Well, I did take a course on Thermodynamics in my 1st year of Engineering,
so I can suggest at least one thing we can do to certainly improve the
efficiency of the fridge - i.e.: to make it cooler.

Keep the area where the heat gets rejected nice and clean!

Any coating of grunge back there will lower the efficiency!

Refrigerators are heat engines, and dirt on the heat radiating surface is
somewhat comparable to plugged exhaust on an IC engine.

Now, with other heat engines, increasing the input energy flux also
increases the work performed, in this case, heat rejection from a body.

This makes me think that if we hit the fridge with more energy, we should
also get a cooler fridge due to increased rate of heat rejection. This is
analagous to putting a more powerful compressor on a typical AC.

Has anybody tried "hopping up" the heater?

Cheers!

Marshall Ruskin
84 Westy "Iron Igloo"
Founding Member of "Vanagons Anonymous"