Keeping a Residential RV Refrigerator Cold During Travel

[Ex-Calif]

1. Other than putting blocks of ice in it. What tips do ya'll have for keeping the reefer cold on a long travel day?

2. My trailer has had a residential fridge installed. Any tips to create fiddles or barriers to stop stuff falling off shelves?

I am planning to get something like 3 inch plastic backsplash L molding and gluing it into the front of the shelves.

In the same vein. Best adhesive for plastic to glass shelves?

 

[msw3113]

Our residential fridge used inverted power from on-board batteries, so it stayed cold as long as we had battery power.
To help corral items on the shelves we used small storage bins like these from Ikea. We also used compression type curtain rods, inserted into pool noodles and installed from sidewall to sidewall at the front of the shelves. They snap out for easy access.

 

[rjshiflet]

We had a Cardinal with a residential fridge, and it ran off the inverter so it stayed cold constantly with just battery power.

Our current smaller fifth wheel has a 12-volt only refrigerator, so it stays cool during travel. There is also a 110-volt "beverage fridge" inside and a 110-volt small fridge in the outdoor kitchen. We don't use those two smaller ones for cold items during travel.

 

[Domo]

The residential fridge in our MH runs off the inverter - we make sure the ice maker is turned off during travel as it may slosh and has a heat strip to help release the ice - so it could make a mess and waste a bit of battery at the same time.

We have decent drawer latches on the fridge and freezer same as for our regular doors, however we will add a bungie cord around both handles and stuck into an adjacent upper cabinet door's hinge side to help guarantee they can't open while we run the LeMans racecourse...(LOL) Regarding stuff falling out of the fridge - we use towels. We already own towels, they fit into any shape and if there is a spill when we open the door at the end of the day we have a towel ready to clean up the mess! We have tried all the fancy spring loaded tension bars, open topped storage bins, etc. The most versatile is simply using the towels, for us.

 

[gwinger]

One more tip. Do not load the door shelves with heavy items. Those things bouncing around on the thin plastic shelves will crack the shelf or the mounting points.

 

[bigbAZ]

I use these products to keep things from moving around or falling off the shelves. I tried single bars and they don't stay put like the double bars do. Also note that he Blue Camco braces only work on wire shelves.

Amazon.com

Amazon.com

We also keep the fridge completely full to add thermal mass. We use square bottles of water to fill in any empty spaces. You could freeze them but we run our fridge while driving so not necessary. I keep 2 gallons under the sink to refill the ones in the fridge as we drink them.

 

[TheBar]

I've had several commercial hard and soft ice packets leak filled with who knows what in them. We freeze 2 liter soda bottles filled with filtered water in the fridge. Not just for the trip but it takes a couple hours to cool down after hooking up the electric. With the fridge closed they'll stay frozen all day.

Then use them for our drinking water. If they are not needed for the return trip we throw them away.. We keep a 1 liter bottle frozen in a drink cooler so we don't need to open the fridge during the trip.

Carbonated drink bottles can withstand high pressure and swelling. Haven't had one break or leak in 30 years.

 

[TheBar]

In the same vein. Best adhesive for plastic to glass shelves?

Shoe glue (X3000) adhesive is the most durable and stickiest glue I've found.

 

[bigbAZ]

Nano Tape is also a great adhesive that is also removable and reusable.

 

[8Muddypaws]

We used something like curtain rods but heavier duty. They were specifically designed for RV refrigerators. Amazon probably has them. They worked well without glue and were easy to remove when not traveling.

Depending on the wattage required by your refer an inverter might be a good solution.

 

[Ex-Calif]

I use these products to keep things from moving around or falling off the shelves. I tried single bars and they don't stay put like the double bars do. Also note that he Blue Camco braces only work on wire shelves.

Amazon.com

Amazon.com

We also keep the fridge completely full to add thermal mass. We use square bottles of water to fill in any empty spaces. You could freeze them but we run our fridge while driving so not necessary. I keep 2 gallons under the sink to refill the ones in the fridge as we drink them.

I like the second ones - compression bars. My shelves are all glass so the butterfly nut ones won't work.

 

[Ex-Calif]

Shoe glue (X3000) adhesive is the most durable and stickiest glue I've found.

Thanks. I think I am gonna try 3m double sided tape first.

My buddy and I dreamed that up while driving.

 

[Ex-Calif]

Thanks everyone. For those running the fridge on battery/inverter what kind of amps are you drawing and how big is the inverter?

Doing the math and thinking I can't put enough DC amps through the trailer light wiring system.

I have one house battery that isn't that big.

 

[Jayhawk 29]

I convertered my 12 volt to 110 fridge and run it on my 2000 watt Renogy converter. Since the standard deep cell batteries were weak on AH, I convertered to two GC 2 golf cart batteries, 232 ah.

Originally I did not want to deal with any DC-DC chargers for the larger Lithium batteries rigged on my truck for charging, but have 600 watts of solar too, which does handle additional charging when stopped or boondocking most of the time .

With my new 350 it has two alternators and two batteries,,separating the charging and wiring to my hitch pin while traveling I dont really need one while driving and keeping my batteries charged .

My fridge has glass shelves..we use small plastic containers to contain jars and related items , and pack gallon milk and juice containers so that stuff stays in place most of the time .

The two 6 volt golf cart batteries wired in series fit on the hitch in one box purchased from Amazon

We have several of these containers that restricts stuff from going everywhere in the fridge

 

[DutchmenSport]

We have a residential refrigerator. It's powered by inverter via battery when traveling. If not connected to shore power, the inverter will run about 20 hours before depleting the battery to the point the slides or the landing gear does not operate. However, when connected to the tow vehicle, the battery receives a trickle charge.

About those bars to keep things from falling around. Years ago I found that spring loaded shower curtain rods work marvelously in the refrigerator. The nice thing about them is, they can be tightened as tightly as needed. They hold tight. I choose a white color so it would match the interior of the refrigerator. For us, this works very well.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Thanks everyone. For those running the fridge on battery/inverter what kind of amps are you drawing and how big is the inverter?

What make/model fridge is it? And is its compressor 12dc or 120vac? The amp draw depends on the compressor, which in turn is keyed to the fridge size. The peak compressor amp amount determines the minimum inverter size (watts) but the required battery size depends on ambient temperatures and how often the fridge door gets opened.

A trailer of your size likely has a 6-10 cu ft fridge installed, so I would guess that a 1000-1200W inverter would suffice and a 100AH lithium battery might provide 10+ hours of use. Charging from the tow vehicle would probably extend that somewhat but you might need to upgrade the charge wire from the truck to get reasonable amps.

 

[RayIN]

I use these products to keep things from moving around or falling off the shelves. I tried single bars and they don't stay put like the double bars do. Also note that he Blue Camco braces only work on wire shelves.

Amazon.com

Amazon.com

We also keep the fridge completely full to add thermal mass. We use square bottles of water to fill in any empty spaces. You could freeze them but we run our fridge while driving so not necessary. I keep 2 gallons under the sink to refill the ones in the fridge as we drink them.

We too use the double bars to keep things where they belong. For a large residential frige, spring tension curtain rods would work fine IMO.

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

All the options of running a fridge underway in a trailer starts to make the ice blocks look good...

Frankly, I would do like I did in a recent thread here with my propane fridge and see what the cooldown and heatup times actually are. Maybe with a typical compliment of contents to represent thermal mass. Managing off-plug time, and judiciously picking what you really have to have that needs refrigeration can make life simpler e.g. canned veggies instead of fresh or frozen. Generally we don't keep more than few days' worth in there so even if the freezer does warm up, it's at most a day or two before it's going to get thawed anyway. It's truly a first world problem when the complaint while camping is the ice cream got soft.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[Ex-Calif]

What make/model fridge is it? And is its compressor 12dc or 120vac? The amp draw depends on the compressor, which in turn is keyed to the fridge size. The peak compressor amp amount determines the minimum inverter size (watts) but the required battery size depends on ambient temperatures and how often the fridge door gets opened.

A trailer of your size likely has a 6-10 cu ft fridge installed, so I would guess that a 1000-1200W inverter would suffice and a 100AH lithium battery might provide 10+ hours of use. Charging from the tow vehicle would probably extend that somewhat but you might need to upgrade the charge wire from the truck to get reasonable amps.

Yeah - My mental calcs are that I need to put 25-30 Amps through the trailer wire to keep an inverter going. And at that I haven't even checked my power supply/converter yet.

I think a DC powered by truck solution is gonna be a lot of hoo ha for me.

I may go back to figuring out running the genny underway on long days.

 

[bigbAZ]

A portable power station could work if you don't want to use your house battery. Or just a spare battery, inverter and a charger. I built my own power station out of a spare battery I had, 1,280wh. Battery, inverter and charger inside a HF Apache case with 12VDC, 120VAC outlets on the outside, cooling fans, shunt with monitor and a 120VAC charging inlet. Inverter is 1,000 watts pure sine wave WZRELB and cost $70. Pretty easy to do actually.

But you don't need to get that fancy, just a Lipo battery with an inverter stuck to it and a small charger to charge it back up at camp. You could even have it be charging at a low rate with your current charge wire while driving to get more hours out of it.

Somewhere on the fridge there should be a label showing watts, KW or amps. Normally inside the fridge. If you can provide one of those numbers it will help us with advice.