On the subject of refrigerators - Montana Owners Club

BB_TX · 08-18-2015, 04:10 PM

Did not want to jump in the other refrigerator thread.

We are still in the looking mode and will not be buying until next year. But one question I have is regarding the residential vs the "standard" refrigerater. We will never full time. We take 3-4 short trips of a few days per year, and at least one long one of 2-3 weeks. Generally around 35 days total. It is not unusual to have a day when we are on the road 6-8 hours or even longer on occasion.

So. Is there a reason to go with the residential? Or would the "standard" one be the better choice considering our usuage. I am assuming the "standard" one runs on 120 vac or propane like our current one does.

scattershot · 08-18-2015, 04:41 PM

I personally wouldn't buy an RV without a propane/110 refrigerator.

Eagleback · 08-19-2015, 12:12 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by scattershot

I personally wouldn't buy an RV without a propane/110 refrigerator.

I would agree. We full time in ours and with living in southwest Florida, I like the idea if we needed to leave due to my job moving me again or the power outages from the many summer storms, its nice to have the gas backup. But on the other hand its nice to get more storage from the bigger fridges. so in the end its your choice, but ours is a 110/Gas fridge.

jfaberna · 08-19-2015, 12:14 AM

My RVing has always been done with Propane/120V refrigerators. I turn on my fridge the day before we load up when the Monty is at the storage lot. Then we load up and hit the road. I've heard to do that with a residential fridge may cause you to have a lot more batteries than you would normally need for a none Solar situation.

WeBeFulltime · 08-19-2015, 02:01 AM

If my usage was as yours is, I would go with the "standard" RV reefer. I would also get a 8-10 cf one instead of the larger one that has given so many problems.

1retired06 · 08-19-2015, 02:28 AM

My only comment, research carefully the Dometic 1350 four door in a slideout. In 30 years of trailering, have never had a refrigerator issue until our 2015. The big frigs in a slideout are prone to heating issues, because instead of a vent in the roof, two side vents which complicate things. Our dealer has replaced dozens of the cooling units in them, which is fine if under warranty. I talked with Dometic re ours, and they admitted more problems than expected with that model, and they tend to operate warmer than desired. Based on my experience so far, if I was to buy a new rig, I would get the two door RV frig instead of what we have now. Ours works fine now, but I had to juryrig an additional vent fan.

**DQDick** · 08-19-2015, 03:08 AM

Standard for us also. If we need to stop at a truck stop or Cracker Barrel due to weather or just want to we need to be able to do propane. We also boondock from time to time, but that wasn't the issue on this thread.

BB_TX · 08-19-2015, 04:22 AM

Thanks for all the help. Confirms my thinking. We do not boondock or do parking lots. But once we were forced to evacuate our campground due to forest fires and it was 24 hours before we could find a site anywhere due to all the other evacuees. And since we do not boondock or do parking lots, we do not have a generator. And of course, there is always the possibility of a breakdown on the side of the highway. Been there one time also. Unusual situations, but can happen.

Good info on the questionable reliability of the larger standard units. Our current one is in a slide with no top vent and has never been a problem. But its an older unit and smaller fridge. But don't want to get into a new problem either.

Virginia Young · 08-19-2015, 04:52 AM

We have the Dometic four-door in a slide and have had several cooling issues. Sometimes it works great for weeks - then it struggles to stay even a little cool for awhile. We are experiencing this issue right now. Of course, the unit is now 13 months old. Guess we will see what this costs us . . .

ckwizard · 08-19-2015, 07:53 AM

BB TX
I will be the voice of opposition, We camp pretty much the same as you do and maybe I might consider full timing some day but that day is many years off.
I replaced our old fire breathing rv fridge with a whirlpool residential style fridge and never looked back. It cools better and faster, Has more capacity and keeps my ice cream cold.
I added a 1500 watt pure sine wave inverter to keep it powered up while traveling and that works great. I dont camp without hookups much but when I do I have a generator.
Personaly I will never go back to an absorbtion fridge.

Hooker · 08-19-2015, 02:49 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by ckwizard

BB TX
I will be the voice of opposition, We camp pretty much the same as you do and maybe I might consider full timing some day but that day is many years off.
I replaced our old fire breathing rv fridge with a whirlpool residential style fridge and never looked back. It cools better and faster, Has more capacity and keeps my ice cream cold.
I added a 1500 watt pure sine wave inverter to keep it powered up while traveling and that works great. I dont camp without hookups much but when I do I have a generator.
Personaly I will never go back to an absorbtion fridge.

Same here. We are on RV number six, first with a residential refer. No issues with not keeping things cold, and when running it's only pulling about three amps...easy for a small inverter. As noted above, I'll never have another RV refer.

BB_TX · 08-19-2015, 03:21 PM

Always good to hear the opposing view. Decision would be whether to go with the residential and buy a generator for that rare case when I might need it. 3 amps at 120 vac requires 30 amps of 12 vdc to power the inverter. I can see where that would drain the battery(s) fairly quickly.

jcurtis934 · 08-19-2015, 04:17 PM

And it would do so IF the duty cycle was 100%, but it is much lower than that...more on the order of 30% max. And since its insulation is far better and you wouldn't have two huge holes in the back of it, it should perform much better than an rv fridge. Glad I don't have to decide on this one, but if my current one dies I would probably go residential. John

1retired06 · 08-19-2015, 04:20 PM

Suspect domestic/norcold looking for a product to replace their refrigerator lines.

catskiner · 08-19-2015, 04:23 PM

Went on a 5 mo.trip to No. Ca.,Ore. ,Wa. and ran Rv fridge on Elec. amd had full hookups almost every day. Never switched to gas or ran generator,wife put blue ice freeze packs in fridge and never opened door till we had hookups on travel days. Next fridge will be a Residential.

brenkco · 08-19-2015, 06:06 PM

Bill,
I for one would never go back to an RV refer. We don't boondock much but with 4 - 6 volts, we have plenty of batteries to run it. 10 days this past January at the Q wasn't a problem. Although we charge daily with a Honda 2000.

Even though we had a 4 door Norcold before this one, the larger size of the residential is what we like best.....to each is own.....

Ken

mhs4771 · 08-20-2015, 12:55 PM

OK, I'll add this: We had the 4 Door Norcold in the slide in our last rig and never had a problem, other than keeping IceCream hard. We now have a Residential in our new rig and it only draws 10-11 amps when running. I've got 4 Deep Cycle 12 Volt Batteries and will keep the fridge running for several days without a problem. Love all the extra space both in the fridge and freezer.

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