Residential Refrigerator

Best thing to do is look at the numbers on the inside of the door and do the math yourself. Seems to me without even looking at #s is that four 6v batteries would be minimum. Dealers tend to lie.

Charging from your tow vehicle depends upon the tow vehicle. Some do not have a live 12 volt line active for the camper at all. Some have a line that only works when the tow vehicle engine is running. Some have a line that is active (hot) and is never cut off.

I can't respond to the refrigerator and inverter question. If you are planning long distance trips, or overnight stops without electricity, or boom docking, I don't think this type of refrigerator is a wise choice.

Our Mobile Suites is equipped with a residential fridge, 2 each 6VDC batteries and a 1500 watt PSW inverter. We've traveled 12 hours many times and have never had a problem with fridge operation or battery discharge - the Ram does indeed charge the MS coach batteries through pin #4 of the Pollak 7-pin trailer receptacle on the truck.

I can't speak to overnighting, but with the fridge already cold, I don't know how much the compressor would run just to maintain temperature for 8 hours or so if the doors of the fridge stayed closed. For boondocking, you would need more batteries, lots of solar and/or a generator.

We're very pleased with the residential fridge after the troublesome, unreliable Dometics and Norcolds we lived with for 20 years before. It fits our usage profile very well.

Rusty

I don't have a residential. But I have reading as many posts about it as I see to learn more about it. And what the salesman told you matches most of what I have read. (Imagine a salesman giving accurate info :)).

Ah yes, the reason I will not buy a 5th with residential fridge. If you do not "boon-dock" and you do not have a generator and you do not use much of anything else dependent on your batteries (like lights) you will probably be fine for a day or so. Otherwise, do not get a residential fridge.

I don't plan to boon-dock but what I worried about is this. We leave at 6 in the morning and drive till 5PM but can't find a camp site. We spend the night in Wal-Mart and leave the next day and get to the camp site at 5PM on the second day will I still be ok?

We have a fiver with a Samsung residential fridge. First of all, they are one of the most energy efficient ones out there. Will 2 6 volt batteries run a 1000 inverter all day? I seriously doubt it. The inverter requires a certain amount of battery voltage to run then it shuts down therefore shutting down the fridge.
We precool our fridge in 90 degree FL heat about 2 to 3 hours prior to travel, load it up and then go. We have traveled 9 hours with it running with no power. But of course, the truck is maintaining the battery level.
Keep in mind, too, the fridge will cycle on and off once cooled to the proper temp but the inverter is still running drawing from the batteries.
I recently installed a 160 watt solar panel to offset the inverter draw on the batteries while in storage and traveling in the event we have an extended daytime stop over.
As far as an overnight stop with no power, it may stay cold through the night if you keep the doors closed. Another reason I installed the solar is to help boost up the batteries, maintain them in storage, and in the event of a power failure in a campground.
Another option is to add another battery bank.
I have had the residential since August 2014 with no issues but we do not boon dock. We absolutely love it and would never have another RV fridge.
I know I have NOT answered your question in technical terms but I know enough to tell you that NO two 6 volt batteries cannot run the inverter/fridge all day. Hope this helps.

He may have meant 24 minutes. Many folks here much smarter than I am. Can you give us some numbers to crunch like Fridge model and electric consumption specs?

1. Get the residential fridge
2. Get FOUR batteries
3. Need genny or solar if boondocking

Residential fridge cools SO much better than RV fridge. But with only 2 batts we could only run in evening 1 night if stopping while traveling and then turn off when sleeping (fridge keeps cold without opening) and restarting when towing again second day. Could not do this two nights in a row. After hassling with this for a number of trips we added more batts.

We have the Samsung fridge in ours with a 1000 watt PSW inverter and 2 6 volt batteries. We spend 3 to 4 months ago year in it and have put in a number of 12 to 14 hour travel days. We always run the inverter and fridge and the lowest I have ever seen the voltage registered on the inverter at the end of a travel day is 12.3 volts. Of course, the charge line from the truck is helping but I'm not sure how much. Since we rarely open it while traveling I'm not sure how much it actually runs during the day. We have never spent a night without hook ups so I'm not much help to you past that. I do know that 6 years with a Notcold 1200 in a prior motorhome was enough for me.