Standard vs Residential Refrigerator

[cgaskins]

We are considering a new 5th wheel Rv and the one we are looking has the big residential refrigerator with ice maker and water in the door.

I have many questions that I can't seem to get answered and would love some input:

This particular unit has 2 batteries - how long will the fridge run on 2 batteries?

How hard is it to drain the water from the fridge (water lines and ice maker) when I put the unit in storage for a few months. We don't use it full time and where I keep the unit in storage, I don't have power so I have to turn everything off.

I would love to hear from people who have these new residential fridges in their RV's, especially people that are more weekenders vs full-timers.

Thanks,
Chris

[pcm1959]

Chris, ORDER THE RESIDENTIAL refrig! You won't regret it. We are pretty much the same type of campers as you.
I ordered a 2014 Lifestyle LS36fw with an optional Norcold 1210 side/side refrig which was a $2800 option. I took delivery of the rig in early March. The Norcold has been nothing but trouble. I should have saved my money! But that is all another story. I pulled-out the Norcold and sold it on CList for $1750. That paid for a 1000 pure sine wave inverter, transfer switch, cables, a Samsung RF197 French door refridge and anything else I needed to do the mod. I already had 2 deep cycle 6 volt batteries. So I just added an inverter with a dedicated line to the refrige with the transfer switch.
I don't know what model refrig you will be getting but the Samsung draws 3 amps upon compressor start-up and about 1 amp while running otherwise. The inverter has a 1.4 amp no load draw.
We live in FL and it will take about 3.5 hours to cool down from the mid 90's to -2/37 degrees!!! Starting out with full batteries they are drawn down to about 2/3 to 1/2 in that time. Once hitched up the truck prevents any further draw. If you keep the doors closed, it will stay at safe temp for hours during travel IF you don't want to run the inverter. We leave the inverter on without issue. you could always add 2 more batteries or a solar panel if your reserve battery power concerned you. If is not a problem for us.
Ours has the ice maker but no filtered water. That is fine as we don't use a lot of ice and filter all the water coming into our rig. We are not big ice users either but make ice in the old-fashioned ice trays. We have five of them and we just dump the ice from them in freezer ice bin and use a scoop when ice is needed. Like you, we are not full timers and didn't want the stale water setting in the lines between trips nor the worry of winterizing.
We LOVE the latest mod and feel such freedom from the NO-Cold. I can't imagine you'd regret going the residential route. Good luck. Phillip

[cgaskins]

dan-nickie wrote:
YOur problem will not be travelling between RV parks, but your plan to leave the fridge on overnight to cool down before a trip. With only 2 batteries, it looks like 4-5 hours would be max before your batteries get discharged below a safe level.

Yeah, I am beginning to realize that.

Couple of other questions:

1) Will my alternator from my truck charge the batteries in my RV?

2) What if I use a small solar cell to trickle charge the batteries, I wonder if this will get me to my 18 to 20 hours of usage while in storage?

3) I assume that the cooling of the fridge is the same no matter if it is on 110volt or 12volt right? Meaning that the compressor and cooling system operates the same.

[dan-nickie]

I have 4 six volt batteries and a 2000 watt inverter.
There was a thread on another forum recently and the consensus was about 8-10 hours on 4 batteries without the engine running down the road.
I tested mine at that time and left it on overnight. I got about 8 hours on my 4 batteries before the auto gen start kicked on at 12 volts.

YOur problem will not be travelling between RV parks, but your plan to leave the fridge on overnight to cool down before a trip. With only 2 batteries, it looks like 4-5 hours would be max before your batteries get discharged below a safe level.

[KarenS144]

We just purchased an all electric coach and it has a residential fridge. There are 8 "golf cart" house batteries on board. We've had the fridge running for 3 days in 90* weather and still had plenty of battery. I was skeptical of a residential fridge at first but I'm a card carrying fan now!

Ours has a water filter under the sink which filters water for the fridge and a separate water faucet in the sink. When we changed the filter, quite a bit of water ran out of the line. I think most of that must have been the water in the line to the ice maker.

The other thought would be to run fresh water through the fridge and toss the first couple of batches of ice. Can you get the manual for the fridge and see what it says about storing for an extended time?

[Veebyes]

First you need to know the power requirements of the fridge. No, a pair of 6V batterys or even a single 4D 12V is not likely to run it for long.

Running down the road with the inverter on to power the fridge will work for awhile. The vehicle alternator is charging the battery that powers the fridge but it does not necessarily put in more than the amps being taken out.

Generally a residential fridge will work fine for those who always get hookups. Even with no power on the road a fridge does not instantly get warm.

Not such a good idea for those who wish to drycamp. An awful lot of genny time will have to be run to power the fridge & keep the battery banks charged.

[Halmfamily]

I would try using air to blow out the lines. A residential fridge will only take a couple hours to cool down. I would think your tv will provide sufficient power to keep fridge running while driving. Also once coldvand stocked it should be good for several hours with no power, and ice packs in fridge if needed. We will be ordering our new fiver this fall with the residential fridge, cant wait. Good luck and happy camping.

[GrumpyandGrandm]

rsbabson wrote:
. So you cant load the fridge up and roll down the road with your groceries?

Yes you can.

The FW using residentials will run while on the road since the inverter will be powered by the alterntator in the tow vehicle the same way it charges the battery in the FW. The residentials that are being used only draw 6.9 amps so the 100 amp inverter being used will run for a good while. With that said they are not made for boondocking, but for the "snowbirds" or full timers.

EDIT: Spoke too soon, looked at my notes after my post and as PCM1959 said it is only a 3 amp draw. Sorry for the error.

[JTrac]

We have a Samsung RF197 residential fridge in our Winslow. It doesn't have ice and water in the door but does have an icemaker. It has 2 6 volt batteries and a 1000 watt pure sine wave inverter. We have had it for 2 years and put about 20K miles on it and the fridge has never missed a lick. We have driven all day and the lowest I have ever seen the voltage on the batteries is 12.3 and the temps never budge. We have an automatic transfer switch which changes from inverter to shore when you plug in and vice versa. Very handy. This is our second residential as the motorhome we sold a couple of years ago also had one. It was a replacement for a Norcold 1200 which had a big problem keeping things cool and frozen during the five years we had it despite all kinds of mods and fixes. The Samsung gets to 38 and 2 below in just a few hours and stays there. When we shopped after selling the motorhome anything that did not have a residential fridge as an option was eliminated from consideration. We do not drain the icemaker but instead let the water pump feed it rv antifreeze until we get pink ice and shut it off for the winter. For storage during warm weather I would simply let the icemaker work for a while and dump the first few loads of ice.

This works for us because we never dry camp. I have computed that we could get a couple of days running the fridge if we were careful with battery usage. I would think a couple more 6 volt batteries and a generator would be necessary if you did long term dry camping. Solar charging would be another consideration.

[cgaskins]

smkettner wrote:

cgaskins wrote:
The coach I am looking at is setup with 2 deep cycle batteries and an inverter so the fridge will run off the batteries.

Sounds like this may not be the setup for me... Would love to hear more opinions.

This set up would generally be for camping with hookups only.
Battery may last for an overnight stop or stopped for lunch or refuel etc.

If you want to be off grid you will be running the generator a lot or need six batteries and 800 watts solar.

So what are your expectations?

We are mostly weekenders with a one or two longer trips during the summer. We are always camping where there is shore power so that is not my concern. Where I store my camper, I have no power available. I usually go over on Thursday night, turn on the gas powered fridge and it is nice and cold by the time we load up stuff on Friday afternoon and head out for the weekend. So the fridge is running on gas for 18 to 24 hours typically before we leave.

My other concern is maintenance of the water system in the fridge. It has an ice maker and water in the door. When we get back from a weekend trip, I always drain all water from the coach. I suspect draining water from the fridge and ice maker is going to be a pain. Thoughts?

-Chris

[2oldman]

rsbabson wrote:
So you cant load the fridge up and roll down the road with your groceries?

Nah, you gotta buy em when you get there.

[time2roll]

cgaskins wrote:
The coach I am looking at is setup with 2 deep cycle batteries and an inverter so the fridge will run off the batteries.

Sounds like this may not be the setup for me... Would love to hear more opinions.

This set up would generally be for camping with hookups only.
Battery may last for an overnight stop or stopped for lunch or refuel etc.

If you want to be off grid you will be running the generator a lot or need six batteries and 800 watts solar.

So what are your expectations?

[cgaskins]

The coach I am looking at is setup with 2 deep cycle batteries and an inverter so the fridge will run off the batteries.

Sounds like this may not be the setup for me... Would love to hear more opinions.

[azdryheat]

The refer should be able to stay cold for the run down the road, so long as it's cold to begin with and can get back on 110v in a few hours.

[rsbabson]

Im looking to buy a Columbus 320rs with the residental fridge also. So you cant load the fridge up and roll down the road with your groceries?

[Trackrig]

Two batteries will not last long. This was from a day or two ago and will answer some of your questions. One person has 4 ea 8D batteries. An 8D battery is equivalent in physical size to 4 std batteries.

Res vs std refer clicky

Bill