Refridgerator Propane vs Residential

[cujman]

we are currently looking to buy a new RV and think we want a residential fridge mostly because our current propane/electric needs to be defrosted every few weeks.  A friend of mine says that the newer propane fridges don't have this problem, he has only defrosted his once in the last 9 months.  Almost all of the dealer inventories we  have seen have the dual fridge.  I am wondering, presuming you are never boon docking do people prefer one over the other?

The cujman

 

[donn]

Check the door gaskets on your refer.  The only reason it should require defrosting is warm air is getting in.  So either you have a bad seal or your standing there with the door open for a long time.  Some newer RV refers have a defrost feature.  However it requires a lot of power to work.
Now, RV vs residential thats another question.  If you NEVER camp without hookups then a residential refer is by far a better choice.  Faster cool down, more room are only two reasons.

 

[Utclmjmpr]

X2 on the door seal. Easy to replace.>>>Dan

 

[Larry N.]

I'm with donn: If you don't boondock, go residential. It's been much better for us, even though we boondock on occasion. You may want a few extra batteries with the res. or they may not be needed, depending on your needs. Units with the res. from the factory generally have extra batteries, which can typically keep you going through the daytime (OR overnight) without hookups.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

The newer model RV fridges aren't any more frost-free than the old models, but a brand new one may be in better condition and frost up less than your current one.

RV fridges don't circulate air internally, so have no effective way to collect condensation and get rid of it. Especially in the freezer compartment.
There is very little reason to NOT have a residential (compressor-driven) fridge. Even many boondockers use them (requires a decent size battery bank, though).

 

[sc4668]

I have a 5th wheel with the Norcold N811RT and am thinking about replacing it with the Refrigerator that has the DC compressor. Home Depot has them for $1500, I think this should work for me since I do not have the room for the big 110volt residential refrigerator. Has anyone done this and how is it working. By the way I have 4 6 volt GC2 batteries.

 

[garyb1st]

I have a 5th wheel with the Norcold N811RT and am thinking about replacing it with the Refrigerator that has the DC compressor. Home Depot has them for $1500, I think this should work for me since I do not have the room for the big 110volt residential refrigerator. Has anyone done this and how is it working. By the way I have 4 6 volt GC2 batteries.

I just installed one I purchased from Home Depot.  It's the 13 cu ft Unique model 370.  If you have any questions, send me a PM.  So far I've run mine more than 24 hours on my 2 Interstate CGC 6v batteries. 

 

[docj]

I just installed one I purchased from Home Depot.  It's the 13 cu ft Unique model 370.  If you have any questions, send me a PM.  So far I've run mine more than 24 hours on my 2 Interstate CGC 6v batteries.

I would be more interested in one of these if it offered an ice maker.  Giving up both an ice maker and frost-free operation makes it non-competitive IMO.  Even my Norcold had an ice maker!

 

[garyb1st]

I would be more interested in one of these if it offered an ice maker.  Giving up both an ice maker and frost-free operation makes it non-competitive IMO.  Even my Norcold had an ice maker!

These DC fridges are designed for off-grid living.  So a pretty limited market.  Also, they're designed to operate on minimum power.  Advertised kWh for mine is about 210.  The best I could find in a small, 10 cu ft residential, was more than 300.  My guess is ice makers etc. just consumes more power.  Something the market likely isn't interested in. 

 

[Prior member]

We are seasonal RV'rs and have a residential refrigerator that is bigger than our home one and I would never have a regular RV one again.
If you do boon docking you need the RV one though
Jack L

 

[shorts]

Our 5W came with a residential refrigerator and we love it, ice maker and all. We do boondock a lot and even before we installed solar we just added some extra batteries and used generator to keep them charged when needed. Refrigerators today are pretty energy efficient although we can definitely tell when it?s going thru the defrost cycle when we are boondocking. The battery monitor takes a big jump! We would not go back to an RV fridge.

Vicki

 

[Kevin Means]

Residential refrigerators have become very common in the RV industry, largely because modern units are much more efficient than what most of us grew up with. No amonia leaks, no leveling issues, faster cool downs, more capacity, competitively priced... they're great for RVing. The only downsides I'm aware of is that they use more electricity than LP fridges, a lot more, and unless it's a DC only fridge like Gary's, you need an inverter to power them. IMO, those drawbacks are far outweighed, and easily overcomable, by installing more batteries and solar. You don't even need to do that if you don't boondock.

Our 22cf res fridge with ice maker, and the inverter that powers it, consumes about 160 - 180 amps every 24 hours (depending on the temp of the RV's interior.) That's a lot compared to even the largest of LP fridges. Unless you're on shore power, or you've got a fair amount of battery capacity and solar, you can plan on running your generator 3 to 4 hours a day to keep your batteries charged.

Kev

 

[cujman]

Thanks to all for your input.  Seems like residential is the way to go.  We will keep looking for one.  Don't know why so many dealers only bring in units with rv fridges

 

[QZ]

Thanks to all for your input.  Seems like residential is the way to go.  We will keep looking for one.  Don't know why so many dealers only bring in units with rv fridges

Because resi are electric power hogs compared to propane. Propane bottle is easy compared to generating electricity
Walking into our homes and flipping aswitch for grid power is dirt cheap. Creating electricity on an individual scale is much different

When propane fridge we're first used there weren't any solar panels or inverter generators. If a person wants a basic set up without having to power a bunch of stuff propane is excellent.

It's easy to haul a small tank of propane and it will run a very long time on it. Now we have far more efficient residential models along with inexpensive inverters, batteries, solar components and ultra quiet inverter generators.

As rare as it is, the major flaw imo with propane is the fire danger. The flaw isn't really the fridge, it's how they install them. Any appliance in a house like a furnace etc has a metal enclosure all around it and minimum clearance specs. When an RV fridge coil ruptures it shoots out a flammable gas which catches the surrounding materials on fire. There really isn't much of that gas available so it isn't like it can keep shooting fire out and guarantee that the right catches fire. If they had simply lined the cavity all the way to the top sheet metal it would nearly impossible for it to catch fire. You would have to hold a blow torch on the sheet metal far far longer than the momentary gas discharge of a fridge before a fire would start. When they catch fire it isn't the propane valve dumping a tank of propane in there.

A propane fridge and a resi just don't compare when it comes to air circulation and food preservation. In a given cabinet opening a resi also has more interior room.

If you never boondock I would surely go resi. If you do want to do an overnight stop or even a couple nights you can probably get by with just adding more batteries. It can be done in different ways for different people. If you have enough battery you don't need anything else and just recharge when you get home.

Other people run a small inverter generator to do heavy work like cooking breakfast, hairdryer etc and pump the big amps back into the battery when it's most willing to accept it. 

It's not one size fits all

 

[Drewd]

Propane here and love it.  Uses about 1lb/day when boondock camping and does a great job.

Average electricity usage for a residential fridge is 1000 to 1400 watts/day.  That is a lot of energy to harness and store from the sun.

With that said, if it is windy outside when I'm towing, I will use my 120 volt AC heating element on my fridge to cool things down instead of propane.  It only uses about 20 amps/hour of battery electricity to power when I'm towing and all of that is easily provided by my solar system when suns out and 660 amp-hours of battery capacity if it is cloudy outside when towing.

 

[docj]

Average electricity usage for a residential fridge is 1000 to 1400 watts/day. 

With all due respect to everyone who has posted, for future reference I'd like to point out that a "watt" is a unit of power, not of energy.  Electrical energy is usually measured in "watt-hours" or (in homes) in  "kilowatt-hours".  If a residential refrigerator draws an average of 100 watts when operating, then it would consume 100 watts x 24 hours = 2400 watt hours = 2.4 kilowatt-hours over a full day's use.

Similarly, the amp-hour is only a unit of energy if one "knows" that it is provided at 12V.  An amp-hour at 12V is equal to 12 watt-hours of energy.  In your post you refer to the 120V AC option on your fridge as drawing "20amps/hour".  In fact it's drawing 20 amps at 12V which is equal to 240 watts.  An hour's use would result in consumption of 240 watt-hours of energy. 

It's worth noting that a propane-electric fridge when operated on 120V AC uses more electrical energy on the average than does a residential fridge because using electrical energy as heat is almost always less efficient than using it to power a refrigeration system.  That's why heat pumps are more efficient than resistance electric heating.

 

[Drewd]

I knew that and appreciate the feedback.

So I'll repeat with a little clarity, residential fridges use on average 1.1 to 1.4 kilo-watt hours each day.  Still is a lot of juice to store and save.  Yes, the heating element on my propane fridge consumes slightly more electricity than a residential but I run mainly on propane and run electricity only when I'm towing in strong crosswinds or run out of propane which is very unlikely. 

If you install 2 small CPU cooling fans on your interior fridge fins you will have much less icing.  I've only needed to defrost one in the past year and the way I do that is turn off my fridge overnight (the ice on fins keeps stuff cool) and using plastic spatular scrape off whatever didn't fall off and melt-EASY.

Yes, my propane fridge consumes 20 amps/hour of battery at 12 volts.

When you buy a lightbulb it says 60 watts or 40 watts.etc..etc.  For the layman, it is easier to leave out the 60/watts per hour at 120 volts AC terminology as it tends to confuse most people nowadays who don't do anything DIY except drive their RVs and vehicles to someone else for repair.

 

[Lou Schneider]

For the layman, it is easier to leave out the 60/watts per hour at 120 volts AC terminology as it tends to confuse most people nowadays who don't do anything DIY except drive their RVs and vehicles to someone else for repair.

True, unless you're talking about power consumption vs. the amount of energy you have in your batteries.

Saying something consumes 60 watts vs. 60 watt-hours is somewhat meaningless if you're connected to unlimited energy via the grid.  But the difference between an instantaneous consumption of 60 watts vs. 60 watt-hours is very relevant if you're talking about a battery that only contains 60 watt-hours of stored power (5 amp-hours at 12 volts).

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Saying something consumes 60 watts vs. 60 watt-hours is somewhat meaningless if you're connected to unlimited energy via the grid.

Until it's time to pay the electric bill! 

 

[docj]

When you buy a lightbulb it says 60 watts or 40 watts.etc..etc.  For the layman, it is easier to leave out the 60/watts per hour at 120 volts AC terminology as it tends to confuse most people nowadays who don't do anything DIY except drive their RVs and vehicles to someone else for repair.

Sorry, it's not "60 watts per hour" it's simply 60 watts.  A watt is an instantaneous measurement of power.  Power used over time equals energy.  The 60 watt light bulb uses 60 watts every second it is connected to a 120 volt power source.

If you leave it on for an hour it will consume 60 watt-hours of energy (0.060 kW-hr).