My experience with Amish cooling unit

[tjblocker]

I recently purchased a 3231CK fiver. If came with a huge beautiful fridge which is the Norcold 2118. This beautiful huge stainless fridge had one problem, it doesn't work very well. When outside temps reach 100 the fridge temp would be 45+ and the freezer would be 20+. The cooling unit was grossly undersized, and has been for some time now. It also used a crazy amount of power or 30# propane a week. It's a true power hog.
So I upgraded the cooling unit to one of the JC Refrigeration dual 12 volt units. This unit works quite well. However, there is one issue that anyone doing this should be aware of. The instructions state that it might be necessary to run new 10 awg wire. The factory wire might not be large enough. My installer discovered this when the freezer compressor would not even start and the fridge gave low DC warning. So, he ran 10awg as advised by the company.

I've since checked this with several online wire calculators and find that the 10 awg is no where near large enough. We should have run 4 or 6 awg. This is because my fridge is in a slideout so the new wires had to be run from the front storage all the way aft to enter the slideout cabling entry and then forward again. This allows wires to work with slideout movement. The run was 50ft total.
If I had it to do again I would have chosen the 120 volt unit. If you're fridge is in a slideout, then consider the length of the conductor.

Note that this cooling unit works outstanding. My freezer temps are -4 to 2 degrees and fridge temps are 32-35 with no ice but it is "hurt the teeth" cold.

Hope this helps someone

[artfuldodger]

Yes this is very timely as I am very close to ordering from JCRefrigeration. I didn,t know whether to go 12 v or 120 v. We boondock almost exclusively with our 3720. We are tired of going to the propane store once a week when the sun can supply the power we need. We have a 3000 watt inverter, 300 lithium amp hrs, and 720 watts of panels. We are going to change the fridge and then assess whether our system needs an upgrade and where.

[Butch & Kathy]

Thanks for the info tjblocker. I have been fighting my fridge temps (2118) also since 2016. Camping now in NC and TN where temps are quite cool and the unit works well. The other 9 months of the year it’s a struggle so I’ve been considering an Amish cooling unit.

I’ve been mostly considering keeping it propane, we very seldom boondock and have no solar installed. My concern with the 12v model was wiring and battery capacity, the 115v will require a converter to be installed. Anyone else have experience with these?

Curious as to how much your tech charged for the installation…

[tjblocker]

I think he charged me about 900 dollars. I think It would have been much less if it had not been necessary to run new conductor. Once they finished initial installation (which took about 6 hours labor) the fridge did not work so that had to be troubleshot. It took a little while for FC Refrigeration to call back. It also took a bit of time to actually route the conductor for it travels aft to the back end of the slideout and there it enters the harness of other cables and such and travels forward in the slideout to the fridge. Had to remove a fireplace too.

Before doing this I had 800 watts of solar and 300ah lithium battery. This was not enough. I've installed a second 300ah battery and am installing 600 more solar. We have other large demands on our battery bank but I would not do this with lead acid batteries. My battery bank is not reaching full charge every day and this is murder for lead acid.

On an aside, I contacted JC Refrigeration and they sent me a list of technicians that have installed their cooling units. I found my installer via this list.

Good luck to you

[AZ Traveler]

Tom,

Thanks for the good feedback.

I added ARP with extra fans to my 2118 reefer. I miss the -15 in the freezer to keep ice cream hard. My freezer stays 0 - +5 and fridge at 35-40. It works better on propane than electric.

If I bought a new rig I would likely do a residential but this current unit has been good.

[Mikelff]

Originally Posted by artfuldodger

Yes this is very timely as I am very close to ordering from JCRefrigeration. I didn,t know whether to go 12 v or 120 v. We boondock almost exclusively with our 3720. We are tired of going to the propane store once a week when the sun can supply the power we need. We have a 3000 watt inverter, 300 lithium amp hrs, and 720 watts of panels. We are going to change the fridge and then assess whether our system needs an upgrade and where.

I have a Dometic 1350, their largest unit. I had nothing but issues trying to keep it cold. On my way to Michigan I had JC Refrigeration install a 12 volt compressor conversion. Was worth every penny. Factory install was around $300 if I remember right. They ran a 10 awg wire directly to my battery with a resettable in line fuse.
I went with the 12 volt model so I can let the fridge run while traveling and not worry about propane or having to install an inverter. The 12 volt system does not require one. While it is running (once cold, it will cycle the compressor) it pulls about 6 amps. My truck puts out about 7 amps to the 5er, so I end up using very little of the battery reserve. I don’t boondock, so When I hook up to 50 amp service my fridge doesn’t miss a beat. Any battery reserve use is recharged in a matter of minutes. If I were boondocking with a lithium battery bank and plenty of solar or a generator. I think I would still go with the 12 volt system. Personal preference. My fridge is in a slide out and JC ran the wire from my slide, along the frame rail to my battery. Have had the new system about 1 1/2 year with NO issues. Comes with a 3 year warranty and an option to buy an additional 3 years. Freezer gets to -15 to -19, the fridge will get as cold as 35 at night but holds 36-38 in 100+ degree weather. Cool down is about 5 hours in hot weather and temp recovery from use is a matter of minutes not hours. The build is pretty robust for all the vibration it takes while traveling. Far more robust than a residential fridge. Much heavier tubing and vibration resistance. I did not have to try to find something that would fit in my fridge opening because I already had a box to fit. I wouldn’t hesitate recommending this system conversion. Not cheap, but for me worth every penny. Rock hard ice cream and cold beer!