'02 Bambi Leak - Found it!

[RangerJay]

Found my leak – which seems more design and quality control issues than anything else.

The problem showed up as damp carpet in front of the fridge.

Suggestions to find the source included checking for leaks from the air conditioner, the wheel well, roof rivets, poorly draining fridge compartment or possibly a leaking door (thanks to all those who gave me advice).

The poorly draining fridge compartment was pretty close.

If you are familiar with a Bambi’s configuration I hope this explanation will make sense:
- Rain or melt water will drain down the side of the trailer onto the upper fridge vent.
- Once it hits the hinge of the upper vent door it will wick inside the hinge then drip through the lower air deflector and onto the fridge compartment floor.
- Once on the compartment floor – if the rain or meltwater is substantial – it will simply flow to the interior end of the fridge compartment and make its way down the cabinet casing to the carpeted floor.

What I’m doing to solve the problem:
- re-caulking the outside framing around the fridge vents
- adding a drip rail to the frame of the upper fridge vent – this seems like an easy and obvious fix to direct excess water away from the hinge – the challenge is going to be getting something to match the look and corner curve of the vent frame.
- re-caulking the inside, bottom joint of each fridge vent frame – the weatherproofing (caulking + duct tape) had deteriorated and, in the case of the bottom vent, – looked like it might also be allowing pooled water to flow inside the fridge compartment.
- remove, re-install and re-caulk the fridge compartment drain – the “screen” on the drain had been caulked so heavily around its outside edges that it actually created a dam – water inside the fridge compartment was not allowed to flow out the drain until it had gotten to be a ¼” deep.
- re-caulk the lower inside joints of the fridge compartment cabinetry – this was a chore – took the fridge out (not a big job – pleasant surprise) – removed and cleaned all the old silicone (a much bigger job) – was surprised to find silicone “gaps” (speculated that whoever did the original caulking must have been listening to heavy metal music at the time …. squeezing the caulking gun in time to the beat of the music ….).
- add a bead of caulking across the fridge compartment floor to act as a dam and not allow any pooled water to flow to the front of the compartment – I was surprised that there really was nothing on the compartment floor to prevent, or at least discourage, excess water from flowing to the front of the compartment – then out onto the floor.

The caulking work is now done – but haven’t yet played with a drip rail - and before I put the fridge back in I have a question about installation.

On each side of the fridge there was a square, high-density foam strip running from the floor of the compartment to the upper air deflector. It is not large enough to fill the gap between the fridge and the wall so I can’t figure out what its purpose is. My feeling is to replace it with a larger piece that completely fills the gap between the fridge and the compartment wall – and to also put in additional pieces on both the top and bottom of the fridge to do the same thing …. any thoughts or advice on this??

Thanks,



Jay