Residential Refrig and Dry Camping

Gjac wrote:
I have a 20 year old Norcld and can go 7 days and my 2 6 v GC batteries are at 50% SOC without using the genset.

I can't imagine how 2 6V GC batteries would have enough power to allow this. You would think that just turning on the lights, watching TV, doing a bit of cooking and similar day to day activities would draw the batteries down more than that in 7 days. No disrespect intended, I just truly don't know how that works. I guess I would need to dramatically change my way of doing things.

I think the bottom line is you can dry camp with a residential refer if you don't mind running the genset for a couple of hrs every day. I camp with a fried that has a new Phaeton with 4 6v GC batteries and a residential refer. If we stay in a SP for a week after the first day he runs the genset every day for 2 hrs. I have a 20 year old Norcld and can go 7 days and my 2 6 v GC batteries are at 50% SOC without using the genset. There is no right or wrong answer, it really depends on how you want to camp. For me I like NF, NP,SP,and COE CGs and would want the propane option.

If you are looking at a newer rig, you can be reasonably certain that the battery bank will be sized to meet the load of the refrigerator overnight. My coach runs the refrigerator and one air conditioner on the inverter.

Be sure to get a generator autostart with your coach. This will tell the system to turn on the generator automatically when the battery gets low (or if temps get too high in the coach). The autostart is great if you forget to charge your batteries or you aren't in your coach in the morning or for dinner.

bresdogsr wrote:
I am looking at possibly upgrading to a newer diesel rig. Many of the coaches that I am looking at have residential refrigerators. How do these work while dry camping. I know that you run off the invertor, but eventually the batteries will discharge and will not be able to power the refrig. Is this usually overnight? Is it bad to continually discharge and recharge the batteries? I don't dry camp often, but don't want to have an issue if I do. Thanks in advance.

Unless your newer diesel rig has Aqua Hot or an equivalent diesel fuel fueled system to heat your water and ambient interior airspace of your coach, I would see a need for propane fueled appliances on board. In fact, I wouldn't own a diesel rig that didn't have propane fueled stove and oven onboard. What are the specific units/brands you're considering?

The 8 amps was from my battery bank ... 104 watts which is less than 1 amp AC. 8 amps AC would be 960 Watts which would kill most batteries in less than 1.5 hours.

Msmith, the 8 amps is the 13V running amps and with a LED bulb, opening the door does not increase the 8 amps. The more you open the door, the longer the unit has to run. The 8 amps was an average as it was 7.8 when the battery was at 13.2V but increased to 8.2 as the battery V decreased to 12.7.

A household fridge also does not use 8 amps (A/C) while running. I have an older one and it only uses 3 amps. The newer ones are even more efficient.

Thanks for all the information!

In a previous post I have my duty cycle at 47%:
:S Only took me a month to realize I had all the information to figure the duty cycle of this refer as I posted this in my DIY post:
"This EnergyStar Whirpool 21 CuFt Refer has a energy guide of $44/year and 410,000 kWh/year or 1,123 W/day or 94 Amps/day... So out of my 500 AH battery bank I should be able to go two days before getting to 50% and needing to recharge. $44/year is 12 cents a day... It's amazing how energy efficient they have gotten these things."
1,123W/day divided by 100W running equals 11.2 hours/day or a 47% duty cycle.

Why 47 in one post and 67 in another? The 47% is under ideal conditions in a home at 72 degrees with the ice maker turned off. I backed into the 67% to show that it could be run on a single battery for 12 hours without hurting the battery. I agree the 67% is too high, but the 47% is too low for one in a RV with the ice maker turned on. My WAG is 55%.

Edatlanta brings up a good point about batteries. A big MH is going to have 4-6 batteries without a home refer so the extra 1-2 for the refer is not a big $$$ increase. My AGM house batteries are 7 years old and still going strong. I paid $75 each for the four AGM 125AH batteries that I added for my recent DIY refer install.

Not to mention 4-6 new $100.00+ batteries every few years. I'm very happy with my Norcold. I can camp in stealth mode "very quiet". And I do have an onboard generator, but but still don't want a residential refrigerator in my RV.

Why set yourself up with an unneeded anxiety about electricity and power and generator when you really don't need it?

Providing your propane tank is full...and your coach batteries are good, your RV propane fridge should provide you with many many days of cold when you're boondocking. The coach batteries are needed for the control panel....and that doesn't take much. After MANY days if you think the batteries are going away, simply start the motor (in my coach, that charges the coach batteries as well as the chassis battery) or fire up the genny for awhile.
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my 2 cents.