Residentail refrigerators in motorhomes

It is true that not everyone uses their motor homes in the same manner nor do all things work for all people. We do not spend a tremendous amount of time off the grid but when we do we find that overnight we just turn the breaker off that feeds the frig (on a circuit by itself from the inverter side) and then in the AM we turn it back on again. We probably run the generator a little in the evening and we are able to maintain our four batteries in pretty good shape. Running down the road the alternator provides plenty of charge to the house batteries so the frig is just doing it's thing and happy. When we are set some place and on a meter for a month this frig uses about 1/3 the electricity the Norcold used and perhaps because it never worked very well we got better results on electric than on propane. We constantly had to throw away veggies and milk as things just did not last long in our unit. Now we have twice the capacity, things last a long time, and being full timers the residential is a tremendous improvement. We also do not live in fear that our Motor Home is going to catch fire and I have the pictures to prove that it indeed tried. So good luck to all safe travels and happy camping.

RVER wrote:
YOU will not be able to run on propane so hard time dry camping etc. And mattering on AMPs drawn whether it will drain your house batteries very fast. Some complain they can not travel with the fridge running while on road, THAT IS NOT GOOD esp for the freezer. IF you have the batteries (6-8) AND the inverter that is right for the job, maybe would do it but other wise not sure the necessity unless you are traveling with family of 6 or so. There are grocery stores all over the place!!!

There is no problem dry camping with a properly installed residential refrigerator. A proper install will also include additional batterys and solar facility.

YOU will not be able to run on propane so hard time dry camping etc. And mattering on AMPs drawn whether it will drain your house batteries very fast. Some complain they can not travel with the fridge running while on road, THAT IS NOT GOOD esp for the freezer. IF you have the batteries (6-8) AND the inverter that is right for the job, maybe would do it but other wise not sure the necessity unless you are traveling with family of 6 or so. There are grocery stores all over the place!!!

The one I am installing does not draw air from the front, it has the coils on the back of the refrigerator. This is why I will be leaving the outside wall vent and the roof vent open. I plan to install a sponge rubber gasket between all four sides of the refrigerator and the cabinet.

Manufacturers are installing the residential refrigerators because they are cheaper to buy then the absorption. And IF you have the right inverter and at least six house batteries, it is actually a smart move. But IF you have to upgrade to a pure sine wave inverter and make compartment room for two more batteries, electrician to rewire, carpenter to resize the slot where the new refrigerator is going in. You are probably going to spend double of what a new improved absorption refrigerator would cost.

But they are a lot cheaper. I know that I measured the height of the Samsung versus the Norcold 1200 LRIM and the Samsung is about two inches taller then the Norcold, which means it would not fit because the Norcold is already all the way to the ceiling. And modifying going down would require some serious modification because the furnace is right below the refrigerator.

I replaced my Not So Cold with a Samsung myself. My Not So Cold failed and when I pulled it out of the opening I saw that it was trying to catch the roof on fire on my 2004 Travel Supreme. Anyway we love it and would never go back to a Gas Absorption type fridge no matter the brand. But to answer your question of blocking of the old vent area's you do not need them the new refrigerator pulls air in underneath and around it circulating the area around the box to cool the coils which are located on the sides of the fridge. Our Motor home now stays more stable in temperature from the cold and hot temperatures than in the past reducing our heating and cooling needs to stay comfortable. We no longer have that cold draft feeling walking down the hall way from bedroom to living room area and the adjacent cabinets no longer feel cold in the cooler months like they did when we had the Norcold (aka not so cold). Hope this helps P.S. We now have cold ice cream, vegetables stay fresh much longer, no more defrosting and milk lasts forever compared to the old frig.

Some have indicated that they have closed off the outside wall vent and the roof vent. Why is this, I would think leaving those open would improve ventilation around the refrigerator.

There are many threads on swapping out an absorption refrigerator for a residential unit. Variables include running on PSW or MSW inverter power and how many batteries to have etc. The one thing that all agree on is that the swap was a great improvement.

Just like you never see a thread about swapping a diesel generator for a propane one (but you do see many swapping the other way), you will never hear of anyone swapping out a residential unit for an absorption unit. Residential refrigerators are safer, cool better, have true o* freezers, don't require defrosting on many models and are better insulated while having more interior space for the same cabinet size. It is relatively easy to secure them in place, they require little or no space behind them and a simple Southco grabber latch on the bottom of the doors provides automatic latching/unlatching when you pull the handle.

While mine is a factory install, I know quite a few folks that made the swap. All agree that the residential unit is the only way to go.

Blaster Man wrote:
Be sure you can fit the new one through the door of the coach.

If you're putting in a 10 cf, it'll probably fit through the door. Our 12 cf fit. It was tight, but it fit. It also was an almost perfect fit into the old space.

Georgew48 wrote:

Dance Chick wrote:
We put in a Frigidaire 12 cf about 2 months ago, and so far have not had any problems. Once you do this, you'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner.

In case you aren't aware, some of the mfr. won't honor the warranty if installed in an RV. I know for a fact Frigidaire won't. Don't know if that matters to you. Also, make sure you plug in the fridge BEFORE installing it in the RV. We had a nightmare as we received a defective fridge, but found out after it was installed. We were able to get a new one, but not without some haggling because it was in the RV. Thank you Famous Tate for coming through for us.

That's strange because my New Cardinal 5th wheel came with a 23 cubic foot side by side Frigidaire and it covered by a three year warranty. My microwave is also a Frigidaire. I called Frigidaire and they told me that their was no problem with it being in an RV as far as warranty was concerened.

That's probably because it was installed when the RV was built. I'm talking aftermarket.