RV Residential Refrigerators

As long as you are not dry camping the residential fridge is a better choice. It will work fine on a pure sine wave inverter while you are going down the road and plug in when you get to a campground. If you dry camp a lot like we do, then you are better off getting a gas/12/120 Norcold or a Dometic.

The sales pitch is with a large bank of batteries and using a sine wave generator you can use residential fridge off the grid. It is partly true. However, at some point in time the bank of batteries need to be charged. You need a good source of charge aside from the MH alterator. For example, if you are driving and most of charge is going into supporting your vehicle i.e. headlight etc. there may not be much left to recharge the bank of house batteries. Solar works. Same problems occur with electric cars. You can't just drive in and fill up with electricity in a couple of minutes.

On the grid any fridge will pretty much work.

We have had an all electric coach for 2 years now and have had no issues with the residential frig. With the old coach I used to go and fire up the refer a day or so before we planned to leave to cool it down. Now I turn the residential unit on a couple hours before we load up the food and drink.
On the old propane unit I had 3 fans inside the box for air circulation and one in the flue . It always worked fine and I didn't have any issues with temps even in our hot Florida summers. I do like the huge freezer in the residential unit.

I dumped my Norcold 1200 LRIM last year after the second cooling unit went bad. I installed a residential refer in its place. I run the residential from my modified sine inverter and so far no problems. Regarding battery life, etc. when dry camping, the original Norcold used propane for heat, but also required a 12 volt DC source for the control board. When plugged into shore power, the Norcold used 120 volt AC, and also the 12 volt DC, again, for the control board.

I made several test measurements on the Norcold, and then on the residential refer, and I truly believe the residential uses less power than the Norcold. The amp draw for the residential compressor is 1.8 amps which works back to 18 DC amps from the batteries. However, the residential runs infrequently and keeps the food much colder. I have actually measured the freezer at -20 degrees when cranked all the way up.

Getting rid of the open flame and less than acceptable cooling capability with the Norcold was a big plus to me.

Original equipment Amana side by side is still going strong in my 99 Newell. As others have said it takes sufficient battery bank to run it.

Full Sine is better for the compressor than modified.

A trick to use if you want to save power while on the batteries is to turn the ice maker off.

WyoTraveler wrote:
For example, if you are driving and most of charge is going into supporting your vehicle i.e. headlight etc. there may not be much left to recharge the bank of house batteries. Solar works. Same problems occur with electric cars. You can't just drive in and fill up with electricity in a couple of minutes.

On the grid any fridge will pretty much work.

One of the most common complaints here in the forums from folks who went the residential route is: I get to the campground and my house batteries are dead.

In short: Dead on sir, You are dead on.

If my Norcold goes out again I'll replace it with a residential one and we boondock often BUT: unlike a 5er, bigger MHs come with four or more batteries and a engine alternator capable of putting 100+ amps into them.
If you do not boondock then I do not see a problem with the lack of batteries and a 100 amp charging circuit. If you do plan on boondocking a lot then I'd go back to looking at 45' MHs and not worry about the 102" width.

Has anyone just used the 110V plug and not added an invertor and extra batteries when replacing the Dometic with a residential fridge? I know you can't boon dock but any other issues?
Thanks, Bob

On a fridge I believe the best way to measure consumption is to use the energy label based on yearly use and divide by 365. (they don't run constantly) Of course the energy label kind of assumes the fridge is mounted in a house at normal temps.

I have 4 house batteries. Total 464 amp hours. Charging rate approx 46 amps if I charge them at 10% rate that is approx 10 hours to recharge if they were totally discharged. However, to protect the batteries I shouldn't be draining more than 232 amp hours from them otherwise their life span will be shortened.

The point is if you are going to a residential fridge install a good sine wave generator and solar panels. Everything should work out without over draining your batteries and shortening their life.

Some of the new MHs are going to all electric and eliminating propane tank completely. (they still have aqua hot) Bet the battery manufacturers will enjoy the increased sales.

wa8yxm wrote:

WyoTraveler wrote:
For example, if you are driving and most of charge is going into supporting your vehicle i.e. headlight etc. there may not be much left to recharge the bank of house batteries. Solar works. Same problems occur with electric cars. You can't just drive in and fill up with electricity in a couple of minutes.

On the grid any fridge will pretty much work.

One of the most common complaints here in the forums from folks who went the residential route is: I get to the campground and my house batteries are dead.

In short: Dead on sir, You are dead on.

Never saw that complaint once - how can it be common. We have had ours 3 1/2 years and no problems.

Total miles drive 24,000 and 120 campgrounds so thats a lot of moving with the invertor on