Residential Fridge Yay or Nay?

We had the "Nocold".

First, I was displeased regarding the fire safety issues: http://www.irv2.com/forums/f54/norcold-circuit-board-fire-hazard-341864.html

Then there is the constant litany of "replace the board", "put a fan inside", "put a fan in the vent stack", "get an aftermarket remedy board for company X" type of fixes.

Now there is an ongoing recall for the plastic door hinges breaking that has been known to the mfr since before 2013, and they still produce it the same way.

We decided early after our purchase to go the residential reefer route. The reefer is a Fisher & Paykel RF170BRPX6 inverter compressor. We would have liked to go with the Samsung model but did not have the clearance for the door mounted handles. On a 29-5K the slide-out closes directly in front of the reefer, and so there is a critical deconfliction area. The F&P has side door recesses as handles, and so it fits well for almost 18 cu. ft.





It uses 3.5A, and I would assume that is during a defrost cycle. You can normally calculate run cycle (from what I have researched) at about 30% of actual time, so for a given 24 hour day, it would have a total of 8 hours of run time. 3.5A is 420 watts at 120V.

We never dry camp; the RV is our "hotel" when we travel. We overnight with full hookups, and the inverter powers the reefer while driving. The 2000 watt inverter is the Magnum CSW2012-X (Pure Sine Wave). The inverter has pass through A/C, automatic transfer switching, and a remote/coached mounted control panel.



After 10 hours of driving disconnected from a/c, our batteries, which are OEM from the dealer (nothing special) never drop below 12.7 volts.

We are exceedingly pleased with the purchase and performance.

Moderator edit to re-size pictures to forum recommended limit of 640px maximum width.

Love ours! We dont boondock much, except for a few weekend football tailgates. For those, I run my Chamopion 3100watt inverter around the clock. I run 2 6V GC batteries, and no problem keeping things going while on the road, even extended trips.

The camp (these forums) are split, either folks are for them, or against them. It all depends upon their own style of camping and availability of electric power. My opinion doesn't matter, because I don't have one, and no intention of changing campers anywhere in the future either.

wildtoad wrote:
If you never or rarely boon dock then go for the residential. Otherwise be prepared to invest in more batteries and a way to charge them.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I think too. I think more pros than cons if you don't boondock. And that initial purchase price is a big plus.

we really like ours- we fulltime and are always at a site with electric.
it is (in our opinion) much better than the Norcold 4 door we had in our MH, and the in door ice/water dispenser is a great feature.
it was one of the must haves on DW's list for the new camper, we will always have a camper with one now

Some Class A posts here, but the idea is the same:

pros-cons v. gas2016
household refer and inverter2009
Household refer Class A 2009
residential fridge- boondocking 09
Residential refer Class A 2010
Norcold w resi, class a 2014
resi Feb 2016

If you never or rarely boon dock then go for the residential. Otherwise be prepared to invest in more batteries and a way to charge them.

We love ours, we have a solar panel on top of the RV for a little extra free charge. With the proper batteries it will run all night and then some. No worries with the outa level fridge death or fire. And our ice cream stays frozen!