Our Norcold frig is not cooling as well anymore and I'm wondering how much of a hassle it is to changeover to a residential frig. We can't handle driving more than 3-4 hours at a time, and don't dry camp. Do we need a different inverter or extra batteries, or can we "just" replace the one with the other?
I just replaced my Nocold1200 With a Samsung RN197. Not much trouble just had to make the opening 6 inches taller. I am runnibg mine on a 2000 watt inverter and 4 battery bank. Drive for 8-10 hours with no problem.
Replaced the RV fridg with a Samsung. We had to go with the counter depth unit. I have a gasser so I just removed the entry door and the Samsung went in without any problem. My MH had the floor built up about 8" for the rv fridg. Removed the 8" riser and the Samsung slid right in. Plugged the gas line and reused the ac. We do not travel more than 6 hours a day so we just shut it off and don't open the doors. Kept fine comming home from Fl. in 80+ degree weather.
What size inverter ? And how many btrys do you have ?
RET ARMY 1980, DW Donna , "Tiny" (furkid) . Class A, 2007 Bounder 35E, Ford Chassis, 4 SAMS 6VOLTS,405W Solar,TriStar 45 Controller,1750W INVERTER, YAMAHA 2400, TOW: Honda CRV. READY BRAKE. "Living Our Dream". NASCAR FAN 14,18,20,11 LOVE CO & NM
A 1000 watt sine wave inverter is plenty to run a residential fridge. If you dry camp you will need a couple of extra batteries and a solar panel or two. If not then you will be fine with what you have. Technically if you keep the door closed and only travel 5 or 6 hours a day you are fine without an inverter BUT if you have a break down and end up in a situation without hookups it would be nice to have the inverter. mayne 400 - 500 bucks. Residential fridges don't draw a lot of power.
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If you are planning on driving from one campground to another, then 4-6 hours without power is fine on the residential refrigerators, unless you drive around with the door open. If you are really worried about it, then buy a couple of blue ice packs, and move them to the freezer when you are in a campground, and into the refrigerator section when getting ready to drive.
To run a refrigerator on a inverter, you need the much more expensive pure sine wave inverter, not the low cost sine wave inverter.
Also 6 batteries is somewhat a minimum to run a 350 watt motor more than a hour or two. So solar panels would also become a requirement too.
I may be mistaken but I believe most late model MH's charge the house batteries from the engine driven alternator while engine is running. Then the house batteries would remain filly charged while feeding 12 volts to the inverter to keep the refer running. Newer refers are much more efficient and better insulated drawing much less wattage per day then in the past. I can't prove this but I was told Samsung has stated their refrers will operate fine on a modified sine wave inverter.
Blessings, KDK
If you are planning on driving from one campground to another, then 4-6 hours without power is fine on the residential refrigerators, unless you drive around with the door open. If you are really worried about it, then buy a couple of blue ice packs, and move them to the freezer when you are in a campground, and into the refrigerator section when getting ready to drive.
To run a refrigerator on a inverter, you need the much more expensive pure sine wave inverter, not the low cost sine wave inverter.
Also 6 batteries is somewhat a minimum to run a 350 watt motor more than a hour or two. So solar panels would also become a requirement too.
Fred.
Good morning.
Agreed, keeping the door closed would be fine for a 6 hour drive.
Not too sure what would be considered expensive but a 1000 watt stand alone sine wave inverter hooked up to the existing coach batteries would be fine if one wanted to run it on the road. Probably 400 to 500 bucks installed.
There may be fridges that use 350 watts but most on this forum who have residential refrigerators have found that around 150 watts is the norm. They also tend to run for about 15 - 20 minutes out of an hour so for road use no additional batteries would be required. If dry camping an extra 2 X 6 volts would be more than adequate for an overnight or day and a single 240 watt solar panel would cover the needs of a residential fridge in a normal solar day.
Mine was very easy. The opening was larger than needed for my Firidaire Gallery top freezer 18 cuft fridge. I run mine off the inverter with the 4 battery house batteries and I have an Auto Gen set. While driving the inverter is on unless it's hot then the generator is on. I dry camp a lot and the inverter/gen set combo works great. The new fridges require little energy. Good luck.
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