residential refrigerator vs normal RV fridge/freezer

If you always camp with hook ups, they are perfect.With no hook ups, you will need a generator or solar to recharge the batteries.

“If you always camp with hook ups, they are perfect.With no hook ups, you will need a generator or solar to recharge the batteries.”

Lots of batteries.

I usually start my propane fridge the night before I leave to get cold. I couldn't do that I think with a residential fridge as I have mine in a storage lot.

i've had both. pros and cons both ways.

current TT is propane

main thing is how you camp. always use shorepower? boondock or dry camp most often?


residential
pros
1> SPACE. loved the residential we had. much more cubic space. the newer residential fridges are generally energy efficient. i had a 1200 watt inverter and 2 wally world 12v deep cycles. always plenty of power to run off those for a minimum of 24 hours without recharging or going below 50 percent battery charge. we do not boondock or dry camp. i would have fridge cold and running in our driveway and load up food night before we left.

cons
need alot of battery power and way to recharge if dry camping.


current TT is propane

I do like it for the convenience of running off propane if needed off shorepower and traveling down the road. just the wife and i so we can make the smaller cubic space work for us when loading up food for the trip. just takes a bit more planning. i will say the propane fridge seems to be easier to keep at constant temps in fridge and freezer with out much adjusting. 35degree in fridge and zero degree in freezer. the residential fridge seemed to be more sensitive to outside temps. in colder times of the year had to keep adjusting temps down to keep from freezing food in fridge part, in hot weather had to adjust for that also.

Residential fridge adds a lot of weight to an RV.

They require a a good sized battery bank, which RV dealers don't provide.... at most, RV dealers will include 2 batteries from what I've seen. That probably isn't enough to run the fridge more than about 12 hours.

If you dry camp, residential fridge will be tough to keep running unless you have a big battery bank, solar and/or generator.

I personally wouldn't want a residential fridge in a TT.

We converted our fiver to residential and have 0 regrets. Residential is a much better refrigerator.

deltabravo wrote:
Residential fridge adds a lot of weight to an RV.

I have to respectfully disagree with the above statement.


Dometic RM1350S RV Refrig. 13.5 cu.ft. 231 lbs.

Samsung RT21M6213SG/AA Res. Refrig 21 cu.ft. 198.4 lbs.

There are alot of reasons to have one or the other but added weight of the residential is not one of them.


I switched from the Dometic to the Samsung last year.
No way would I go back to an gas absorption RV refrigerator.


C.B.

filrupmark wrote:
Residential is a much better refrigerator.

It is, but, dry camping can present a challenge.

We have residential fridge with inverter and 4 GC2 batteries. I start fridge cooling when I pick up at storage. Plug into 110v when I get to the house. Freezer at -2°and Fridge at 38° in two hours or less. Alternator keeps batteries up while driving. When boondocking I use a combination of solar (portable 240w) and Generator. I run generator until I hit float, so longer in the morning (2.5 hours) than afternoon when solar has helped. We leave an LED Lamp on in the living room all night, watch TV and support all the other parasitic loads.

We have the Samsung RF18 and a Magnum 2000w pure sine inverter/converter. Setting converter to max charge current reduces generator run time. When I first fire it up in the morning, it puts about 100 amps back into the batteries during the bulk phase of charging.

We love having so much room, and rarely fill the fridge to capacity. We make ice while driving or on shore power. Ice Maker is turned off when boondocking.