Refrigerator

[truckee8695]

My wife and I just picked up our new 2014 keystone passport ultra lite from the dealer and going on first trip in a few weeks I was wondering when we turn on our refrigerator a day before we leave to get it cooled down. The question I have is do we leave it on as we travel down the road or turn it off until we get to our camp site about an hour and. Half away. Any feed back will help a lot thanks

[wolfsong328]

We let ours run the night before . Just before we leave , we turn it off and I put re usable(frozen) ice packs it the fridge and freezer .
We have a LARGE cooler that rides inside the camper that holds meats and any mayo based salads.

[tenbear]

Check out this thread.

[Caveman_Charlie]

Old-Biscuit wrote:

My understanding was the gas burner provided more BTU than the electric element

The fridge is more efficient on gas. It will cool down faster with a flame than with the element.

The propane flame does provide higher BTU rating than the electric element BUT is less efficient in providing the needed BTUs in the correct place. The element is attached directly to the perk tube at the correct place for proper transfer of heat to ammonia solution where as the propane flame needs a flue baffle to disperse the heat and rest of heat flows out the chimney.

BTUs transferred to ammonia solution is about the same whether on propane or electric.

Thanks for the info. I always start my fridge before my weekend trips. By what you have said I will precool it on electric for faster cool down, I understand it still takes some time.

[popeyemth]

Old-Biscuit wrote:

My understanding was the gas burner provided more BTU than the electric element

The fridge is more efficient on gas. It will cool down faster with a flame than with the element.

The propane flame does provide higher BTU rating than the electric element BUT is less efficient in providing the needed BTUs in the correct place. The element is attached directly to the perk tube at the correct place for proper transfer of heat to ammonia solution where as the propane flame needs a flue baffle to disperse the heat and rest of heat flows out the chimney.

BTUs transferred to ammonia solution is about the same whether on propane or electric.

I think I was remembering what I was told about the water heater
I stand corrected.
Thanks,Mike

[Old-Biscuit]

My understanding was the gas burner provided more BTU than the electric element

The fridge is more efficient on gas. It will cool down faster with a flame than with the element.

The propane flame does provide higher BTU rating than the electric element BUT is less efficient in providing the needed BTUs in the correct place. The element is attached directly to the perk tube at the correct place for proper transfer of heat to ammonia solution where as the propane flame needs a flue baffle to disperse the heat and rest of heat flows out the chimney.

BTUs transferred to ammonia solution is about the same whether on propane or electric.

[doxiluvr]

Ours is set on AUTO and that enables it to switch to propane if the electric is off.

[aftermath]

Today's RV fridges are gas or 110 volts. I don't believe you can get a 12 volt fridge any more.

The fridge is more efficient on gas. It will cool down faster with a flame than with the element. Once at temperature, either system should work fine.

Gas fumes are much heavier than air. At a pump they would collect at ground level and not jump up and into the motor home. Of course there could have been bigger problems like a leak in the tank intake or some other malfunction. Since a trailer does not have an on board gas tank, the chances of a fire or explosion due to the fridge running remains infinitesimally small.

[Caveman_Charlie]

You can leave it on. I do and have had no problems. As someone said when parked make sure the trailer is level or you can damage the fridge. While traveling the motion of the trailer keeps everything in the fridge's working parts in motion and that's why there is no damage being done while your moving.

[Boband4]

scotty1946 wrote:
We switch ours over to 12 volt mode and have traveled as much as 5 hours. I understand that some people switch to propane with o problem.

Curious about your rig. I havent seen TT's with 12V refridgerators. When I was reading about them it seemed that they draw too much current and ran the risk of burning up the TV alternator. Can you fill us in?

[Huntindog]

old guy wrote:
I fought a gas station fire a few years back where a motor home turned his tank off but no the frig. he started to gas up and fumes got into the frig and the spark ignited the fumes and burned up his MH and a UPS truck next to it. I now travel with the tank off and the frig off and put in reusable ice packs around the food and haven't had a problem with loosing food this way. But yes turn on the frig a few days in advance and make sure the food you put in is cold too, or you defeat your purpose.

The air to fuel ratio for gasoline needs to be in a pretty narrow range of about 14 to 1 in order to explode. Such a range is very hard to achieve in a open air setting such as a gas station, not to mention that the air would not be breathable long before it got to that point.

And if it were to occur, starting a vehicle would provide the spark as well. :E

[popeyemth]

Old-Biscuit wrote:

Gsragtop wrote:
Question, someone said the two way units run colder (or get colder faster) on gas then electric.. Is this true??

NO

A BTU is a BTU regardless of heat source

My understanding was the gas burner provided more BTU than the electric element

[old_guy]

I fought a gas station fire a few years back where a motor home turned his tank off but no the frig. he started to gas up and fumes got into the frig and the spark ignited the fumes and burned up his MH and a UPS truck next to it. I now travel with the tank off and the frig off and put in reusable ice packs around the food and haven't had a problem with loosing food this way. But yes turn on the frig a few days in advance and make sure the food you put in is cold too, or you defeat your purpose.

[Old-Biscuit]

Gsragtop wrote:
Question, someone said the two way units run colder (or get colder faster) on gas then electric.. Is this true??

NO

A BTU is a BTU regardless of heat source

[Gsragtop]

Question, someone said the two way units run colder (or get colder faster) on gas then electric.. Is this true??