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Old 03-30-2013, 07:32 AM   #1
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What Good are the Residential Refers?

I will preface my question by saying my Dometic 3 way failed during our last trip. I have a 36 foot Class A and we drive it.

I accessed this forum in my attempt to trouble shoot. Upon further investigation I see many people, dissatisfied with the current state of efficiency of the standard issue in refrigerators, have turned to residential units.

That's great if you are connected 24/7 to 110 AC but what about in transit? Are you residential refer folks sitting parked for 6 months?

What about dry camping when you are off the full hook-ups and in dry camping waiting for your rotation back to full? Sometimes that can be weeks.

While a residential unit has its appeal it also has draw backs that preclude it from being the second coming as some seem to believe.

If I am missing something please fill me in. I am new to RVing and perhaps not aware of LPG powered units with "residential" potential.

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Old 03-30-2013, 07:43 AM   #2
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The answers you get on this one will be plenty and long. I'll try to be concise. Most people are driven away from the ammonia based refers because of the threat of fire and on-going recall issues. There are as many opinions on how to address this as there are people on these forums. As for your question on how the residential unit fits into an RVing style, I can only tell you it works for me. My unit came equipped with a residential fridge. It also has extra batteries and a dedicated inverter which will run the unit over 24 hours without recharge. Since I (and many others) do not dry camp, this is not an issue. Use the search function of the site and find the countless threads dealing with this issue.
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Old 03-30-2013, 07:53 AM   #3
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Residentials are powered through the inverter from the battery bank, which is being charged by the enging alternator when in transit.
We dry camp 90% of the time and use solar for maintaining the batteries with the genny for back up.
I have not found anything I would call a draw back, what are you referring to?
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Old 03-30-2013, 08:05 AM   #4
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If you have an all electric coach with 8 batteries, the batteries can run the fridge for days and for ever if you are driving which keeps the batteries charged up. And if boondocking you just set the Jenny to auto start and when your voltage gets so low geny starts up and runs until the bats are all charged up. We have a Norcold now, and had in our last RV for 14 years. Love the Norcolds and they work fine as we hardly never camp where we can plug in. Would never go to a residential fridge unless we trade rigs, then we will go the total electric route, residential fridge and a big battery bank with auto jeny start. Then the only fuel you have to worry about keeping full is the diesel tank as it does it all. Heats the coach and your water runs your geny also. But to put a residential fridge in a rig with propane on board. Never will happen on my watch, if the Norcold dies, its a new Norcold for me, not some cobbled up Mennonite or Jewish or whatever cooling unit. We loved the last Norcold for 14 blissful years. Love the new one even more as it even came with its own light. The last one I had to order a light and install myself to keep up with the Joneses. Norcold, the last ice box you will ever need.
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Old 03-30-2013, 01:32 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 60Vette View Post
...I see many people, dissatisfied with the current state of efficiency of the standard issue in refrigerators, have turned to residential units.

That's great if you are connected 24/7 to 110 AC but what about in transit?...
Our residential refrigerator is powered by an inverter when we're on the road. The MH alternator keeps the batteries charged.

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Originally Posted by 60Vette View Post
...What about dry camping when you are off the full hook-ups and in dry camping waiting for your rotation back to full? Sometimes that can be weeks...
We don't dry camp, but if we did, I would add a pair of batteries. The 2 extra batteries would provide enough power to get us through the night until generator hours in the morning. Adding batteries is easier in most diesels, but I researched a way to do it in our gasser before I installed the residential just in case. If we really dry camped a lot, I would already have solar panels.

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Originally Posted by 60Vette View Post
...While a residential unit has its appeal it also has draw backs that preclude it from being the second coming as some seem to believe...
We have had our residential refer for over a year of full-timing. So far for us, there have been no drawbacks at all - all plusses like rock-hard frozen food and ice cream, lower food spoilage rate, and all the ice we can use. It is very unlikely we will ever own another RV without a residential refrigerator.
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Old 03-30-2013, 01:52 PM   #6
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While I can't comment on RV use specifically, I've had a small residential fridge in a Tractor and ran it more than 60000 miles without issues.
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Old 03-30-2013, 02:17 PM   #7
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Hi,

It is often cheaper to translate from an absorption fridge to a residential one if total replacement is the course chosen. When (not if) my fridge fails that is what I'll choose to do.
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Old 03-30-2013, 02:31 PM   #8
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What about dry camping when you are off the full hook-ups and in dry camping waiting for your rotation back to full? Sometimes that can be weeks.
I'm not sure what kind of parks you visit, but we stay at places where we can select sites with or without hookups. Our preference is to always have hookups if we can get them. In state parks we may have a site without sewer but rarely are we without electricity.

Recently our rig spent ~8 hours indoors being serviced; by the end of the day our 4 6-volt batteries were somewhat depleted but still had plenty of charge left. While we travel between a small solar panel and the coach's alternator there is no problem keeping the battery charged.

As far as we're concerned, the residential fridge is the best improvement we've made to our MH.
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Old 03-30-2013, 03:07 PM   #9
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Here is a current thread on the issue and the installtion of one. My RV neighbor changed his out last week and is very happy. He says he has 50% more room and it cools very fast.
http://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/need...er-155591.html
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Old 03-30-2013, 03:53 PM   #10
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I may be dumb but for the life of me I can't see why anyone would install a residential fridge when they can replace their cooling unit with one of the Amish-build units and solve all the problems!

I spent a total of $1200 for a cooling unit, new heaters, and new fans, to put in my Norcold 1200LRIM. It works great! From what I have read, that's probably about 1/3 of what you will end up spending on a residential unit after removing the windshield to get the sucker in the MH!

Somebody tell me what I am missing here!
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Old 03-30-2013, 04:01 PM   #11
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I may be dumb but for the life of me I can't see why anyone would install a residential fridge when they can replace their cooling unit with one of the Amish-build units and solve all the problems!

I spent a total of $1200 for a cooling unit, new heaters, and new fans, to put in my Norcold 1200LRIM. It works great! From what I have read, that's probably about 1/3 of what you will end up spending on a residential unit after removing the windshield to get the sucker in the MH!

Somebody tell me what I am missing here!
On the cost thing, we had a Samsung 197 installed for a total of $1900 including cost of refrigerator and r&r of window to get them in and out. Absolutely best upgrade we have made. Why would you want to spend near that and still have an absorption refrigerator.
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Old 03-30-2013, 04:21 PM   #12
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Quote:
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...I spent a total of $1200 for a cooling unit, new heaters, and new fans, to put in my Norcold 1200LRIM. It works great! From what I have read, that's probably about 1/3 of what you will end up spending on a residential unit after removing the windshield to get the sucker in the MH!

Somebody tell me what I am missing here!
We spent about $1200 for an 18 cu ft Samsung and another $200-300 for wood and miscellaneous supplies. The Samsung is 18 cu ft - 50% more capacity than the Norcold 1200. And Samsung fit through the door - no window removal necessary. If you do have to remove a window, the one behind the sofa is usually big enough - much preferable to removing the windshield because it is lighter in weight and easier to reseal.
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Old 03-30-2013, 04:32 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MSHappyCampers View Post
I may be dumb but for the life of me I can't see why anyone would install a residential fridge when they can replace their cooling unit with one of the Amish-build units and solve all the problems!

I spent a total of $1200 for a cooling unit, new heaters, and new fans, to put in my Norcold 1200LRIM. It works great! From what I have read, that's probably about 1/3 of what you will end up spending on a residential unit after removing the windshield to get the sucker in the MH!

Somebody tell me what I am missing here!
Not all installations require removing the windshield, many will fit through the door.
What you are missing is more storage space, no need for heaters or fans. Dont have to be concerned about LP, uses less electrical power the an absorbtion unit.
It's a choice many of us prefer.
When was the last time a residential burned up a motorhome?
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Old 03-30-2013, 04:44 PM   #14
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Watched my neighbors go through the front door. He has about $1800 involved. The delivery folks had a wide strap that went under the refer and then over their shoulders. They were able to take it right in and they took the old one away as well. He built a dolly for them to set it on once inside. He did the installation. The increased space and excellent dual control capability really sounds great. We have a dometic side by side that works very well and hopefully won't be worrying about this for a long time. I have changed out cooling units and there certainly is nothing wrong with that too.
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