Norcold to residential fridge project

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BinaryBob

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Like many of you, I?m researching the replacement of my norcold 1201 with a residential fridge. There is a lot of useful information here on this popular topic.
It?s turning out to be frustrating. Picture 01 shows the current situation. There is plumbing underneath so I am only able to drop the bottom about 2?.
Looking at the Norcold specs for the 1201, the cabinet width is 32.4 and height 63.2. Another post indicated the installed floor for the norcold is 1.5? thick. Replacing with 3/4? plywood gives another 1/2" of height.
I?m not ready to pull this unit to get an exact measurement, but unless I?m missing something, I would need a 32 X 66 fridge.
Further complication is picture 2. There is only 30? between the door face of the existing norcold and the stationary cabinetry. (15" from the end of the open door to the cabinetry). This makes french doors preferable but not mandatory.
I?m having a difficult time finding a quality fridge with these specs. The popular Frigidaire LFHT1837 does not appear to be available any more.
Anyone else faced with a similar situation? How did you handle? What fridge did you get?
 

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I would not let the plumbing underneath your current fridge deter you. Plumbing and wiring can be re-routed if you just need a few more vertical inches.


Good luck and please post pics as you go.....

 
And remember to verify that the fridge you ultimately choose will fit through your doorway. I've read that many fridges will fit once the fridge's door is removed (not a big deal apparently) and several folks have said they had to remove the front passenger seat in their DPs to "make the turn." (Also not a big deal) But I read about one poor guy who could only get his new fridge into his RV by removing his windshield - yikes!

Kev
 
Thanks for the responses.
Some progress.... I've figured how to re-work the mess under the fridge. Along with the kitchen drain pipe, I also have a small outdoor radio bay jutting inside about 6 inches. I can work the fridge floor to be flush with that.
A  trip to Lowes found a lot more options for sizing than I realized from just looking on the web.
This Frigidaire LGHT1846QF looks like it should work.
Thanks for the tip Kevin. My door (not a DP) is 27" wide. According to the specs. the depth without doors is 26.88. That's gonna be tight.
 
You're also going to figure out how to seal the outside access doors. Cold air will come in through them and enter the RV.  Now if you found a fridge with the condenser on the back, you would not need to close off those access doors. Then you could just insulate with fiberglass on all four sides of the fridge.
If you do need to seal them, Gary B Had some pictures as to how he did it last year. Maybe he can pull up those pictures again for you.
 
I used Frigidaire model LFHT1817LF. I had to lower the compartment floor apx 2" and did a little re-plumbing on the central vac system underneath the shelf. I made a new faceplate underneath and trim on the right side from red oak, and after a clear stain it was a perfect match. I used a combination of duct tape and spray foam to seal the access door. It can still be removed to unplug the fridge, etc, but is pretty well insulated.
 
Bob Just food for thought, The Samsung fridges work OK on a MSW inverter.  I don;t know what's in your unit but some of the fridges you'll need a PSW inverter for them to operate properly.  I know a lot of write ups on conversions where they used the Samsung's for this reason.
 
I've been tracking the various fridge conversions write ups here on the forum.
Very valuable information.
I have no inverter in the rig (well.... I don't count the crappy Dimension 300W in the overhead bin that is supposed to power the TV's)
After the fridge install, I was planning to have a PSW inverter installed that will power all the 110's. I could sure use some advice on that as well.
 
OK... I'm amateur handy on most things, but one of the reasons I tackled this project is to follow the write ups of those who have tackled this project.
One thing I CAN do is follow instructions!  Barely started and here's another Q:
When I picked up the Watts A159 plug at the Home Depot, the dude said never put pipe dope on a flared fitting; let the flare due the job.
Seems all of you have doped the fitting.
Which is it?
 
Rene T said:
You're also going to figure out how to seal the outside access doors. Cold air will come in through them and enter the RV.  Now if you found a fridge with the condenser on the back, you would not need to close off those access doors. Then you could just insulate with fiberglass on all four sides of the fridge.
If you do need to seal them, Gary B Had some pictures as to how he did it last year. Maybe he can pull up those pictures again for you.

Don't forget to seal up the roof vent. 

With a rear coil refrigerator you can keep the original vents as-is and seal around the refrigerator into the room, since this one vents into the room through the grill in it's base you'll want to seal and insulate the outside openings in the enclosure instead.

You'll want to leave the rear access door as a way to get to the AC plug and water connection, just add some foam insulation to seal it up.
 
We cannot swing the single refrigerator door fully open due to contacts with the opposite cabinets. I would have preferred the French door Samsung with bottom freezer that runs off MSW, but DW did not want a bottom freezer. We rarely have a desire to run the refrigerator off inverter so I settled for what she wanted.  My write-up with pics is at http://www.pjrider.com/ReferReplace.htm.
 
The Norcold is out!
Not bad for working solo.
Slid it out on a couple of 2X4's and didn't damage anything..... so far.
Pic 4 is now what I have to work with.
 

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You only gave us 2 pictures.
Does the old fridge still work?  I sold ours last summer for $500.00. It was 6 years old.
 
The details of removing the norcold have been well documented here, so I didn't do many pictures of the removal process.  Lucky for me, whoever worked on this last (presumably a recall) failed to bolt the left side. The straps at the top were also missing bolts.
Now that it's out, I find I can easily lower the plumbing by cutting the vertical under the sink and cutting the vertical where it drops into the grey tank and adding sleeves to both.
The new fridge is going to jut out about 4 inches with a 30 inch depth (excluding handles). Does that seem like too much? I haven't ordered the new one yet.
Here is a picture of charring at the top. I've seen pics here of worse, but it's still alarming.
 

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Rene, the old one sort of worked, if the ambient temps were below 75 degrees.
With the cost of a new cooling unit, I never really thought anyone would be interested in buying it.
It's going to the scrap heap...
 
BinaryBob said:
The new fridge is going to jut out about 4 inches with a 30 inch depth (excluding handles). Does that seem like too much? I haven't ordered the new one yet.

4 inches looks like it will stick out less than the door opening to the bathroom.  Can you live with that?
 

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