Refrigerator on D.C. When traveling?
Should you put refrigerator on D.C. When on the road. I had just been turning it off. I know not to use propane when moving. Comments.
Forum Discussion
Islandman wrote:
I've always used the 12 volt when travelling, don't want to have to stop before pulling into a gas station and turn off propane before getting near the gas pumps. Never had any problem with our 3 way fridge, works fine on any of the 3 systems it was designed for: DC (12 volt) when travelling, AC (110-120 volt) when on shore power, propane when boondocking w/o shore power or using generator.
That’s what I’ve been doing too. So far so good!- I've always used the 12 volt when travelling, don't want to have to stop before pulling into a gas station and turn off propane before getting near the gas pumps. Never had any problem with our 3 way fridge, works fine on any of the 3 systems it was designed for: DC (12 volt) when travelling, AC (110-120 volt) when on shore power, propane when boondocking w/o shore power or using generator.
Saint Augustine wrote:
I know not to use propane when moving. Comments.
Based on what? I can guarantee you there's nothing in the owners manual that says that. RV refrigerators are designed to use propane when in motion. Thousands of people, my self included, do it all the time.
Use the propane when traveling. That's what it's there for.- Another good plan is to make sure the drain hose has a "trap" so that outside air does not flow into the refrigerated space. Of course, if there are temperatures well below freezing you don't want that dip to freeze up. I routinely forget to recreate the trap until I start having cooling issues.
- My 1997 Class B has a Dometic 3 way. I always use 12 volt when traveling. Mine does not work on 12 volt unless the engine is on. It keeps it cold enough.
- Turn off BEFORE you pull into the gas station for fueling.
How do the safety Sam's know someone hasn't already spilled gasoline everywhere? Turning off after pulling into the pump could be too late. - Our Roadtrek does fine going down the road on 12v. We have a little wireless indoor/outdoor thermometer mounted on the dash and just observe it as we travel. Now, that assumes the refrig was cold to begin with when we turned it to 12v. As soon as we stop for more than an hour or so, we shift back to propane and I have no concern whatsoever of going down the road on propane. On a really hot day, say over 100F, we go with propane.
Our three Class Cs we have owned over the years were all two way (110v or propane) so we always traveled on propane. As others have said TURN IT OFF before you get near a refueling pump. That's the reason we prefer to drive with 12v -- so we don't have to shut off the refrig when we refuel.
People have an inordinate fear of propane. In the area where we live, a lot fleets run on CNG (compressed natural gas) and it compressed to about 3000 psi in its tank. I have never heard of a CNG or LP (aka propane) problem around here and the CNG has been used by some local fleets for a couple of decades.
Paul Saint Augustine wrote:
Why not? Thousands of RVs do it every day.
I know not to use propane when moving. Comments.- Our current fridge runs fine on 12v. We keep a thermometer in it and it has no problem maintaining a good temperature. In our former RV we traveled for ten years running the fridge on propane w/o a problem.
- Use your propane!
