Residential Refrigerator

[az bound]

I'll do some checking to be sure but I think the Amana ARB1922FES will run on a modified sinewave inverter.

[Bill Adams]

Our coach has a Heart 2000 watt MSW inverter and it has run everything we need including the GE Profile without issue for almost 10 years.

[az bound]

Originally Posted by az bound

I'll do some checking to be sure but I think the Amana ARB1922FES will run on a modified sinewave inverter.

Sorry it took so long, I was working on my honey-dew list. The Amana will run on a modified sinewave.

[Grey]

Originally Posted by Bill Adams

Our coach has a Heart 2000 watt MSW inverter and it has run everything we need including the GE Profile without issue for almost 10 years.

Originally Posted by Cruzer

The residential fridges always get 3,000 watt inverters rather than 2,000. Otherwise you could pop breakers or whatever if you ran the microwave, fridge, etc all at the same time.

My Amana requires a pure sine wave inverter. That's mainly due to the electronics in the in-the-door water and ice dispenser. However, Tiffin now uses the GE residential fridge with the larger freezer drawer on the bottom which "supposedly" will run on a modified sine wave inverter.

Personally I don't like modified sine wave inverters. As long as you need to go larger anyway I'd recommend pure sinewave.

An electric motor will not run very differently on MSW vs Sine

Electronics in digital TVs, satellite DVRs etc. run fine on MSW inverters.

The MSW inverter is pretty close to sine wave and these electronic devices were built rather robust to handle normal sine wave power varying between 90 to 120 volts (there is a LOT more power problems from brown outs on the grid than would be expected from a minor approximation of MSW inverter)

I know some people prefer a true sine wave, but this seems like a personal desire not a requirement. I think people are focusing on secondary factors as an issue when primary issues like poor power off the grid are well tolerated.

If the RR only draws a 100 watts. This can not be that much more (maybe less) than a Norcold draws when running on electricity. It might be nice to have 3000 instead of 2000 watt inverter, but I do not think this should be viewed as a requirement for someone on a budget especially since people have had success with 2000 watt MSW inverters running RR.

[wa8yxm]

Someone ask "What's changed" Several things:

First Motor homes have grown.. 10 years ago a 35'er was large, Today they have 'em over 40' long (Which at one time was the maximum vehicle length) and with 4 slides or a full wall slide you can end up with as much floor space, parked, as I had in my house before I moved to the Damon and hit the road. (or close to it)

Second is the fact that both Dometic and Norcold have issued Recalls, and while I know little about the Norcold one, the Dometic is due to a fire hazard.

Finally, my comments.. Typical Residential compressor units are large, and can work in conditions that would drive a absorption unit bonkers (Arizonia in August for example) but.. They suck power like crazy, Well over 100 watts running (that's 10 amps at 12 volts) and as much as a thousand to start the compressor. That's a lot of electricity

The dometic high efficency dual (12/120 volt) system I linked to above uses perhaps 40 watts running and 100 starting. It is a compressor unit, so it's far easier on the batteries and has all the advantages of the residential save.. It's not as large.

[Grey]

Originally Posted by wa8yxm

Finally, my comments.. Typical Residential compressor units are large, and can work in conditions that would drive a absorption unit bonkers (Arizonia in August for example) but.. They suck power like crazy, Well over 100 watts running (that's 10 amps at 12 volts) and as much as a thousand to start the compressor. That's a lot of electricity

The dometic high efficency dual (12/120 volt) system I linked to above uses perhaps 40 watts running and 100 starting. It is a compressor unit, so it's far easier on the batteries and has all the advantages of the residential save.. It's not as large.

Even if a RR sucks more power, a 2000 watt inverter should be able to handle it and the tvs etc.

The microwave could be a problem but could be handled by running the microwave at 50% power instead of 100% power when running off the batteries. I doubt people use the microwave that much when on batteries anyway so running at 50% power when on batteries would not be a big sacrifice compared to cost of up grading to a 3000 watt inverter so they could have a RR.