House Refrigerator VS RV Refrigerator
Been looking at new 5th wheel trailers about half coming with house refrigerator (110 volt only) and the other half coming with large RV refrigerator (propane, 110 volt). Not sure if going with a h...
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The wife and I explored this topic fairly in depth as we searched for, and purchased the fifth wheel we intend to use for retirement in about 18 months. (Not for Fulltiming, just lots of travel).
We did notice that the residential refrigerators were virtually always the cheaper option even with the included inverter, with the dealers claiming the residential fridge inverter combo were cheaper than the larger absorption units. Also, when pushed most of the dealers claimed about 9 hours of useable battery life for the trailers using the two group 24s they would include unless you negotiated otherwise. The friends I have using this type setup all have 6 or 8 6 volt battery setups with solar and generators so I have no source of reliable information on what I could really expect to do on just a couple batteries.
Having just replaced all the household appliances in the stick and brick I've been rather disappointed in the new rather pricey GE refrigerator performance wise. The default main area default setting is for 37 degrees, but it allowed the temp to climb to 45 to 47 degrees prior to running again to cool back down. I was told by the repairman we had come out to look at it that they were set that way to help with energy consumption. He was able to reprogram it more to our liking although the temp swings are still wider than I would like. I mention all this in that the main complaint I see regarding the absorption refrigerators is they tend to have temp swings on the warm side.
In the end, the Bighorn 3270 we settled has an 18cf absorption refrigerator rather than the 21cf residential option. We went this route as we intend to be on the road a great deal for at least a few years rather than parked in just one or two areas a year. Some of the places we hope to see won't have hookups which with the bigger power hog units can be hard on batteries even without the residential refrigerator load. We've only used the rig twice, and not in the dead of summer so we've only experienced temps mid 80s. That said, the initial cool down has been under five hours to mid 30's in the main box, and it will cool well below freezing in there on the high cool settings. As for our previous Norcold 8cf unit it would get cold enough to put ice crystals in my beer with temps well above 100 degrees outside.
We did notice that the residential refrigerators were virtually always the cheaper option even with the included inverter, with the dealers claiming the residential fridge inverter combo were cheaper than the larger absorption units. Also, when pushed most of the dealers claimed about 9 hours of useable battery life for the trailers using the two group 24s they would include unless you negotiated otherwise. The friends I have using this type setup all have 6 or 8 6 volt battery setups with solar and generators so I have no source of reliable information on what I could really expect to do on just a couple batteries.
Having just replaced all the household appliances in the stick and brick I've been rather disappointed in the new rather pricey GE refrigerator performance wise. The default main area default setting is for 37 degrees, but it allowed the temp to climb to 45 to 47 degrees prior to running again to cool back down. I was told by the repairman we had come out to look at it that they were set that way to help with energy consumption. He was able to reprogram it more to our liking although the temp swings are still wider than I would like. I mention all this in that the main complaint I see regarding the absorption refrigerators is they tend to have temp swings on the warm side.
In the end, the Bighorn 3270 we settled has an 18cf absorption refrigerator rather than the 21cf residential option. We went this route as we intend to be on the road a great deal for at least a few years rather than parked in just one or two areas a year. Some of the places we hope to see won't have hookups which with the bigger power hog units can be hard on batteries even without the residential refrigerator load. We've only used the rig twice, and not in the dead of summer so we've only experienced temps mid 80s. That said, the initial cool down has been under five hours to mid 30's in the main box, and it will cool well below freezing in there on the high cool settings. As for our previous Norcold 8cf unit it would get cold enough to put ice crystals in my beer with temps well above 100 degrees outside.
