best way to run residential fridge on limited shore power?

[brandonrv]

So my new coach is 50amp and I am going to a camp this weekend that just has 30.

I'm just trying to conserve as much amps as possible to avoid a brown out. Ill have to have both ACs on while we are in the coach at full blast due to it being really hot out.

Are these residential fridges an LP hog?

It's a norcold 4 door. I was told the battery will run it which leads me to believe the LP would be fine as well.

With both ACs on high cool it leaves me with about 10 amps to work with. I'll run the water heater on LP for sure.

Just wondering what others do. If it burns too much LP it's probably worth just running it on the 30amp power. I'll just have to watch what else we plug in with 2 ACs, Fridge and the TV goin.

Thanks

[bluwtr49]

The refrigerator will be the least of you worries on 30A. It's unlikely you can run both AC units at all much less both units and anything else AC like microwave, hot water heater, TV, and etc.

A brown out isn't much of a concern but expect to trip the breaker periodically.

[DiskDoctr]

brandonrv wrote:

Yeah I was worried about "residential refrigerator".. That's what the dealer was referring to it as and that's what Fleetwood refers to it as in the option upgrade.

That's what happens when they hire marketing people right out of school with no personal or professional experience in this industry 😉

In any case, your assumptions and what you've been told is correct. The documentation and sales info you are reporting is...wrong.

[wa8yxm]

brandonrv wrote:
So my new coach is 50amp and I am going to a camp this weekend thatAre these residential fridges an LP hog?

It's a norcold 4 door.
Thanks

Two problems... First "Residential Fridges" are 120 volt compressor driven like you have in your sticks and Bricks.

What you have is an RV Absorption Cooling Unit most likely (Though Norcold does make one other I'll mention in a moment)

They sip propane SLOWLY very SLOWLY, a 20 pound bottle will last you a long time if you choose to run it on Gas.. if you need to conserve amps, that's the way to do it

On A/C it only draws around 3-4 amps though, not all that much A true Residential may draw 1-3 amps

And the Compressor jobs Norcold makes, like half an amp (They are very high efficiency but no compressor fridge has an LP option, Simply not possible) (Dometic has a model or two like that too)

IF you have never run it on propane. then you need to do a full Preventive maintenance inspection to make sure you will not have any issues.. Many have, for example, had an insect or bird nest in the flu, NOT GOOD when running on propane. Your downloadable if you can not find it owner's manual will describe the inspection and cleaning process.

[brandonrv]

valhalla360 wrote:
Propane for the fridge should be fine but you will be pushing that 30amp outlet to run 2 AC units.

Keep in mind a 30amp outlet is actually only rated for around 25amps. You might want to check the voltage drop to make sure you aren't killing your AC units with low voltage.

What do you mean by check voltage drop? Just make sure the voltage is not dropping below some threshold?

[valhalla360]

Propane for the fridge should be fine but you will be pushing that 30amp outlet to run 2 AC units.

Keep in mind a 30amp outlet is actually only rated for around 25amps. You might want to check the voltage drop to make sure you aren't killing your AC units with low voltage.

[MrWizard]

You have a large RV propane fridge
But it on manual/L.P. mode, Not on auto
Also set water heater to propane/L.P., not electric
Hopefully you have a power management system that will cycle/switch between the two A/C units

[brandonrv]

Bill.Satellite wrote:
The Norcold is not a residential refrigerator so don't get confused by posts you might read in other forums about their usage. A RR runs on A/C only and would be the same kind of fridge you have in a house (Samsung, GE, etc.).
You have an RV fridge and it is designed to operate on either propane or A/C depending upon your situation or needs. The propane option allows the fridge to stay cold even while traveling (no A/C) but it also allows for your particular situation where you would like to reduce the A/C load. You can run your fridge on propane for an entire season on a 20-30# bottle. If you have a large built-in propane tank you could likely run it for a year if you did nothing else.

Makes sense..

Yeah I was worried about "residential refrigerator".. That's what the dealer was referring to it as and that's what Fleetwood refers to it as in the option upgrade.

But then when I took delivery and they went over it I realized it functioned exactly like an RV fridge it was just bigger I was very pleased with that.

Should just call it large 4 door RV Fridge to not confuse things.

[Bill_Satellite]

The Norcold is not a residential refrigerator so don't get confused by posts you might read in other forums about their usage. A RR runs on A/C only and would be the same kind of fridge you have in a house (Samsung, GE, etc.).
You have an RV fridge and it is designed to operate on either propane or A/C depending upon your situation or needs. The propane option allows the fridge to stay cold even while traveling (no A/C) but it also allows for your particular situation where you would like to reduce the A/C load. You can run your fridge on propane for an entire season on a 20-30# bottle. If you have a large built-in propane tank you could likely run it for a year if you did nothing else.

[brandonrv]

Desert Captain wrote:
Refrigeration running on propane uses very little. You may have to manually shut off the ac to the frig as most will run on ac if it is present. Simply turn off the ac breaker for the frig and it should automatically shift to propane. Save your ac for the air conditioning but if you have to run two units on high in a 26' coach I would have them checked.... but on the other hand I don't know just how hot it will be where you are camping. Good luck.

:C

Just upgraded to a 36' coach 🙂 2014 Fleetwood Bounder 35k and Down here in South Texas it's about 105 heat index for the majority of the day.

Fridge has a switch built in to go from LP to AC. Thanks for the input.

[Desert_Captain]

Refrigeration running on propane uses very little. You may have to manually shut off the ac to the frig as most will run on ac if it is present. Simply turn off the ac breaker for the frig and it should automatically shift to propane. Save your ac for the air conditioning but if you have to run two units on high in a 26' coach I would have them checked.... but on the other hand I don't know just how hot it will be where you are camping. Good luck.

:C

[brandonrv]

Gas it is.. 🙂

Thanks y'all

[brandonrv]

2oldman wrote:
Very few household refrigerators run on LP.

this particular norcold 4 door does luckily. Maybe not a true residential they just call it that.

[bob_b1]

Residential fridges are very efficient. My 10 cubic foot fridge only runs at 1 amp and it only runs for 20-30 minutes total each hour. It could take a few more surge amps to start the compressor, but that only happens for a second or two.

With that said, I don't think that you have a residential fridge. You probably have an absorbion fridge. They have can draw about 3 amps on electric because they are heating the ball of ammonia by using an electric rod. A small pilot flame is much more efficient at doing to this.

Use the gas mode. It uses very little gas.

[rgatijnet1]

Use the LP for the refrigerator. For a weekend, or a month, you will not even notice the usage.

[2oldman]

Very few household refrigerators run on LP.