SAMSUNG RF18HFENBSR gains ten degrees an hour without power

[ko4a]

Shirley and I purchased a new 2017 Montana 3721.

We found the commercial refrigerator gains ten degrees an hour when not powered.  We had two tests, in one hour it raised 10 degrees and in two hours it had raised 20 degrees. We have our normal inside temperature at 38 degrees. I feel, and per Red Cross, anything over 40 degrees is definite food spoilage conditions.

I request anyone who has the Samsung RF18HFENBSR Commercial Refrigerator run a temperature test for 30 mins up to an hour and let me know if they are finding this lose is normal for them. RV or residential test is fine.

Keystone told me there is nothing wrong with my refrigerator. I am still trying to get a graft of temperature rise when not powered from SAMSUNG.

I know we will have to have it powered all the time. The Magnum inverter is critical.

Safe travels all. 

[SWharton]

What is the outside temperature and was it on the sunny side. Why didn't it have power???

We lost power overnight once, it was cool out, not cold, and the temperature went up 5 degrees over maybe 10 hours.

We have a refrigerator temperature alarm for the freezer and refrigerator.

Forgot to say: we have a Whilrlpool

[Devilishjim]

I would venture to say that it has some pretty lousy insulation.

[docj]

 

51 minutes ago, Devilishjim said:

I would venture to say that it has some pretty lousy insulation.

Since the RF197, the predecessor of the RF18, was EnergyStar certified, I find it difficult to believe that either one has "lousy insulation", since that's pretty critical to meeting the energy standards. 

As an owner of an RF197 for ~6 years I can definitely say that if you are relying on the fridge's built-in temperature display it is totally inaccurate when the power is off and then comes back on.  It appears to sense the temperature of the air in the fridge near the sensor and not the temperature of the food in it.  We know this from several instances in which the fridge has "lost its thermostat" and needed to be rebooted.  This has happened several times and in each case the display would read fridge temps in the 60's before we were able to get it restarted.  But, once it started back up it returned to normal in less than an hour, something it would not be capable of doing if it really was at that high a temperature.  With the fridge full of food, the power outage only results in an increase in air temp near the sensor, but not the temperature of its contents.  That's why it's impossible to judge a fridge's temperature holding ability unless it is full of food, something the OP didn't tell us.

In order to judge the fridge's real ability to hold temp, one would need to use a thermometer with remote readout that could accurately provide data without opening the doors.  I think that a controlled test with a fridge full of food would provide a very different result.

[Zulu]

6 hours ago, SWharton said:

What is the outside temperature and was it on the sunny side.

That is the question.

We use wireless temp sensors to monitor our residential fridge temps. I have a Whirlpool, not a Samsung, but noticed my fridge temps fluctuating when we stayed a month in a Gulf Coast campground. The sun would strike the RV's fridge wall most of the day. We could feel the heat inside even with the ACs on. It was even hotter in the space behind our Whirlpool.

In a house, your fridge is probably either up against an insulated wall or up against an insulated wall inside a cabinet.

In an RV, your fridge is probably in a sealed cabinet up against a thinly insulated wall.

I installed fans to pull air in from our RV, behind our residential fridge, and then up through the roof.

No more fridge temp issues.