Residential Fridge Yay or Nay?

Cummins12V98 wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
I can drive for 16 hours and the frig is still at 0 and 38 degrees just as when we headed out. It will stay the same spending the night then next day heading out and so on as we just did a 3 day trip without stopping for shore power. LOVE the full size rez KitchenAid!!! Full time 2.5 years with this unit with ZERO issues.

How did you keep the fridge running with no shore power? Generator? How many batteries are you using? 6 volt or 12 volt? Solar power? That's a pretty good draw for 3 days with no plug-in.

Actually I lied. Did run the gen one hour each night to watch TV. Have 2-6v batteries and a 1000 watt inverter. But no kidding on 31 hour trip with no shore and keeping the truck running 3times at two hours each to sleep it was 38 and 0 like when we left.

Funny Cummins I know you are generally a straight shooter. I'm glad you confessed, but we already knew the truth had been stretched.:W .
I'm afraid to ask you what your MPG's were for 16 hour drive.
Did you end up with more fuel than you started with?:B
Do you fish?;)

Lantley wrote:
With a rez fridge you will need at least a dual battery powered inverter and some solar to last that long.

and a working knowledge of electricity, a subject which doesn't come easily. I think I'm pretty good at it now, but I admit it took me a year or so to master the calculations of an amp-hour.

janstey58 wrote:
X2, with modern energy efficient residential fridges, I think some posters are making too much ado about nothing on boondocking with this type of fridge thing.

With a LP fridge I can boon dock at least a week with no concern for the fridge because it is using minimal power.
With a rez fridge you will need at least a dual battery powered inverter and some solar to last that long.
It is not a major deal breaking issue however you will need to make some sort of mod to keep the fridge going if you are an regular boondocker.
Yes they are more efficient but they require A.C.100% of the time to work.

fj12ryder wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
I can drive for 16 hours and the frig is still at 0 and 38 degrees just as when we headed out. It will stay the same spending the night then next day heading out and so on as we just did a 3 day trip without stopping for shore power. LOVE the full size rez KitchenAid!!! Full time 2.5 years with this unit with ZERO issues.

How did you keep the fridge running with no shore power? Generator? How many batteries are you using? 6 volt or 12 volt? Solar power? That's a pretty good draw for 3 days with no plug-in.

Actually I lied. Did run the gen one hour each night to watch TV. Have 2-6v batteries and a 1000 watt inverter. But no kidding on 31 hour trip with no shore and keeping the truck running 3times at two hours each to sleep it was 38 and 0 like when we left.

janstey58 wrote:
some posters are making too much ado about nothing on boondocking with this type of fridge thing.

..and haven't read the links I posted on page 1.

Very true and my results aren't even with an inverter fridge so that makes them all the better!

ScottG wrote:

justme wrote:

2oldman wrote:

justme wrote:
That becomes 533 to 667 watts/hr.

Watt-hours?

That is how many watts are used in one hour

I don't think thats quite right.
You cannot use the momentary surge current of when the compressor starts to make the power usage argument over a long period of time. Modern fridges uses a fraction of that power when just running and they only run about 50% of the time.
This is why so many modern rv's can get away with using a resi fridge and don't require anything more than the standard charge line from the TV.

Just tested our own 2 y/o full size Samsung resi fridge in our home and it runs at 169 watts - easily sustained by a TV charge line.

Scott,

From the information that I have been able to obtain, modern inverter style residential reefers have, in general, about a 30% to 35% duty cycle. 20 years ago they had residential reefers down to 45% duty cycles.

Your 169 watts is actually quite realistic, (we use a Samsung in our residence). (169 watts would be about 31.5% duty cycle of 533 watts.)

As I mentioned in my first post, if not for the dimensional deconfliction that I needed, we would have gone with the Samsung in the RV. As it is, the F&P that we installed has been excellent. It is also (like Samsung) an inverter compressor system, and has something called ActiveSmart: ""ActiveSmart™ Foodcare consists of a microprocessor, interior temperature sensors, independently controlled fans and multiple air vents.

The microprocessor controls how the refrigerator operates. The sensors continuously send information to the microprocessor, which analyses and adjusts the fan and compressor operations accordingly to deliver optimal results.

Cool air is distributed evenly and efficiently through multiple air vents, creating a consistent and stable temperature throughout your refrigerator and freezer. ActiveSmart™ Foodcare also has the ability to rapidly chill new items to a safe temperature and quickly freeze foods to retain moisture when defrosted."

These reefers are nothing like what was being produced even 20 years ago.

we boondock a lot, and in 12 or 15 years of camping in toy haulers (3 different trailers), we have never had a failure of an RV LP fridge, and never had any ice cream melt. We are always aware of the "keeping the fridge level" issue (I think that it mostly applies to the front to back level of the trailer, which would be the side to side level of the fridge). The only time I don't worry too much about keeping the trailer level is when we stop for lunch, and part of the drill is to turn off the fridge when we stop, and turn it back on when we start to move again.
Just my experience, don't often hear from folks who don't have problems with LP fridges but we are out there.

Residential all the way. Even if you dry camp a lot, solar is cheap and the new fridges don't use much power.

Where we are set up on our property in California we are on a time of use plan. Power is dirt cheap between 10 at night and 8 in the morning. The breaker gets turned off to the coach at 8 in the morning and back on at 10 at night. During the day the solar powers the unit thru the two inverters and the battery back. Our bill went from around 100 bucks to 28 bucks per month for power. The fridge is quite happy to run on the inverter.

X2, with modern energy efficient residential fridges, I think some posters are making too much ado about nothing on boondocking with this type of fridge thing.