Fridge, new house fridge vs rebuild old rv fridge

If you never camp off-grid more than a few hours then the compressor is fine.

Otherwise for off-grid camping I would replace the absorption fridge with a brand new direct replacement.

Either way no replacement until it fails.

You'll need more batteries.

On my Dometic S630, the door switch goes to the top blade on the power supply board J1 (orange) and the light goes to the next one down J2 (yellow). Perhaps the wires are loose on the blades. I had that with one of the connections on mine, only it was for the heater.

midnightsadie wrote:
it ain,t broke ,I,d leave it alone.

x2 on this. Your fridge is working fine and fits your usage scenario. There is no reason whatever to replace or repair it. With care, it ought to last quite a bit longer...there's nothing inherent in an absorption fridge that "wears out" (corrosion and off-level usage being the main killers).

My ca. 20 year old Dometic RV fridge works very nicely still...excepting the inside light, the door switch for which is a bit flakey.

Fridge should keep fine without power parked overnight for a few hours, just keep the door closed. Keep a frozen water bottle in the freezer that you can move to the fridge before shutting down.

Airdaile wrote:
Be sure to consider the new 120VAC/12VDC veriable speed compressor RV refrigerators. They draw around 8 amps DC.

This. My Norcold 1200 failed and I replaced with an Amish built as the compressor type wasn’t available yet.

Definitely the way I’d go.

Get one of these next time they are on sale. Try it out at home with your stick house fridge to be sure it will handle the surges--it has enough watts to run it. (I have run 120v fridges on MSW inverter--you do not need PSW for that) This has 700w plus surge. Reports on this forum say that you need at least a 600w inverter with a res fridge in an RV.

If it does not do it, they accept returns, so worth a try IMO.

Then carry it with you when you RV all the time anyway. Could be very handy for other things that happen!

You could run the fridge with it going down the road and recharge it on shore power when you get there each day. At Walmart overnight, I don't know how long this would go. You can clamp it to your house battery to get extra time. Going down the road following that night until you get 120 again would need some help from alternator/7-pin 12v.

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/motomaster-eliminator-powerbox-2000-0112028p.html#srp

Be sure to consider the new 120VAC/12VDC veriable speed compressor RV refrigerators. They draw around 8 amps DC.

If you want to be proactive spend 5-6 hundred dollars on an Amish cooling unit and put it in now.

it ain,t broke ,I,d leave it alone.