

Thanks Dave, That gives me even more information than  was thinking about. I was not thinking about distance from the outer wall, I have several inches! I am guessing that the side should be baffled the same way? To keep all of the air on the coils?  I can only see this with a mirror from below in the back cover or down from the top. Unfortunately I do not see any way to change anything without removing the fridge from the enclosure.

[DaveVA78Chieftain]

Unfortunately I do not see any way to change anything without removing the fridge from the enclosure.

I am afraid you are correct on that one.

[Rickf1985]

I do have the dead air on top, I can duct that out. I may be able to slide something plus some fiberglass insulation in the side.

[Rickf1985]

Ok, Crawled up on roof and inside back compartment with a mirror. I do in fact have two baffles from the back wall in towards the unit, the lower on is about 3 inches away and the top one is curved for best flow and is right against the cooling fins. The problem is that there is nothing on the sides to keep the air form bypassing. I am only seeing one tube with cooling fins on it and that is at the very top, no other cooling fins anywhere that I can see. The fridge appears to be about 30 1/2" deep and I have 31 1/2" from the wall where it is mounted to the \cabinets on the other side of the aisle! I don't think I want to screw with it right now since it is working albeit inefficiently. I may try to stuff some insulation up in the cavity on both sides and leave it at that. And put a small fan up top, what fan are you using?

[DaveVA78Chieftain]

I could not afford a new RV fridge so I currently have a normal 110VAC compressor based fridge so I do not have fan installed. 
You do not need anything more than a 12VDC muffin fan.  You are simply pulling the heated air out from the area.  Remember, original design is convection based air circulation (heat rising resulting in air flow) so the actual CFM air movement is fairly small.
If you place anything in there to fill the side gaps (e.g. insulation) in order to direct air flow across the coils, then make sure it is not combustible or to close to the flue itself (fire hazard from propane flame).