New project>> replacing the Norcold 1201 with a residential fridge

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Well, Lady Luck is being good to me.  I removed the drawer under the oven and found an outlet screwed to the floor.  Go figure.  I suspect a dishwasher must have been an option on my coach and that was put there for it????  However, it looks like a duplex receptacle but all the slots are sealed.  I did confirm that it is on the inverter.  I will replace it with a real receptacle since I am sure the fridge power cord will easily reach it. 

Coach to shop next Monday for the swap.
 
OK folks, mine is done.  Got the rig out of the shop today.  When I wrote the check I mumbled, 'this is John Canfield's fault.'

They did a really nice job.  I looks like it came from the factory with this Frigidaire in it. 

They secured the fridge using a wedge at the top, screws thru the bottom into the new floor they built, and by drilling thru the edge of the fridge cabinet near the edge.  The screws used in these locations (6, three on each side) were covered by plastic buttons.

They used latches similar to those used to keep our cabinet drawers shut (but much more stout) to keep the freezer and fridge door closed during travel.  When the doors are closed, you cannot see them.

Overall, we are very pleased with the results and John is responsible for my now flatter wallet  ;D
 

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Wow - that looks great Gary!!  Our country thanks you! 

I like their idea of drilling through the inside front edge for anchoring the box - I might incorporate that idea when we return home and I finalize the install.  Do you have any particulars about the latches they used?
 
The part of the latch I can see looks like the latches that Winnie used on my sliding closet doors.  They close pretty tight, they have to. They keep the closet mirror doors from flying back in forth going down the road.
 
John Canfield said:
Wow - that looks great Gary!!  Our country thanks you! 

...  Do you have any particulars about the latches they used?
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The latches look like the Grabber latches that are used on Winnebagos.  They come in 5, 10 and 15 pound release pressure.
 
Bago said:
The latches look like the Grabber latches that are used on Winnebagos.  They come in 5, 10 and 15 pound release pressure.
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Yes, he told me the latches he uses come in 5, 10, and 15 pound release.  I believe he used the 10 lb on this job saying the 15 lb were a bit too tight. 
 
Oh, now I know what the latches are!  I have a few extras in the parts drawer that I can experiment with.  Using the grabbers was a very creative idea - you apparently found a great custom shop.
 
Since we're at the Cummins dealer in Grand Junction, CO, I managed to do a little testing while on inverter while getting the coach ready to be taken in for service.  (Amazingly this dealer doesn't have RV hookups in the service bays - a bit bizarre since they are a Coach Care facility.)

I shut off everything powered by 120V in the coach except for the coffee maker and the GE Advantium oven - they were just idling and not drawing much current and I didn't want to reset the clocks.  There would have been some parasitic 12V house battery loads (bedroom radio), but they would have been insignificant.

The fridge was running and the Xantrex RS2000 inverter was reporting about 140 watts of AC load and about 17 amps from the 375 amp/hour battery bank.  This is great!  I don't know what the run time of the fridge is for 24 hours, but I think we'll be in good shape boondocking with our solar panels and battery bank (+ some gen time).  I want to add the third panel this winter which will be icing on the cake.
 
John, the only test I've done on the Frigidaire was to check the amp draw with the genset running (having made sure all other 120VAC loads were off).  With the fridge purring along, I was showing a 3 amp draw on the One Place panel. 

I've ordered the Magnum Energy 2000Watt PSW inverter and hope to get it installed soon.
 
John, new inverter installed.  It is much more quiet than the old Heart Freedom unit.

Still reading manuals but when I ran the fridge only on inverter, the remote display reads 'Invert, 12.6 VDC, 5 amps.' 
 
John Canfield said:
5 amps DC?  Wow!  That is really low.
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From what I can glean from the remote manual, my interpretation of the display is that the inverter is on and producing 120 VAC, the battery voltage is 12.6 volts, and the fridge is pulling 5 AMPS AC.  I have made an inquiry with the folks at Magnum to verify.

 
IMO the actual amps drawn by the fridge is not terribly important as long as it isn't huge, e.g.15+. What IS important is the duty cycle, i.e.how often the fridge cooling unit runs and for how long. If it draws 10 amps for 6 minutes out of each hour, that's great. If it draws 1 amp constantly for an hour, that's awful. In other words, the killowatt hours is more important than the amps.

My Norcold 1201 draws a pretty much constant 5.5 amps per hours, so it is really inefficient for a relatively small fridge. Most residential units can do much better and provide 50% more space as well.
 
Our 1201 Norcold would pull about 500 watts running on inverter (in the AC mode.)  I'm not exactly sure since we would have the King Dome and one sat receiver running while on the road.  Yes, not very energy efficient but its primary redeeming characteristic was the ability to run off LP.  In any case, I'm very delighted to get rid of it (DW is extremely pleased with the new fridge.)

Our new fridge is pulling about 140 watts or about 15 amps DC.  That should be less than 2 amps AC, so maybe your icemaker was running or the fridge was in defrost mode?

Yup - cumulative energy usage is the big factor when evaluating and comparing.
 
Ice maker was off. Don't know about defrost.  Will be on a short 4 hr road trip this weekend and will check it. 
 
Hey John,
I was wondering how the new refrig is doing?  Did you hit any heat in AZ to get some idea what duty cycle might be when it's warm?  Have you been running off the grid for more than a couple of days?  What inverter do you have....I thought you had to replace yours?

Also, been enjoying your 4x4 Youtube videos. 

Have a Merry and Blessed Christmas,
Bill
 
Bill - Jane is a VERY happy camper with the new fridge (and so am I!)  It has remained completely in place for maybe 5,000 miles, I am completely pleased with the mod.

We still have our Xantrex RS2000 (2,000 watt pure sine wave) inverter/charger.  I think the fridge compressor is only drawing about 100 watts - one of my to-dos is to simulate boondocking to get a feel for how our system (residential fridge + 290 watts of solar) will work out.

Glad you enjoyed the videos!
 
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