Hello, first time Class A RV'ers here! Getting ready for a 8 day trip with our Grandchildren. Opened up our 1997 Coachmen Destiny that we bought last Oct.2015 and upon testing everything, found out the Dometic refridgerator is not powering on electric but is on propane. No time to fix. My question is, how much propane do we have to have in our 100lb tank to sustain our cooling for 8 days?.Any help with this would be much appreciated!Thank you, Tom Virant

3 gallons (12#) would be more than sufficient for the fridge as it uses very little propaneClick HERE for recent topic

ThomasandMaliaVirant wrote:Hello, first time Class A RV'ers here! Getting ready for a 8 day trip with our Grandchildren. Opened up our 1997 Coachmen Destiny that we bought last Oct.2015 and upon testing everything, found out the Dometic refridgerator is not powering on electric but is on propane. No time to fix. My question is, how much propane do we have to have in our 100lb tank to sustain our cooling for 8 days?.Any help with this would be much appreciated!Thank you, Tom Virantyou should be good to go.

It takes very little.And....I find that mine takes a LOT longer to create noticeable cool inside if I start it hot on AC power.YOu do know that the electric side is AC and not 12 V......right ??Which means you must be connected to shore power or have the gen running.

Thank you for your help! Yes we had it plugged into our house electric.Tom Virant

Yes, the refrigerator takes very, very little propane. The furnace gobbles it up. Hope you're going where you don't need the furnace. :)

Propane supply to run fridge | Good Sam Community

13 Replies

ThomasandMaliaV
Explorer
Jun 18, 2016
Our refriderator is a Dometic Elite model # RM7732. We did have it level and have read the operation manual several times and have the temp set at 4 which has cooled very well! We went and had the propane tank filled so we have nothing to worry about! The 4 Grandchildren range in age from 8 to 13yrs. 13 being our Grandaughter who I am sure will shower every day!!! Thank you all very much for your input and we are looking forward to our trip!
Tom and Malia
braindead0
Explorer
Jun 17, 2016
dave17352 wrote:
I always leave mine on propane. Works better. I bet you could run close to a month on a 20 pound bottle.
That's about what I calculated when I was wondering this same thing. It's pretty easy, find out how many BTU's the fridge uses.. you get around 91,600BTU's per gallon of propane. I think my calculation was the burner could RUN for a month on our fridge with a 20# bottle.. Once I got to that point I stopped worrying about the fridge ;-)
JC2
Explorer
Jun 17, 2016
ThomasandMaliaVirant wrote:
Thank you everyone! We have an appt. in July to have it looked at but will travel with the Grandkids on vacation as planned.We really appreciate all of the help!
Tom and Malia

Just curious, but what type of rv fridge do you have? Are you familiar with the importance of having it close to level when using, running them when driving down the road, recommended temps for the freezer and fridge box,etc.
ThomasandMaliaV
Explorer
Jun 15, 2016
Thank you everyone! We have an appt. in July to have it looked at but will travel with the Grandkids on vacation as planned.We really appreciate all of the help!
Tom and Malia
2gypsies1
Explorer III
Jun 15, 2016
MrWizard wrote:

But your 8 day trip should be good, depending on how much hot water you use,

We always turned our hot water off during the day. We turned it on in the evening for dishes and shower and the next morning it was still plenty warm for a quick hand washing, etc. We didn't do dishes 3x/day.... sometimes not even once a day.
MrWizard
Moderator
Jun 15, 2016
With just the fridge, you could run months on that big frame mounted tank
Of course you have the WH and the stove top,
But your 8 day trip should be good, depending on how much hot water you use,
crasster
Explorer II
Jun 15, 2016
Should last a decent amount of time depending on fridge size. Depending on fridge size. 100lb tank should be FINE for 8 days. But I must say UGG yet ANOTHER RV fridge issue. Many people converting to dorm/domestic fridges because of all the issues and horrible $ when they break.
dave17352
Explorer
Jun 14, 2016
I always leave mine on propane. Works better. I bet you could run close to a month on a 20 pound bottle.
2gypsies1
Explorer III
Jun 14, 2016
Yes, the refrigerator takes very, very little propane. The furnace gobbles it up. Hope you're going where you don't need the furnace. :)
ThomasandMaliaV
Explorer
Jun 14, 2016
Thank you for your help! Yes we had it plugged into our house electric.
Tom Virant