Community Forums

bachler · 02-06-2013, 12:08 PM

Having Read most of the posts. I would like to share my experiances.And findings. There are millions on Norco/Dometic refers in Motorhomes and are working Just fine.. Appliances In motorhomes Have a life time of 10 years max, (that is my opionon) we at one time were considering going to a residental unit.The company said because Of the constant Moving while The coach was in the traveling Mode. there is no warrenty; I thought . Now that"s nice.. Sometimes Even the home delivery service states that it must stand in an upright position for a day before pluggins it in and turning it on.. The point is Because there was a problem with the board and the consumer did not do the recall update. There was ??? a fire . Will lets not pass the buck , i ask Who is responsable, The company issued a recall. I changed Mine, ( i would recommend a dealer do it As there is no charge, For the recall;; I do not dissagree with anyone. These are only my facts... Someone once said the buck stops here.. Life is good..

Dr4Film · 02-07-2013, 06:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bachler

Having Read most of the posts. I would like to share my experiances.And findings. There are millions on Norco/Dometic refers in Motorhomes and are working Just fine.. Appliances In motorhomes Have a life time of 10 years max, (that is my opionon) we at one time were considering going to a residental unit.The company said because Of the constant Moving while The coach was in the traveling Mode. there is no warrenty; I thought . Now that"s nice.. Sometimes Even the home delivery service states that it must stand in an upright position for a day before pluggins it in and turning it on.. The point is Because there was a problem with the board and the consumer did not do the recall update. There was ??? a fire . Will lets not pass the buck , i ask Who is responsable, The company issued a recall. I changed Mine, ( i would recommend a dealer do it As there is no charge, For the recall;; I do not dissagree with anyone. These are only my facts... Someone once said the buck stops here.. Life is good..

Sorry, we will have to agree to disagree on some of your opinions.

Anybody who has not had the recall done to their Norcold aka NotSoCold is a fool. And you cannot do this recall yourself. it has to be done by a certified RV Tech.

Residential fridges have been used in high end RV coaches for a very long time. It is just now becoming more popular in the low to mid-range RV's versus just the high end RV's. That's solely because of the cooling problems and fires that have been caused by Norcold and Dometic fridges. If someone has a GREAT working RV fridge no matter what the brand, I'd say lucky YOU!

Residential refrigerators are required to stand upright for at least 2 hours before plugging in the compressor. Rocking and Rolling down the highway has no effect to the normal operation of the fridge except maybe for the stuff that might fall out of the door when opening it for the first time once stopped.

Samsung DOES warranty their fridges for use in RV's whereas other manufactures do not. That's why you should find more Samsung's in RV's versus other brands. They also have stated that their fridge WILL run on a MSW inverter whereas others will not.

Just my opinions.

Dr4Film ----- Richard

jauguston · 02-07-2013, 09:15 AM

The discussion about residential versus RV refers really comes down to a couple of things. First is the practical issue. If the RV is going to be used to travel from power post to power post and not going to be used where power is not available a residential refer will work fine and keep your food cold. If the RV'er wants the verstility to use any campground option that is out there whether it has a power post or not the RV refer is the obvious best choice. It will keep your food cold.It is "possible" to use a residential refer without a power post but it is not really very practical. Generator run time restrictions in campgrounds can be problematic and adding the additional batteries and high powered inverter can add to the cost.

The other issue is paranoia. Some folks believe that even though there are millions of RV refers working fine every day THEIRS is going to catch fire and kill them. There is nothing that can be done to fix that.

We have the new Amish cooling unit upgrade for our Norcold 1200 LRIM as the original one quit working (didn't catch fire just quit) and it keeps our food cold. The new Amish cooling unit works FAR better than the original.

Jim

Dr4Film · 02-08-2013, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jauguston

The discussion about residential versus RV refers really comes down to a couple of things.

First is the practical issue.

If the RV is going to be used to travel from power post to power post and not going to be used where power is not available a residential refer will work fine and keep your food cold. If the RV'er wants the versatility to use any campground option that is out there whether it has a power post or not the RV refer is the obvious best choice. It will keep your food cold.It is "possible" to use a residential refer without a power post but it is not really very practical.

Generator run time restrictions in campgrounds can be problematic and adding the additional batteries and high powered inverter can add to the cost.

Jim

I agree with almost everything you stated except for using a residential without a power post as not being practical.

I own a self-contained RV that with being conservative it can sustain itself with all services for up to two weeks without having to dump tanks or take on fresh water.

My generator has AGS so when the batteries get down to 50% SOC the generator will come on without me being there and do its thing and then turn off once the batteries are at full Float SOC.

I will agree that if a person prefers to stay in various small type campgrounds some of the time whether they have power or not, it can be restrictive having a residential fridge to keep cold. I travel with everything I own which means a fully loaded 41 foot coach and a fully loaded 30 foot trailer. So camping in small secluded areas without services is not on my agenda. I would rather have a medium size Class C without a trailer do do that type of camping.

But my point is that I have traveled as much as 5 weeks at a time going from Florida to Alaska across the country and have only used a RV park a few times. The rest of each nights stay were at FREE places without services. I had no problems keeping my Samsung residential fridge cold. I only use a RV park if I am going to stay more than one night to catch up on laundry, email and rest from driving. I do not travel from one power pole to another.

If any type of disaster or emergency were to ever happen wherever I am currently located, I am fully prepared to sustain our lives comfortably for an extended period of time without being on the grid for anything. That's one BIG advantage to having R HOME on wheels.

Maybe I am of the minority with having been living in my coach for 9 years now and full-timing for over 10 years with no end in sight providing my health stays good.

Those RVer's that only use their rigs a few times a year are perhaps better off with the small RV fridge however, it doesn't work for us.

Dr4Film ----- Richard

HD4Mark · 02-08-2013, 08:46 AM

I guess we ended up with a residential because I over reacted to the Norcold after many problems with it. I think an Amish cooling unit would have worked but I just couldn't stand the sight of the Norcold any more.

My list of problems in order: Door hinge, cooling unit and ice maker, fans. Then one day just because it wasn't level (my fault) the alarm went off again and that was it. The recalls didn't make us feel any better about keeping it.

We do mostly go from power pedestal to power pedestal so no problem there. One major bonus is the cubic feet difference, almost double.

jauguston · 02-08-2013, 10:09 AM

There are many ways to enjoy the RV lifestyle and they are all good. We are State Park, preferably on the waters of Puget Sound, non-hookup sites campers. I have setup our coach so we are NOT roughing it. We have satellite TV for DW and internet access from Verizon for our laptops as well as all the normal toys I think I need. For us the residential refer would not be convenient with the need to run the generator much more than we do now.

Pianotuna · 02-08-2013, 07:24 PM

Hi,

Does any one know if the "Amish" unit suffers from freeze up in the cold below -6C (20 F)?

Stan&Jacquie · 02-08-2013, 09:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr4Film

Nothing to the electrical system. Plug the fridge in and it's cold within a few hours. You don't have to wait two days like with the NotSoCold.

When traveling from one destination to the other, I never use RV Parks and hookups. I prefer free when on the road. My AGS system does all the thinking for me. When the house batteries get to 50% SOC, the AGS starts the generator and will charge them back to Float Charge status and then turn off. It's all automatic.

My inverter is the Xantrex Trace RV-2012 2000 watt.

Dr4Film ----- Richard

Ok folks. I keep hearing about y'all preceding "free" sites. How does one go about finding these free locations to camp?

Stanton

vtwinwilly · 02-08-2013, 11:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jauguston

.

....Some folks believe that even though there are millions of RV refers working fine every day THEIRS is going to catch fire and kill them. ...

Jim

Jim,

I was just the opposite. I was perfectly happy with my Dometic fridge and thought all the talk about RV fridge fires was a little over the top dramatic. That was until my fridge caught on fire!

I was very , very lucky as I was able to get the fire out before to much damage was done, but the fridge is shot. I'll be replacing it with a residential fridge very soon! I'm done with gas absorption refrigerators.

Bill

GSGracie · 02-09-2013, 12:03 AM

Dr4film - Richard. You have probably already said earlier, but what is your AH rating for your batteries and what solar wattage do you have? I have 500 AH storage and 370 watts solar, which I don't think would be enough to run a domestic fridge without using the generator much more than I want to.

Pianotuna · 02-10-2013, 01:06 AM

Hi Stanton,

This website lists over 2000 camping locations that are all either free, or under $12.00. Some do include shore power for free. Free Campsites Please add to the site if you can.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stant

Ok folks. I keep hearing about y'all preceding "free" sites. How does one go about finding these free locations to camp?

Stanton

Dr4Film · 02-10-2013, 08:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GSGracie

Dr4film - Richard. You have probably already said earlier, but what is your AH rating for your batteries and what solar wattage do you have? I have 500 AH storage and 370 watts solar, which I don't think would be enough to run a domestic fridge without using the generator much more than I want to.

My house battery bank is 450 AH capacity but I only use 50% of that before the generator will come on and recharge them. If I am off the grid, and I turn off all of the 12 VDC drains and the 120 VAC drains, leaving the fridge on only, if the batteries are fully charged before bedtime, there is no need for the generator to come on at all during the night. If I am too lazy to turn everything off, then the generator usually comes on around 4:30 - 5:00 in the morning.

My one solar panel is most likely a 40-60 watt or so. I am not sure but it's the one that came standard on the Monaco's back in 2001. It is normally used to keep the batteries charged when in storage which my coach has never been as it gets used full-time.

Dr4Film ----- Richard

jauguston · 02-10-2013, 10:50 AM

Richard,

If your generator comes on at 4:30 AM how long does it run before it shuts off? What is the initial charge rate from your converter? How do you deal with generator hours with that system? I have thought about adding a AGS to our Onan QD 7500 but there is no way I could have the generator run after 9pm or before 8am in most places we camp.

Jim

dforce1 · 02-10-2013, 01:38 PM

Richard,
"My house battery bank is 450 AH capacity but I only use 50% of that before the generator will come on and recharge"

I get a lot of people asking me aquestions about the Home refrigerators in the RV using during their week stays boondock style. Since you have been using this set up for awhile you are the one with answers from your testing. This will really help a lot of people to understand. Could you help? If your gen set starts when, as you stated, at 50% battery and you say you have 450 AH battery, wouldn't that be 225 amps removed. In order for the 225 amps to be replaced, bring the battery bank back to the 450 AH how long does the Gen Set run to replace the 225 amps.