If it's what I think it is, then yes. I have two coolers like this to use in the car. They're designed to be run indoors, not outdoors. And it is not a freezer.

The refrigerator is not outdoors!!! It's in the house. The house is 85 degrees during the day because it is 85 degrees outside and there is no air conditioning in the house. Comprende?

I know, I know, I must be some sort of freak of nature because I don't have air conditioning or feel I need it. In Wisconsin we have all winter to feel cold, the few weeks of 85 degree weather in the summer are just NOT a problem....

The refrigerator is not working properly, apparently because it is too hot for it.

It is a refrigerator and not a freezer. I am not expecting it to FREEZE. I AM expecting it to keep the food cold so it doesnt spoil, and for the fridge to run without shutting down. This is I feel a reasonable expectation, based on many years of living with a refrigerator.

My question is - if all Avanti refrigs are designed to run in 70-75 degree temperatures, does this apply to all refrigerators made by other manufacturers?

I know this dates me, and it may be shocking to some, but there was a time when NO ONE had air conditioning and the refrigerators ran just fine.

Most likely this fridge uses "Peltier devices" When you run a current through them they get cold on one side and hot on the other side. Of course you have to "Radiate that heat away" or burn up the Peltier Device/s.If they had the proper blowers on them, they "might work" Find out where the cooling fins are for it, and then try aiming a fan straight at it.
There may be better designed units than the one you bought, but you know, "Super Afterthought"---(Check the allowable Ambient Temps recommeded)
Hope the fan helps!!
Good Luck!

Gary

I was guessing you were talking about a semiconductor refrigerator. They are not like other refrigerators since they do not have a compressor.

No, I don't think you're strange. I simply no longer chose to live in a house without AC. I've done it before, but not now.

Manufactures of fridges and freezers will tell you that they are designed for 75F temperatures. They'll operate both higher and lower than that, but they don't necessarily like it.

Thank you all. Don't quite understand this fridge & cant seem to find much info an7where, so every little bit helps!

The fins are inside and there are cooling vents on the top and sides, and a fan inside that constantly blows , never stops, except one day I had the door open too long - it stopped for about an hour.

And then it seems to stop periodically during the night - when ambient temps are lower - 60s/70s. I have since read that the inside of a fridge is supposed to be between 38-40, is that true?

I guess I need to figure out - is it harming it to run it with ambient temps of 85-90, is this type of fridge any more likely to burn out than the old compressor types. It sounds like that may be the case if it is producing heat that needs to be blown away. I wonder if it can shut itself down if it gets too hot. I was told it was designed to run at 70-75 max.

You are probably the victim of marketing hype. This fridge is no more than a glorified peltier cooler that you would put in your car to cool some drinks. Like Dodge said the peltier works by sending a current through a solid state device, it gets cool on one side, hot in the other. If you reverse the current it will cool the other side btw. Peltiers can only achieve a limited delta-temperature from the ambient air. Sometimes as little as 15 to 20 degrees. A traditional compressor based fridge can run the compression-evaporation cycle to achive greater delta-T from the ambient air. When I looked up this fridge it appears meant to cool drinks in the office, or college dorm room, not to be a serious food keeping device. Although thier marketing implies it is a "refrigerator" the "reffer" part of the term refers to the refridgeration cycle that powers a compressor based refrigerator, this is a thermo-electric cooler, not a refrigerator. I would not buy one of these to keep food. Now can you run it as along as you want? Well the peltier needs to reject heat and it can onl do that through convection with the air around it. The longer you run it the hotter it will get on the hot side. At some point it will loose efficency as heat may build up and sneak back to the cool side. If it gets too hot maybe a joint fails somewhere? I'm not sure. Personnaly I'd either take it back or adjust my expectations of what it really is.

And btw.. people on here are trying to help you, no need to add "comprende" to your explanation of why your house is 85 degrees inside. Who would think a house would be 85 degrees inside? Weedmeister's comment was understandable, as I thoguht the same thing.

problem is: Avanti, and super/semiconductor technology.

Those guys sell budget gear with comparatively low pricing. Several have tried this technology with little commercial success. Sure tech is great if it works. Dacor tried this with a "cooling drawer" a few years back and had to scrap it because testing showed it wouldn't keep beer and sodas cold, let alone cream an eggs. That was a unit well into the thousand dollar range too. I think this is space shuttle stuff trickling down to to the home. However, in this case it's a novelty in my opinion.

If this were really a viable tech, don't you think all the fridge companies would jump on it so they could sell more fridges to everyone that now has an "ancient" fridge? Think along the lines of Flat Screen TV's. 5-6 years ago they were new,expensive and not widespread. Now everyone is in the game and you can get one at wal-mart for 200 bucks. There is almost no market or manufacturer of curved screen tube televisions now. Because that technology is viable.

That said , your problem is definitely a temp/humidity problem. In the Fall it will start working again.

I would take the Avanti back to the store you got it from and get a refund. You are not going to get adequate cooling out of a thermo-electric device in high ambient temperatures.

Sounds to me like you need a regular dorm fridge with a compressor. If quiet is critical, the Engel (made in Australia) is available in 120V built-in models. They are pretty quiet, but cost a pretty penny. They use a Japanese invention called a Swing compressor that will keep your stuff cold in temps you will never see in Wisconsin yet remain quiet.

Also, RV evaporative refrigerators can be found that run on 120v, They are essentially silent. But the cheap and easy solution is to get a small Sanyo dorm fridge or similar. They are available just about everywhere and will keep your food cold reliably

These types of refrigerators are designed to work at about 40 degrees less than ambient temperature, because they have no compressor. I have one in my office, and it performs very well. My office is a steady 73 though.