Residential fridge... love or hate it???

[dezolen]

Pull trailers outsell motorhomes by a long shot and 99.9% are still using absorption fridges.
Just saying

[PDR John]

5th wheels are starting to switch to residential frigs.


Neither statement addresses the OP question, nor proves anything.

[LouieL]

The small Dometic unit in my old Coachmen Mirada worked flawlessly for 9 years only needing a heating element once.

The Norcold 1200 in my Discovery has proven to be problematic and a overall piece of junk. I will not sink one red cent into it. I will be doing a residential unit soon.

[Hamshog]

Originally Posted by docj

Our Norcold LRIM1200 was functioning as well as it could, but we replaced it because we wanted more space and better performance. That shouldn't be so hard to understand. We're not rich, but we don't have to wait until something is broken in order to upgrade it.

I agree. Our Norcold was working the best it could when I replaced it with a Whirlpool 22cu.ft. unit that has cut our electric bill by $50.00 a month! It cost me less than $1100.00 and nothing to install. Payback will be less than 2 years with much better size and cooling abilities. The question was about full timers. Yes?

[VestaDave]

Originally Posted by docj

Actually your so-called propane powered fridge requires quite a few amp-hours of 12V power in order to operate its controls. If you don't believe this try disconnecting you batteries; I can assure you that your fridge won't work.

No, actually the unit Twinboat describes requires no battery at all... Hence no amps. It's true that newer units needs power.

[GA Navigator]

Different strokes for different folks. I'm just glad that there are options to have either which one you want.


1994 Holiday Rambler Navigator
Cummins 8.3
Allison MD3060

[Dutch Star Don]

I've said it, and many others have too, many times, that the Norcold and Dometic units that are not 4 door models work well and CONTINUE to work well. It's almost moronic that someone comes on here with an old trailer or motor home with a small two door fridge and talk about how they don't like residential units. They've NEVER had one....duh.


Then you get a guy who says, I don't need a big fridge, it's just the two of us and our dog. Basically adding they're just for rich people. Really, our friends have a 9 cubic foot two door. When we go away on a long trip, their refer is packed like a sardine can....they have to unpack half of it to get to their food in the back. Oh yeah, and every night they borrow ice from us.

[Dr4Film]

Originally Posted by Davdeb1

This being a worrywart about fires is ridiculous, not one person on here can say how many Norcold's caught on fire.

Obviously you did not click on the LINK in my last post regarding the Norcold Class Action Suit and fires.

Here is a short clip from that post which states how many fires that Norcold has recorded up to THAT date. With the caveat that many more have not been recorded by Norcold.

"Klein Dep. at 20, 248-49, 267-68. Defendants’ own Incident Log, Incident Files and Warranty Log all show that leaks continue to be reported in 6, 8 and 1200 series refrigerators even after Defendants’ recalls and purported “fixes.” Layson Decl. 7 and Ex. B (showing examples of fires in 6, 8 and 1200 series units continuing through 2013); Keifer Decl. 9-12 and Ex. H, I. See 2nd Beard Decl. 8-12. While Defendants try to downplay the number of leaks and fires, their contention is contradicted and their purported statistical calculations are unsupported and unreliable. Id. In all, there have been over 2,500 fires and thousands more leaks reported. Id. And those figures are conservative as not all leaks and fires are reported to Defendants and recorded in their Incident and Warranty Logs."

Here is that LINK once again for anyone that cares to spend 5 minutes to read about how much Norcold really cares about your safety and the safety of ALL RV owners.

It is astonishing to think that a company with that many fridges in the RV industry is only worried about the viability of the company and could care less what happens to the fridge owners.

Luckily I don't own anything made by Thetford or Norcold anymore and furthermore if it has their name on it I don't buy it. My opinion is that the RV industry would never miss Thetford or Norcold if they left the face of the earth which I hope they do someday.

Dr4Film ----- Richard

[PeaceOwl]

Ours came with a res, but I doubt we would have special ordered it because we do like to boondock and not be tied down with worrying and checking use. Either way it can be worked out. We havnt used our generator more than 2 hours a day with the res.

But if you are like me and don't like to add generator noise to the footprint, then stick with the propane/combo. I have to admit, I do like the res, it does cool fast.

[Spinner]

Now having owned 4 RVs and replacing a fridge many years ago with an absorption unit, I will be putting a res unit in when my current fridge fails. I am concerned about the elevated fire risk (or perceived, elevated). I bought an automatic extinguisher for the rear of my fridge.

As for my dislike of absorption fridges, in all 4 RVs, at one point or another, I have battled with heat and whether the RV fridge could keep up. I have thrown out food on occasion because the fridge got too warm (Moab in July). I blame this on 2 things, the cooling unit can't remove enough heat and the poor insulation lets heat into the fridge faster than it can cool.

Keep this in mind, res fridges now have to meet minimum energy standards plus there are a large population of res fridge buyers who are interested in fridges substantially more efficient than minimum energy standards. These two factors lead to better insulated res fridges and more efficient compressor arrangements.

There is not the same push in RV absorption fridges. These fridges are bought based on lowest price for a specified size by RV manufacturers. Insulation and cooling efficiency and cooling capacity are not priorities.

Bottom line, my next fridge in the RV will be residential. I will do the install myself and the cost savings will buy extra batteries and some solar.

[Waiter21]

Docj -

Nope, No power required.

No auto mode, no need for solar panels, no need for batteries, no need for inverters, no need for generators, no need for shore power. Just supply it with LP gas and it will run for years.

Keeps stuff cold, keeps the ice bottles frozen. works great, last a long time. Just make sure its reasonably level.

No 12 volts. It will run on 110 instead of propane if plugged into shore, but I need to turn the selector knob to tell it to run on 110. If I lose 110, there is no automatic switchover, so I need to manually move the knob back to LP and then light it with the igniter.

I love this frig.

As was stated by the OP. One of the intentions of this thread was to educate people on the various systems that are available.

[cjd10]

Been traveling in a MH for over 30 years. This our 3rd and first with the residential. Absolutely love it. Wouldn't own another one without it. But, we don't dry camp much so it works well for us.

[nothermark]

Originally Posted by Dutch Star Don

I've said it, and many others have too, many times, that the Norcold and Dometic units that are not 4 door models work well and CONTINUE to work well. It's almost moronic that someone comes on here with an old trailer or motor home with a small two door fridge and talk about how they don't like residential units. They've NEVER had one....duh.


Then you get a guy who says, I don't need a big fridge, it's just the two of us and our dog. Basically adding they're just for rich people. Really, our friends have a 9 cubic foot two door. When we go away on a long trip, their refer is packed like a sardine can....they have to unpack half of it to get to their food in the back. Oh yeah, and every night they borrow ice from us.

You are missing the point. In a mixed forum like this where you have folks with everything from a 45 ft DP to a popup there is no "one answer fits all" for a lot of questions.

Residential refrigerators are one of those questions. I know they are creeping down into the smaller units. Folks like the two of us and the small dog are not full timing, end up a lot of places without electric as an option or with low power if it is. (think 15-20 Amps at a friends). Selling us a small unit with two batteries and a residential fridge just insures we will do a lot of generator time. No room for much solar and no room or weight capacity for the extra batteries.

Another example is 3000 watt pure sine inverter AC systems. Again, not enough battery capacity.

The point is not that stuff like this is good or bad. The point is that the answers do not fit the situation. My objections are to trying to sell poor choices and trying to create a problem to fix where there is no problem. Both of those things routinely happen here. If someone has a 45 ft DP covered with solar and 8 big LiPo batteries I will admire your setup, shudder at the cost and not care what you use the power for. When they try to sell that to somebody with a smaller unit and shallower pockets I will toss in a voice of reason. The only people that should annoy are the folks interested in selling the system and those too technically inept to understand the situation. To me it is sharing knowledge instead of sales pitches.I will admit to finding it interesting why some folks are so adamant about bad choices being "best". ;-)

[LVRVLUVR]

one thing that I noticed in my recent trek to purchase a class a motorhome is that the dealerships seem to be taking away the choice..

first I wanna say, I didn't totally understand the res. frig...
so rather that educate my self... I hunted a unit with out one..

my first thought was it was 12v and needed four battery's to run

but even being 120 v...extra stuff needed. like bigger inverter..more batterys

but as the newer coaches come in... less and less have the propane fridge

so like the poll shows.. most that come on the lot want the res fridge...

I'm still very happy to have found one with out...

we will head out today for the weekend .... i'll go out turn on the fridge
after a couple hrs
load it with cold stuff... and frozen stuff...
and head out...works everytime..

lots of good opinions and facts have been post' here...
thanks to all for the effort...