In addition to having to get rid of the heat sucked from your food, your
old Dometic also had the heat of its gas flame/heater coil to get rid of.
Your swell new compressor refrigerator still has to get rid of food heat,
and the motor makes its own heat (though it's a lot less than the
Dometic's heater!) BUT it's a lot less sensitive to ambient temperature
than the Dometic (which is not constitutionally capable of handling high
ambient temps <pause for Mark Drillock to object ... no objection so move
on>). As a result there is less heat to get rid of and less reason to
worry about it, so the existing cabinet vents are quite adequate. Buts, if
one lived in a hot clime and would rather that the waste heat not be
vented into the van's interior, then one could put a 12V fan in the
opening formerly used to exhaust the former reefer's combustion products
and just blow that hot air outside.

--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
KG6RCR

On 6/5/2008 1:14 AM Jeffrey Vickers wrote:

> I just got a 12V Isotherm fridge (nearly identical to the Vitrifrigo)
> and I'm wondering if they need any sort of venting --- like the
> Dometic --- or will the vent on the back of the fridge/stove cabinet
> suffice? Also -  if you don't need the old external vent anymore, what
> have 12V fridge owners done about the vent hole in the side of the van?
>
> Jeff / San Anselmo
>