Residential refrigerator upgrade

Sunnysidebeach wrote:
We have a travel trailer, but we're looking at a 5th Wheel. Those with the residential fridge, have shelving that is not designed to hold items in place while traveling down the road. Since we plan on traveling, and not staying in one park for extended periods of time, residential fridge would not work for us.

Is that a new feature on RV refrigerator shelves? None I’ve ever had, including our current 2017, had anything to hold items in place traveling down the road. I have used aftermarket spring loaded bars but could get them for a residential fridge also.

We have a travel trailer, but we're looking at a 5th Wheel. Those with the residential fridge, have shelving that is not designed to hold items in place while traveling down the road. Since we plan on traveling, and not staying in one park for extended periods of time, residential fridge would not work for us.

neschultz wrote:

If you are looking at the Magic Chef model HMDR1000BE, the specs say it needs a 15 amp circuit. I haven’t been able to find the actual run/start current draw yet but if it truly needs 15 amps, you need at least an 1800 watt inverter. And I’ve read that most of the newer residential models require a pure sine wave.

Motors (like the compressor in a refrigerator) run better on pure sine wave inverters.

If the owners manual say it need a dedicated 15A circuit in your house (very hard to believe on even larger refrigerators), I would get a GOOD 2000W inverter.

I think you will find a 1000W inverter marginal at best. But if you rarely boondock and always carry "Honda 2000 twins" I would not wast time or money trying to upgrade the batteries or inverters.

If you are boondocking, just remember NOT to open the refrigerator after the generator is turned off. With the doors closed your should be good for 8-12 hours. Your ice cream might get a bit soft !

We are thinking of the same thing. We want to change to a larger unit (swap our 6 cu ft for the 10.1 cu ft Magic Chef). Our door opening is 24 1/4” so we can’t fit anything larger than the 10 cubic foot ones in there.

If you are looking at the Magic Chef model HMDR1000BE, the specs say it needs a 15 amp circuit. I haven’t been able to find the actual run/start current draw yet but if it truly needs 15 amps, you need at least an 1800 watt inverter. And I’ve read that most of the newer residential models require a pure sine wave. The manual to this states that it is not designed to be used on an inverter.

They also state that this model only works when the ambient temp is 50 to 85 degrees F so it won’t work outside of those temps when on the inverter.

We are going to use ours mostly to stay in FL for 4 months each year, so running on 12 volts or outside the temp range is not important for us.

SidecarFlip wrote:

ScottG wrote:
You can also convert your existing fridge to an energy efficient AC or DC compressor cooling unit.
JC refridgeration

Not with them that I can see.... Try West Marine instead.

It looks like you can. Scroll down the Products Page.

Dang! I might make this conversion myself.......

We are semi permanent on a seasonal site w/ metered electricity. Switched our dometic dc/ propane for an apt sized residential unit. Tripleed the space inside and or bill during a/c cooling months has dropped from the mid $90 range into the low 30s. Keep better temps, we love it. I was a win / win for us based on operating efficiency and gained capacity. The saving this season alone more than paid for the swap out.

ScottG wrote:
You can also convert your existing fridge to an energy efficient AC or DC compressor cooling unit.
JC refridgeration

Not with them that I can see.... Try West Marine instead.

Your 1K watt inverter and dual battery setup should do the trick while driving to your next destination, many rigs that come from the factory with a residential fridge are equipped with a similar sized inverter. When RVing off the power grid adding a couple of extra batteries and sufficient solar should keep you from running your Hondas excessively.

Which type of fridge is better really boils down to personal preference and the kind of RVing you do most. Since we prefer and predominately do most of our RVing off grid, and the fact our Dometic has performed marvelously over the last dozen years, even under extreme weather conditions, our next new rig will have a four door absorption fridge.

You can also convert your existing fridge to an energy efficient AC or DC compressor cooling unit.
JC refridgeration