Residential Fridges

JimK-NY wrote:
I cannot help but wonder if people are discussing a residential refrigerator in an RV or something that is used more like a mobile home that is rarely moved.

A residential refrigerator and solar system would be extremely heavy for an RV that is going to be used for thousands or tens of thousands of miles of travel per year. Residential refrigerators are heavy with a moderate sized unit weighting in at roughly 300#. We can argue about the number of solar panels but it seems 6 would be about the minimum. That will add another roughly 300#. The minimum for a battery bank to handle that power would add another 500# or more. The total would be well over 1000# and that is just for the refrigerator and the portion of solar needed to support it. The system is going to have to be much bigger to handle the rest of the electrical needs.

My 11 cu ft residential fridge is way lighter than my old 8.0 cu ft dometic by probably 100 lbs, it took 2 people and a lift to get my old one out and I lifted my new one my self, solar panels at least my 100 watt only weigh about 6-8 lbs each. If one wanted to spend the dough you could run lifePO lithium batteries which are 1/3 the weight and you can discharge almost 100 %, in my case I'm on shore power 6 mos a year and maybe 2 weeks dry camping and the combo of solar and occasional genny works perfect. My old fridge got ruined by water tripping the gfi and it running out the propane in the 2 weeks I was gone in 110+ heat, now my inverter has an auto transfer switch so if power goes out it switches to batts/solar and back again and no GFI.

One thing no one has discussed here is "how long can a residential fridge compressor last?" bouncing up and down in transit....I guess time will tell.