Community Forums

Dads Toy · 07-28-2020, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dutch Star Don

Your coach has a electric/propane refer. When you turn it on, if it's working properly, it will automatically determine what mode to use. If no power is connected, it will go to propane. If connected, it will go to electric.

Turn it on 1-2 days before your trip and then load it before you go. Things like soda, bread or other items that don't necessarily need to be refrigerated, should be placed in your house refer, before loading into your RV refer. This way, the warm food won't shock the RV refer. They don't perform as well as a residential unit, so help it out by only loading cold food when you can.

Good Idea thanks.

Dads Toy · 07-28-2020, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hohenwald48

It really helps us give better advice when you tell us about your RV and in this case, what kind of refer you have.

We have dual fuel RV fridge, electric, propane.
This is all great information and great tricks. Its one of those things you don't normally think about. I do have a problem with having an open flame going while driving down the road.

Guess its safe from the people that pipe in and must be doing it.

tommar · 07-28-2020, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dutch Star Don

Your coach has a electric/propane refer. When you turn it on, if it's working properly, it will automatically determine what mode to use. If no power is connected, it will go to propane. If connected, it will go to electric.

Turn it on 1-2 days before your trip and then load it before you go. Things like soda, bread or other items that don't necessarily need to be refrigerated, should be placed in your house refer, before loading into your RV refer. This way, the warm food won't shock the RV refer. They don't perform as well as a residential unit, so help it out by only loading cold food when you can.

Even an electric/propane fridge requires 12 volts to work with either 120v/propane. If the 12v system is turned off or dead for some reason, the fridge won't work at all. Also this type of fridge (absorption) is required to be level or it won't get cold.

**Spdracr39** · 07-28-2020, 07:16 PM

We ran the fridge on propane in our 5er to keep it cold and we run the residential on the inverter in the DP. Either way not a problem. In the hot weather we run the genny while driving to keep us cool and it will power the fridge too.

Dads Toy · 07-29-2020, 08:34 PM

Okay one more dumb question. So we got it home and plugged into the 110V outlet in the garage. Wanted to get it cold before we left in the morning.
By the way thanks all for the tips. We put to big Costco 1liter frozen water bottle in the fridge to help cool it. It work.

Refridge is on and cooling on electric. Works great and makes ice.
We have a master kill switch at the door. If I kill the power to the coach, I am guessing it will kill the power to the refrigerator as well? So you have to leave it on to keep the refridge cooling.

Mark_T · 07-30-2020, 12:06 AM

Turn the kill switch off and see if the refrigerator is still on.

Alpine36 · 07-30-2020, 12:35 AM

So it seems you have an electric/propane absorption refer.
Yes, always run the fridge (empty of contents) for at least 24 hours to pre chill it. Always load only cold food after the fridge is chilled down. We like to add a couple frozen quart plastic pop bottles to the fridge and freezer, then add food. Also we fill the ice maker tub with house ice before we leave. Run it on propane while traveling. Switch over to 120v at your destination. Enjoy those ice cubes with some fine distilled spirits and you'll be just fine. Cheers.

schad · 07-30-2020, 07:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dads Toy

Okay one more dumb question. So we got it home and plugged into the 110V outlet in the garage. Wanted to get it cold before we left in the morning.
By the way thanks all for the tips. We put to big Costco 1liter frozen water bottle in the fridge to help cool it. It work.

Refridge is on and cooling on electric. Works great and makes ice.
We have a master kill switch at the door. If I kill the power to the coach, I am guessing it will kill the power to the refrigerator as well? So you have to leave it on to keep the refridge cooling.

Not a dumb question at all. As someone else suggested, the best way to get an answer is to shut it off and see what stops working. On our TT, that switch was located in the utility bay and was the battery disconnect. On our MH, it's by the door, is also known as the salesman switch, and turns off everything that runs off 12V. This is a subtle, but important, distinction: in the TT, most of the 12V system was behind a power converter, and so would continue functioning even with the battery disconnected as long as you had shore power. In the MH, all 12V stuff's off, but the inverter stays on... so everything that runs off 110V continues to work, even if you're only on battery. Meanwhile, In the TT, as I implied earlier, some things were not behind the power converter, and so they would shut off when the battery was disconnected, regardless of whether we had shore power. I think the fridge, when in propane mode, was one of the things that could only be powered by the battery. But the fridge would work just fine in electric mode when on shore power.

Again, confirm this yourself. It's all down to how the manufacturer decided to wire your RV.

Battery disconnect or salesman switch+inverter, we always turn it off when storing the RV unoccupied for more than a few days. I'd rather have a warm fridge than a dead battery if we lose shore power for some reason. RV batteries are expensive!