RV Residential Refrigerators

Just to put things into perspective regarding what "can" happen with an RV type frig, and particularly the Norcold 1200 LRIM, here is a recent photo I personally took while staying in Quartzsite during this winter. This fire occured a couple of weeks ago and as the photo shows, it began with the Norcold frig.

larry cad wrote:

RayChez wrote:



John, thank you for a very intelligent answer. I never knew what would happen to the motor if we were away and the voltage would drop down to where the motor on the fridge would start dragging. Did not know if the brushes to the armature would cause damage to the motor itself.

The reason why I asked the question was because my Norcold 1200 LRIM is twelve years old and it could blow up.
And it had crossed my mind that maybe a residential refrigerator would be in line to replace that Norcold. Most of our camping is with full hookups. But it is good to know what could happen if dry camping was in store.

Now Don got a little defensive right away and my post was not to discredit anybodies refrigerator. It was a question for my own and others that are interested on maybe going residential.

Thanks John greatly appreciated.

Ray, what was said about inverters is correct, the inverter is designed to shut down if the battery voltage drops below a level that would prohibit the inverter from producing a satisfactory voltage output.

Refrigerator compressors do NOT have brushes or armatures. The motors used in compressors are induction motors and they are brushless.

Thanks Larry, I never had really checked into how refrigerator compressors were powered, but what you just told me makes a lot of sense.

Induction motors are increasingly being used with variable frequency drives. It offers especially important energy savings on compressor load applications.

RayChez wrote:



John, thank you for a very intelligent answer. I never knew what would happen to the motor if we were away and the voltage would drop down to where the motor on the fridge would start dragging. Did not know if the brushes to the armature would cause damage to the motor itself.

The reason why I asked the question was because my Norcold 1200 LRIM is twelve years old and it could blow up.
And it had crossed my mind that maybe a residential refrigerator would be in line to replace that Norcold. Most of our camping is with full hookups. But it is good to know what could happen if dry camping was in store.

Now Don got a little defensive right away and my post was not to discredit anybodies refrigerator. It was a question for my own and others that are interested on maybe going residential.

Thanks John greatly appreciated.

Ray, what was said about inverters is correct, the inverter is designed to shut down if the battery voltage drops below a level that would prohibit the inverter from producing a satisfactory voltage output.

Refrigerator compressors do NOT have brushes or armatures. The motors used in compressors are induction motors and they are brushless.

Thanks again for all the information, more than what was needed... We are currently in planning stages on moving into our first class A so honestly do not have anything but our TT (sorry for lurking)... DW is able to retire next year and I'm able to work from anywhere so we are looking at getting the proper setup to move around for a couple of years. Part of that moving around may be at a lot at the lake in the summer months where power will exist but limited and therefore looking into other options and cost.

I like to be educated when 'shopping' so if I know an RV has something I want then I have a ballpark idea of what that option is worth. Plus I enjoy getting my hands dirty if it doesn't have it but I have to cost-justify it to the boss. :)

Thanks again for the info, much appreciated.

ps> Sabre was my motorbike. Canuck is what us Canadians nickname ourselves:) It's an old handle but it still works..

Hello Nemo,

Thanks Don on the information. Some good folks in this forum, but some touchy ones also. So that is why I try to stay on GS forum as you know. I am trying to find out some information in case my Norcold 1200 quits on me. I have not had any problems, but you never know.

Not sure I could even get a Samsung unit into the pocket because the Samsung measured like two inches taller and my 1200 is already all the way up to the ceiling. I would have to go down it looks like, but not sure how much clearance is down there. I think my furnace is under the fridge. There is a big vent cover there. Never taken it off yet.

RayChez wrote:
Labor is around $125.00 per hour. So ten hours, add another $1250.

The labor on my Samsung install was 10 hours one man worked a full eight hours on it with the help of another man for 2 hours to pull the Norcold and get the Samsung into the unit. They had to remove the window by the dinette table on the divers side and used a fork truck to get them out and in. At the time 2 years ago labor was $99 an hour. So $1200 for the refrigerator and $1000 labor plus about $50 materials. The modified sine Xantex inverter has worked perfectly with the Samsung for the past two years. We are full timers and never boon dock except occasionally in a Walmart parking lot. I have never had dead inverter batteries after a day of travel, which on some days is 10 hrs., and by the time we get up the next morning they are completely charged. Of course you know I have a Tour Master and have four 6V inverter batteries, two 12V deep cells with a converter for 12V in the coach and two 12V starting batteries. With all the trouble we had with the Norcold its been the best mod we've ever done. A new Norcold 1200 or a comparable Dometic was $3000 at the time plus installation.

SabreCanuck wrote:
From the sounds of the replies and having not really done any major research on the topic, can I assume that one shouldn't have to worry about power and/or the fridges if they were to install sufficient solar? I was thinking of solar anyway and I would assume with enough solar/battery power and the gen as a backup then power (or lack thereof) would never really be an issue would it?

I understand the factors involved and wouldn't plan on cooking a turkey in the convection microwave while on solar power but normal operation should never run out of power, would you?.

Howdy again. Well in a perfect world, 3 X 160 watt panels would more than cover the needs of running the fridge in real world situations, assuming they are flat mounted on the roof and assuming ordinary days of mostly sunny with some cloud days. BUT, its not a perfect world so I would recommend you have a plan B in the form of a 2000 watt generator powering a modern reasonably high output converter which most rigs seem to come with nowadays anyway. (sorry, I don't know what your rig is, you may have a motorhome with a gennny built in) Even in the worst case sceenario of total cloud cover, running the generator for a couple hours per day will cover all the battery charger needs plus you can use it for higher loads at breakfast and supper like coffee makers, toasters, microwaves, Marguerite blenders, you, important stuff. :)

But here is something I recommend people to think about. Your residential fridge will use roughly what 10 incandescent light bulbs running 10 hours per day will use. Before you put any solar up on the roof I recommend that you change ALL OF YOUR INCANDESCENT LIGHT BULBS TO LED. This will save a ton of power. Then I recommend you STILL go ahead and put up 3 X 160 watt panels (or whatever equivalent configuration you choose) and then you are golden. Solar is relatively cheap these days, easy to install and low maintenance...or relatively NO maintenance. (I clean mine once a year unless I get a really hard rain, then I don't bother. When selecting the LEDS, don't go cheap (buy good quality) and buy the warm white colour type so that your interiour wood colours stay natural.

Hey, just noticing your handle, your not an old sabre flyer are you?

Hope this helps.

John and Angela

From the sounds of the replies and having not really done any major research on the topic, can I assume that one shouldn't have to worry about power and/or the fridges if they were to install sufficient solar? I was thinking of solar anyway and I would assume with enough solar/battery power and the gen as a backup then power (or lack thereof) would never really be an issue would it?

I understand the factors involved and wouldn't plan on cooking a turkey in the convection microwave while on solar power but normal operation should never run out of power, would you?.

John & Angela wrote:

RayChez wrote:
I always have wondered, what happens to the motor on a residential refrigerator when the batteries start going dead and the motor starts dragging. Isn't that bad for the motor? Is that why they do not warranty residential refrigerators IF you are going to install them on an RV that does not have the solar and extra inverter? I am talking about dry camping with no shore power or auto-start on your generator.

Good morning Ray. Its one one of those "it depends" answers that we all hate but generally speaking the output of a converter doesn't drop as the batteries get weaker. The inverters internal "inverters, voltage and current regulators" are designed to provide a fixed voltage (or acceptable range thereof) regardless of input until ,for lack of a better way to describe it, they can't. At that point they simply cut off. The load never sees that drop...in theory. I can say though that at least one of my inverters will drop to about 108 volts under low battery voltage before it gives up. A little outside of my comfort zone but the reality is that only seems to happen under heavy load like a microwave. A refrigerator is roughly the same load as a TV (around an amp) so it doesn't get dragged down at all. And having said that I guess thats why I like to see dedicated installs for the fridge so there is no chance of something else loading on the inverter although really it is more the affect of dropping input voltage and current. We have two inverters in our Rig. Neither is dedicated to the fridge but I run them so that the microwave and fridge are not on the same inverter although for the most part I would think it would be fine anyway.

Again, all just my humble opinion.

John, thank you for a very intelligent answer. I never knew what would happen to the motor if we were away and the voltage would drop down to where the motor on the fridge would start dragging. Did not know if the brushes to the armature would cause damage to the motor itself.

The reason why I asked the question was because my Norcold 1200 LRIM is twelve years old and it could blow up.
And it had crossed my mind that maybe a residential refrigerator would be in line to replace that Norcold. Most of our camping is with full hookups. But it is good to know what could happen if dry camping was in store.

Now Don got a little defensive right away and my post was not to discredit anybodies refrigerator. It was a question for my own and others that are interested on maybe going residential.

Thanks John greatly appreciated.

RayChez wrote:
I always have wondered, what happens to the motor on a residential refrigerator when the batteries start going dead and the motor starts dragging. Isn't that bad for the motor? Is that why they do not warranty residential refrigerators IF you are going to install them on an RV that does not have the solar and extra inverter? I am talking about dry camping with no shore power or auto-start on your generator.

Good morning Ray. Its one one of those "it depends" answers that we all hate but generally speaking the output of an inverter doesn't drop as the batteries get weaker. The inverters internal "inverters, voltage and current regulators" are designed to provide a fixed voltage (or acceptable range thereof) regardless of input until ,for lack of a better way to describe it, they can't. At that point they simply cut off. The load never sees that drop...in theory. I can say though that at least one of my inverters will drop to about 108 volts under low battery voltage before it gives up. A little outside of my comfort zone but the reality is that only seems to happen under heavy load like a microwave. A refrigerator is roughly the same load as a TV (around an amp) so it doesn't get dragged down at all. And having said that I guess thats why I like to see dedicated installs for the fridge so there is no chance of something else loading on the inverter although really it is more the affect of dropping input voltage and current. We have two inverters in our Rig. Neither is dedicated to the fridge but I run them so that the microwave and fridge are not on the same inverter although for the most part I would think it would be fine anyway.

Again, all just my humble opinion.

on edit, fixed an error where I called an inverter a converter, or mayby the iphone spell check did...yah thats what happened. :)