I agree that there are fresh air inlets. However for gravity convection
heat dissipation generated by the fridge is arranged such that it relies
sucking cool air from the floor level and vent via the roof vent. Just
look at the bottom of the refrigerator and you know what I meant. There
are two alternative solutions:

1) brute force approach - use fan to move air from the floor level
through the condensor fins. The Westy factory solution is somewhat this
approach. We can improve upon this by working on directing the hot air
more efficiently and directly outside instead of stuck in the cabin.

2) create a cool air inlet at the floor level - this is naturally there
if the sliding door is open. If the sliding door is closed the solution
is to cut a hole behind the fridge. To prevent water from wet season to
splash up inside the cabin one will have to fabricate some kind of
baffle.

The trade off between the two is 1) is less efficient as it requires
forced air induction and 2) cutting a hole into the vehicle floor.

Venting the warm air via the roof vent is a inferior solution though I
can understand why we are stuck with it. Someone in VW must decided that
they don't want Westfalia to bore that many holes on the driver side.
They decided the increase in cabin temperature is acceptable so we
suffers camping in the summer.

- Vince

http://gipsyflies.home.comcast.net
1989 Vanagon GL Camper
1993 Mazda Miata (for sale)
1996 Land Rover Discovery
2005 Mini Cooper S

-----Original Message-----
From: Malcolm Stebbins [mailto:mwstebbins@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2004 7:04 PM
To: Vince S; vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Westy fridge fan on, but fridge is off (I think)

This may be true, but 'fresh' air can come in through the climate
control vents and the battery compartment, and (depending on year) the
vents on the rear side windows.  M

--- Vince S <gipsyflies@COMCAST.NET> wrote:

> There isn't a cool air supply in the entire vehicle at
> floor level to promote the natural convection unless you leave the
> sliding door open.

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