Polyester insulation around fridge ???

Darryl, The 190L fridge in my BT has the condenser on the rear so the insulation helped in two ways. The first was insulating the fridge cabinet from ambient heat a little better and the heat generated by the condenser. The second was to fill some of the void in the timber cabinet surrounding the fridge making the vents increase the level of convection. Instead of moving air from the whole cabinet it just convectively moves air around the condenser. Just bring the insulation level with the back of fridge no further as it might interfere with the air flow (convection). I bought mine from an insulation supplier in the yellow pages cant remember price but it wasnt that expensive. Batts are 100mm thick and I split them to 50mm to fit into space. I used 1.5 batts 1200 x 600 split into two to do the job .... top of fridge gets done also .... Here is a pic looking through my bottom external vent ..note insulation between fridge and cabinet (white poly wool) Regards Anthony Explore this Great Land ...Do it Easy ...Tow a Bushtracker

Thanks for that Anthony Mine has the condenser on the back as well & about a 50mm gap between the sides of the fridge & timber cabinet. Understand the principal of better convection airflow as well. Will let my "fingers do the walking" now. Regards Darryl

Hi All, I filled the space around the fridge with 25mm or 20mm polystyrine foam board. I got the board from an insulation shop and fixed it in position with silicon. I ended up with two layers on one side and a single layer on the top and one side due to the shape of the cabinet. Trimmed foam board where necessary with the stanley knife. Any small gaps I filled with foam tape or rod. Haven't tried it yet to see it it improves the performance of the fridge but I'm sure it will. Just make sure that you can still remove the fridge afterwards. Keep on tinkering, Regards, Peter.

I spoke to an industrial chemist recently about polystyrene. He was at the company I'm purchasing some from to line the roof of my shed for summer tinkering. All poly sheet manufactured today must pass the Aust Standard for non-combustible material. This basically means that the polystyrene will melt sure ...but it wont support combustion i.e. once the flame is removed from the melting poly it must not burn by itself. So these days it is pretty safe ...still be wary of the polystyrene vege boxes as they might still burn ... DONT use these to insulate anything. It is the best non-thermal conductor available made to price and weight per sq M. He cited an example of how good it is .... take the humble polystyrene cup ...you can place boiling water in it at 3 mm thick and pick it up and not feel any warmth let alone burn your fingers ....imagine 50mm glued to the inside of the roof shed. It is what our BT's are lined with .....if you can get polystyrene around the fridge all the better but if it gets a bit fiddly poly wool works well also ... Anthony Explore this Great Land ...Do it Easy ...Tow a Bushtracker