Residential vs RV Fridge

In my trailer days I used a small "Residential" Fridge and loved it. but I never went far so it was never long without power  Save once when I had to put the trailer in storage then I had to steam clean it.

I was glad to have a RV type Absorption cooling unit in this RV.

But I am also comfortable around properly maintained PROPANE systems.

Some are not

There are advantages. Residential units are often better in Extremem heat conditions (IE 100+ out) but my unit has managed to get the job done at 90+  Just. but properly.

I like that when things like Matthew came calling not far from where I was parked and power was out for DAYS... No problems  Burned a bit of propane but no problems. 

One thing to keep in mind...and it's something that I hadn't even considered...

A couple of the members in our RV group who have residential fridges in their motorhomes have had to get warranty work done on them. BOTH of them were told by the factory service people, "You must have the fridge sitting in the middle of the RV so the technician can have full access to it before we can do repairs." Depending on your installation, that could be very difficult...or not.

(and I'm sure there will be people here who have had warranty/service work done WITHOUT having to do this...just sayin, it's something that a couple of our folks have had to deal with)

I replaced my Domenic RV fridge in my motor home in May with a residential one. We were away from home 4 months this summer and dry camped for a total of 2 weeks at 3 different places. My battery bank consists of 4 6 volt batteries with a total capacity of 420 AH.

I found while dry camping I had to run the generator about 5 hrs each day total, once in the morning and once in the evening. If it was cool - below 60 deg at night, I turned off the refrig at bed time and turned it on again when I got up. The refrig would gain about 3 deg. In this cooler weather I didn't run the generator as much.

When replacing the Domenic RV refrig it seemed as we were carrying the refrig out of the RV and replacing it with the residential refrig, the residential was a bit lighter, we did not weigh them.

We have a 2000 watt inverter that is on all the time. The refrig is plugged into an inverter outlet and is powered by the battery bank. The engine alternator charges the batteries while driving and is more than sufficient to keep the batts charged with the inverter powering the refrig.

My wife and I both like the residential refrig much better due to it's larger capacity and less maintenance. The complexity of the RV refirg is going to require more maintenance and is why we replaced it when it stopped cooling properly. We are occasional dry campers. If we dry camped most of the time I would have stayed with an RV refrig.

BoomerD said:

One thing to keep in mind...and it's something that I hadn't even considered...

A couple of the members in our RV group who have residential fridges in their motorhomes have had to get warranty work done on them. BOTH of them were told by the factory service people, "You must have the fridge sitting in the middle of the RV so the technician can have full access to it before we can do repairs." Depending on your installation, that could be very difficult...or not.

(and I'm sure there will be people here who have had warranty/service work done WITHOUT having to do this...just sayin, it's something that a couple of our folks have had to deal with)

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That won't always be the case. In my previous coach, I had to have the compressor replaced on the residential fridge -- they used the outside access door in the rear of the fridge and were able to replace the compressor just fine. Of course some rigs may not have that outside access door, in which case...

Most residential fridge models are NOT intended to be built-in and the warranty specifically states that it cannot be.  That's both for service access and to rule out potential ventilation issues.  If you need service, the tech may be gracious enough to work on it in place, but he is under no obligation to do so.  Caveat Emptor!

Addressing the issue of working on a residential refrig in place on the RV: When I installed our residential refrig, the mobile RV guy accidentally broke the Freon line. The refrig was new but it was our fault so I didn't bother with warranty. I called a refrig repair guy and explained what needed to be done and where the access was- the access door for the RV refrig that was just replaced. He said no problem, came out and soldered in a new line, charged it up and for a mere $400 the refrig was back to new.
The refrig stayed in placed. If the problem required access to any other place on the refrig we would have had to take it out.

I just finished my residential install this weekend.  My old Dometic was 230 lbs, and the new Samsung is 231, I easily took out a pound of frame work and molding.  I call it even on weight.  (see my other post for an update)

Gary RV_Wizard said:

Most residential fridge models are NOT intended to be built-in and the warranty specifically states that it cannot be.  That's both for service access and to rule out potential ventilation issues.  If you need service, the tech may be gracious enough to work on it in place, but he is under no obligation to do so.  Caveat Emptor!

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A friend of a friend that's an HVAC tech looked at our fridge installation with the outside panel access. He said it was great for compressor component work since he could work standing up instead of bent over at floor level. 

My vote for residential. We will never go back.

Our Dometic, which is 13 years old would probably cost $3,000 to replace.  I would never spend that much money for a refrigerator.  Many of the residential models I've seen in new RVs are nicer than the one we have in the house.  Is there any reason an entry level residential shouldn't be used in an RV.  If not, and I could convince the wife, that's the way I'd go.  Then if the refrigerator had a major issue, I'd just buy another one.  FWIW, the refrigerator we purchased for the house cost about $5-600.  That was maybe 3 years ago.  It's larger than our Dometic and possibly lighter. 

Personally I still like our four-door Norcold propane/electric refrigerator.  I like being able to put it on Auto and have it choose which to use.  When boondocking we set it on propane and leave it there until we have electricity available.

ArdraF

I decided to replace my Norcold  RV refrigerator with a residential refrigerator after seeing a Norcold refrigerator fire totally destroy an RV sitting in a parking lot at Quartzsite.  That is a very rare occurrence, but it does happen, especially to ones that have not had the retrofit installed.

It was easier for me to make this decision because I already had plenty of Solar panels and an Invertor so power was not an issue.

The side benefits are, much more interior capacity, faster cooling, ice maker, and lower cost if I need to replace it.

I got mine on sale at Lowes for about $600 so I bought an identical spare and use it in the garage.

No reason at all not to choose a modest size or basic function fridge.  I put an apartment sized 14.4 cu ft GE top freezer model in mine. Physically smaller and lighter, yet 25% larger than the Norcold 1200 it replaced, frost free and superior cooling.
The Norcold worked flawlessly for 11 years, but when it began to slow down there was not a doubt that we would be upgrading to a residential type.

When I pulled my Dometic which was in excellent condition with hardly any rust in back I put it on Craigslist. A guy came to look at it and we started chewing the fat and he said his had caught fire while parked at his hunt camp and luckily his partner was on the property and able to put out the fire. He then told me about a friend who was over nighting at a Walmart with his son and his MH burned. He said the guy was outside in his underwear and the police bought him some clothes. He also said he usually runs his generator at the camp to power the frig. I just shut up and told him to look it over and I stepped away. He bought it for $450.

One thing not mentioned is the ability to park an RV with a propane/electric refrigerator and leave it for several days with food in it. 

I full-time in my motorhome.  Several times I have either flown to one of my kid's homes for the holidays or gone to visit an elderly aunt and uncle that were having medical issues and needed help.  Each time I left a refrigerator and freezer full of food in my motorhome and parked it at an airport.  (Many airports do have very nice "oversized vehicle" parking on airport property for the same rate as a car.)  The longest was 8 days (7 nights) in Las Vegas last March.  Everything was cold and frozen when I got back and my batteries were still charged.  It was fairly cool in Las Vegas during that trip, but I also left my rig at Salt Lake City airport for five days and came back to 99 degrees, and everything was still frozen and cold.  I am leaving it another 7 days during the holidays this year in an airport parking lot and NOT emptying the refrigerator.

Try that with your residential refrigerator!! 

JudyJB said:

One thing not mentioned is the ability to park an RV with a propane/electric refrigerator and leave it for several days with food in it. 

I full-time in my motorhome.  Several times I have either flown to one of my kid's homes for the holidays or gone to visit an elderly aunt and uncle that were having medical issues and needed help.  Each time I left a refrigerator and freezer full of food in my motorhome and parked it at an airport.  (Many airports do have very nice "oversized vehicle" parking on airport property for the same rate as a car.)  The longest was 8 days (7 nights) in Las Vegas last March.  Everything was cold and frozen when I got back and my batteries were still charged.  It was fairly cool in Las Vegas during that trip, but I also left my rig at Salt Lake City airport for five days and came back to 99 degrees, and everything was still frozen and cold.  I am leaving it another 7 days during the holidays this year in an airport parking lot and NOT emptying the refrigerator.

Try that with your residential refrigerator!!

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You just need a solid solar set up! Even though we have one, I admit that we are going to empty the refrigerator before we leave it for 6 weeks this winter. I would have no concerns at all about leaving it for a few days.

A friend of ours leaves his fully electric coach at airports for 7-10 days every couple of months when he flies for his business. He has both solar and an autostart generator system, so leaving the fridge full is no problem.

garyb1st said:

Our Dometic, which is 13 years old would probably cost $3,000 to replace.  I would never spend that much money for a refrigerator.  Many of the residential models I've seen in new RVs are nicer than the one we have in the house.  Is there any reason an entry level residential shouldn't be used in an RV.  If not, and I could convince the wife, that's the way I'd go.  Then if the refrigerator had a major issue, I'd just buy another one.  FWIW, the refrigerator we purchased for the house cost about $5-600.  That was maybe 3 years ago.  It's larger than our Dometic and possibly lighter.

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The only reason I that I ran into is the warranty. If you read them they may say not for RV use and usually also say not for use in garages and patios. They intend on it being in the same temperature range that people are living in.

Over 47 years of buying residential refrigerators I've never had a problem with one so I figured this is worth taking the chance on. You don't seem to see people on RV sites saying that their residential refrigerators failed early. The main comment that I always read is that they would never go back to propane.

None of that means that a person shouldn't use propane and it's the best thing for some people. Nothing in rving is one-size-fits-all.

JudyJB said:

One thing not mentioned is the ability to park an RV with a propane/electric refrigerator and leave it for several days with food in it. 

I full-time in my motorhome.  Several times I have either flown to one of my kid's homes for the holidays or gone to visit an elderly aunt and uncle that were having medical issues and needed help.  Each time I left a refrigerator and freezer full of food in my motorhome and parked it at an airport.  (Many airports do have very nice "oversized vehicle" parking on airport property for the same rate as a car.)  The longest was 8 days (7 nights) in Las Vegas last March.  Everything was cold and frozen when I got back and my batteries were still charged.  It was fairly cool in Las Vegas during that trip, but I also left my rig at Salt Lake City airport for five days and came back to 99 degrees, and everything was still frozen and cold.  I am leaving it another 7 days during the holidays this year in an airport parking lot and NOT emptying the refrigerator.

Try that with your residential refrigerator!!

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We left our RV with the residential refrigerator on with food inside along with our satellite dish, receiver and internet jetpack on for nine weeks earlier this year while we flew to Grand Cayman. Our solar kept everything charged up and running so we could enjoy our regular TV programs from Cayman and come back to everything still good in the fridge! We travel for 8-9 weeks every winter to Cayman.

Vicki

shorts said:

We left our RV with the residential refrigerator on with food inside along with our satellite dish, receiver and internet jetpack on for nine weeks earlier this year while we flew to Grand Cayman. Our solar kept everything charged up and running so we could enjoy our regular TV programs from Cayman and come back to everything still good in the fridge! We travel for 8-9 weeks every winter to Cayman.

Vicki

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Would love to read about your Cayman adventure.