Novice question: I'm currently looking at a van that has the kitchen on the 'door' side. The fridge vents are obviously on this side. What happens if you want to have an awning with possible inner tent? It discharges into the awning? Seems a common arrangement. Is it only an issue if running the fridge on gas?
The only real problem is that the fridge vents create quite a bit of heat that will go into the awning. Also on hot days they awning will get very hot and the fridge will struggle due to the heat and the lack of air around the vents.
I sometimes wonder if the people who design caravans have ever been in one !
Both our previous Baileys had the fridge vent on the awning side, but our current Adria has them on the other side which is a much better idea.
Good question Debs,dont think anybody has asked that since i joined.I know on my van we have vents but,up above them we have a gas flue for the fridge.Have never run any of my vans on gas and i would say it must be a hazzard with an awning up..then again i might be wrong.Good question
There is so much ventillation in the awning and such a tiny amount of gas burned that it is not a problem.
------------- Bill
For a licence dated 1997 or later you must add together the plated max weight of the caravan and trailer, if the total is 3500 or less you can tow it. You may even tow a caravan with a MAM greater than the cars unladen mass the restriction was removed in 2013
There are different designs in awnings whereas some have a centre zip all the way down that removes each front panel together then there are the ones that have a fixed piece down the centre (covering the centre pole) whereby the two panels are independently removed either side. The latter of the two awnings have a zip up 'V' at the top of the centre pole designed specially for the ventilation of the fridge. The former of the two doesn't have the 'V' section and the advice is to open the centre zip by about a foot from the top forming a 'V' when the doors remain closed especially at night. This has always been an issue with caravans having fridges on the same side as the doorway because if there is no ventilation then the fridge doesn't perform as well whether it is being operated by means of 240 volt mains or gas. So the answer to your question is to ventilate the awning by means of the centre zip when all the doors are closed.
As said above unless you're pegging down your awning and zipping it up to near air tight levels you'll be fine. A fridge flame is only slightly more than a candle.
As for the fridge struggling in the heat from an awning this is very true. My fridge will get frozen on anything above half way when the awning is circa 20 degrees. When it's hot outside and the awning creeps into the late twenties I have to have the fridge would all the way up.
I find removing the vents (totally not talking about winter covers) helps get my beers that bit more frosty on a particularly hot day. I've considered fitting a couple of 12v fans in there to aid cooling.
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Topic: Fridge Vent - Awning side?
