Traveling with a Residential Fridge?

I also have an inverter and battery but I do believe that when I am towing, it is drawing its power from the tow vehicle. I say this because the battery is still right at the top of its output when I get to where I am going. Even if it is a 14 hr drive. The alternator in my truck provides plenty of juice for the converter. I love the residential fridge, oh yeah, the display shows 6 degrees in the freezer and 41 in the fridge area

A residential fridge is a huge cost savings for the manufacturer.

Think about it. No LP lines to run to it. No 12V power needed. So no 12V lines to run to it.

Oh but there is more room inside of it.

Sorry, not for me. I do not care how long it can keep things cold with no power.

Thinking of power. Just how long and when do you put a serious drain on the batteries supplied with the camper?

schlep1967 wrote:
So we currently have an RV fridge that runs on propane when we are traveling. A lot of the new RV's offer the residential style fridge or the RV style.

My questions:
How do you keep the residential fridge cold when traveling?
If you are going to travel a good bit, as opposed to sitting in a park for 6 months, is the RV version better?

If you dry camp or boondock a lot, IMHO stick with a RV fridge.
If you always or mainly have hookups, go for a residential fridge.

We mainly dry camp and would never have a residential fridge, because of that.

We swapped out our 6 cu ft Dometic for a 10 cu ft Magic Chef Residential from Home Depot. Great improvement in size but I did have to move the bottom opening down a few inches.

It was our intention to leave the TT sitting in a RV Park in FL year round so I was only concerned with the trip down from MD. So I did these tests (we’ve always had wireless temp monitors in the freezer and the refrigerator):

1) Turned the empty refrigerator off. Refrigerator/freezer temps were unacceptable after about 3 hours.

2) Froze water in 3 containers. Put 2 in freezer and 1 in refrigerator. Decent temps for about 6 hours.

3) Filled the refrigerator and freezer with everything we wanted to take in addition to the 3 frozen containers above. Decent temps for 8 hours when I quit testing.

In reality, by the time we unplugged, drove and plugged back in it was 10 hours w/o power and everything was fine. We made a few more stops ranging from 2 to 5 hours unplugged on the way to our destination and all was fine.

While in Fl, we found/bought an older stationary 40’ 5th wheel (with a residential fridge already swapped into it) after 5 months and have now sold the TT. The larger unit makes a real difference.

I hope this helps you

Norman

schlep1967 wrote:
If you are going to travel a good bit, as opposed to sitting in a park for 6 months, is the RV version better?

It's better if the sun doesn't shine for 3 days.

Have you considered an adequate solar system?

You do not need to have power to the refer 24/7. We have gone 20+ hours without power and everything was still frozen and the interior of the refer was still at safe levels. A 12 hour day on the road without power is nothing to be concerned about.

Two 6V batteries, 1000 watt inverter. 34 hours towing with a couple of two hour breaks left truck running. Arrived at destination, freezer was 0 and frig was 38 same as 34 hours earlier.

I have a residential refer in my fifth wheel. There are four 6 volt batteries powering my invertor. Never had a problem with it. Cools faster and better in hot weather. Once it cools down it doesn't run that much. Don't think I would ever go back.

B.O.

Driving pedestal to pedestal should not be a problem with the refer off. Assume 1.5A AC = 17A DC * 8 hrs = 136Ah. 4x GCs are about 220Ah to 50% SOC so you could even leave turned on with the inverter - PROVIDED you have 4x GCs. Refers vary in their draw.

Boondocking is a different story. Possibilities for a towed:
1. Run the gen while driving.
2. Run the gen for hours when you arrive.
3. Beef up the typical tow vehicle connection with heavier wiring and/or use a DC to DC charger. This is to overcome the high 12V wiring losses so the batteries will be charged when you arrive. Note - Make sure the tow alternator is adequate for the additional load for say lights, cab AC, wipers, etc type driving.
4. Add adequate solar which is an excellent solution when there is sunshine.

Note: Boondocking gen charging above 85% SOC takes many hours and typically won't happen. So your already 10%+ discharged every day, plus other house loads. Unless of course you finish charging with solar which is a common scenario.