How well do residential refrigerators work in motorhomes? Is being level as critical? Are they more efficient in hot weather? What do you see as the good OR NOT so good points? We've focused on two new motorhomes. One has a traditional and the other has a residential model.

Our belief is that the residential fridge benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Although a residential fridge requires AC power only (not propane or AC/DC) the motorhome must have an inverter to provide power when not plugged in or using a generator. Depending on the motorhome and the fridge, the inverter may last only a few minutes to several hours. New RVs tend to already have the inverter sized accordingly.We recently replaced our traditional Norcold fridge with a Haier residential fridge and are completely happy with it - we get more stoarge space, quicker cooling and more consistent performance. We had to add the inverter but the whole project was well worth it in terms of satisfaction. My wife loves the ability to put a whole gallon of milk in the fridge and I like the ice cream not being so soft!

We love ours. It cools down quicker has a lot more room. We used to carry a cooler for pop/beer which we had to buy ice for. Now it all fits in the refrigerator, no more ice to buy. If your planning on doing a lot of camping where there is no electricity then you might want to stick with the gas/electric model. We are very happy with ours and won't go back to a gas/electric one..

No draw backs? Everything has some pros and cons. I just read previous posts and see a few complaints. Doors come open on the road. Need to strap them shut. Not a big thing but just something to be aware of. Most RVs with residentials have a larger battery bank and inverter to power it while not plugged into shore power. If you boone dock a lot I wouldn't suggest one. Open the door and read the power requirements. Then check to see if the RV supplies those electrical requirements from the battery bank. If you are driving from RV park to RV park probably not a problem. Just don't take the salesmans word. Do the calculations. Salesman told me that the extra battery bank would run it for a week off the grid. :B Total BS. Actually could run it for about 8 hours if running nothing else. Some friends have one and they added a self starter on the generator when the battery bank reached a low level. Excellent idea.

Regarding your specific questions:Residential fridges generally work just fine in RVs. They are not particularly sensitive to leveling, certainly less so than traditional absorption RV fridges.Efficiency is hard to compare. From a pure thermodynamic or total energy consumption point of view, the residential fridges are more efficient inherently; however, the energy source they need is different. A residential fridge running from an inverter uses a fair bit of battery power, and battery power is sometimes much more constrained than propane. If connected to shore power, the residential fridge will use less total electricity than an equivalent absorption fridge on AC power.I think most residential fridges will more readily keep up on hot days; they tend to have a little more "reserve" cooling capacity than most absorption fridges.Residential fridges work very well if you rarely dry camp or if you have a large enough solar and battery setup to supply the required electricity. The absorption fridges are superior if you need to minimize electrical usage and electrical system size/complexity or if you want the utmost in silent operation.

To answer the level question, no, leveling is not particularly critical for residential Freon cooled refrigerators. They work fine pretty much as long as the tires are towards the ground.

Residential refrigerator | Good Sam Community

24 Replies

Executive45
Explorer III
Oct 02, 2015
Folks...he's NOT changing out a fridge...:E

He's LOOKING at TWO different rigs...one with a residential fridge and one without. He asked for opinions as to the advantages one had over the other....Dennis
kdk
Explorer
Oct 02, 2015
To the OP; If you decide to do this a good choice of manufacture would be a Samsung if in fact you have a modified sine wave inverter. If your inverter is pure(or true) sine wave then any one of them will work. Samsung refers require 120 volt AC power supply but this is immediately rectified internally to a DC voltage and all components lights, control panel,compressors (mine has 2 one for refer and one for the freezer), ice maker ect. all run on DC voltage. They actually consume less energy than a Never Cold. Also in choosing a refer make sure the warranty will not be voided if it is installed in an RV. Just my 2 cents; kdk
John___Angela
Explorer
Oct 02, 2015
sew0177 wrote:
How do you get the fridge in the coach? I can't imagine just heffting it though the door. My 2004 Fleetwood Revolution has a 2000 watt inverter (MSW) with 4 batteries.

Just realized you have the same coach as I do assuming you have a 40C revolution. We took our front window out when we did it. We actually had to replace it anyway. 650 bucks re and re .

Re your inverter. You may hear otherwise from others on the forum but in my opinion you should replace it with a true sine wave inverter of the same size.

Cheers.
creeper
Explorer
Oct 02, 2015
Love, love, love our residential fridge. The only con I see is if you're a boondocker. We have a 100 watt solar panel, 4 batteries and 2000 watt sine wave inverter. Have yet to test how long it will run on the inverter for those times we're without power.

We've had problems with every RV fridge we've owned. Really tired of half melted ice-cream .
John___Angela
Explorer
Oct 02, 2015
We changed ours out a few years back. We already had a large battery bank and solar system so for us it really didn't change much. We are power hogs in the sense of lots of TV use, big computer monitor, microwave, Kuerig etc etc etc. All fed through 2 large inverters. Our fridge is NOT our biggest power user. When we are dry camping we run the genny for 30 to 45 minutes at meal prep times. That along with our solar array we really don't pay attention to what the fridge uses. I know from testing after we put it in that it draws around 1 amp at 110 volts but only when it is cycled on which is about a third of the time.

I can't imagine ever having another RV fridge. Our is 22 cubic feet. It stuck out almost 3.5 extra inches but I trimmed it in so it actually looks factory installed.

To each his own. Some that are only able to have a couple batteries and can't do a big solar install need to stay with the Norcold 1200 models. There is not one right way to do stuff. For some the propnae jobbys work just fine. Not for us.
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TNGW1500SE
Explorer
Oct 02, 2015
I put 2x4's on the tailgate of the truck and slid an "apartment size" fridge right in the door. Wife helped. Only lost one drawer due to height difference. I would never want to go back to that old propane fridge. Now it gets cold fast and even freezes ice cream with twice the room inside. I don't use an inverter. I just run my generator every 4 hours or so. I'd say I could go a lot longer without starting the generator but I give it some juice every 4 hours. If you always camp plugged in. It's a no-brainer. OH! And the chance of the fridge catching fire goes way down. I wouldn't buy a RV with a propane fridge again.
kdk
Explorer
Oct 01, 2015
I installed a Samsung 23.5 cu.ft. counter depth. Took the doors off both refers and both went out and in the entry door. The Samsung was actually lighter in weight and smaller than the norcold. The counter depth box is 24" deep and door width was 26" so it fit. A little wood work but fit in same spot. I have 4 6 volt trojans and can run the ref, evening tv, lights and cpap machine and still have about 12.1 to 12.3 volts in the morning.My system runs the refer on a dedicated 1000 watt inverter which also supplies the cpap.
sailor_lou
Explorer
Oct 01, 2015
Mine (Samsung RF197) also fit through the RV door once the fridged doors were removed. I enlisted help from a friend and the two of us passed it in with no problems.

Lou
05 Travel Supreme Envoy
jd620
Explorer
Oct 01, 2015
I just finished installing a Samsung RF18HFENBSR in my 2005 Fleetwood Excursion. I did not have to take a window out I was able to get it in thru the door opening. Took the door stop off and tied the door open to the mirror. Took the weather stripping off around the door and 3 of us were able to muscle it in. Also took the doors off the refrigerator itself. It was about 6 inches taller than the Norcold 1200 so I had to modify the cabinet. Overall it was well worth it.
Sprig
Explorer
Oct 01, 2015
I made the switch from RV to residential refrigerator. I note that you are buying new, but total long term cost was something I thought about quite a bit.

I can supply my own electricity with solar but I can not supply my own propane.

The RV refer would have cost 4500 vs the 1500 I paid for the residential. That $3K can offset the cost of the needed electrical upgrades.

Unlike other posters above, when I have added the planned extra solar up top, I don't think that boondocking will be any problem at all. I expect that my issue will be filling the gray tank.

I also find that while traveling, finding propane that is easy to access is a PITA. Since I no longer have any risk to my food if I run the propane dry, I no longer have to worry about monitoring it as closely as before.

Mentally I also feel a bit of a relief that I don't have a burning flame inside my RV.

I don't really see any down side, just differences. With inverter and solar technology today I see no good reason to do it the old way.