Pros and cons of rV fridge with conventional home fridge
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Gizmo
Well-known member
The answer to your question depends on your planned RV use. For example do you boondock often, or do you rely mostly, or entirely on RV parks with electrical hookups? Briefly, for boondockers a rv fridge is the better choice because you can switch to propane when off grid, a benefit because residential refrigerators consume quite a bit of juice, translating into more battery capacity and either more solar power or longer generator run times to charge the batteries. Not insurmountable but has to be considered. On the other hand if you rely mostly on electrical hookups, then a residential refrigerator might be a good choice. The residential refrigerators tend to be more efficient, do not have the outside venting requirements a RV refrigerator has. Another consideration, residential refrigerators are not typically built to bounce down the road which might possibly lead to problems and they are more costly to replace. So for someone who travels infrequently, for example a snowbird a residential refrigerator might be the better choice.
NY_Dutch
Well-known member
Just about every RV residential fridge installation I've seen or done, including our own, involved a fridge that cost less than a similar sized RV absorption fridge. If we include the cost of an additional inverter and possibly an additional battery to operate a residential fridge while under way or boondocking, that will push up the initial cost of course. Our installation didn't require that though.
ricknc
Active member
We were seriously considering replacing our Dometic until we went through Hurricane Florence, There was a few days when gasoline was in very short supply and we had a refrigerator full of food we needed to last a week . The only fuel we had an abundance of was propane. We changed our minds after that. My major concerns with the gas absorption fridge were like most folks, the risk of fire from either a failure in the absorption unit or a propane leak. We installed an inverter to run the frig while underway or stopped for short periods. Hot day performance hasn't been great so we will install an ARP to run cooling fans and also monitor the absorption unit . Another issue for us was the limitations of our small RV. The available residential sizes to fit into the limited space were either substantially smaller in volume or substantially larger ( I would have to relocate or eliminate the gas furnace)
scottydl
Site Team
This topic was duplicated a few places. Please direct additional replies to this thread:
http://www.rvforum.net/SMF_forum/index.php/topic,118069.msg
http://www.rvforum.net/SMF_forum/index.php/topic,118069.msg
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