Community Forums

G-Man562 · 11-18-2015, 12:58 PM

Me and the wife are dangerously close to pulling the trigger on a 2016 Allegro 32SA. The question is I am leaning towards the res fridge but the wife wants the combo fridge cuz she doesn't want to loose the pantry that will get gobbled up with the res fridge. My dad a long time ole schooler doesn't believe in the electric only fridge since probably 4-6 trips will be boondocking in the desert and 1 or 2 on the beach without hook-ups. So the wife kinda on dad's side....please give me some guidance....the upgrade includes 4 six volt batteries the 2000watt pure sine inverter and maybe get some solar down the road??? thanks I have been hooked on this website since I started seriously looking for a new RV,,been Great thanks in advance

Greg& Laurie/lola & Ziggy

pagosajoe · 11-18-2015, 01:04 PM

Welcome to IRV2! We love the residential refrigerator/freezer. The extra batteries/inverter do the trick. If needed, we fire up the generator and recharge the batteries. Works great!

wildtoad · 11-18-2015, 01:29 PM

The wife wants old school, is fine with the rv fridge, won't be giving up the pantry space, so what's to cogitate about?

garykk · 11-18-2015, 01:51 PM

The residential refrigerator has much more storage. My DW would never go back to a gas/elec one...in fact it was one of the selling points of the Phaeton.

Chiefly1 · 11-18-2015, 01:57 PM

While you can make the electric refrigerator work fine with extra batteries and a generator who wants to listen to a generator? Adding solar would help but a lack of storage is frustration on steroids for DW... I would respectfully suggest moving away from the residential refrigerator in a boon docking situation without a fair amount of solar.

Bill & Christine
40 ft Revolution LE Diesel Pusher & Honda Fit Sport
Sent from my iPad using iRV2 - RV Forum

**pasdad1** · 11-18-2015, 02:41 PM

The residential fridge is so "huge" compared to the absorption type......why not just store the pantry items in the fridge ?

Seriously. Residential fridge cools faster, and less fuss. No propane to worry about.

ernieh · 11-18-2015, 04:54 PM

You might want to check the recent reliability issues with both Norcold and Dometic refers. Those issues alone would convince me to go with the RR.

wa8yxm · 11-18-2015, 05:01 PM

Let me put it this way...
Two things I would like is the additional cold storage of a residential Fridge and additional pantry space.. Alas. you see my problem

.

I'd go with the RV fridge.. Lasts longer when no 120vac around.

allegro1x · 11-19-2015, 07:06 AM

Could it be that installing a Residential Refrg is cheaper to install, when building a MH? Refrg is possibly cheaper - unit, gas lines etc. We don't fulltime, so we don't carry as much food and Wal-Mart is ever where. Also two more batteries can add to costs and problems in the future. Plenty of reasons to go either way. I have a gas/elect, but wife found used MH, so ours wasn't ordered. Dave

lllkrob · 11-19-2015, 07:18 AM

It's very simple, order what SHE wants. When it breaks and all your food is wasted, remind her it was what SHE wanted, and let HER attend to getting it fixed.

Betr2Trvl · 11-19-2015, 07:27 AM

One of our last decisions on ordering our 31SA a year ago was the fridge debate, and we went with the residential and are 100% sure we made the right decision for us. And while we are RV newbie's, we did spend about 110 nights on the road this year, including 2 month long trips.

First, we have yet to boon dock, so power has never been an issue.

As far as cooking, we eat "in" almost all the time, and eat exactly as we eat at home which was one of the things we really like about RV travel. There is more than enough "panty space" over the dinnette and sofa for all the dry food, spices that we carry. I think you'll find that the tiffin overhead cabinets are larger than on many other coaches, so check that out on the Newmar.

As noted,the residential fridge also adds penny of cold storage too. Since we eat a very heatly diet, the extra cold storage is particularly useful for fruits, veggies, etc.

Late edit: Also need to note that we have the dinette which has a lot of storage under the seats that are used for other heavier "panty" items etc., and we also have the convection/microwave and did not get the oven which adds 3 more drawers under the stove.

NevadaNick · 11-19-2015, 08:55 AM

We have res fridge and are without hookups alot. It means running the generator a couple hours a day to keep the batteries up. If your ok with that then the res fridge is in my mind the way to go.

kayak70 · 11-19-2015, 09:15 AM

We like "old school" but we boondock - a lot, that's why we have the Breeze. We have had zero issues with the Dometic and we've had essentially the same unit in RV's for over 10 years, no problems at all. I would also suggest if you go Dometic or "old school" not to order the ice maker, it takes too much room in the freezer where you want food. Use a silicon tray for ice. Anyway everyone has their own idea, that's ours.

G-Man562 · 11-19-2015, 09:36 AM

Well, looks like 6 to 4 in favor of res fridge,,,lots of good advise for both. Wife now realizing [after reviewing the post's] that there is probable more fridge items, and that she always complained of overcrowding and worried about the temp inside in the last rv fridge, there was always extra space in the pantry areas. So I guess at this point the extra 3k in the long run should be worth it for many reasons resale being one. I will keep you posted on our decision,,,thanks