Yeah I agree. The fridge on my 1980 air cooled (no skylight) van would
make ice even on the hottest days, the fridge in my syncro(wiuth
skylight) can't even in the fall. The fridge itself has a bigger
influence than the skylight / venting.

Chris

On 11/9/05, Alistair Bell <albell@uvic.ca> wrote:
> Frank,
>
> while not wanting to defend VW engineering I disagree with your
> statements below about the skylight and the fridge not working above an
> 80F cabin temp.
>
> My fridge works just fine at 81 F cabin temps. The sliding window
> behind the fridge does a good job venting the fridge heat, no need for
> the skylight.
>
>
> Alistair
>
>
> '82 westy, diesel converted to gas in '94
> http://www.members.shaw.ca/albell/
>
> On 9-Nov-05, at 3:31 AM, Frank Condelli wrote:
>
> Piss poor design plain and simple.  NO OTHER  RV vents the fridge to the
> interior of the vehicle.  The fridge should have  been sealed off to
> the vehicle
> and vented to the exterior.  I have  installed a 3" ~ 4" pancake fan in
> the
> city water port as previously described  by someone on this list.  This
> has been
> the single most beneficial thing  that has improved the Dometic
> operation in
> warm weather.  The amount of  heat being blown out of that port will
> amaze you
> when you think that all that  heat was previously being contained in
> the van
> and trying to exit through the  skylight if you remembered to keep it
> open.
> Once the interior temperature  surpasses 80 degrees F the fridge ceases
> to work,
> no more  possibility of  heat transfer ~ no more cooling ~ plain &
> simple !
>
> Cheers,
>
> Frank  Condelli
>