Community Forums

Dads Toy · 07-27-2020, 09:15 PM

Wife brought up a good newbie question. How do you transport frozen food in our class a. Do you shoreline power the coach and get fridge cold before leaving then load it up. Do you run the generator to power the fridge during travell

HarryStone · 07-27-2020, 09:28 PM

Don't know what system you have, but...unless your fridge is a residential unit, it will operate, and cool with propane and 12DC. There should be a mode setting to select auto or AC only. I ran mine for a day or 2 before we went on our maiden voyage and it cooled off nicely. Takes about a day to get cold on propane.

miller806 · 07-27-2020, 09:35 PM

Our MH is parked about 100 ft from our back door and is always pugged in. We turn on the refrigerator a few days before we leave. We then fill it a day of so before we leave. Yes we do run the generator in the summer mainly for the AC and let it run on propane in colder temps.

Bahamaniac · 07-27-2020, 09:38 PM

I plug in the night before and turn on the fridge. When I unplug and go on the road the propane kicks in automatically. Then if you plug in when you stop it automatically switches over to electricity. We usually put a bag of ice in the freezer for drinks, and that also helps while traveling but not necessary.

Mark_T · 07-27-2020, 09:44 PM

I turn on using propane the night before. I put a block of ice (in freezer) in with the food the next day.
I use this https://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-Refri...08654109&psc=1 to monitor the temperature. Its wireless so I don't have to open the door to check the temperature.

Dutch Star Don · 07-27-2020, 09:45 PM

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.

followingsea · 07-27-2020, 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dads Toy

.... How do you transport frozen food in our class a. ...

Step 1. Open the door to the freezer.

Step 2. Put the food in.

Step 3. Close the door.

Step 4. Start driving.

If you hear a beeping sound and food comes rolling to the front of the MH when you brake you did not do a good job with step 3.

How you supply energy to your frig while driving is the subject of many debates with diverse opinions.

It depends. I prefer propane unless I am running low.

The most important thing for a newbie to know is to turn off the frig when you are at an establishment that fuels things. However your frig works it is an ignition source.

Last time I got propane, when I told the attendant the frig was off she asked if there were any other people or pets in the MH. I like when someone knows how to safely do their job.

happy2rv · 07-27-2020, 11:06 PM

As others have pointed out, there are two primary types of refrigerators in modern RVs. Either an RV style refrigerator or a residential style.

There are a couple of options for RV style refrigerators. All RV style refrigerators can be run on propane both sitting still and while moving. They will all require 12V for operation to power up the control boards. They will also run on 120V AC. Some, but not all RV style refrigerators can also be run on 12V DC. The 12V option tends to be power hungry and drain the batteries, so its usually only an option for when the RV is running with the alternator recharging the batteries. RV refrigerators tend to be slower to cool down initially and slower to recover when the door is opened or warm items are placed inside. When we had this style of refrigerator, we wouldn't think of putting food in it until it had run at least 24 hours. It doesn't matter if its on propane or 120V AC. RV style refrigerators must be level during operation except while the rig is moving down the road. So any time you stop, the RV needs to be level or the refrigerator needs to be turned off.

Most residential style refrigerators run on 120V AC which can be provided by shore power, generator, or an inverter that provides 120V AC from 12V DC. To produce 1 amp at 120V requires more than 10A of 12V DC, so the length of time you can run these without shore power depends on the number and size of batteries available. Some newer RVs are coming with a residential style refrigerator that runs off 12V without a separate inverter. Our current refrigerator is a residential style with with an inverter. We usually pull the trailer to our house a few days before our trip, connect shore power, and power up the refrigerator. Residential style will cool down much quicker than RV refrigerators, usually within a couple of hours of being plugged in. Residential style refrigerators don't need to be kept level.

Once the refrigerator is cool, load it up with food. Some people add ice blocks to the freezer of their RV style refrigerator to help it keep up. If you do this, you can transfer the ice blocks to the refrigerator when the refrigerator can't keep up. This shouldn't be necessary for a residential refrigerator, but it could be used to help keep the residential refrigerator cold if you need to shut it down.

Once loaded and ready to travel, if you have an RV style refrigerator, you can run it on propane, 12V DC (if it has that option), or 120V AC from the generator. If you have a residential style refrigerator, you would run it from the inverter or 12V DC while under way, depending on which type you have. When stopping along the way or boon docking, most RVs can run an RV style refrigerator on propane pretty much until the propane runs out. The 12V current required to power the control board is minimal. Residential refrigerators can be run from the coach batteries for anywhere from a few hours to a day for typical factory battery setups. Of course, either style can be run from the generator indefinitely.

hohenwald48 · 07-28-2020, 07:31 AM

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

tanman32225 · 07-28-2020, 07:46 AM

I leave our refrigerator running all the time. The MH is kept plugged in all the time keeping the refrigerator cold. When we are preparing to leave I pull the coach to the front driveway and the wife loads it up. If she needs a couple days I plug the coach into the house plug I installed on the side of the house to keep power to the coach and air conditioners. The refrigerator stays running.

By keeping the refrigerator running we have no mold or mildew build up inside the refrigerator.

New2road · 07-28-2020, 07:50 AM

Frozen food is overrated, just load out your MRE's and you will be fine..... I'm sure you got the message from the other folks, most rigs have a means to keep things cool while on the road. Our rig has residential fridge that runs off inverter and doesn't miss a beat shifting from shore power to battery power for transit. If we need more than the fridge can handle, I put beer in yeti.

Find what will work for your needs, and get camping.

Waiter21 · 07-28-2020, 08:03 AM

Yes, No, Maybe: :-)

We have a residential frig that also runs on an inverter.

When getting ready for a trip, we run the frig on shore power for a day or so before loading it up with food. I like to put a few bottles of water in the freezer and food compartment to give the frig a thermal load instead of running it empty.

When we get underway, I switch on the inverter (converts 12 volts DC to 120 volts AC), and switch the refrigerator to use inverter power instead of shore power.

If we didn't have an inverter, the frig should stay cold for a few hours as long as the doors aren't opened/closed a lot. It would also be OK to run the generator for a while to run the frig while under way.

CWSWine · 07-28-2020, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dads Toy

Wife brought up a good newbie question. How do you transport frozen food in our class a. Do you shoreline power the coach and get fridge cold before leaving then load it up. Do you run the generator to power the fridge during travell

It sounds like you don't have propane fridge. If you have a residential fridge it will run off the batteries using the inverter. What I do is turn on fast cool and get down to temp in less than an hour. While traveling the alternator will provide enough of a charge to the batteries to keep the fridge running and cold. You don't need to run your generator unless you need AC.

Crasher · 07-28-2020, 08:08 AM

An empty refrigerator/freezer will take awhile to cool down. I have turned on the basement freezer at the same time I filled it with frozen food from our home freezer. The freezer reaches the preset temp in a matter of minutes. I rarely turn it on ahead of time. Same with the residential unit in the coach. As long as we will be filling both, it reaches it's set temp quickly with the help of the already chilled/frozen food. It's no different that setting a gallon of milk on the kitchen counter for 20 minutes for a meal. When we leave home for six months, I'll load our home refridg up with bottled water and other things we want to remain cold. Everything inside helps hold the temp and the compressor runs less.