Re:Is a fan in the fridge really necessary?

[Scott Mark]

Yeah, but… I understand the concept; I used to work in a place where we built refrigerators. I wasn’t on the line, but I studied the docs. An office fridge doesn’t have an evaporator. It circulates coolant through channels in a plate that is the “freezer” section of the fridge. Any moisture in the system ends up as frost in the freezer section. Heat from the “fridge” section makes it’s way to (and is absorbed by) the “freezer” section at a slower pace, which is why there are both a “fridge” section and a “freezer” section, both cooled by the same plate of coolant channels.

Surely you’ve seen this – check into a hotel, open the fridge, and the freezer section is blocked by an inch of ice around the cooling plate. OK, maybe 1/2 inch.

But, still, if I remember correctly, the average “office” refrigerator (which is what I’m using) does not have an evaporator. Times change, and maybe I’m wrong.

I have worked in restaurants; I know that walk-ins circulate air strongly. But most items in a restaurant walk-in are in vapor-sealed containers, and the circulation is more about temperature than about humidity.