Fridge, new house fridge vs rebuild old rv fridge

[stevemorris]

our 15 yr old dometic is working reasonably well, but thinking ahead!!
rebuild it or replace it with an inexpensive house fridge which of course is 120 vac only. rv fridge is in great shape cosmetically
we very rarely dry camp, maybe 1 night at a walmart once in a while
running a 120 volt fridge off an inverter is probably not an option, we only have one "normal sized" rv battery and really don't want to expand on that
so really two issues, running the fridge on the road and when dry camping.
thoughts/opinions?

[GordonThree]

Fridge should keep fine without power parked overnight for a few hours, just keep the door closed. Keep a frozen water bottle in the freezer that you can move to the fridge before shutting down.

[Big_Katuna]

Airdaile wrote:
Be sure to consider the new 120VAC/12VDC veriable speed compressor RV refrigerators. They draw around 8 amps DC.

This. My Norcold 1200 failed and I replaced with an Amish built as the compressor type wasn’t available yet.

Definitely the way I’d go.

[BFL13]

Get one of these next time they are on sale. Try it out at home with your stick house fridge to be sure it will handle the surges--it has enough watts to run it. (I have run 120v fridges on MSW inverter--you do not need PSW for that) This has 700w plus surge. Reports on this forum say that you need at least a 600w inverter with a res fridge in an RV.

If it does not do it, they accept returns, so worth a try IMO.

Then carry it with you when you RV all the time anyway. Could be very handy for other things that happen!

You could run the fridge with it going down the road and recharge it on shore power when you get there each day. At Walmart overnight, I don't know how long this would go. You can clamp it to your house battery to get extra time. Going down the road following that night until you get 120 again would need some help from alternator/7-pin 12v.

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/motomaster-eliminator-powerbox-2000-0112028p.html#srp

[Airdaile]

Be sure to consider the new 120VAC/12VDC veriable speed compressor RV refrigerators. They draw around 8 amps DC.

[donn0128]

If you want to be proactive spend 5-6 hundred dollars on an Amish cooling unit and put it in now.

[midnightsadie]

it ain,t broke ,I,d leave it alone.