Forest River/Coachmen Crossfit/Nova Kool service bulleten 225-0901

[@Michael]

See:

https://dealers.forestriverinc.com/d...in/2250901.pdf

Dear Forest River Customer:

Forest River is alerting you to an issue involving certain 2018 through 2019
Coachmen – CrossFit – CFB22CF, CFB22CFEB, CFB22CFEBCA, CFB22DF,
CFB22DFEB Class B motorhome recreational vehicles.

WHAT IS THE ISSUE? Certain vehicles have Nova Kool refrigerators installed
in which the 12VDC/120VAC circuit board fail, causing the refrigerators to
turn off. In addition, the ventilation requirements of the refrigerator
may need to be enlarged.

[…]

Inadequate venting can reduce your refrigerators cooling ability. Nova Kool has also determined there are some of the 12VDC/120VAC boards are failing at the conversion point in the board. This will cause the refrigerator to turn off.

I had mine done a few weeks ago. I have no idea if the Nova Kool works better or not. The ambient air here is colder than a properly functioning freezer.

It looks like

• If you don't have a lower vent, they add one.
• They add an [ugly black] upper vent, drill some holes up into the microwave cabinet to get a chimney effect, and re-orient the fan - likely to help the chimney.
• They add insulation behind the fridge, probably to keep the rear of the fridge kool [pun intended] when that side of the van is in the sun.
• They replace a circuit board and disconnect the 120v. That means you are always using the house 12v inverter.

From a few other compressr fridge and Nova Kool threads on this forum I assume that all of the above a good things.

[Phoebe3]

Thanks for the list of mods. We haven't had ours done yet since we just got a semi-local Coachmen dealer a couple of months ago and the service department told us they wanted some time to become familiar with the Coachmen products. Glad to hear they are adding insulation.

[rowiebowie]

Seems a common occurrence for rv makers to not heed a manufacturers ventilation requirements. Particularly for modern compressor fridges like my 3.1cf Novacool. Many on the airstream forum, including myself, have added mods to vents/fans etc. because it was lacking during the factory install.

In my case, due to the wide black outer paint stripe, poor insulation, and lack of venting within the interior (since compressor fridges don't ventilate to the outside) my novacool would be trying to operate in a 120 degree "oven" on hot sunny days. And the 120 degrees is not an estimate, but rather based on actual readings before my mods.
.

[Phoebe3]

We have considered putting a vent in the roof over the refrigerator. Nervous about putting another hole in the roof, though...

[@Michael]

Originally Posted by Phoebe3

We have considered putting a vent in the roof over the refrigerator. Nervous about putting another hole in the roof, though...

The Forest River kit vents internally, out the front of the microwave cabinet.

Before the service bulletin, I was scoping out a few places to drill holes and put a muffin fan. I think that on the CrossFit, one could vent from the fridge up into the microwave compartment and then either out above the microwave like the kit, or into the bath, our out through the trim that separates the bath from the fridge/microwave compartment, or even through the upper part of the pantry/shirt closet somehow.

[rowiebowie]

Originally Posted by Phoebe3

We have considered putting a vent in the roof over the refrigerator. Nervous about putting another hole in the roof, though...

I thought about doing that with mine, but only for a brief second for the reason you mention, another hole. The original install had zero lower vent so I made two 3" holes below it in the breaker panel. I made one of the holes just in front of the inverter fan so that it now has a way to ventilate as well.

The factory upper vent was just a passive grill around the microwave. Adequate size, but a poor flow path for heat. The fan I installed just pulls the air behind the fridge out to the rear lounge area inside. The idea being whether we were traveling or camped, the air being drawn in from the coach to replace the air exhausted by the fan would be cooler and the heat would be quickly dispersed. I included a button thermostat that comes on at 100 degrees and turns off at 80 degrees. The fan would never run at night since we don't camp where the temperature is higher than 80 unless we run the a/c.
.

[@Michael]

Originally Posted by @Michael

The Forest River kit vents internally, out the front of the microwave cabinet.

Before the service bulletin, I was scoping out a few places to drill holes and put a muffin fan. I think that on the CrossFit, one could vent from the fridge up into the microwave compartment and then either out above the microwave like the kit, or into the bath, our out through the trim that separates the bath from the fridge/microwave compartment, or even through the upper part of the pantry/shirt closet somehow.

Here's my stab at better venting:

http://www.classbforum.com/forums/f5...html#post98136