Residential fridge in a gasser?

[go6car]

Has anyone installed a residential fridge in a class A gasser? Or, is this just too impractical for reasons I probably don' t understand......

Some of the newer gas units have the larger side-by-side fridges (depending on floorplan), but I've never seen an option to have a residential one -- even if it's a small, apartment sized version. Just curious.

Thanks

[Mike Canter]

I don't think your alternator is big enough and you probably don't have enough house batteries. I have a residential fridge in my MH and Monaco added an extra four house batteries for a total of eight plus I have a 280 amp alternator to charge them. I do love the fact that there is less fire danger and it really cools in hot weather.

[az bound]

We have a residential refer in our gasser and love it. Its an Amana 18 cu ft with bottom freezer and icemaker.
They are becoming more popular all the time with many doing it as an upgrade from the absorbtion units. I would expect it to be an option soon by more manufacturers as consumer demand increases. I believe Tiffin has that option and with CT Coachworks it is standard equipment on all models.

[BryanL]

Modern refrigerators have improved quite a bit and a new Energy Star rated appliance plus an extra battery plus a solar system can be had for about the cost of a new RV absorption refrigerator.

My kitchen fridge, not selected for energy efficiency, uses a bit under 1 kWh per day on average. A typical 4 battery RV bank would keep that going for a weekend.

What I get out of the analysis is that, if most of your RV time is on grid power or with a decent solar system plus genset, a residential fridge is a viable option in the RV. But if you like to be off grid for more than a long weekend and are quite restricted in terms of electrical power, then it is probably best to stick with an absorption RV fridge.

[az bound]

Just an fyi; We were off grid for 5mo. last year and experienced no issues with res. frig. Battery bank is 490AH AGMs coupled to a 2000W inverter and AGS system. If properly set up the whole system will maintain itself very well.

[go6car]

How's this for coincidence?! I happened to just now be checking out a new Newmar Canyon Star online and it had a residential fridge! Went to the Newmar website and sure enough, it's on there as an option:

• Whirlpool® Stainless Steel Residential Refrigerator with 2000 Watt Pure Sine Wave Invertor and Six 6V Batteries (on certain floorplans)

(That CT Coachworks looks really nice, BTW!)

Thanks everyone so far for chiming in on this...