Residential refrigerators

They are very prevalent in Class A MH's who usually have large battery banks. And are standard equipment in many. But there also have been several stories about others who have had success too. Keep in mid though that when boondocking you will need a power source to recharge your batteries every day. Common sources would be a generator, 200W or more solar panels, etc. A charge line to your TV is not among these. Good Luck.

We replaced our failing absorption fridge with a residential fridge, and haven't been at all sorry we did. It maintains much more stable temps and only gains a few degrees after 8 hours with no power. For most of our travel from park to park, usually lasting less than 4 hours, we don't even bother turning on the inverter.

The new EnergyStar refers are very, very efficient. My 21 CuFt Whirlpool uses less than 100W when running... yes, less than a 100W bulb or less than 10 12V halogen ceiling lights. I would want at least four batteries and a PSW inverter.
I did not switch until last year because we boondock often... wish I'd switched sooner. Here is my DIY swap of a NoCold 1200.

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

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.

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

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?

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 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