Residential refrigerator / A chilling Experience

[WyoFree]

Hey lac, there will be no shots taken at a bath and a half! Nobody said a thing about your Mini Cooper did they?

[Sky_Boss]

Originally Posted by WyoFree

...

My question is “How Big of a Refrigerator do you Need”? Or is this one of those “Yah she’s cold but she’s a beauty” kind of things? Some coach manufacturers say no worries there crab-cake, this comes with a 6000 watt dedicated inverter. What they don’t tell you is you can’t use either of the two bathrooms in the motorhome because all the bays are full of batteries. Hey but that Residential Refrigerator is sure a beauty!

Just how much do you need? Some class A’s come with something like a 10 cf refrigerator while others come with a 26 cf. Those with a 10 cf let you upgrade to the 26 cf if you want it. How much food do you need to travel with? Even if you full time do you really need that much food? I mean a lot of refrigerated items have code dates right? ...

Going back to the first post and picking out the "real question" (and sidestepping the commentary) regarding size and NOT comparing the abilities to make and to keep things cold/frozen in a RV vs. Residential refrigerator...

We have had the 4 door Norcold 1200LRM at about 12 CF in 2 MHs. In our second/current MH we upgraded to a Samsung 197R at about 20 CF.

The Samsung was the same width as the Norcold but was a bit taller so there would have been no loss of space if it was standard. There was little difference in the empty weight of the Norcold vs. the Samsung. That is basically a "wash" in terms of kitchen arrangement.

The more open design of the Samsung vs. Norcold makes it much easier to put stuff in it and get to it without packing things like sardines in a can. We can now put in 40 bottles of water at a time and have plenty of room for bacon, eggs and other stuff. The freezer is also more open for the ice maker and pretty much anything we would want in it.

In terms of ability to store amounts of food, both in the refer and in the freezer, only an idiot would pick the Norcold 1200LRM over a Samsung 197 (or any other residential refer with similar dimensions). Why not have extra space? Again, I am only talking similar dimensions and relative storage capability.

Regarding the comments about inverters and bays filled with batteries...

I don't know that a separate 6000W inverter is really needed just to run the refrigerator since I run my refer on the original 2800W PSW inverter and same 4 batteries. This could be a logistical choice by the manufacturer or some owners that want it that way. All-electric coaches are much more common now and that is especially true if they have larger refrigerators. However, in an all-electric coach the batteries replace the propane tank so that is also a wash.

Again, I am not commenting on whether an RV or residential refer is best for anyone purely based on anything else but capacity. The pros and cons of RV vs. residential refers are well covered in other threads and dictated by personal choices. The only thing I will say close to that is FOR US the Samsung was a great answer to our needs and wants.

[mriderLeon]

Another Samsung here. The big freezer drawer stays mostly empty, but if I get a good price on a side of elk, at least now I'll have somewhere to put it. As for the refrigerator, I shortened the shelves and made room for two 5 gallon Corny kegs. I keep beer in one of them. Haven't used the other keg yet, but suspect it would be an easy place to keep DW's diet Pepsi so it won't go flat.

I'm still working on a place to keep another 4 house batteries. I cut the big hole in the side of the coach, next step is to put a door over the hole and build a battery tray behind it. Right now, I either run the generator more often, stay connected to shore power or cut the power to the refrigerator during the night.

The Norcold needed to be replaced anyway, it wouldn't freeze and wasn't dual powered anymore.

[Dr4Film]

Well as a full-timer for the past 14 years dealing with the POS NotSoCold 1200 that had less than 12 cu/ft of storage space I installed a Samsung RF-197 18 cu/ft fridge over 4 years ago. Basic fridge that kept all the food REALLY cold and all of the frozen items REALLY frozen.

The coach had been my home for the past 13 years so why not have a home fridge to use.

I am now purchasing a new Samsung fridge for our new beach house and that will be about 22 cu/ft. A little bigger than whats in the coach but you now have to consider that it is a house on land versus a house on wheels.

I don't buy any of the arguments in regards to dry camping versus having shore power to run the fridge. I can dry camp with the best of them and have on my many trips to Alaska and back.

Personally, if anyone still has an original Norcold 1200 four door model I'd be tossing that out the window ASAP before you have to crawl out the fire escape window to save your life. Don't believe me, then read or skim through THIS thread.

Dr4Film ----- Richard

[Wbonsell]

As full timers, our previous very small Dometic fridge was a major PITA. Marginally large enough for maybe one ice cube tray and a few Costco steaks and it always bothered me about the possible fire hazard.

Our new rig has a 19CF bottom mount stainless Amana residential fridge with icemaker and it is infinitely better and we use every bit of space. I was told you could not boondock with a residential fridge because it is continually drawing lots of power. Well, it's not true as we have boon docked several times for a week or so. We just monitor our batteries and fire up the genny for several hours a day. No problem IMO. Absolutely love it along with our 30" gas range.

Dang, life's good!

[tgdameron]

We opted for a Samsung over Notcold/2cold as we travel with our son, who is a type 1 diabetic. Storing insulin at a consistent temperature is essential when traveling. Also, we take lots of veggies and fruit which stay fresher than when we had the Notcold/2cold. Our alternator puts out 285 amps, which keeps the batteries fully charged when driving. We don't boondock for more than 3 days at a time, so running the generator is no big deal. We like it as we can take lots of frozen home cooked meals and don't feel we must search out the nearest grocery store when we stop of the night.

[WyoFree]

Thanks for the post tg and for talking good care of your son! Nothing better than family travel!

[LINADR]

Our norcold 1200 died during our trip, think the cooling unit is dead. Anyway, only 2 of us plus the dog, as a quick fix, we bought a 4 c.f. fridge at home depot. Quickly found out that it was too small. So, we looked around, and ended up with a 11 c.f. Haier residential. Fits in less space than the Norcold, so our cabinet maker friend made a pull out pantry for us. Can never have too much storage space.

[dianneoverstreet]

We put 145k miles on motorhomes during ladt 7 years ... I was estatic to get a residential fridge in mine!!!!

[WyoFree]

Hi dianneoverstreet, Wow that's almost 21,000 miles a year, I call that residential in itself!

[KarenS144]

I thought that way too! (Notice past tense) We had the propane/electric RV fridge in our gasser and at RV shows, I was astounded that anyone would want much less NEED those big residential fridges.

Then our new to us coach had one of those big residential fridges and I quickly changed my mind! We don't have the external ice or water but we do have an ice maker and love hearing the clink of the ice tray dumping. I love that the frozen stuff stays frozen and the cold stuff is cold.

Do I fill it up every time we camp? Nope. I don't have all the cabinets packed either! I do like the large freezer because it allows me to prepare quite a few meals in advance for use when we travel so at the end of a day of travel, all I have to do is thaw something out.

I adapted very quickly to the larger colder fridge in our coach.

[Bbhughey]

I see that you all have yea's and nay's, but nobody has said how they got their new fridge installed. I'm leaning for a new fridge. My NDA1402 just fried the mother board somehow sitting in one spot. Spend $500 for repairs or $950 for a new and bigger model?

Any input there?

Does the slide out need to come out to get it in? I see that once it's inside, putting it in position is easy.

What's the gouge here?

[Dutch Star Don]

"Bbhughey".....I've installed three Samsung 18 cubic foot refers. Two in Monaco coaches and one in an Itasca Meridian. All three went through the front door. Typically, you unbolt the passenger seat and move it out of the way. You'll also find that if you disconnect whatever stops your front door from opening too far, you gain an additional two inches by swinging the door all the way open. I use the cardboard from the box the refer came in to lay against the dash to prevent any damage.

The Norcold comes out by removing the doors. The residential goes in the same way, remove doors and all shelves which make the unit pretty light. If you buy the right size, very few modifications need to be done to fit a residential unit into a propane space, since most manufacturers provide 110 voltage at the back and many others also provide inverted 110 voltage (commonly used to power the ice makers when boon docking).

[Dr4Film]

Originally Posted by Bbhughey

I see that you all have yea's and nay's, but nobody has said how they got their new fridge installed. I'm leaning for a new fridge. My NDA1402 just fried the mother board somehow sitting in one spot. Spend $500 for repairs or $950 for a new and bigger model?

Any input there?

Does the slide out need to come out to get it in? I see that once it's inside, putting it in position is easy.

What's the gouge here?

Spend an evening or two researching this forum on residential installations and you will find a wide variety of methods used to get the old out and new inside the coach.

Mine went out and in through the passenger side salon window using forklift truck.

Dr4Film ----- Richard