Yes, lots of RVers who are hanging onto the the old absorption-type RV fridges get on forums and gnash their teeth over the likelihood of failures of residential fridges in RV service. Now, how many posts do you see from those of us who HAVE residential fridges bemoaning failures of these refrigerators, especially as compared to failures of the absorption-type fridges? How many RV fires have been started by residential fridges? How many complaints do you see of residential fridges not cooling sufficiently in extremely hot or cold conditions?
All of our previous 5th wheels had absorption-type fridges, and I've had cooling unit failures within the first 6 months of ownership (2 months in one case) of both Norcold and Dometic cooling units. Having moved to a residential fridge in our current 5th wheel, I'll never go back!! We power the residential fridge with 2 each 6VDC batteries and a 1500 watt inverter when traveling, but remember that the coach batteries are also being charged through the 12VDC connection coming from the truck's alternator and batteries while we're on the road. We've never had a problem with refrigerator cooling or low batteries when we arrive at our destination and run the leveling system and slideouts when we set up.
Rusty
