Slideout kitchens?

ours is 12 years old in about 10 days and the stove and fridge still works great

My 2005 Cardinal 29LX has a full kitchen slide including the refrigerator and kitchen sink drain. The grey water line from the sink is a 1.5 inch flex PVC line. That pipe finally failed this winter after 9 years of use. I replaced the line myself in a couple of hours and spent about $20. I sure enjoy having the two large opposing slides and the ton of room it provides. But after reading all of these posts, I guess a kitchen slide out is not for everyone.

My neighbor has a kitchen slide out and the vent fan for the refigerator quit and did not vent properly. No damage to refer but it would not cool right until it got fixed. Another thing to think about if you boondock. more power load

I had an eagle with kitchen sink slide and the sink drain hose was restrained with a metal clamp which caused the drain hose to fail. I replaced it and didn't use the clamp, leaving it to move with the slide.:C

My main concerns with the Fridge in the slide out are for 2 reasons. The extra weight, but mainly due to the way it has to be vented out the side instead of the top. My experience has been that top vented gas fridges seem to do a better job than ones that go out the side. Anyone else noticed this?

Dean

Electric, propane, small tubing for ice maker, but I don't think I've seen a kitchen slide with water/sewer.

Try to bare in mind if you don't have a bunch of kids this is a lost of interior space for something you won't use.
I guess if you don't camp a lot or don't need all the space you can get and if the outdoor microwave is a necessity then maybe you'll think.

Thanks for all these positive answers, everyone!!! I will stop looking at kitchen slides with the ol' Stink-eye now....LOL!!

Yes, we'd have about a 24-hour window to inspect any RV that goes through the auction - and the nice thing about a Dealer-Only Auction is that if we found a significant issue that was not disclosed, we are able to return it and get our money back.

Deb, when kitchen slideouts first came out over 20 years ago there were some problems with them over time. Several manufacturers used coil springs to pull the free floating gas or water and/or electric lines in when the slide came in. On some RV's the coil spring would stretch if it got caught on anything or sometimes the spring would break or the screws holding it would pull out for one reason or another. Then the line or electric would get pinched and need repair quick.

Most now are done differently with hinged arms etc and very few problems occur then. It was a learning curve. Much depends on the quality or price level of the RV unit as built. Cheapies cut corners because they have to due to their selling price. Moving drains are not cool and are asking for problems as the RV ages. Drain lines are usually quite large in dia as a small flexible tube drain form a sink wouldn't be good. I'd sure inspect a perspective RV anyway for lots of design or incondition issues before I'd bid on it!

New rig has stove fridge and microwave in the slide and a Center island with sink and rear living. We love the layout. Where other rigs looked like empty boxcars with slides open ours has a great use of space. Second seaon this year and can't wait.