Residential Frig Install ??

[supercub]

I have 4 house batteries and a 2000 watt invertor in my motorhome. If I ever decide to install a Res Frig..........is it necessary to install a seperate invertor and additional batteries........or can I use the existing componets that I have. Thanks
Brian

[John___Angela]

I think your existing components will be fine BUT

1. make sure the model you select will work with a MSW inverter if that is what you have, The RF107 Samsung will do that. The unit we selected did not but we had a sine wave inverter so it didn't matter.

2 I think any residential fridge install should include 400 watts or more of solar on the roof. Its not expensive and pretty much returns any dry camping capacity you may have lost in converting to a residential.

3. If taking this approach I can't think of any downside to converting to a residential. There are however many upsides. Once in awhile you will see a post about someone mentioning that converting to residential will lower the resale value of the coach. I disagree and believe the contrary. If I was looking at a new or used coach I would look at a coach without a residential as a future expense as it would have to be changed out immediately after purchase. I doubt you will be able to buy a middle to upper end coach in the next few years that has an RV fridge. There are no downsides to a residential if the coach is properly equipped. For the record we are avid dry campers and full timers. I have converted mine and been involved in two others.

Good luck and happy camping.

[Bill_Satellite]

supercub wrote:
I have 4 house batteries and a 2000 watt invertor in my motorhome. If I ever decide to install a Res Frig..........is it necessary to install a seperate invertor and additional batteries........or can I use the existing componets that I have. Thanks
Brian

I did just that for many, many years. Your inverter is fine be it MSW or PSW (TSW). You do need to ensure you have enough battery capacity but otherwise, no issues. Saying you have 4 batteries does not answer the question. I have 4 batteries but they are 4 8D Lifeline AGM batteries giving me in excess of 1000AH. You batteries likely provide less AH's and you need to find out what that are and what they can do.

[hanko]

I think the OP ask if the stuff he has would work or not.

[larry_barnhart]

Simple answers usually means another question. I like simple and he is probably correct. L

[JR45]

We did the switch from the Not-So-Cold that lived up to it name to the Samsung 197, wife loves it pluse it keep the beer at 38deg and the ice cream at -2deg. I have (4) 6v batteries but I did switch the inverter to the Magnum 2812 just because things run better on PSW, like house current. I will be hooking up an Auto Gen-Set start that way if the batteries drop below 12.2v the gen-set starts.
JR

[tropical36]

hanko wrote:

smkettner wrote:
Existing is fine.

At least one person gave a simple straight answer

Yeah, except it's never simple and we don't know if the OP is never going to stay more than one night without power or if he's planning on boon docking in the desert for a week or more. I mean if you just want to run a fridge, even 500watts will do that easily and the amount of battery power will dictate on how long you can do so, before the inverter trips out.

[hanko]

smkettner wrote:
Existing is fine.

At least one person gave a simple straight answer

[tropical36]

supercub wrote:
I have 4 house batteries and a 2000 watt invertor in my motorhome. If I ever decide to install a Res Frig..........is it necessary to install a seperate invertor and additional batteries........or can I use the existing componets that I have. Thanks
Brian

We have a 1K inverter and two 6v batteries by comparison and have no plans to change it, as we're running the OEM fridge on it now. Naturally it won't last all that long without power, but it does serve most of our purposes and especially while going down the road.

[bob_b1]

I have 1000-watt inverter running from only 2 Trojan T-125 batteries. It is powering a 10 cu-ft fridge at 1-amp. I went tailgating recently without an issue. I precooled the fridge Thursday night from while plugged in to my house. I started off the trip on Friday morning, ran the generator for 4 hours. On Saturday, I ran the generator for about 4 more hours. On Sunday, I ran the generator for an hour.

Next weekend, I went on a trip 7 hours one way and then 8 hours back.

I never had a problem at any time with low batteries, but then again, I wasn't trying to go several days on the batteries alone.

I would imagine that 4 batteries would be ideal.

[supercub]

About the only thing I run on the invertor would be the entertainment equipment.....anything else, like AC's, Microwave, I turn on the generator.
If the engine alternator keeps the batteries charged while driving, then I don't see a problem there. The only other problem, might be dry camping.........and if I had to run the generator in the morning for awhile and the evening for awhile, I don't see a problem, for the type of camping I do.......actually, I do very little dry camping........genertor is always there if I need it.

[time2roll]

Existing is fine.

[Sandia_Man]

As long as you don't exceed the inverter's 2K watt limit when adding the fridge to whatever else the inverter happens to be powering your current inverter should suffice. Whether you need additional batteries depends on amperage demand and length of time you intend to power these devices with your inverter without draining batteries below 50% capacity.

[cat199]

Depends on how long you want to go boondocking. We have a Samsung 197 with 4
house batteries and 2000 watt modified sine. Have used for about 1 1/2 years with no problems. If off the grid I run the generator for about 1 hour in the morning and 1 in the morning we're good. The alternator on the MH keeps the everything charged while we are driving.one of the best mods we've done.

[2oldman]

residential fridge- boondocking 09
Resi-boondock 2014

household refer and inverter2009
Household refer Class A 2009