Electric only frig

[stepside454]

The frig is bad in our 85 Pace Arrow. A gas/elect replacement is about 1300.00, I can get an elect. Only frig for 300.00. One advantage I think I see with an electric only unit besides cost is the electric only frig doesn't have to be level, or as level like a gas/electric unit . Am I right on this logic ?

[stepside454]

Thanks for correcting my spelling error.

[Ray,IN]

I've read of several Rv'ers doing this, and they say it works well for them. It would eliminate dry camping unless you have either solar or a genset for 120VAC.

[sparks1032]

Sounds good if you can count on having battery power while driving! Or hope your food stays cold enough till you get to electric. A small inverter just for the fridge may be a decent option as well

[stepside454]

Most of our trips are within 3-4 hours, we could add ice blocks also. We always camp with shore power.

[blackf3504dr]

We replaced the RV fridge with a residential fridge last year, one of the best upgrades we've done ! I added two batteries and a PSW inverter to run the fridge while on the road or dry camped for the night. It will stay cold for hours as long as the door stays shut without power.

[paz]

Some people who say they never dry camp have changed out their RV refrigerator for a residential model, and they have not bothered to hook it up to an inverter. They cool down the fridge and pack it in advance of their departure, then just turn it off when on the road. They say if they keep the door closed, the fridge only looses a few degrees in several hours of travel.

BTW, if you do decide to run a residential refrigerator off an inverter, make sure it is a pure sine wave inverter. Because of the electronic controls in modern refrigerators and because the compressor motors are induction motors, there are only a few fridge makes that can be successfully run off a MSW inverter that is typically installed in many RVs.

[Brigadoon]

In response to another post I submitted the following:


"Just wondering. Are you going to do much dry camping? If the answer is no, perhaps you might consider putting in a residential refrigerator rather than repairing the Dometic. I installed a residential fridge last year and just completed a 5 month trip with the new fridge. I've never been happier with a fridge in an rv than this new one. It works far better than any of my previous Norcold or Dometic fridges.

In my case, dry camping is very rare to non-existant, therefore, I did not install an upgraded inverter or additional batteries. This saved considerable money as well as space (for additional batteries and larger inverter). After this 5 month test run, I'm convinced the inverter/battery upgrade is unnecessary for me. Of course, if you plan on dry camping fairly often the inverter/battery upgrade would be the way to go.

As far as keeping the fridge cool while traveling, it turned out to be a non-issue. If we are in a hot climate the generator is running to operate the house airs and therefore the fridge. On cooler days when we are not running the gen, we drive 3-4 hours in the morning then stop for lunch. My digital thermometer only shows about a 1-2 degree temp increase in the fridge. Often we run the generator during lunch to operate the microwave- a 10-15 minute run of the generator completely recovers the fridge temp (It might be less than that time period, but I just don't pay an attention to the exact time).

We even easily survived a 2 day power outage by running the generator for 15 minutes at a time in the morning, mid day, early evening, and just before bedtime. Never had more than a 4 degree rise in temp. Since we normally run the fridge at 35*, we saw temp rises to about 39-40. This is better than my old Norcold which had a hard time getting under 40* when it was running! We did however reduce our in and out of the fridge.

By the way, power outages is one reason I keep our diesel fuel tank topped up. Other than overnight or 2/3 day stops, I fill up the tank prior to going to my site. This paid dividens during one stay 2 years ago when we were out of power for 6 days."


I'll add this to the above. Do not skimp on the quality of the refrigerator. Make sure it is one of those newer energy efficient designs and appears to be well insulated. Then you will have no problems.
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[GPW]

For dry camping and extended trips, one might keep one of those 5 day coolers handy as the frozen stuff would Stay frozen till you could hook up the AC fridge , in most cases ... Tried them , they work if you stay out of them ... Just an idea ...

[HD4Mark]

We also replaced our MH fridge with a residential. It is a Samsung RF217 we ordered an RF197 but noticed the different # inside. I can't see any other difference.

It runs fine plugged into shore power, on the generator or on the modified sine wave inverter. When traveling I set the inverter to stand by, start up the rig then unplug. This way there should be almost no time without ac. We have not had an occasion to run it on the inverter without the engine running so I can't comment on how long the batteries would last. If we boondock, which is rare, it will stay within a few degrees overnight keeping the doors closed.

If you are most always plugged in ditch the RV fridge and never look back.

[wa8yxm]

My concern is battery life when I'm not hooked to shore power.

that said. Many have indeed made the change.

Where do you find one for 300 though, Salvation Army?

I might add, both Dometic and Norcold have high efficiency All Electric units, also over 1,000 bucks but I think they are worth considering

Run on 12 or 120 volt, draw less than 50 watts.. That is LESS than a standard dual bulb light fixture in an RV. Your house unit.. Many times that.

[stepside454]

I wont be running it unless plugged into shore power , if I think I need to could run the gennie.
Home Depot, 10 cubic ft magic chef for 298.00 will fit almost perfect, slight trimming required.

[Cat320]

The new American Coaches that come with an electric household refer, also come with eight 6v batteries and two 2,000w inverters.

[docj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HD4Mark We also replaced our MH fridge with a residential. It is a Samsung RF217 we ordered an RF197 but noticed the different # inside. I can't see any other difference.

Another vote for Samsung; we had the RF197 installed two months ago and love it (BTW, the RF197 is a true "counter depth" unit and doesn't stick out at all in our installation; you may have more depth available than we did.) Samsung refrigerators rectify the AC and convert it to DC, therefore, they are insensitive to whether or not you have an MSW inverter. The only important caution is that there is a ~11 amp starting requirement which means you really need a 2kW inverter or larger. Some people have apparently had problems with using too small an inverter.

We have four 6-volt batteries and a 100W solar panel. When we travel for 5-6 hours the battery voltage seems to be virtually unchanged. On the average the fridge uses ~100W and between the coach's alternator and the solar panel I don't think we take all that much energy out of the battery bank.