Outside kitchen fridge

cyntdon2010 wrote:
we stock ours with drinks and water only.. two day before going out.

for short 2 or 3 hours drives.. it stays cold. even though there is no power.

Ditto here. We have even drove up to 4+ hours with it staying cold. I do however keep a few drinks in the inside camper refridgerator for our "after all set up at camp" cocktail, just to make sure we have a few really cold drinks!

Now the part about the RV dealer's comment. I am amazed at how much some sales/service reps don't know about the products they are selling or servicing. Not ALL reps, but quite a few.

Mine had beverages in it. Went from Harpers Ferry,WV to Ann Arbor, MI. Everything was still cold (about 500 miles and a few stops for gas/bathroom).

Outdoors RVs have a true 3-way fridge in the outside kitchen, which is fully vented outside the trailer so it can be used while driving.

Using an inverter for a dorm-style fridge may not work super well without adding at least a little venting to the compartment.

You don't even need to keep the fridge in there , I took mine out last summer as i was travelling and didn't know when i would get power sites,or even would get any kind of site. Camped at the side of the seashore or at a lighthouse sometimes . The extra space in the out kitchen was great.

engine31 wrote:
My outside fridge in the "man" cave runs on 110 v and it is a larger dorm style unit. It only runs when the TT is plugged into power. Now I suppose if you had a generator running while traveling it could/would run. so I think your dealer must have been out to lunch the day you asked him out the fridge! IMHO :S

I need to take part of the blame, clearly I was out to lunch as I didn't think it did, but thought since he sells them, he should know. Shame on me.

Regardless, we can make a workable solution.

I installed a xantrex 1750w inverter to run our outside fridge, along with two Duracell agm batteries. The truck's alternator does a good job keeping the batteries charged while traveling, but when camped with no shore power, running the furnace at night and powering the fridge, I have to run the generator daily to keep the batteries charged.

My outside fridge in the "man" cave runs on 110 v and it is a larger dorm style unit. It only runs when the TT is plugged into power. Now I suppose if you had a generator running while traveling it could/would run. so I think your dealer must have been out to lunch the day you asked him out the fridge! IMHO :S

Tequila wrote:
Mine stayed cool petty good. I noticed it is only 70 watt so I may try running it off an inverter

Make sure your inverter is sized large enough to overcome the locked rotor draw of the compressor. My little fridge draws 80w when running but I had to replace the 600W Samlex inverter with a 1000W Xantrex to overcome the LRD.

Mine stayed cool petty good. I noticed it is only 70 watt so I may try running it off an inverter

did the dealer tell you that before you cut the check or after?

Nope ours does not.

Ours is a dorm size 110 unit only. We cool it at home and fill it with cold beverages before traveling. 3-4 hours and stuff is still cool but not cold as soon as we plug the trailer in it starts again.