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dave17352's avatar
dave17352
Explorer
May 04, 2013

refrigerator defrost question

I now have my residential refrigerator in my RV. I run it off my inverter, generator or shore power. I don't have a lot of battery power to spare so I disabled the defroster. Another member of the forum mentioned I might have problem doing this a new refrigerators are high efficiency and may suffer some cooling loss with just a little frost. So that got me to thinking.

We camp at the most a month out of the year. The longest we would be out at a time is 2 weeks. Most trips would be 3 days to a week. After each trip the fridge would be shut off. So the question is do you think I could run into a problem given these time periods. If it is a two week trip that means its just me and dw so the fridge door will not be opened and shut a great deal. If it is hot and humid the AC will be running so the air in the camper should be fairly dry.

When I disabled the defrost I broke one connector off so I would need a new defrost timer to make the defrost run again. So I would have to buy a new timer to make for about $15.00. Which I could keep on hand in case there was a problem.

So do you all think this would be necessary or not? Would you buy one or wait it out and see what happens.
:?

Thanks

3 Replies

  • That's because I will be on shore power or running the Genny when running AC. Fridge will run on batteries when cruising down the road or at night when not on shore power. That is why I disabled the defrost to save battery power at those times.
  • You have enough battery power to run the AC but not the refrigerator? WOW how many batteries do you have so you can run an air conditioner for a couple of weeks :H
  • Frost build up decreases the efficiency of the refrigerator and causes it to run more. The question is does the defroster use more electricity than the loss of efficiency due to frost build up. I suspect it use less electricity without the defroster for the short time frames you typically use the unit. For long term (year after year) use in a residential setting for which it was designed, I suspect using the defroster uses less electricity; however, in that setting a few more kilowatts doesn't really matter.

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