That is the point made in the article, that it helps mainly in warm weather.  I was thinking about this mainly after camping last week at Heyburn State Park near Coeur d'Alene.  It was warm at night, and the fridge pumping warm air into the van added to the heat.

Do you recall what fan you used?  Is it the same as added to the fridge itself?

On a related note, I do not think that the argument about the original engineers coming up with most of the simple solutions is always true.  The original design also had cost restraints that may lead to less costly but less consumer-friendly solutions, like venting inside the van.

Dave B
Boise
________________________________
From: vw_van_fan_Mark <madvws@cox.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 30, 2019 7:22 PM
To: David Boan <dboan@OUTLOOK.COM>; vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Subject: Re: Dometic Fan

I've done it to several vans in my family over the years. It helped all
of them, when camping in warm weather. It also reduces the amount of
running of the main fan. It isn't a fix for fridges that aren't already
working well, it just lets well working fridges do better in hotter
weather than they otherwise would.

Mark

David Boan wrote:
> I just came across Frank Condelli & Associates article on fridge maintenance (See http://www.frankcondelli.com/fridge.htm ), and one of the upgrades they recommend is to put an exhaust fan for the fridge in place of the city water hookup (or cut a new hole if you use that hookup).  The idea is that this will vent the heat from the fridge outside rather than inside, which is the current setup.  My questions is has anyone done this?  What size fan did you use and where did you find it?  Was it worth the effort?
>
>
> Thanks
> Dave B
> Boise, ID
>