Replacing 2-way Norcold with a residential fridge?

[borffmann]

My family and I are living in our 1987 Fleetwood Bounder and I am done wrestling with our 2-way Norcold 838EG2 fridge. The past two months we have actually just been using it as a cold box, with a new 10 lb block of ice in there every 36 hours. We are mostly entirely stationary these days, at an RV park in Northern California. I'd like to replace this fridge with a residential 120V fridge. Can anyone recommend a make and model that is almost the exact same dimensions of this Norcold (52"tall x 24"wide x 24"deep)? I'd rather not do much by way of modifications to fit a fridge in with different dimensions. Our furnace is right below the fridge, so I can't cut down and I also don't want any open gaps in the fridge bay because I don't want any risk of CO2 leaking into the interior of our RV. Thanks in advance.

Tom

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Most any of the appliance sales web sites, both the fridge manufacturers and places like Lowes and Depot, will have very detailed specs on every fridge. Height, width, depth, door swing, handle size, and a dozen more. Usually there is a "Specifications" tab for each one, or a downloadable installation manual that has all the data.

For those dimensions I suspect you will be looking at roughly 8 cubic ft or less. Anything else is going to be well over 50" in height.  They are all going to be deeper than 24 inches (there are no small cabinet depth residential fridges), so the depth + door swing is going to be a critical dimension. Look for "apartment refrigerators" to get close to the size you want.

These sites might have something you could use:
http://www.compactappliance.com/apartment-refrigerators/
http://www.ajmadison.com/b.php/Apartment%3BRefrigerators/N~26+4294842432

 

[SacsTC]

We replaced ours with http://www.lg.com/us/refrigerators/lg-LBN10551PS-bottom-freezer-refrigerator this one over two years ago and have been very happy with it.

This link http://damondiva.blogspot.com/2013/11/norcold-to-lg-conversion.html shows it.

The link to AJ madison given by gary has it listed.  LG brand.

 

[judway]

I replaced my unit with a Whirlpool 10 Cu Ft on sale from Sears. It is about the size you mention. It has been working great for about a year. The temperature runs about 0 +or- 2 degrees for the freezer and 40 +or- 2 degrees for the refrigerator. It took a lot of time to get the mounting for the new unit correct. You need at least two people to handle the job.

w=24 1/4
d=28
h=61.5 maybe you can remove material from the top of the opening if necessary

Available in Kenmore Also.

 

[borffmann]

Thanks folks, both of those fridges look pretty good.
And thank you, Gary. Those sites are a good reference.

 

[NY_Dutch]

We replaced our failing 15 year old Norcold fridge with this 10 cu ft Haier fridge from Lowes. We bought the identical black one. The case itself is only about 22 inches deep, and the door is about 3 inches thick. The specs listing gives more details on the dimensions. You would have to find about 10" more for the height though. Is there a drawer under your fridge, or a cabinet over it that could be reconfigured to add more height? The Haier is working very well for us, and the price is quite reasonable. I modified a couple of window latches to keep the doors closed while underway.

 

[Lou Schneider]

The furnace compartment should already be completely sealed off from the refrigerator compartment, so there's no risk of CO leakage from one to the other.

Since I was installing a black refrigerator,  I used black duct tape to make an airtight seal between the edge of the fridge and the surrounding cabinet.  This also helps anchor the refrigerator in place instead of just relying on bolting it to the compartment floor.  The tape can be covered with standard wood molding.  I wasn't concerned about CO intrusion, but since I had a rear coil refrigerator I kept the rear door and roof vents in place and wanted to avoid drafts getting into the interior.

My motorhome also has the furnace directly under the refrigerator, but there was about 8" of dead space above it.  Often propane refrigerators will have this to increase the efficiency of the chimney effect that siphons heat from behind the fridge through the roof vent.  Removing the front panel that blocked off this space let me install a 60" tall, 24" wide 10 cubic ft. Whirlpool ETOMSRXTB02

Counter depth refrigerators are only a couple of inches deeper than a regular RV fridge and are an option if you have enough aisle space in front of the fridge.

 

[borffmann]

Unfortunately, on my Bounder, the stock Norcold fridge I'm replacing comes all the way to the ceiling, there isn't more than an inch of headroom there. And the bottom of the fridge comes almost to the top of the furnace. I'm going to need to get a residential fridge that is a touch shorter if anything.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

That must be a tall furnace or a low ceiling? My Norcold 1200 (12 cu ft) sits above the furnace and it is 64.75" tall.  You may have some dead space above the furnace, so could lower the divider "floor" somewhat.