Residential refrigerator

WDW.BWV wrote:
WOW what great responses! You have confirmed with my suspicions were about which decision to make. Thank you!

Have any of you installed solar panels on the roof of your vehicle in order to supplement your batteries? If so where did you have it done and what am I looking at in terms of cost or needs?

Some use an energy audit form to estimate how much power the may use. I prefer using a rule of thumb method of 100 watts of solar for each 100 amp hour of storage capacity of the battery bank.
I installed the PV system myself. 645 watts of solar, supporting a 580 amp hour battery bank.
The cost of solar panels has dropped considerably over the years with some priced at less than $1.00/watt.
I too am a convert to a residential refrigerator and prefer it over an absorption unit and we boondock 90% of the time.

WDW.BWV wrote:
WOW what great responses! You have confirmed with my suspicions were about which decision to make. Thank you!

Have any of you installed solar panels on the roof of your vehicle in order to supplement your batteries? If so where did you have it done and what am I looking at in terms of cost or needs?

Some use an energy audit form to estimate how much power the may use. I prefer using a rule of thumb method of 100 watts of solar for each 100 amp hour of storage capacity of the battery bank.
I installed the PV system myself. 645 watts of solar, supporting a 580 amp hour battery bank.
The cost of solar panels has dropped considerably over the years with some priced at less than $1.00/watt.
I too am a convert to a residential refrigerator and prefer it over an absorption unit and we boondock 90% of the time.

My rig came with 50 Watts of solar for charging the house batteries when in storage BUT it had a controller large enough for 200 W so I added 150 W myself. Solar panels are now $1/W and if you were converting a rig to residential and adding solar something like this plus a $15 transfer switch and a $150 charger would be an easy system to do yourself.

WOW what great responses! You have confirmed with my suspicions were about which decision to make. Thank you!

Have any of you installed solar panels on the roof of your vehicle in order to supplement your batteries? If so where did you have it done and what am I looking at in terms of cost or needs?

OP, I would have saved myself a lot of money and aggravation if I'd switched to a home refer four years ago instead of throwing more money after bad. Even if the pros did not outweigh the cons, from what I know now I would go with a residential for the safety from fires. Like Dennis, I will ONLY own a rig with a residential unit.


This is how I switched them out.


This is how I keep mine closed.

Here is my post on my DIY install. The Whirlpool WRT771RWYB 21 cu ft I used is only 1/2" taller than the NoCold 1200 I replaced.

OP, a new rig with a home refer SHOULD already have 600-800 Amp Hours of batteries and a 3000 Watt Pure Sine Wave (PSW) inverter. My separate 500 AH battery bank will run my refer for 30 hours before needing to charge the batteries at the 50% state and yes we boondock often. Two hours/day of generator time is needed when boondocking so with enough additional charging amps (which I added) I still have to run it two hours.

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.

You take out a window, frame and all

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.

Pros:

Cool faster
Maintain cooling better
Level not so critical
Bigger 12cu ft vs 20. (Norcold 1200 vs Samsung 197)
Not prone to catching on fire

Cons:

About 6" taller than the Norcold
Need inverter and battery bank
Solar is helpful but not necessary
Must use bungees or similar to secure doors while driving
Must microwave ice cream for 20 secs to soften in order to dish it out.

If the coach you're looking at already has a residential see if it is a factory install or aftermarket. If it's a factory install everything you'll need will already be on board. If not, then you'll have to do some more research...I would not own another coach without a residential fridge....Dennis

The reason a home fridge will work just fine while out of level is that it has a compressor to move the coolant through the coils and does not depend upon gravity to get the fluid where it needs to go. Yes, you have to secure the doors (easy) and you either need to dry camp less (run the genset a little more) or install more solar if you plan to dry camp for extended periods. I agree with the above statement that there are no drawbacks to a home fridge and many advantages including more storage, no defrosting and no risk of a propane induced fire. There are adjustments, but no drawbacks. I have been using a GE Profile side-by-side with ice and filtered water through the door since 1999 and it had been great! I would not have been able to get Janet to full-time without it.

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.