Residential refrigerator with inverter opinions?

[werni9]

Thanks to all. The old Norcold outlet NOT being on the inverter line makes total sense considering the heater part of that lp/elec unit. I will do some wiring If I decide I must have the frig running on battery. The new boxes are so well insulated, that if you leave them alone, they will stay cool for quite some time. Thank you. Happy Trails

[Radioman]

Originally Posted by leesimonson

Lots of great information here but nothing on my curiosity....How are residential refers (or replacement absorption) installed in DP motorhomes? Are there models that are thin enough to fit through the door or is it always necessary to take out the windshield? This curious mind wants to know....

On our 08 Mountain Air we replaced the Norcold (after 2 cooling units) with a residential refrigerator. After careful measuring we bought a whirlpool refrigerator. The dinette window was easily removed and the refrigerator was loaded into the coach with a forklift and 3 strong men. Not a scratch on the coach or the refrigerator. This was one of the best upgrades we made on the coach - no more soft ice cream!

[sammax]

Mine works great in my Winnebago Forza....the problems are getting anyone to look at it for a repair if needed and if you had to replace it, it would have to go through the drivers window...19 CUbic Foot...

[Paul R. Haller]

Last year I finally had it with the crap nevercold absorption refer. It, over a 10 year period, went through 2 new cooling units and barely worked. With a new cooling unit, fans inside and outside in the chimneys did 80 degrees outside I could only get to 55 in the refer. I replaced it last October with a counter depth stainless Samsung 18 cf lower freezer. It has an ice maker but no delivery through the door. Since my original fridge was 24 wide an the new Samsung was 33 inches wide I did some remodeling to do and remove a drawer beneath the old refer. The new fridge fit through the door of the fiver but had to be turned sideways to get it to the kitchen. I test fitted it and it was good. Then I had to make custom fabricated brackets to hold the refer in the kitchen slide out. It took some time but wow, what an improvement. It’s important to note that apon removing the old nevercold absorption fridge, the inside left corner of the fridge encloser was badly charred and burnt. So too was the fiberglass insulation there. Apparently their reputation for being fire starters in trailers is true or at least, it was true for my unit. Scary!

I contacted Samsung before making the purchase and specifically asked two questions of the level two tech. Will it run on a modified sine wave inverter and will you warranty the unit in a trailer? The tech said yes to both questions. I then, after getting the fridge installed , I checked how much current it draws. It’s amazingly low draw. 1.2 amps running, defrost bumps up to 3 amps, and dumping ice 4 amps but only as long as the motor to dump the ice is running. It only runs for about a minute. I drive all day running off a msw 3500 watt inverter and when plugging into shore power check the current into the batteries. The meter shows that about 15 amps are going into my batteries so the batteries were down some. I have 6 6volt golf cart batteries and my truck has a 200 amp alternator and a number 12 charge line. This is typical of all truck manufacturers.

I decided to upsize my charge lines to number 4. I ran a number 4 wire from the alternater, through a continuous duty solenoid to an 80 amp fuse and back to the back of the bed of the truck where I installed a winch connector rated at 200 amps bolted to the inside bed rail. I also ran a ground wire from the frame to the negative side of the connector. In the trailer I ran a 4 wire to the other side of the winch connector to the trailer batteries positive through another fuse and a 4 ground to the frame of the trailer. Since I do not know for sure the size of the batteries to frame connection in either truck or trailer, I added a 4/0 ground from the negative battery terminal on both truck and trailer to the frames to be sure the ground paths were good on both. It’s important to note that I also installed an led lamp on both the male and female winch connectors so I could see at a glance that both sides were hot and that neither fuse was blown.

The next time I pulled the trailer all day with the upsized cables I checked charge amps draw again. 1.2 amps, which is what it draws when the batteries are fully charged. So, if in doubt pulling a trailer and running a fridge off an inverter, do yourself a favor and upsize your charge cables. It will make a huge difference charging your trailer batteries while on the read.

The only thing I left out of this residential fridge saga, is they have no door latches strong enough to keep the doors from opening while on the road. I fixed that with some southco 10 lbs pull latches but that is another long post. You do NOT want to drill into your new refer front, top, sides, for mounting brackets to hold it down or to secure the doors. If you do, depending on placement, you could drill into a cooling line rendering that new fridge inoperable. Paul R. Haller

[saddlesore]

Originally Posted by Paul R. Haller

I replaced it last October with a counter depth stainless Samsung 18 cf lower freezer. It has an ice maker but no delivery through the door.
The only thing I left out of this is residential fridges have no door latches strong enough to keep the doors from opening on the road. I fixed that with some southco 10 lbs pull latches but that is another long post. You do NOT want to drill into your new refer front, top, sides, for mounting brackets to hold it down or to secure the doors. If you do, depending on placement you could drill into a cooling line rendering that new fridge inoperable. Paul R. Haller

Check this out, Like you I went "Rube Goldberg" 1st time around (rubber spoon and commercial velcro. Then installed the fridge fixer..no holes to drill, just used 2 existing french door hinge screws...
Works like a champ..
https://www.recubed.solutions/copy-of-original-2

[wingnut60]

I can second the Fridge Fixer--have used one on our Whirlpool res fridge for about a year and it works--no more cables/velcro/wire ties....check it out:

https://www.recubed.solutions/

Once you begin to trust it, you will love it. Just don't forget it is there and try to open the fridge. Carl, the inventor, is very easy to work with.

Joe

[bfisher003]

We recently bought a new 2019 Montana 3121RL with a 18 cu’ Samsung residential refrigerator. It came with a large knob device that screws in to lock the two upper doors and freezer closed. Seems to work well and is easy to screw in and out.

[Paul R. Haller]

To fix the door problems I ordered 3 10 pound pull Southco catches from amazon. I also ordered a 3 foot by 1/4 aluminum bar. I drilled and taped the bar to accept the screws holding 3 southco catches. I cut the bar to fit between the hinge brackets located between the refer doors and freezer drawer and adhered it to the refer body using VHB (very high bond) tape also available on Amazon. The southco catch body is mounted to the bottom of the two doors and to the top of freezer drawer. Unfortunately, the bottoms of the refer doors are not flat so, I had to build aluminum 1/16 plate to adhere to the door bottoms using screws and VHB tape. I like my solution for 2 reasons. You don’t see anything to interfere with the original fridge design and I don’t have to remember to do something.

Mounting the fridge also presented some challenges. I had to run water for the ice maker into a slide out, and how to keep the fridge in place when on the road without interfering with the slide out operation. I made custom brackets on the front fridge feet and 3 1/2 inch carriage bolts through the floor of the slide out and through the fridge undercarriage which was beefed up using 1&1/2 inch angle iron. There are also unseen brackets mounting the fridge upper hinges to the ceiling of the slide out. See photos below for clarity.

[Ddubya]

Anyone installing the Samsung may want to check out this bracket assembly from Keystone.
Trekwood RV Parts - Alpine / 2017 / Appliances / Refrigerator / Bracket - Refrigerator - DHM1364 - Fab & Powder Coat - 4 Pc Set

[steve11669]

Originally Posted by Sbrownstein

...Finally, I do not think that any RV should have a residential reefer without an SOC meter. That way you know where you stand at all times and can verify that all of your charging sources are working without resorting to a multimeter or guesswork.

Will someone explain what a SOC meter is?

[Sbrownstein]

Originally Posted by steve11669

Will someone explain what a SOC meter is?

Most RVs use lead acid batteries for power. They have been around for a very, very long time and remain the standard way to power a coach. Good maintenance and charging regularly are all you have to do to get them to last at least 5 years or more. The problem with a RR is that it is powered from the house batteries using an inverter that converts 12 volts DC to 110 volts ac. No problem there. However, you need to know the State of Charge of your batteries and a simple voltage measurement doesn't really tell you much unless the batteries haven't been charged or discharged for at least a couple of hours.

An SOC meter (state of charge) doesn't rely on voltage but continually measures how much current has been taken out and replaced. It will tell you in percent, how charged your batteries are so that you can make a reasonable decision concerning how long to run your generator when necessary. All charging is measured, be it from the engine alternator when driving, the converter when running the generator or connected to shore power or solar if you have it.

Lots of brands out there but Victron and Trimetric seem to be the popular units for boats and RVs. There are also some less expensive options from China on Amazon.

Without one...you really don't know if you are charged or not!