RV vs Residential refrigerator

[EricHarmon]

PeteMorris,

Oh! I think the RV versions I was seeing in listings were mainly 8 to 12 CF, and I had concerns about that size. Not that I want to carry 500 pounds of food around with me, but I also don't want to grocery shop every meal. An 18CF RV fridge is something worth exploring. Fortunately, I have all kinds of time to keep my mind open and consider all the different angles :-)

-Eric

[DarMar]

One thing you might want to consider is the breakdown frequency of each size.

We know that no matter whether it's Dometic or Norcold they can both produce the same crap.

After talking in length to one of our regular rv techs he firmly believes the larger the fridge unit is the more prone to breakdown, largely due to longer run times and excessive heat as the unit size increases. JMHO

[mjammersc]

quote:Originally posted by Bigboomer

Late to the party but we love our residential frig. When our Dometic 1350 pooped the bed it was a no brainer. Our Samsung is very efficient and has plenty of room.

Boomer, curious what do you measure as the power draw on the Samsung when cooling vs idle and what do you see as the duty cycle of how often it is cooling?

[JandC]

I think Richfa mentioned that they utilized a small second frig in their basement storage area for extra space. When we were full time in our Montana we did the same thing. Even with the larger RV Norcold frig we found that we needed the extra frig space for drinks and stuff, which is a PITA because we never had enough basement storage area anyway and didn't need a small frig taking up the space.

I think you have to open the frig at your current home and imagine getting by with about 1/3 the freezer space and about half the cooling space. If you are part time in your RV then it may work okay, but full time traveling IMHO the large residential frig is the only way to go.

[airboatart]

We have had our 3721rl for little over a year full timing it. We have had no problems with the residential frig. and my wife loves it.

[Bigboomer]

quote:Originally posted by mjammersc

Boomer, curious what do you measure as the power draw on the Samsung when cooling vs idle and what do you see as the duty cycle of how often it is cooling?

On average we see about a draw of 7 amps per hour. We have a Trimetric 2030 meter to measure all draws on the battery bank. Between the residential frig, residential freezer, inverter and misc. Phantom draws we will draw 160 total amps over a 10 hour period overnight. Usually th e batteries are back to 100% by mid afternoon on a good sunny day.

[barryn]

We have a 2015 Montana 3720RL and when the fridge goes we too will replace it with a RV fridge. LP is easy for us and also one 30lb tank will last 4-5 days with just the RV fridge running

[7.3Ford]

I have a 2015 3611RL with residential fridge. I have about 800 Watts of Solar on the roof, and 800 AH of Lithium Batteries. I have a Xantrex 2000 Watt Pro Sine Inverter, which I plan to replace here shortly with a Magnum Inverter.

I am still working, so I don't have I lot of data boondocking. From what I can tell, we use 230-240 AH per day (fridge, sat recever, etc). On a sunny day we get 340 AH out of our panels without tilting. If I need more power, I can pull the spare panel out of the basement, and point it at morning and evening sun to increase my power generation by another 80-100 AH (just guessing here).

I use to go over the day before we left and turn on the fridge. I find that isn't necessary. Now I go to storage the day we are leaving, turn the fridge on, hook the Monty up an pull it over to the house. By the time I get fresh water in the tank, and our stuff loaded up the fridge is down to 2-4 degrees in the freezer and the fridge part is around 38 degrees. There is also power freeze buttons that will cool down the unit even faster.

I used power freeze button one time, don't remember the numbers, but fridge was below 32 and freezer was -6 or something like that, buy the time we were ready to load the fridge in approximately 3 hours from when I turned it on.

[topjustice]

May I ask where are the residential refrigerator special batteries and inverter physically located in relation to the refrigerator on the 3791RD?

[WaltBennett]

While I've no experience with the larger side by side double-door RV refers, I've never had a smaller propane & electric freezer/refer one fail in over 25 years of RVs, trailers and now a 5er. We've one in our Montana and it holds all we need for at least a week without shopping - but there's just my wife and I (and the two dogs). We don't worry about overnighting anywhere and can boondock or use overflows with no worries. Only reason to use a generator is when needing air conditioning while boondocking.

It really boils down to what YOU think you'll want to do. If you've kids or grandkids, you'll need more space for food. Otherwise, having all that extra space can cause things to move around while you're traveling - sometimes with negative results. If it's got an icemaker, you'll have to winterize it along with everything else once a year. And if you get one in a new 5er, it'll cost about twice what it would from a discount store.

[JABURKHOLDER]

Originally Posted by topjustice

May I ask where are the residential refrigerator special batteries and inverter physically located in relation to the refrigerator on the 3791RD?

Open the basement door under the bedroom slide, look up and to your left. The inverter is mounted to the "roof" of the storage compartment. There are no "special" batteries, just two "house" batteries in the battery box. Above the battery box, mounted on the wall, is a switch that sends power to the inverter.