dry camping with residential refrigerators
I'm thinking of buying a new motorhome but we do a lot of dry camping and I can't seem to get a straight answer on battery life running these new residential refrigerators. Dealers, salespeople say i...
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WOW
Im VERY impressed that 4 pages of posts and it did not turn into battleground! This has always been a VERY hot topic. Nice to see that it has calmed down.
I'm going to post MY experience.
Deb and I had a 93 Pace Arrow Diesel for 12 years. No slides, Dometic propane fridge. No issues in 12 years. After the kids left we decided to fulltime so sold everything and upgraded the MoHo. Plenty of posts on the subject.
Purchased a used 07 Fleetwood Discovery 39V with full wall slide. Had a Norcold 4 door with, you guessed it, cooked cooling unit.
We wanted to boondock, NO RV PARKS
Purchased an Amish cooling unit for 1200 and installed ourselves on a Sunday afternoon.
With the full wall slide we have AMPLE room for solar.
I have zero shade on flat panels from 7am to 5pm if nose pointed north or south. (picture available upon request)
Purchased 4 high voltage panels for about 1K after CA tax
$600 for a Midnight solar classic charge controller
Laid panels FLAT on roof, no tilting for us thanks.
4 Interstate 6v deep cycle batteries
Xantrex Freedom inverter/converter
Onan 7500 QUIET Diesel
We are out here in Quartsite AZ offgrid for a month straight.
We ONLY run generator each evening for 2 hours, long enough to get batteries into float (charged)
During generator run we might do one, some or all of the following;
Make 60 gallon water bladder run 5 minute fill, 20 minute pump into rig with 120v pump to pass thru whole house filter.
Run one or two loads of clothes, NO DRY in splendide, Hang to dry.
Convection Microwave bake
Vacuum rig
In the AM, we wait till about 9:00AM so that we can run coffee pot w/o genset. We can run both roof fans, a box fan and TV (Dish STB) all day
Again ONLY run QUIET Diesel 2hrs/night.
All the comforts of home, Yes, solid Ice Cream if put on floor of freezer.
After a month of above
50.00 in Diesel at 2.30/gallon
53.00 in Propane at 2.20/gallon
Note, Before using the Splendide for clothes we would run to Laundromat once/week at about 20.00/visit
We paid $170.00 for a Long Term Visitor Area permit that gives us access to trash/water/dump station.
Onan Quiet Diesel is VERY efficient with Diesel because its variable RPM.
As long at the Norcold has both condenser fans running on the backside it keeps it's temp even at 100 deg. although close when temps are at 100+
2 years with Norcold and only issue is replacement of two condenser fans under warranty from rvcoolingunits.com
Thanks
Im VERY impressed that 4 pages of posts and it did not turn into battleground! This has always been a VERY hot topic. Nice to see that it has calmed down.
I'm going to post MY experience.
Deb and I had a 93 Pace Arrow Diesel for 12 years. No slides, Dometic propane fridge. No issues in 12 years. After the kids left we decided to fulltime so sold everything and upgraded the MoHo. Plenty of posts on the subject.
Purchased a used 07 Fleetwood Discovery 39V with full wall slide. Had a Norcold 4 door with, you guessed it, cooked cooling unit.
We wanted to boondock, NO RV PARKS
Purchased an Amish cooling unit for 1200 and installed ourselves on a Sunday afternoon.
With the full wall slide we have AMPLE room for solar.
I have zero shade on flat panels from 7am to 5pm if nose pointed north or south. (picture available upon request)
Purchased 4 high voltage panels for about 1K after CA tax
$600 for a Midnight solar classic charge controller
Laid panels FLAT on roof, no tilting for us thanks.
4 Interstate 6v deep cycle batteries
Xantrex Freedom inverter/converter
Onan 7500 QUIET Diesel
We are out here in Quartsite AZ offgrid for a month straight.
We ONLY run generator each evening for 2 hours, long enough to get batteries into float (charged)
During generator run we might do one, some or all of the following;
Make 60 gallon water bladder run 5 minute fill, 20 minute pump into rig with 120v pump to pass thru whole house filter.
Run one or two loads of clothes, NO DRY in splendide, Hang to dry.
Convection Microwave bake
Vacuum rig
In the AM, we wait till about 9:00AM so that we can run coffee pot w/o genset. We can run both roof fans, a box fan and TV (Dish STB) all day
Again ONLY run QUIET Diesel 2hrs/night.
All the comforts of home, Yes, solid Ice Cream if put on floor of freezer.
After a month of above
50.00 in Diesel at 2.30/gallon
53.00 in Propane at 2.20/gallon
Note, Before using the Splendide for clothes we would run to Laundromat once/week at about 20.00/visit
We paid $170.00 for a Long Term Visitor Area permit that gives us access to trash/water/dump station.
Onan Quiet Diesel is VERY efficient with Diesel because its variable RPM.
As long at the Norcold has both condenser fans running on the backside it keeps it's temp even at 100 deg. although close when temps are at 100+
2 years with Norcold and only issue is replacement of two condenser fans under warranty from rvcoolingunits.com
Thanks
