Residential refrigerators

[krsmitty]

We are looking at a new RV with a residential type frig. Works off 110V with an inverter. Sounds like this is getting to be a popular trend?

At first I said no because of the possibility of doing some primitive/dry camping. According to the manufacturer the batteries would keep their charge for about 24 hours running the frig.

But, the wife likes it. Anyone presently using one in their RV?

Thanks,

[John___Angela]

We have one. We dry camp (right now actually). I would recommend 4 batteries and 400 to 500 watts of solar. On sunny days you won't need your genny....depends on how you live of course. We tend to be power hogs so our array is bigger and on cloudy days we run the genny an hour in the morning and an hour at night.

Happy trails.

[westend]

I have a similar dorm sized fridge. My measurements show 40AH-60AH/day, 80W when running. I believe the new, bigger fridges operate at these same low power use levels.

FWIW, my fridge is powered off-grid by 300AH of mixed batteries, a 1000W PSW inverter, and 235W of solar. I don't use a generator if the sun shines. The inverted power also powers my 120V entertainment gear that is used every day.

[dapperdan]

Cummins12V98 wrote:

dapperdan wrote:
Our Suites came equipped with a residential Whirlpool fridge. We LOVE it, we like the size and the extra storage of food it affords us. Your sales guy is pretty close to right on the battery time. We have 2 6 volt batteries and a 1,000 watt inverter that handles the fridge quit well.

On a side note (not to hi-jack this thread) I installed 3 100 watt solar panels on the roof with a MPPT charger, in sunny conditions I don't "need" a generator at all. Too many cloudy days in a row and all bets are off especially here in Wisconsin, :B

I would say go for the residential, it cools faster, holds more and "looks" nicer! :C

Dan

Interesting, they must have changed ours is a KitchenAid. REALLY like it!!!

They must've changed them, ours has water and ice on the left door. :B

Otherwise they look very much alike!

Dan

[Cummins12V98]

dapperdan wrote:
Our Suites came equipped with a residential Whirlpool fridge. We LOVE it, we like the size and the extra storage of food it affords us. Your sales guy is pretty close to right on the battery time. We have 2 6 volt batteries and a 1,000 watt inverter that handles the fridge quit well.

On a side note (not to hi-jack this thread) I installed 3 100 watt solar panels on the roof with a MPPT charger, in sunny conditions I don't "need" a generator at all. Too many cloudy days in a row and all bets are off especially here in Wisconsin, :B

I would say go for the residential, it cools faster, holds more and "looks" nicer! :C

Dan

Interesting, they must have changed ours is a KitchenAid. REALLY like it!!!

[marquette]

I have a dorm size residential fridge that I put a watt meter on and tested for several days. It averaged .85 kwh per day, 90-110 watt running, 1.2 amp draw running on 110v. If my math is right that is 12.14 amp dc when running. Assuming it has a 50% duty cycle per hour it would give about 20-22 hrs of use with 2 6v GC batteries discharged to 50%. With out additional batteries that would require either a generator or solar for charging every day. Assuming there is no 110v hook-up available. My calculations were figured in a vacuum with no allowances for inverter loss, line drop, heat or battery condition.

[Veebyes]

It is all about battery bank size. More amps, less frequent the genny needs to be run but it will need to run longer to recharge. Fewer amp capacity, the more frequent the genny needs to be run but run for a shorter period.

Battery type plays into the equation too. Some have a deeper discharge & a good for more charge cycles than others.

[sch911]

krsmitty wrote:
So, would just plugging the RV back into the TV allow you to use the TV batteries if need be? Are you then using batteries from the RV and TT?

No. The power line from the TV will at best barely maintain the batteries. Definitely not charge them.

[krsmitty]

So, would just plugging the RV back into the TV allow you to use the TV batteries if need be? Are you then using batteries from the RV and TT?

[Sandia_Man]

We are thinking of going that route ourselves since so many manufacturers have them inside their new RVs regardless if it's a class A, 5er or TT. Our current rig that we purchased new 8 years ago has an Dometic fridge, it has performed flawlessly whether it's freezing or 100 degrees outside, guess our unit was installed properly at the factory.

Should our absorption fridge give out we may go with a residential fridge since we already have generator, solar, and a couple of inverters from all the camping off the grid we do. Get whatever RV you want as most any TT, 5er, and of course class A can be optioned with either type of fridge, definitely not a deal breaker by any means. Enjoy your new rig!!!

[pulsar]

krsmitty wrote:

pulsar wrote:
We do a lot of dry camping and have not had an issue with our residential refrigerator. Last summer we camped for 5 days in the Apgar campground in Glacier National Park - no hook-ups, generator restriction to a couple of hours in the morning and couple in the evening. They do allow 2 hours in the mid-day, but we were never there. And we weren't always there in the evening. Anyway, we had no trouble with the batteries being low.

We have 6 12-volt group 31 AGM house batteries and a 2800 watt inverter.

Tom

But, you did run the generator at least once or twice a day?

Yes, but probably didn't need to as much as we did. Sarah had to have her coffee in the morning and she likes to cook in the evenings. On average, I would guess that we ran the generator for 2 hours each day. I will add that we have done 2 night weekends, without running the generator, but we were using much electricity other than the refrigerator - no furnace, or television. In the evenings, we were out by the campfire, so we really didn't use lights very much.

Tom

[dapperdan]

krsmitty wrote:

pulsar wrote:
We do a lot of dry camping and have not had an issue with our residential refrigerator. Last summer we camped for 5 days in the Apgar campground in Glacier National Park - no hook-ups, generator restriction to a couple of hours in the morning and couple in the evening. They do allow 2 hours in the mid-day, but we were never there. And we weren't always there in the evening. Anyway, we had no trouble with the batteries being low.

We have 6 12-volt group 31 AGM house batteries and a 2800 watt inverter.

Tom

But, you did run the generator at least once or twice a day?

With 6 batteries! Probably not, I talked to a campground host last year, they had 8 batteries in their class A, they can boondock for 5 or 6 days without generator use. Course that's what the guy "said", I have no way of proving it but it's believable, depending on how you use YOUR electricity, everybody's different.

Dan

[krsmitty]

pulsar wrote:
We do a lot of dry camping and have not had an issue with our residential refrigerator. Last summer we camped for 5 days in the Apgar campground in Glacier National Park - no hook-ups, generator restriction to a couple of hours in the morning and couple in the evening. They do allow 2 hours in the mid-day, but we were never there. And we weren't always there in the evening. Anyway, we had no trouble with the batteries being low.

We have 6 12-volt group 31 AGM house batteries and a 2800 watt inverter.

Tom

But, you did run the generator at least once or twice a day?

[dapperdan]

Our Suites came equipped with a residential Whirlpool fridge. We LOVE it, we like the size and the extra storage of food it affords us. Your sales guy is pretty close to right on the battery time. We have 2 6 volt batteries and a 1,000 watt inverter that handles the fridge quit well.

On a side note (not to hi-jack this thread) I installed 3 100 watt solar panels on the roof with a MPPT charger, in sunny conditions I don't "need" a generator at all. Too many cloudy days in a row and all bets are off especially here in Wisconsin, :B

I would say go for the residential, it cools faster, holds more and "looks" nicer! :C

Dan

[Wumba]

Have one in ours and love it! Cools down in a fraction of the time the old one did, has an ice maker, and HUGE amounts of storage. If it's an option, do it!! I've run mine off the inverter/batteries for an 8 hr. road trip and it worked like a champ.