Quote:
Originally Posted by Hubbsy
Hi folks,
I am considering dumping my Dometic gas absorption fridge for a residential one.
Does anyone know what model of fridge Monaco factory installed in a 2011 Camelot 43 DFT.
Thanks,
Hubbsy
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As a retrofit, you're going to want the fridge to fit where the old one did and that means you won't be able to use what the manufacturers are (or were) installing at the factory. Installing a residential in an older motor-home is much more complex than just seeing what they are doing in the factory. Coaches with factory residential units have more space devoted to refrigerators and use wider and deeper models. In addition, they now install PSW (pure sine-wave) inverters and double or triple the batteries to compensate for the change. Many of the fridges they are using are much much larger and use much more power, which is the reason for beefing up the genny and batteries. They can do all these things because they are building the vehicle from scratch. You are constrained by what is already there.
If you have a PSW inverter, you can just about install anything that fits, but the closest fit for the four door Dometic is the Samsung RF197. The Samsung is a great fit for older RVs because it is a close fit to the original Norcold or Dometic 4 door fridges, AND because it runs perfectly on an MSW inverter and sips electricity. I put one in when my Norcold blew, and it's been great.
If you have a Dometic 1350, here is a link to the spec sheet:
https://www.dometic.com/c1cd33f7-3b0...31b804cc.fodoc In this document you can find the specs for the minimum cuttout size for your original fridge, and then you can start shopping for a replacement that's close. The Samsung RF197 is the first unit I'd look at. The Samsung is a 33" cabinet depth fridge, and 33" is an odd size so there aren't that many.
If you're changing it out for safety reasons there are some things you can do to make your existing unit safer. A good add-on for an absorbtion fridge can be found at arprv.com. This device supplements the fridges existing controls and temporarily shuts it down if the boiler overheats before damage occurs. (rather than after the refrigerator is destroyed like the Norcold Recall fix). This keeps the fridge healthy and safer. Anyone that has a Norcold 1200, I'd add that the only way I'd have this unit in my RV is if it had the ARP controller and an aftermarket cooling unit. RVCOOL makes a really beefed up cooling unit and the Amish cooling unit isn't bad either. Any Norcold cooling unit made before 2013 is terribly under-designed and in my humble opinion a fire hazard...recall or no recall. The 2012 redesign helps a little but I don't trust Norcold at all.
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