Recently with the hotter weather, I've noticed the fridge just not quite keeping up. I have a thermometer with an outdoor sensor that I use inside the fridge, and on hot days (>100 degrees) the inside temp would get almost to 50 degrees! And this is with an electric fan to circulate air inside! I had also noticed that the countertop above the fridge was also very warm to the touch. Obviously something was wrong with this whole scenario. I took off the top vent off cover off (outside), and behind a thin piece of sheetmetal, I found about 5″ of dead space above the refrigerator that trapped the hot air that the cooling system was giving off:
Dead space above fridge
My attempted solution was to insulate around the fridge. There wasn't enough room around the sides of the fridge to put any insulation, so I focused on the top. I got the cheapest/smallest roll of fire-resistant fiberglass insulation I could find, and cut a section to fit above the fridge. I thought about trying to use foam board insulation, but the size of the access window didn't allow that:
Insulation
Finally I put the sheet metal flashing back in the original spot, and used duct tape around the edges to seal as much as I could. The duct tape may fail with time, but it's what I had on hand
Finished product
So for results, my counter is no longer warm, and the inside temperature in the fridge seems to be quite a bit cooler. Yesterday was only about 85 degrees, the fridge side was in the shade, so I'm sure that helped too. I'm sure a fan on the outside of the fridge would help too, to push the hot air up and out, but hopefully this low-tech solution will work.
What I would like to do next is to clean the burner / orifice, but I don't know how to do that yet. Has anyone here done that, and would like to share?
Thanks!