Residential refrigerator

Dog Folks wrote:


In a house, a refrigerator will go 24 hours if the door is not opened. Anyone that lives in Florida with the storms and hurricanes can validate this.

Florida is humid, not very hot, so the experience can wary.
One summer I took our motorhome to Las Vegas, where we slept in hotel, while mh was on open parking lot.
At 10 AM official thermometers were showing 125F, outside temperature on parking lot was 135F, while lot of plastics inside motorhome simply melted.
Touching lock exposed to sunlight with unprotected hand meant visit at ER.
Sure when you drive motorhome, you keep it cooled this way, or the other, but 1 hr stop for shopping can do a trick.
With today's technology 800W inverters sell for about $50, extra battery IMHO is not necessary and most of TV today come with 120 amp alternators, so supplying recharging power pose no problem.

We did not have our residential refer hooked up to the inverter on our old coach, and most times we didn't run the genny when traveling down the road. The refer would be fine for 4 hours or so until our lunch stop as long as we limited opening the doors during that time. We would run the genny during a 30-minute lunch stop, so the refer cooled some during that time. We are like you and never boondock, so except for the few hours traveling, we are hooked to shore power, even in storage.

Angelic wrote:
Thanks everyone. We always stay in RV parks with full hookups, and run the generator while on the road. We never stay anywhere where the generator would need to run. An inverter and extra batteries could always be added later if we decided to sell, or decide we need one.

I agree. we have had our residential in our trailer for two years now without a problem. No inverter or extra batteries.

Our refrigerator stays cold within limits for at least 6 hours, and that is as long as we wish to drive between hook up.

In a house, a refrigerator will go 24 hours if the door is not opened. Anyone that lives in Florida with the storms and hurricanes can validate this.

Thanks everyone. We always stay in RV parks with full hookups, and run the generator while on the road. We never stay anywhere where the generator would need to run. An inverter and extra batteries could always be added later if we decided to sell, or decide we need one.

I agree with "Bill.Satellite" on this one. Even though you say you run your generator or connected to shore power at all times, there will always be a situation that pops up where generators are restricted, broken or inappropriate. We run our generator to cool the coach when driving in weather above 90 degrees, but that's only a few trips a year. The rest of the time there is no need to run a generator.

The price of a new Norcold is about $3500.00. The price of a new residential unit is about $1200.00, plus install if you can't do it yourself. That stills leave you some money left over to add a small inverter. This will also stop the constant turning on and off of the residential unit.

Angelic wrote:
We are thinking of replacing our double door Norcold with a residential refrigerator. Do you need an inverter and extra batteries if you are always plugged in or have the generator running?

I do recommend an inverter but if you are not traveling very many hours each day the fridge/freezer will stay cold for many hours. You don't need a huge inverter but something along the lines of a 1000W PSW would do a good job and the engine alternator will keep the house batteries from going flat.
Since you mentioned using your generator, no inverter would be necessary if you just run the genset while driving. This would be the same 120V power just like when you are plugged in.

harold1946 wrote:
In most cases the engine alternator maintains/charges the house batteries. The refrigerator should operate normally when traveling.

If you have a inverter. Batteries are 12V, modern residential refrigerators are 120V.

In most cases the engine alternator maintains/charges the house batteries. The refrigerator should operate normally when traveling.

TucsonJim wrote:
We were over 110 degrees in most of Southern Arizona today. I saw that Phoenix was approaching 120! With those temps, I wouln't go for more than an hour with the refrigerator off. Jim

Doubt it would be 120 inside the MH going down the road. Even after three hours, it will only be 1-2 degrees warmer. If I did not have power, I would cool the refer section down close to 32 degrees and then go all day without powering it, opening it, or worrying about it.
OP, you do not need an inverter, especially since you run your generator some of the time and do not boondock.

I have gone 20 hours without power on my residential refer. Everything was still frozen but the refer section was approaching 45