Broke refrigerator

[chester490]

Our Norcold frig went out. After having it worked on several times, we have decided, we would like to replace it with a residential frig. However, our door is 24 inches wide and i am having a problem finding a frig that will fit through the door. They are all mostly 3/8" too wide. I was told that it could be brought through the windshield, but the repair facility we usually do business with said that would run 600-1000 dollars! I have found a Haier brand frig, that has a depth of 23 inches. It looks like it would be perfect. My worry is that I read several bad reviews about the quality of this frig. Does anyone out there have one of these or know anything about the durability of them? I very much appreciate any info anyone can share with me. Thanks

[pnichols]

Our particular Norcold is frost free for some reason. No frost forms in it's fresh food or freezer sections except for, eventually (after several weeks), some frost on the cooling fins.

I can force our freezer to sub-zero if needed - but it's not needed by us.

More capacity in the same space I've never looked into or noticed ... as our capacity seems generous as designed in by Winnebago per the size of our rig.

Minimal fire risk could be an important consideration if absorption refrigeration fires were "common throughout the RV world". I hope I never have one. Propane refrigerators have been used in cabins and homes for decades ... I assume mostly safely. I stayed in one for a bit last year and it's propane refrigerator seemed to serve us just fine.

Cost may be a main reason for replacing an absorption RV refrigerator with a compressor one. If one is willing to give up some of the off-grid advantages of not depending upon constant and somewhat intensive electrical sourcing, then compressor refrigeration can be made to work in certain environments. It depends upon what style one wants to use for their camping.

[TenOC]

sch911 wrote:

No problem! They run on an inverter. Which runs on batteries. In most cases can go several hours.

How big an inverter?? Will the TV keep the battery charged while driving? More information than "several Hours".

Sorry, I did not read all the posting. I have my answer..

[Dutch_12078]

pnichols wrote:

Based on our experience with two motorhomes over the years (a 1969 Chinook and a 2005 Itasca), I don't understand the need for a compressor refrigerator instead of an absorption refrigerator in an RV. :h

How about frost free, stable temps with a sub-zero freezer, more capacity in the same space, minimal fire risk, and less than half the cost of a replacement RV absorption fridge. Works for us...

[pnichols]

What on Earth is going on with late model absorption refrigerator quality, anway? Or is the problem how (wrong) RV manufacturers are installing them?

Our 12 year old Norcold RV absorption refrig works great. We use it most of the time on only it's mid-point cooling setting ... with two more colder settings remaining if we want a 1 to 5 degree freezer section instead of a 10 degree freezer section and sometimes-frozen milk in the fresh food section! For an average 10 degree freezer section and an average 38 degree fresh food section, the mid-range setting is all that's required. Does our RV's dual-mode Norcold hold it's temperatures "rock solid" like our home's digitally controlled residential refrigerator does within our home's highly controlled kitchen temperature environment ... no it doesn't. However, the "average" day-in/day-out temperatures inside the Norcold RV refrigerator - whether on propane or electricity - are plenty good enough without any battery capacity, or inverter capacity, or solar capacity, or alternator capacity concerns, whether hookup camping or drycamping or going down the road.

Based on our experience with two motorhomes over the years (a 1969 Chinook and a 2005 Itasca), I don't understand the need for a compressor refrigerator instead of an absorption refrigerator in an RV. :h

[SCVJeff]

naturist wrote:

MrWizard wrote:
X2 doors come off easy, made to be reversible,
just take the doors off

anybody with 'any' mechanical ability, can remove screws and remove a window and put it back
it doesn't take a $1000 service job to take out a window and lift a fridge in
s

Windshields, however, are not held in with screws. They are glued in and it's not so simple to remove and replace one.

i watched them replace my glass and it's amazingly easy to crack one, that I doubt they will guarantee won't happen.

I swapped the cooling out with Helium that works way better than the Norcold OEM. If the manufacturers made the OEM fridge this good I doubt residential would have taken off like it has

[MrWizard]

naturist wrote:

MrWizard wrote:
X2 doors come off easy, made to be reversible,
just take the doors off

anybody with 'any' mechanical ability, can remove screws and remove a window and put it back
it doesn't take a $1000 service job to take out a window and lift a fridge in
s

Windshields, however, are not held in with screws. They are glued in and it's not so simple to remove and replace one.

And why does it have to be the windshield ?

In this RV, there are two windows in the front half of the RV, large enough to pass a fridge
One over the sofa
One over the dining table, right next to where the fridge goes

I know RV window size varies, but even slide outs have windows
And most MHs have at least one window large enough
Again this goes back to the size of the fridge
And i did say unless a large French door fridge

[azrving]

garyemunson
Good point. I dont want to get too far off track here but I have had the basic strategy with my last 2 rv that they should be self sufficient and not put a demand on my tv. My resi frig pulls about 6.x amps so why put that load on my alternator? My inverter pulls 1/2 an amp so I'm at 7.6 to 8 amps when frig kicks on.

After pulling a rental trailer one time which had a short in the wiring with my 2012 Chevy Traverse it blew out a tail light bulb and set a code. It wouldn't shut off unless I pulled the battery cable off! It was a lease so I just took it to the dealer but it took 4 days for them to find the problem. They had replaced the body module, ecm and checked all sorts of stuff. When the tech was putting it on the hoist another tech mentioned to him that it had a brake light out. That bulb looked like it exploded and melted and that was the problem. The simple days of blowing a fuse are over.

If I could get away with my 2014 Ram not even being electrically connected to my rv I'd be happy. Todays vehicles = space ship, rv = death virus. 🙂

[Dutch_12078]

Our Haier residential fridge runs fine on a Samlex 600 watt (1200 watt surge) PSW inverter with just two Group 29 batteries. The max running watts is about 240 (2 amps) and the max starting watts is about 720 (6 amps). The same two batteries run all the other 12-volt devices in our coach. The residential fridge run time is much lower than our RV fridge was. A daily 2 hour generator run tops the batteries up easily when boondocking. If we did more boondocking, I would invest in a solar system, but that's not likely at this stage of our RV'ing life. I should also mention that before I installed the fridge inverter, we had no problem driving up to 6 hours a day without the fridge temps going up significantly. Our typical drive time is usually no more than 4 hours though, so there really wasn't any need to keep it powered while underway.

[garyemunson]

Residential fridges work fine in RVs but keep in mind that in order to work while driving, you will need a large enough inverter and enough batteries to do the job until you hook up (for pull behinds). Motorhomes are better suited as they can more easily keep the batteries charged. Another assumption here is that the motorhome is newer with a big enough alternator to keep up (new Ford F53 chassis come with 175 amp alternator because of this). Putting in a residential fridge and humongous inverter and larger battery bank can overheat (and toast) an older rig's charging system. Residential fridges can be very workable..just remember it's not just the fridge..it's the entire system. Having been an RVer for 40+ years, I've gotten attached to the absorption refrigerators as, with proper maintenance, they are pretty much the most durable system you can have for refrigeration. Keep the coils clean and if you live in a high humidity area, just keep it plugged in as your beer cooler to keep the coils hot (and dry) to minimize rust damage.

[Dutch_12078]

The guys from Home Depot that delivered our Haier 10 cu ft fridge had no problem bringing it through our coach doorway with the fridge doors in place. They did temporarily tape pieces of cardboard to the sides just in case, but they weren't needed. I did not have them slide it into the fridge space though, because I wanted to run it for a couple of hours to make sure it ran properly before putting it in place. Our Haier runs fine on our pure sine wave inverter.

[azrving]

Getting it through the door is the first issue but providing the required clearances in the cabinet is also important. I wanted a model with the coil on the back not built into the sides. I first bought Magic Chef/Haier and returned it right away. They said do not run on an inverter and in my case they meant it. Others may have had better luck. My door opening is 27 3/4 and the frig measures 24 wide but puckers out at mid point on the sides probably because of the insulation inside.

Whirlpool was one that only required an inch or so on the sides and top. I dont remember all of it exactly as it's been almost a year since I installed mine. As my updated post shows this Whirlpool used 70 amp hours in 24 hour time frame and that included at least one defrost cycle.

If you are just going to local campgrounds cool it down before you go and plug in when you get there.

If you are in a campground and the power goes out for many hours, yes you may want to be on an inverter.

If you are traveling many hours per day you may want to move it onto an inverter and let the tow vehicle keep it running.


If you are boondocking a lot you will be on an inverter and will be best off to go with solar or run the generator a lot.

I guesstimate my risk with all the modifications that I do and give this one about a 3 year window. It cost me $485 delivered from Best Buy. If it only lasts 3 years that equals $161 per year or the equivalent of about 2 tanks of diesel. I would never go back to using a propane frig.

[Trackrig]

Take out one of the side windows, they're held in with screws and a sealing strip. It will take any RV shop a hour at most to take it out and replace it. I've had all of my windows and frames replaced.

Bill

[Dutch_12078]

I replaced our original Norcold 7.5 cu ft fridge with a Haier 10 cu ft residential fridge a couple of years ago. It fit almost perfectly into the existing opening, requiring just some minor trim work to finish it off. I installed a couple of double hung window latches to secure the doors while underway. I haven't tried to see how long it'll run on our two battery inverter setup, but we only ran the generator for a couple of hours each day while boondocking for a week with no fridge problems. With about 12,000 miles of travel with the Haier in place so far, we haven't seen any reliability issues. The only other mod I made to it besides the door latches was to repurpose one of the wire shelves from the old freezer section to fit into the new freezer section. The temperatures are more stable than the old fridge, there's more storage space, it's frost free, and it cost a lot less than a new RV fridge. What's not to like? 😉

[Sam_Spade]

jerseyjim wrote:
Junk the Norcold, get a Dometic. Easy in, easy out. Stay with the gas/electric units designed for the bouncing around of an rv, plus....the electric goes out...whattaya' do with an "residential" unit?

That's why they're called "residential".

Anyone considering this kind of a move needs to consider it VERY CAREFULLY because the cost and hassle of getting the "residential" unit installed is just the start of a slippery slope......that probably includes a costly inverter, more batteries, a better charger/inverter and maybe even a bigger generator or some solar.

Mine just quit and I appreciate the Dometic recommendation. I would NEVER consider a "real" residential fridge......but might consider a larger one made for RV use.