Samsung RF-18 hard facts please!

[MSHappyCampers]

I'm having trouble again with my Norcold 1200 and I'm getting pretty frustrated! It has worked great for a long time but now suddenly it's driving me batty! I'm seriously considering cutting my losses and going to a residential fridge.

The Samsung RF-18 will fit the space, and will even go through the front door, but after spending a lot of time reading the reviews I have some serious reservations about it. I would like those of you who have this exact model to give me your honest opinions!

1. Many of the reviews mention that there is very little adjustment of the shelves in the refrigerator section and that a gallon jug of milk won't sit on the bottom standing up! It that's true, that's a deal-breaker for us!

2. Lots of folks mentioned the noise levels, especially when making ice.

3. They say the freezer door doesn't pull out far enough, making it difficult to get things in and out.

4. Many mention water condensation inside, especially in the crisper bins.

5. A LOT of complaints about getting service when needed!

6. Some mentioned icing on the fridge walls.


These are some of the things that caught my eye. If you have other comments, please mention them.

If there's another brand and model fridge that will fit the 1200 space I would love to check it out also.

Thanks to all of you for your help!

[dons2346]

"1. Many of the reviews mention that there is very little adjustment of the shelves in the refrigerator section and that a gallon jug of milk won't sit on the bottom standing up! It that's true, that's a deal-breaker for us!

I have the 197, I thik the 18 has the same interior layout. A gallon jug of milk fits in the door pockey

2. Lots of folks mentioned the noise levels, especially when making ice.

Don't notice any noise from the ice maker except when it drops the cubes in the bin

3. They say the freezer door doesn't pull out far enough, making it difficult to get things in and out.

Freezer pulls out enough to access both the top drawer and the bottom

4. Many mention water condensation inside, especially in the crisper bins.

No water in out unit

5. A LOT of complaints about getting service when needed!

Haven't needed service in 3 years

6. Some mentioned icing on the fridge walls."

No icing on the walls

[2 Stroker]

My daughter installed this one in the 05 Monaco 36' with no problems, just makes the pocket book a little lighter but it is nice. Down side is there is no ice maker and it is the same size as my Samsung.
https://www.goedekers.com/Fisher-Paykel-RF170ADX4.html
2 stroker

[high voltage]

I have the rf 18 for 2 years. It works just fine.

[MSHappyCampers]

Thanks for the comments folks! Still listening!

[MSHappyCampers]

Originally Posted by dons2346

"1. Many of the reviews mention that there is very little adjustment of the shelves in the refrigerator section and that a gallon jug of milk won't sit on the bottom standing up! It that's true, that's a deal-breaker for us!

I have the 197, I thik the 18 has the same interior layout. A gallon jug of milk fits in the door pockey

2. Lots of folks mentioned the noise levels, especially when making ice.

Don't notice any noise from the ice maker except when it drops the cubes in the bin

3. They say the freezer door doesn't pull out far enough, making it difficult to get things in and out.

Freezer pulls out enough to access both the top drawer and the bottom

4. Many mention water condensation inside, especially in the crisper bins.

No water in out unit

5. A LOT of complaints about getting service when needed!

Haven't needed service in 3 years

6. Some mentioned icing on the fridge walls."

No icing on the walls

Don, will the gallon jug fit on the bottom of the fridge, not in the door? I would be concerned about that much weight in the door!

[JDT]

We have had the RF197 in ours for 5 years now. No issues at all and never hear the icemaker but I am getting hearing aids soon and that may change. The wife never complains. I think the interior is the same as the RF18 but you may want to check for sure. There are milk jug size shelves on each door that we use for our milk and tea pitchers. Has worked great for 5 years and we have put about 35K miles on the trailer with many a rough road and no evidence of any problems. A gallon jug of milk does fit on the inside bottom shelf but barely. I have to just barely raise the shelf above it to get it in past the trim but it fits without hitting the upper shelf by about a hair.

When we had a motorhome I gave up on the 1200 and went with a Samsung RF197. When we were shopping for a fifth wheel the deal breaker was the ability to get another one.

[southernlady]

Originally Posted by MSHappyCampers

Don, will the gallon jug fit on the bottom of the fridge, not in the door? I would be concerned about that much weight in the door!

I stopped keeping mine in the door long ago so if it can't go on a shelf, it would be a deal breaker for me. How to store milk | what temperature should milk be kept at | Western Dairy Association

[38Chevy454]

I would highly recommend to just do the conversion and be back to a good frig. One of my biggest complaints with the Norcold was the recovery time. Especially putting room temp stuff in, it seemed the whole frig would get warmed up and take 12 hours to get back. The Norcold freezer was never as cold as I liked. The approx 50% increase in interior space is very nice. I did have to do some cabinet mods, since the RF18 is taller then the Norcold 1200. I am sure you also know that you need to do mods to seal up the frig compartment since now the Rf18 frig is not sealed to the sides. It uses interior air to circulate over the condenser coils. If you don't seal the frig compartment, outside air will get into your coach.

My answers to your questions:
1. There are limited positions for the shelves. The door has room for large gallon bottles. I would not concern with that weight.
2. I don't have my icemaker hooked up so can't comment.
3. Freezer compartment is not full depth to back of frig, assuming your coach does not have something in the way, the freezer door opens sufficient to provide enough room for freezer access.
4. Not been a problem for me. No condensation problems.
5. Have not required service for mine.
6. Not been a problem for me.

[Scottybdivin]

I've had mine for 2-1/2 years now. It runs fine off my Magnum Mod Sine inverter. All I can tell you is that the wife loves it and wants to replace the one in the S&B with a Samsung when it goes out. It runs 24/ 7 / 365 and she uses it as an overflow fridge.

[336muffin]

Joe I feel your pain! You might remember a few years ago I was fighting with my Nocold. Went to the Samsung and have had BLISSFUL refrigerator relations since! Shoulda done it sooner.

[MSHappyCampers]

Originally Posted by 336muffin

Joe I feel your pain! You might remember a few years ago I was fighting with my Nocold. Went to the Samsung and have had BLISSFUL refrigerator relations since! Shoulda done it sooner.

What's that they say about hindsight?

[DAJO]

Originally Posted by dons2346

"1. Many of the reviews mention that there is very little adjustment of the shelves in the refrigerator section and that a gallon jug of milk won't sit on the bottom standing up! It that's true, that's a deal-breaker for us!

I have the 197, I thik the 18 has the same interior layout. A gallon jug of milk fits in the door pockey

2. Lots of folks mentioned the noise levels, especially when making ice.

Don't notice any noise from the ice maker except when it drops the cubes in the bin

3. They say the freezer door doesn't pull out far enough, making it difficult to get things in and out.

Freezer pulls out enough to access both the top drawer and the bottom

4. Many mention water condensation inside, especially in the crisper bins.

No water in out unit

5. A LOT of complaints about getting service when needed!

Haven't needed service in 3 years

6. Some mentioned icing on the fridge walls."

No icing on the walls

X2 except we don't use the ice maker

[Smitty77]

I did what I did, putting $$$ into the Norcold 1200 via the Amish Cooling unit, additional pancake fans, SS-30 Extinguisher, Smoke Detector (In behind the fridge.) and had bought the ARP board to install.

I did that for safety reasons, and because I wanted to retain LP to ease extended boon docking.

Well flash forward three years later, and by then we'd shifted to 1200W of solar, 800AH of house bank, PSW MS2812 - and electric power conservation was really not required anymore. So when the 1200 started to have 'quirks' - we shifted over to the Samsung RF18. (The only painful part about the process, was losing our two junk drawers below the 1200!).

Cost was less then all of the funds and labor put into the 1200.

I'll just repeat what others have noted - none of the problems you have noted are evident now in year three or so of our RF18 experience. Cold, and gee - hard ice cream!!!

We have the ice maker plumbed, but have reverted to out two ice trays of cubes for two reasons: 1) We have whole coach filtration, plus inline charcoal canister finisher on the line to the ice maker. But our highest cyst filtration filter is below out kitchen sink, and it has the best tasting water out of the water faucet we added. We like the cubes from that water the best. 2) Two trays fit into the ice holding area of the RF18, with room for other items to be stored too. (We find the normal fridge to be huuugggggeeeee compared to the 1200. And the freezer is bigger too. But the DW would have liked another foot of freezer space, especially after our as we travel pilgrimages to Costco. Somehow we survive!) On the doors storage. We store in the lower right door shelf two 1/2 gallon cartons (Milk & Half/Half) and my DW's emergency LaCrema chardonnay. IMO - the doors and hinges are solidly built to hold the weight for the long term.

Be sure you read up on ways to keep the fridge and freezer drawers/doors from opening. (I did a quick addition of three 2" X 4-5" strips of velcro from the top of the freezer drawer at a 90 degree angle to the face of the fridge spacer between the fridge and freezer. Have to open the fridge doors to add the female part into position in that 90 degree bend, and also to remove. Then for the fridge just got one of those big rubberized twisties you can find at Home Depot or Lowes, and we twists these around the handles before departure. Makes easy access to the fridge area while driving too. I did this until I decided what I wanted to do permanently, and here we are three years later and it is working fine - so have just kept on trucking!).

By the way, a gent at the place that did the RF18 install - salvaged the Amish Cooling unit, extra pancake fans and thermocouple and even the added electric switch I had to manually control two of the four added pancake fans. He snagged a few of components inside the coach, too. Two of the white drawers, and one or two of the small door trays. And the internal fans we had added to help air circulation. He's swapped out and added these to his desert trailer in Ocotillo Wells area near Borrego Springs. I also gave him the ARP board as a tip for the good wood working he did installing the fridge.

Noise? Not bothersome, but sure can hear it when the compressor kicks on.

Last bit on noise. We'd hear a noise from behind the fridge area during moderate to heavy winds. That really was not to much of a bother to my DW or I - but we have a third passenger that runs the coach - a dawg that was scared by the sounds. I looked all over for the source but could not locate it. I was back at the place that installed it, and ask the tech that did the work to look things over, authorizing 30 mins of shop time for his expertise in doing so (Which the shop refused to charge me.) - all looked good to him too. Well this year I was doing normal roof maintenance, and decided to again pop-off the old now closed off roof fridge vent cover. And found that the aluminum tape they used to seal the top of the vent, was detonated in one corner enough to have a hole. Seems the configuration of our roof top fridge vent cover would form sort of vacuum/suction force when winds would get in and under the vent from just the right angle. It was this aluminum tape being sucked up hard, then dropping back into place (Bet it only moved 1/16th" total upwards from the suction, as it was on tight.) that was our source of noise. Checked the same aluminum tape they used on the side access panels vents too. They seemed OK, but bet they too could have added to the noise. I put eternabond tape over both of these vents openings. And now no more noise...

(And note, this practice is frequently used to close of these air vents. May never be a problem for some, depending upon the configuration of their roof top fridge vent cover. I sent the owner of the place that did the work an email on what I had found, and suggested that they also start using eternabond tape in place of the aluminum tape in future installs. (I also called the tech, whose phone number is on speed dial to ask for tips as problems occur. (Shop owner knows this, and said no problem - as we're all a team, and wants us to get any support we need while traveling.) and shared this with him. And he said thank's and that he'd just add this to their shops standard practice manual (Mostly consulted by the newer tech's.))

Best to you on your decision,
Smitty