Want Residential Refrigerator, Norcold died

[karencollins]

Our cooling unit & circuit board on our Norcold died this past week. I really want to put in a residential one but my husband won't agree unless I can provide him with what's necessary to do it. We have an 06 Monaco Diplomat. The frig is over the furnace. If any of you have done it, please let me know what's involved & if it's possible without changing a lot of things. We just bought 4 new 6V deep cycle batteries & we have a Magnum ME1200 inverter/charger. We don't dry camp often, usually just a night or two & when we travel down the road we don't go more than 6 or 7 hours max.

How do we get the old one out & the new one in. One guy told me he took out the driver's window, but that seems like a bad spot to me.

Please help me provide my husband with the info necessary to get my new frig. Thanks in advance.

[Lars99]

Originally Posted by karencollins

Our cooling unit & circuit board on our Norcold died this past week. I really want to put in a residential one but my husband won't agree unless I can provide him with what's necessary to do it. We have an 06 Monaco Diplomat. The frig is over the furnace. If any of you have done it, please let me know what's involved & if it's possible without changing a lot of things. We just bought 4 new 6V deep cycle batteries & we have a Magnum ME1200 inverter/charger. We don't dry camp often, usually just a night or two & when we travel down the road we don't go more than 6 or 7 hours max.

How do we get the old one out & the new one in. One guy told me he took out the driver's window, but that seems like a bad spot to me.

Please help me provide my husband with the info necessary to get my new frig. Thanks in advance.

I recently finished the install in my 2003 Camelot. I won't lie to you, its not a super easy job but it's also not too difficult. You do need creativity and carpentry skills. Take lots of measurements over and over. I drove my wife insane by measuring over and over again for weeks! As far as getting the units through the door, measure the width of the entry door and then you can make your determination from there. I disassembled the cooling unit off the Norcold and took the doors off. I ended up with just a box to remove. fairly easy to get through the entry door. My new fridge, the Fisher & Paykel also fit throughout the entry door after removing the fridge and freezer door. When and if you get to that point, I'll give you poin If you look up RF197 alternative, I have pics posted.

[Barlow46]

Karen, use the "search" function on this site and you will find a number of owners who have done the installation, many have pictures and detailed instructions along with the type of residential to install. Let Collins know it will be one of the best modifications he will ever do. Use those "Diplomatic" skills to convince him.

[Robin_M]

You can do a search on "residential refrigerator" on this forum and also on the Appliance forum. There are lots of threads here on this subject, including many installations over a furnace like you have.

...Opps. Barlow and I posted exactly the same suggestion at the very same time. I will second his comment about the best modification he ever did. My wife and I love our new residential refrigerator. Here is a link to some pictures of our new refer. And as you can see it did go in through the driver's side window. (They unbolted the seat to do that.)

[nodine]

Originally Posted by karencollins

Our cooling unit & circuit board on our Norcold died this past week. I really want to put in a residential one but my husband won't agree unless I can provide him with what's necessary to do it. We have an 06 Monaco Diplomat. The frig is over the furnace. If any of you have done it, please let me know what's involved & if it's possible without changing a lot of things. We just bought 4 new 6V deep cycle batteries & we have a Magnum ME1200 inverter/charger. We don't dry camp often, usually just a night or two & when we travel down the road we don't go more than 6 or 7 hours max.

How do we get the old one out & the new one in. One guy told me he took out the driver's window, but that seems like a bad spot to me.

Please help me provide my husband with the info necessary to get my new frig. Thanks in advance.

Karen,

Here you go:
http://www.irv2.com/forums/f115/sams...dq-102210.html

I am the one who posted that thread and still have the coach. The Samsung has performed well without any issues. I would not want to go back to a Norcold for many reasons. You are lucky you did not have a fire. If you have any questions just ask. You can start out with only 4 house batteries and it will work fine. Last year I finally got around to installing 2 more house batteries and had to move the coach batteries to do that. If you don't do any dry camping you don't need any additional batteries.

Bob

[2 Stroker]

We got our coach in January 2013 and by summer the 1200 Not-So-Cold was living up to its name. One fire in a coach is one fire to many so we had the Samsung 197 installed. Now my ice cream is as hard as a rock -2degs and my beer is at 38deg and it runs all the time on the inverter and we have 4 batteries. I will be installing an Auto Gen-Set start that way if the batteries go below 12.2V it will start.
This is an 07 and mine is an 06 but they look the same
Samsung Refrigerator Install
2 stroker

[Robin_M]

Originally Posted by nodine

You can start out with only 4 house batteries and it will work fine. Last year I finally got around to installing 2 more house batteries and had to move the coach batteries to do that. If you don't do any dry camping you don't need any additional batteries.

Bob,

I've been curious about the benefits of two more batteries. I don't want to hijak this thread, so I started a new one in the Appliance forum. Could you please take a look and respond there. Love to hear your thoughts.

[karencollins]

Thanks to all of you for the information & replies. My husband is convinced & I've read all the posts you referred me to. I'm now making arrangements to replace the Norcold within the next couple weeks. We were also lucky enough to be in a campground with another Monaco owner who just replaced his with the Samsung 197 last year & he showed it to us. It's beautiful!!!! I've been able to read all the posts & forward all the information to the person I think will do the work for us. Thanks again for your help.

[Cypressloser]

It may not be appropriate for me to comment here but if you would install a residential fridge which is a lot cheaper than replacing it with another Norcold the savings could be used to install a nice solar system and operate the fridge 100% free 100% of the time. We do it with 480 Watts of solar and six 6 Volt batteries.
The initial cost would be the same but the rewards priceless.
p.s.: the batteries are not only for the fridge.

[karencollins]

We've talked about getting some solar panels, it all takes time. It's definitely "on the list", especially since I'll have my new frig.

[arby]

I have had my Samsung since last October and love it. I am amazed at how little power it uses. My Nevercold was a real power hog when used on 110 which I always did unless dry camping. I am using aprox $1.50 per day less power with Samsung. We dry camp overnight for 2 or 3 nights to and from AZ every winter. We run lights and 2 TV's and furnace for many hours. Gen never starts until next morning when the coffee pot comes on.

2007 Diplomat 40 PGQ

[karencollins]

Bob,

Your pictures & detailed information is wonderful. I'm trying to talk my brother into installing ours. (of course we'll help, but he can be the boss).He's like you, creative & amazing. We're heading back to IL at the end of the week & we'll see what he decides. After I send him all your information, I don't see how he can say no. The only problem for us is that we live in our RV & will have to figure out where he can work on it. Thank you again for sharing your wonderful information.

[nodine]

Originally Posted by karencollins

Bob,

Your pictures & detailed information is wonderful. I'm trying to talk my brother into installing ours. (of course we'll help, but he can be the boss).He's like you, creative & amazing. We're heading back to IL at the end of the week & we'll see what he decides. After I send him all your information, I don't see how he can say no. The only problem for us is that we live in our RV & will have to figure out where he can work on it. Thank you again for sharing your wonderful information.

Thanks Karen. I think this was stated in the write up, but we did not have to remove a window as others have. The Norcold is junk so don't worry about preserving it. Take the doors and cooling unit off while it is still in the coach. That makes getting it out easy as the cooling unit is heavy. Take the doors off the Samsung and remove all the trays, etc before hauling it in. We just removed the passenger chair and placed it on the couch while doing the work. Don't forget to put the doors back on the Samsung while it is sitting on the floor. Not enough room to work once it is on the dollie. If you have enough strong help you might be able to get the job done without a dollie. I did most of the work by myself, including removing the Norcold from the opening and sliding the Samsung into the opening. The dollie was a must in my case. To get the Samsung level required two cycles of installation. I did get some help to move the units in and out of the coach.

Bob

[Lars99]

A little added tip I learned when I installed my Fisher Paykel, along with installing the doors before installing in the opening, also install all the shelves and drawers. The doors will not open enough after its in to install them.