dry camping with residential refrigerators

I agree with IvyLog. I have a whirlpool 21 cu foot 3 door fridg in my 2015 Tuscany. Yes I run the inverter 24/7. My watt meter shows 108 watts and I see no difference when it starts up vs after being cold. But don't open the door and turn on the lights! Jumps to 300-400 watts then! Plan to look for some LED lights but the form factor is not right?

"My EnergyStar Whirlpool 21 cu ft draws 7.4 amps at 13V DC and 8 at 12V... less than a 100W bulb." That is measuring the current into my PSW inverter so all loses are included. Pretty darn efficient and after a two month trip the duty cycle is close to 40 percent.

I don't know of any 12vDC compressor fridges in the size range of a 21 cubic foot residential, but it is nice not to have to lose at least 15% by running a 120Vac fridge through an inverter.

Fridges can be improved via more insulation and by ensuring the condenser is not baking in air that it has already heated.

My small DC compressor fridge with a danfoss bd35f compressor is downright impressive in the temperature held for Ah consumed department, since it is insulated well, and the condenser only sees the coolest possible forced air pushed through it by a better lower amp draw computer fan.

Simply slamming a fridge in a cabinet might appear to be good enough, but there is much more to it than that, and installers rarely care about performance, just appearance of completion and making sure the light comes on.

Ivylog wrote:
A residential refer is another one of those items that once you've had one you'll NEVER go back.

Well, like so many things in life .... that depends. We like an RV that does not depend upon a lot of sun, generator, or pedestal power - so an absorption refrigerator has to be the way to go.

For nearly 11 years now our RV's absorption (propane ) refrigerator has performed just fine in all kinds of outside temperatures - not full timing but on trips as long as 10 weeks. This good performance includes the freezer - which is maintained at around 10 degrees with the refrigerator set on only "3" out of a range of 1 to 5. We can get 0 degree freezer temperatures bumping up the control setting to "4".

As a point of reference, I recently stayed in a remote cabin reachable only by boat. This had a residential size propane refrigerator in it and it worked perfectly.

I wonder if some folks have/had poorly installed propane refrigerators in their rigs such that cooling performance was never what it should have been?? It's too bad that use of a high(er) energy compressor refrigerator has to be the solution to perhaps a less than ideal absorption refrigerator installation (or a poorly designed or low quality absorption refrigerator, itself).

Interesting read.
http://truckcamperadventure.com/2016/02/the-danfoss-compessor-refrigerator-pros-cons-and-a-few-tips/

Lithium battery would add significantly to the initial cost. However your solar yield would increase do to no real absorption time and you would not have to even think about returning to 100% charged or equalizing those lead acid batteries.

1 16ft freezer 1 16 ft refrigerator = @90 AH at 24 volts. Even with a 400 amp 24 volt alternator and 4 L16s I have to run the engine in increments of every other day.

Just my personal experience from 2yrs of using a 4 cu.ft.resdential fridge. I had 2 6 volt GC batteries with 240 amp hr capicity, 440 watts of solar. The fridge ran 24/7 for app 2 years, never had a problem.

Best I can confirm you have heard from 6 with 5ers, 3 with TT, 1 with a popup, a TC, and a Class C; and 6 with MHs... 2 of which are older ones. My point is only 4 have energy hog MHs... even if they have an absorption refer. For all of the rest a residential refer would be a high part of their energy needs...NOT SO with a big MH. Even with a big house battery bank you will need to run the generator 2+ hours/day or have 600W+ of solar in the West and 1000W+ in the East.

I should have gone residential when my cooling unit went out even though we boondock often. My EnergyStar Whirlpool 21 cu ft draws 7.4 amps at 13V DC and 8 at 12V... less than a 100W bulb with a duty cycle of less than half the time.

Before going residential I had to run my generator 1.5-2.5 hours/day even with 250W of solar so I added a new 500 AH battery bank with it's own 1000W PSW inverter, 100A charger, and a transfer switch for the refer and my Sat receiver/DVR/TV. I can go two days before the refer batteries need recharging without any solar which is close to twice as long as the 800AH on the house side can go with some solar. In hind sight two batteries would have been enough. I turn the refer's inverter off when I go to bed even though it's only 0.2 amps in standby. In the morning I usually run the generator to cook breakfast and power the refer up. If I need ice I turn it on when on generator.

Here is some more info on my going residential and a link to my DIY install. Reread John & Angela post above as it's more real world than a post from someone with a popup.

If you had posted this in the Class A section you would have gotten much better answers since you a looking for a Class A.
A residential refer is another one of those items that once you've had one you'll NEVER go back.