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Old 01-09-2018, 10:13 AM   #1
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Frigidaire 10 cu ft. Refrigerator option

We'd like a larger refrigerator than the standard 8 cu ft. fridge in the Canyon Star we are ordering.

We don't want to lose too much space in the pantry and pay such a large cost for the 12 cu ft. fridge and so are looking at the 10 cu. ft. Frigidaire model with the inverter and extra batteries.

Has anyone had experience with the Frigidaire model, good or bad?

How long will it run while boondocking off the batteries?

Any trouble using it on batteries while traveling down the road?
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Old 01-09-2018, 10:47 AM   #2
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Unless you really need the bigger size try helium- it's the best of both worlds and there's no concern about batteries/inverters, etc.

Atwood Helium Refrigerators

I wonder if Newmar installs these?
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Old 01-09-2018, 11:49 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by puttin View Post
Unless you really need the bigger size try helium- it's the best of both worlds and there's no concern about batteries/inverters, etc.

Atwood Helium Refrigerators

I wonder if Newmar installs these?
Dometic acquired Atwood back in 2014
Soon afterwards the Atwood HE Models were no longer being produced.
Replacement parts are obsolete....hard to find and if you do they are 'NOS' (New--Old Stock) that has been sitting around on a self

Amish Replacement COOLING UNITS with Helium vs Hydrogen can be purchased to R/R bad cooling units in Dometic/Norcold Absorption Fridges

But one is NOT going to purchase a NEW Atwood HE Fridge.
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Old 01-09-2018, 12:08 PM   #4
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We have the 10cf Frigidaire in our CS 3710. Very happy with it although an ice maker is not available so just use old school ice trays and ice storage bin under the trays. Very energy efficient , dry camping is no problem at all. We dry camp a lot so swapped out the 4 factory batteries for 4 Interstate 6 volt deep cycle ones. No problem with fitting in the battery slide out tray.
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Old 01-09-2018, 12:43 PM   #5
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Adding on to my earlier post, the Frigidaire uses about 40 watts per hour based on the yellow energy consumption tag. So roughly 4 amps on the battery bank (through the dedicated inverter) an hour or 48 amps from 8pm to 8am. My battery bank holds 425 amp hours (4 CG2 deep cycle batteries) so no worries.
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Old 01-09-2018, 01:53 PM   #6
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We've got one in our Bay Star. It's a nice unit. We like the glass shelves. Plenty of room for the two of us. I mean, it's packed to the gills after we go shopping but the fuller it is, the more efficient it is. Haven't had it long enough to see how our batteries hold out over night.

2escapees is right. About 80-100 amp hours a day. That's well over half the usable capacity of the stock Interstate batteries but only a little more than a third of 4 golf cart batteries.

Lot's of folks freak out about that but considering a few major power draws have been changed, namely the lights and TV's, for LED versions, it's probably a wash. Go look at old power estimating spreadsheets and 12v lighting was a big part of a day's consumption, 2-4 amps each. Now lighting is almost negligible. Same with TVs. Somehow, old timer RV's survived using 50-100 amps to keep the coach lit and watch TV.
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Old 01-09-2018, 01:58 PM   #7
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This past summer, I replaced the 8 c.f. Norcold in my gas MH with a Home Depot, 10 c.f. Magic Chef. The opening only required minor trimming for the refrigerator to slip in place. After I read the owner's manual, it stated not to install it in an RV, nor run it off of an inverter. Oops! We just wrapped up a 75 day, 6,000 mile cross country trip and are currently snowbirding in FL. We had absolutely no issues running it off of our 1000 watt MSW inverter and the 4 GC2 batteries.
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Old 01-09-2018, 02:19 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pikkleballer View Post
We'd like a larger refrigerator than the standard 8 cu ft. fridge in the Canyon Star we are ordering.

We don't want to lose too much space in the pantry and pay such a large cost for the 12 cu ft. fridge and so are looking at the 10 cu. ft. Frigidaire model with the inverter and extra batteries. ...
Just a note to check with Newmar whether they can/will install it in your CS floorplan. We wanted to special order the 10 CF residential fridge for the same reasons you list in our Ventana LE, but Newmar rejected the special even though it's an option on other VTLE floor plans.

Reason given was that the doors swing out too wide and they would not be able to meet RVIA standards if they installed. Our fridge is located in a slide so comes back in very close to the bathroom wall - when the slide is retracted you couldn't fully open the doors, and you'd break something if you retracted with a door open. Duh.

Ironically, the 18 CF residential fridge is fine because it's a French-door fridge so the doors are smaller. We went with the 12 CF 4-door Norcold, a choice we regret on every trip. We'll probably take out the Norcold within a year and install a 10 CF residential and just be careful not to retract the slide with the fridge doors standing open
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Old 01-09-2018, 09:21 PM   #9
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Originally Posted by brucemcdou View Post
Just a note to check with Newmar whether they can/will install it in your CS floorplan. We wanted to special order the 10 CF residential fridge for the same reasons you list in our Ventana LE, but Newmar rejected the special even though it's an option on other VTLE floor plans.

Reason given was that the doors swing out too wide and they would not be able to meet RVIA standards if they installed. Our fridge is located in a slide so comes back in very close to the bathroom wall - when the slide is retracted you couldn't fully open the doors, and you'd break something if you retracted with a door open. Duh.

Ironically, the 18 CF residential fridge is fine because it's a French-door fridge so the doors are smaller. We went with the 12 CF 4-door Norcold, a choice we regret on every trip. We'll probably take out the Norcold within a year and install a 10 CF residential and just be careful not to retract the slide with the fridge doors standing open
Norcold 1210 Installation Manual.........check it out/see IF Newmar did the install as per Norcold Instructions. Clearances, fans/baffles etc etc especially when installed in a slideout
http://www.thetford.com/wp-content/u...AC-Current.pdf
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Old 01-10-2018, 05:19 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by brucemcdou View Post
Just a note to check with Newmar whether they can/will install it in your CS floorplan. We wanted to special order the 10 CF residential fridge for the same reasons you list in our Ventana LE, but Newmar rejected the special even though it's an option on other VTLE floor plans.
:
It's listed as an option on our models build sheet/order form and our salesman hasn't mentioned it not being available in our discussions.
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Old 01-10-2018, 05:32 AM   #11
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Our coach comes standard with two 12 volt batteries.
With this 10 cu ft fridge option two additional 12 volt batteries are added (dedicated to the fridge operation) bringing the total to four 12 volt batteries.
So are you saying to have these four 12 volt batteries changed out for four 6 volt batteries for more reserve capacity?
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Old 01-10-2018, 10:17 AM   #12
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Our coach comes standard with two 12 volt batteries.
With this 10 cu ft fridge option two additional 12 volt batteries are added (dedicated to the fridge operation) bringing the total to four 12 volt batteries.
So are you saying to have these four 12 volt batteries changed out for four 6 volt batteries for more reserve capacity?
Yes but I doubt Newmar will do it. You'll have to do it yourself but it's pretty easy. The four 12v Interstate batteries (I assume the CS gets those like the BS) are about 320 amp hours but you can only use about 1/2 that so you'll have 160 usable amp hours.

Four 6 volt batteries will have about 430-450 amp hours so around 215-225 usable. I think the biggest benefit isn't the reserve power. It's that you can run the four 6v batteries between 50-85% SOC while boondocking. You won't need to deal with the absorption phase every day, which can take 3-4 hours to complete. The bulk phase, from 50% to about 85% SOC takes an hour or two.

You can run the generator less and still have enough power to run your coach all day. If you have solar, it can passively take your batteries from 85% to 95%+ but you don't need to do that if you don't have solar. Just be sure to fully charge the batteries with the generator, solar or shore power once a week or so to keep them healthy. If you boondock for 4-5 days and then hit an RV park for a few days, that will do it.
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Old 01-10-2018, 11:10 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pikkleballer View Post
We'd like a larger refrigerator than the standard 8 cu ft. fridge in the Canyon Star we are ordering.

We don't want to lose too much space in the pantry and pay such a large cost for the 12 cu ft. fridge and so are looking at the 10 cu. ft. Frigidaire model with the inverter and extra batteries.

Has anyone had experience with the Frigidaire model, good or bad?

How long will it run while boondocking off the batteries?

Any trouble using it on batteries while traveling down the road?
Go for the 10 cf. Our CS 3710 has the 10 cf residential refrigerator. As noted by 2escapees you won't have an ice maker. But you Will have a very nice pull out pantry to the right of the refrigerator. My wife loves it! In my opinion, the tradeoff of having no icemaker to having the pantry is well worth it. I can't speak to the question of how long it will run on the inverter and 4 batteries (which is part of the 10 cf option, along with an additional 1000 watt dedicated inverter), but I am curious to find out. As far as the door opening, the refrigerator is not on a Slideout in the CS 3710. We have plenty of room to open the refrigerator fully with the living room Slideout retracted.
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Old 01-10-2018, 11:16 AM   #14
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Dan, are you running the stock Progressive 60 amp converter/charger or did you upsize?
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