Keeping ice cream frozen

[obiwancanoli]

I have a Dometic 4-door refrigerator/freezer, with an ice maker. Until now, I'd always kept ice cream in the compartment without the ice maker, surrounded by other frozen items, gel packs, etc. try to freeze it at lower temps at home to prepare it, otherwise, ice cream simply gets soft, and messy to eat..

But I've recently read someplace that I'd do better to follow my same routine, but to store the ice cream in the same compartment the ice maker is housed...

I keep the fridge/freezer on the coldest possible setting, and the idea above seems to make sense... anyone care to chime in on this?

[obiwancanoli]

Super_Dave wrote:
I had a similar question on a different forum earlier this summer. None of the advice that I received seemed to help so my solution for next summer is to bring along a small 120v chest freezer.

I considered that, but the darn things aren't cheap! Before re-considering, I'm going to try storing the ice cream in the ice maker compartment... along with more deeply freezing the ice cream at home first.

I have several of those freezable gel packs, and a few large cuts of meat and fowl that I can wrap around it... if it works, great. If not... will keep looking for a solution.

Thanks to all who offered their ideas and observations!

[Super_Dave]

I had a similar question on a different forum earlier this summer. None of the advice that I received seemed to help so my solution for next summer is to bring along a small 120v chest freezer.

[DutchmenSport]

So, what you are saying is: 2 doors are for the refrigerator. 2 doors are for the freezer. One of the freezer doors sides keep things colder than than the other. The side of the 2 freezer doors that keeps thing colder is the side that has the ice maker. Does the other side of the freezer keep things frozen?

Considering ice cream does seem to require a lower temperature, that yes, it make perfect sense to keep it in the compartment with the ice-maker.

[CA_Traveler]

Soft/messy ice cream indicates the temperature is to high. Time for maintenance and service to resolve the problem. No need for gel packs etc when it's working correctly.

Start by measuring the temp which should be 0-8F. And the refer should be under 42F. What are your temps?

[Jayco-noslide]

We have a frig. with seperate freezer compartment in a 15 year old Class C and it keeps ice cream just like at home.

[garyemunson]

RV fridges mounted in slides seem to be what has caused most of the "soft ice cream" issues. When they are not in a slide, fridges have a vent directly through the roof over them. In a slide, they have to make do with small "muffin fans" to help move the air up and out vents on the side wall. This isn't the best of solutions but does work most of the time. First you have to be sure the fans are still working. The fans or the small thermoswitch on the upper fins can fail. If they are not running on a hot day, you've probably found the problem. Another issue I found on our Winnebago Class A is that, while driving down the road, for some reason air must not move bottom vent to top like it should. I got the thermometer below and determined that. As we drove down the road, the temperatures in the fridge and freezer would start going up. The longer we drove, the worse it got. Once we stopped, the temperature would fall again. I cured this by getting 2 small automotive radiator fans, wired them in series to slow and quiet them down, and mounted them in the upper vent. They move much more air than the muffins and now warming up while driving is cured as is the soft ice cream.

https://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-Refrigerator-Thermometer-Temperature-Customizable/dp/B004QJVU78/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=dual+temperature+refrigerator+thermometer&qid=1571481804&sr=8-5

[doxiemom11]

We have a Norcold with ice maker in 1 freezer side. To keep ice cream solid, we store it in that compartment, and I also read bottom left rear corner was colder. Don't know if that's true or not. With frig/freezer set at coldest temp it's solid, but not as hard as from a regular freezer. Another thing that makes a difference is how much stuff I have crammed in there. The fuller the freezer, the softer the ice cream. Air can't circulate around it with a lot of other stuff in there.