leaving frig on

Except for defrosting 3-4 times a year our fridge has been ON since Nov. 2006

I would not want to leave my frig on if I could not check on it every 2-3 days. They really do not take that long to get cold when preparing for a trip. JMHO

If you decide to shut it off for the winter, and do not want to leave the doors open,(Safety), wad up some newspaper, and stuff it loosely in the back. It will absorb the odors and the moisture and no mold or mildue! We used to leave some in there to take up the voids, and help things ride better too!

Hi,

The duty cycle on an absorption fridge is 2:3 so it will "burn" 5 kwh per day.

Typically electric rates are 12 cents per kwh, so cost is $0.60 per day or $18.00 per month.

In addition, during winter time it is possible for the fridge to "freeze up". If it does it may self destruct. Norcold makes a kit for preventing freeze ups. It would cost a similar amount per day to run it.

Ours is on 24/7/365.

We generally leave ours on as we use it to keep the condiments in, and it is already cold, if we want to make a last minute trip. The only moving parts on ours is the muffin fans, which draws very little current. Its plugged in all during the winter to keep the batteries up. The solar charge controller cycles up and down to equalize the batteries as needed.

We shut off ours and leave the doors open even tho it is plugged in all winter. We accidentally closed the doors after our last trip and it took hours of cleaning to get out all the mold.

And if you get freezing temps,, i would turn it off and open the door. RV fridge draws about 350 watts running, and will not run much if temp inside RV is sub freezing,,, Home fridge 100-500 and same comment. That adds up over the winter.

High efficiency fridge (Dometic or norcold all electric or Engel (30-50 watts and same comment.

What is the benefit of leaving it on?

cusum wrote:
i an thinking of leaving my frig on over winter my rv is pluged into 50 amp all time does anybody else do this or should i shut the unit down

would have to know what type of fridge it is to correctly respond...

can you do it, sure.

if its a 12vdc / propane unit, it will likely ice up.
if its a residential (120vac) unit then you shouldn't have any problems.