snail
south west Florida
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Joined: 08/22/2003
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Many folks seem to be replacing their absorption refrigerators with the standard home compressor refrigerator. I understand that if you dry camp often without a good source of 110 volt power you would want an absorption refrig. If you have replaced your refrigerator with an standard electric home type, would you do it again and what is your overall experience?
thanks,..
DRIVE A 2001 NEWMAR DUTCH STAR WITH 330 HP CUMMINS AND TOW A RANGER 4X4. TRAVEL WITH SPOUSE AND PET TINKER BELL OUR CORGIE.
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magnusfide
On the Road Again and Again and Again...
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Joined: 10/30/2009
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snail wrote:Many folks seem to be replacing their absorption refrigerators with the standard home compressor refrigerator. I understand that if you dry camp often without a good source of 110 volt power you would want an absorption refrig. If you have replaced your refrigerator with an standard electric home type, would you do it again and what is your overall experience?
thanks,..
I'm interested in this one too.
First law of science: don't spit into the wind.
Keep on rollin'!
Magnus
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Matt_Colie
Southeast Michigan
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Joined: 10/09/2011
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There are a lot of considerations here.
Everything is a compromise.
Absorption refrigerators are great for their ability to run on propane. They are also known for not doing well in high ambient. Their cost is another issue and a serious issue at that.
Installing a household unit and a capable inverter is no big problem except that the manufacturer had no intent of making the unit good for this purpose.
For starters, it will have no means to secure it in place. With care, this can be included without any big problem.
Second, most are not designed to go into a tight hole, so ventilation for cooling has to be accommodated. This can be a real issue, but it must be done.
We had a DC Norcold. Replacement in kind would have cost our RV budget for the rest of the year. It will run on the house battery about a day and an half before I have to run the genset (APU) to recharge things. That is not that different than to old Norcold.
Matt
Matt & Mary Colie
A sailor, his bride and their black dog going to see some dry places that have Geocaches in a coach made the year we married.
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docj
Fulltime--Home is where we park it
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IMHO those people who have not installed residential refrigerators are the sources of most of the "concerns" about using them. In reality, issues like how to hold it in place or secure its doors are rather easily addressed. Many refrigerators ARE designed to go into tight spaces with only an inch clearance all around.
As for power consumption, the larger Norcold models use quite a bit of electricity when operating on propane just to run their electronic controls. Many new Energy Star refrigerators hardly use much more in total.
We installed a Samsung RF197 18 cu ft to replace a Norcold 1200LRIM last September and consider it to be the best mod we've made in our MH. That particular model is counter depth and doesn't stick out any further than the Norcold did. We have four 6-volt batteries and a small solar panel and with these and the engine's alternator we are fine whenever we are in travel mode. We rarely boondock, so we are not concerned about long term use without hookups.
Unfortunately, that Samsung model appears not to be currently available, but, no doubt, there are other models that are similar in size.
Sandie & Joel
2000 40' Beaver Patriot Thunder Princeton--425 HP/1550 ft-lbs CAT C-12
2009 Chevy Malibu LTZ with ReadyBrute tow bar/braking system
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Kennedycamper
Algoa, Texas
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I put a Freon type refidgerator in a trailer once, and would do it again, but it depends on how you use the trailer. If you travel a lot & far, I wouldn't do it. Short trips, and no boondocking, I would. We don't camp without Power & water, so it worked for us. It does bring down the value of the trailer.
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The Texan
Cascade or Meridian, Idaho
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Joined: 01/16/2004
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We replaced ours with the Samsung rf197, which is no longer in production. There may be a few left out there, but are hard to find. The replacement for that one is the rf217, which is the same dimension except for the depth. Samsung has issued a letter to those that inquired, saying they approved the operation of that model on a MSW inverter and for use in an RV.
We do boondock a considerable amount of time and the rf197 uses "less" electricity than the NOcold 1200 it replaced. We can go 3+ days on our battery bank before we must run the generator to play catchup. We are just sorry we didn't get it done sooner, before the wife got burned when the NOcold shorted out and started to melt the box. We now have "frozen" ice cream and cold beverages, even when the ambient temp is 110°.
Whirlpool also makes a nice SxS with ice and water in the door, that will fit in the NOcold 1200 space.
Bob & Betsy(FishNFanatic) - USN Aviation Ret'd '78 & LEO Ret'd '03 & "Oath Keeper Forever"
'05 HR Endeavor 40PRQ, 400 Cummins-Pulling our '11 Silverado LT, Ex Cab 6.2L NHT 4x4, w/2010 Rzr or 01 V Star in back.
Where the wheels are stopped today
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Obsolete
OnTheRoad
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I put a Magic Chef in my MH over 4 years ago (from Home Depot). I love it. It uses around 1 amp of AC. You can set the temp you want separately for the freezer and frig. I replaced a 7 cu ft with a 10 cu ft unit that fit exactly in the same hole (much more room). After putting it in the hole, I opened the outside compartment, drilled some holes, and screwed the bottom of the refer to the floor of the compartment (the bottom rear has an opening where the compressor is). Then I just put some trim around the front and it looks like it was a built-in. And it cost about 1/4 of what the replacement RV unit goes for. I wish my other one would have gone out sooner!!
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dreamer
Southern Illinois
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I bought a Frigidaire FFHT1513LS to replace the Norcold 1200. I haven't got it installed yet but have run it for the last 48 hours with a Kill-a Watt on it and was pleasantly surprised to see that it had only used 1.35 KWH of electricity. While running it was drawing .90 Amp, 108 Watts. I have 4 - 6 Volt Interstate batteries with a 1500 watt inverter does anyone have an idea how long the batteries would run this unit between chargings? Thanks.
dreamer.
'00 HR Endeavor - 330 Cat
'02 Tracker - Blue Ox
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With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone? - Bob Dylan
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Gale Hawkins
Murray, KY
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Not sure the brand makes much difference so go for the best fit in the old hole.
Some people use RV's more like highly portable Park models so AC for frig is not a real issue.
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billsenick
Oxford, Florida
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We installed our 10cu' Magic Chef in 2006, at the time I had a Cobra 2500 watt MSW that I installed when I purchased the coach in 2003, left the original dual 6 volt system and since this refer is so energy efficient I can stop for 8 hours and not worry about the batteries running down. This was the best MOD I ever made to my coach, frozen ice cream and cold, cold beer.
Bill Senick
2003 Newmar Kountry Star 3740
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