Proper use of refrigerator in Montana

[jfabernathy]

I know all RV manufacturer use the same refrigerators and they probably all have the same use recommendations, but I'd like some practical use tips.

I know the frig probably works fine when you are at the CG and all leveled up if the temperatures outside are not too extreme. But what about during travel? Up and down hills, parked on slopes when stopped along the way, etc.

What about when initially starting up? How long before the freezer and frig are at temperature?

The walls of the refrigerator look pretty solid, what about just using it as a cooler and putting in "blue ice" packs or frozen bottles of water. Is that practical for traveling?

 

[NCFischers]

I sent you a PM

 

[bncinwv]

Jfaberna,
I relayed our method on the Jim's Birthday thread, we turn it on a day early before trips and always travel with it on. It does not have to be level when in motion, and the time during a stop is not an issue unless it is overnight, then you need to be relatively level. There are many that recommend turning the propane tank off when refueling and there are some tunnel limitations that require them to be turned off. I will refer to the first sentence for our personal procedure since we fuel with diesel which is a little different circumstance.
Bingo

 

[scott-pati]

Jim,
For what I know, the fridge workings have no moving parts, it circulates ammonia within the tubes. These units must be level when in use or the tubes that hold the ammonia can crystallize and block the flow. If that happens, sometimes driving the rv around will loosen the crystals. Before heading out, run the fridge for at least 24 hours and try to put the items in cold.

These fridges are different than home units. There's no air circulation inside, and they do not remove the humidity like the home unit.

A test was done on how long the fridge will stay cold in an on line video, they showed that the fridge will stay cold for 12 hours. Adding ice would help. Do a search on YouTube for RV refrigerators. Tons of info.

Scott

 

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

Quick answers: Can take a bit of time to start up from "warm" to get to proper temp. We allow 24 hours, but, you will feel cooling in just a couple. As soon as we can start to feel the "coolness" we will load some beverages, and slowly over the next day load er up with the rest.

We turn off if parked/standing OFF level for more than a few minutes. If lunch break and parking makes us un-level, we turn off the frig.

No problems during travel, hills and such, never had any issues from this that we are aware of. Yes, we run with the frig on propane. You can find many references to the pro and cons on this all over the net. You probably need to turn that off for long tunnels and many advise doing the same if you need to refuel during your day's run.

IF you choose to travel with the frig OFF, extreme temps, the cold days will actually be fine, stuff stays cold, eh? Really really hot days, say, 90 plus, you may experience some warming if you are on the road for a LONG day, I am talking 10 to 12 hours. Since we rarely do those kinds of days, this is not an issue for us. We had a bad electronic module in our frig for several months, which means, we could not run on propane, so the frig was in essence was off, and traveled in many different temperatures and experienced no food loss.

Do not OVER PACK the frig, it is said that this is really bad.

Some use the frig fans and report success with same.

I would not bother with blue ice packs or frozen water bottles, I need the frig space for the food, the frig does a nice job as a frig.

Good luck and enjoy! May your eats be tasty and wonderful!

 

[DQDick]

As others have said, before we went full time, we started it up a day ahead. Because it takes that long to cool it also takes that long to heat up again. Since we leave AZ when it's 100 outside and then leave Kansas when the temps are similar I can tell you from experience that you don't need to run the frig when you're going down the road. We run ours in the upper 30's (too many years in the restaurant business) and it's at least as cold as home refrigerators when we arrive after a day on the road. I'm one of those folks who doesn't like to drive with the propane turned on so we have checked this closely. We did do something with our that others haven't. We added two more selves in the freezer and two more door shelves in the freezer and the refrigerator. When we travel we probably have more stuff in our freezer and still have air movement and we definitely have more cold pop and water in our doors but I doubt that makes much difference.

 

[8.1al]

We're with Dick. We always travel with the fridge off and have never seen the inside temps rise enough to worry about

 

[1retired06]

We travel with the unit operating on propane and have never had a problem. On start day, we use a cooler, turn on the frig and by the end of that day the wife can move stuff from cooler to fridge. As stated, unit needs to be level at your site for proper operation. Freezer first to get cold.

 

[jfabernathy]

Thanks all, Looks like the key for us is to start with a cooler since we can't run the frig overnight before we leave. We'll start the frig on propane (temporarily lighting the stove burner to purge the line) before we pull out and leave some bottled water in the frig, then make the transfer from cooler to frig at the first stop for lunch.

 

[moutard2]

quote:Originally posted by bncinwv

Jfaberna,
we turn it on a day early before trips and always travel with it on.

Ditto and never have had a problem!

 

[Kenneth Deiss]

I am one that does not run with the unit on.We start out with a cold unit carry 4 blue packs two in the freezer two below.When we stop over night and plugged in we move the two blue pack up to the freezer over night than move two down in the Am. Works well.We have a small electric cooler we keep in the back seat for cold drinks

 

[BB_TX]

Like most others I turn mine on at least the day before travel, and often 2 days before just to make sure it is working well and fully cooled by travel time.
And I have always left mine on while traveling.

 

[WaltBennett]

I've always left it on when traveling with now 3 trailers and 2 C's for over 25 years. Never had any problem with tubes freezing. We started putting a layer of water bottles in the bottom of the freezer for use with coolers when vending at art & craft shows and they seem to keep temperatures in the whole thing more stable.

 

[mlh]

I cut my frige on a day or so before I leave and cut it off after I get back home.
Lynwood

 

[Art-n-Marge]

The hazard of leaving the fridge (or water heater or furnace or any other propane device) on and the propane on has not much to do with the propane. The hazard is the spark from these devices that USE propane and will spark when trying to ignite themselves at any time including at gas stations and in tunnels. If the propane is on and the spark ignites the propane then all is usually good, but if something is left on and it's sparking to turn itself on, THIS is the hazard at gas stations (gas fumes linger) and tunnels (fumes linger there too) that can make things go BOOM. The sparking is what causes the most danger since the sparking can ignite whatever fumes are present. Then there's the very rare occurence that a leak or accident on the road will cause atrocious propane problems but that will take quite the mishap and accident to occur.

As for the level of the fridge specifically, your manual will probably state that any more than 5 to 6 degrees off level is the problem when running your fridge. Typically when set up at a campground one is pretty level, therefore the fridge will work just fine. Then when you're driving most roads are within this same 5 to 6 degrees temporarily so leaving the fridge on is okay then too if you have contents to keep cold while enroute. Even we do this sometimes.

When our fridge went out within 4 months of ownership, we drove down to the closest Home Depot and bought an ice maker in an attempt turn the fridge into a cooler. This is NOT the way to use the fridge since at least ours is too large to keep the contents cold and we needed more ice than contents to keep things cool. Fortunately, we had a couple smaller 54 quart coolers we had taken along that we used to keep our stuff as cold as possible (but no freezing capability). Using the RV's vertical fridge as a cooler requires too much ice, so I wouldn't recommend it. The ice maker was nice but it could not produce enough ice at the rate we needed it. The worse part of this is returning the rig to the dealer to fix the fridge under warranty then took over 7 weeks to fix, but that's another stupid dealer story. Good thing we don't full-time.

I hope this info helps.

 

[MDL-THOR]

quote:Originally posted by BB_TX

Like most others I turn mine on at least the day before travel, and often 2 days before just to make sure it is working well and fully cooled by travel time.
And I have always left mine on while traveling.

Exactly the same and never had a problem...

 

[Rainer-MOC]

Ever since we've been RVing with a real refrigerator instead of the old ice box that used a block of ice, we turn on our unit a day before we head out and start loading it almost immediately with cold items from out of the refrigerator in our home. Within in few hours everything is just right.

We never turn off our propane during an entire trip, whether traveling down roads or just parked on a slant for a short break. So far, so good; knock on wood. We've got over 75,000 miles under our belts towing our RV's this way and have never had a problem.

And we'll continue to ride that way...

 

[trlrboy]

We run on propane when going down the road and have never had a problem. If we have electric for an overnight stop we use that to save on propane usage. We just leave the fridge on "auto".