RV Refrigerators cost, OUCH !!!!!

[GPW]

A quick check on any of the RV forums will reveal a plethora of troubles with the " RV " refrigerator (absorption systems) ... Leaking , fires , many ineffective recalls ... Very problematic ... and the so called fixes are more expensive then the units themselves ... Worse , they don't work well in hot weather ...
Just more of the RV Money Pit !!!
I've got one (Norcold unused ) in my TT , plan on replacing it with a small inexpensive dorm fridge immediately ... of which many people report satisfactory results , and if it breaks , there's always a cheap replacement at most big stores ...

[Wolfscout]

A quick check on any of the RV forums will reveal a plethora of troubles with the " RV " refrigerator (absorption systems) ... Leaking , fires , many ineffective recalls ... Very problematic ... and the so called fixes are more expensive then the units themselves ... Worse , they don't work well in hot weather ...
Just more of the RV Money Pit !!!

ACK ~!!~ I didn't need to know that. Glad I got a dorm frig.

[vreihen]

Something that you might want to check out are some of the over-the-road truck driver forums. I have seen several posts pop up in Google about how they power small dorm fridges from an inverter in their trucks, which may be an option for being unplugged on an extended road trip to a camp site with shore power.....

[Kyle1911]

I pulled a 1987 vintage dometic 3 way fridge/freezer out of my Father in law's 5th wheel last week. That thing was scary, to say the least. The ammonia smell was bad enough that I left the door open, and came back the next day to do the tear out. I realize these are built to be lightweight, but what a POS! I could have poked my finger through the plastic, and when combined with a scary failure mode (Leaking ammonia, and a couple other toxic nasties), and the specter of propane, you couldn't give me one of these things. Maybe the newer units are better? I honestly haven't looked that close. I replaced that unit with a nice fridge/freezer from Lowes. He got it for $289, and it fit nicely, with a small gap around the outside. Time will tell how it holds up, but the $30 3 year warranty was worth it. I have heard that these small dorm fridges don't hold up to trailer use, but I am real skeptical on that one. Every roof ac unit has most of the same components, and they are cranked out by the thousands by the lowest bidder. Also, these fridges get shipped all over the world. Bouncing, banging, laying on their sides... You get the picture. We have a smaller dorm fridge in our conversion, and have used it for 6 camping trips so far. It was a freebie from a buddy, so again, time will tell. So far, so good. I plug it in at home for about 6 hours, throw some frozen water bottles in with the food, and away we go. If you think about it, when your power goes out, do you fret over your food going bad in 6 hours? I guess it depends on the climate, but most are good for at least 24 hours, if you don't open them. If I have repeated failures of the dorm fridge, I may have to humbly eat these words, which has happened before, but for now, it is working well. I plan to experiment with using this on a 400w inverter, just to see what happens, but honestly, I may just buy a nice cooler for dry camping. Regards, Kyle

[8ball_99]

A quick check on any of the RV forums will reveal a plethora of troubles with the " RV " refrigerator (absorption systems) ... Leaking , fires , many ineffective recalls ... Very problematic ... and the so called fixes are more expensive then the units themselves ... Worse , they don't work well in hot weather ...
Just more of the RV Money Pit !!!
I've got one (Norcold unused ) in my TT , plan on replacing it with a small inexpensive dorm fridge immediately ... of which many people report satisfactory results , and if it breaks , there's always a cheap replacement at most big stores ...

This really depends on the fridge. Just like with anything some are better then others. The smaller pop up fridges like the 4223 are pretty dern bullet proof. No electronic boards to go out. Has a couple of manual switches on the back to switch between 12v, 110ac or gas. As far as not working in hot weather that simply isn't true if they are vented right. Problem is most travel trailers have min venting or just poorly designed layout.

[Engineer Guy]

What GPW said twice...

I've got a House-sized Dometic Fridge in my '31 1983 Avion. The Fridge side of the Trailer faced south, gaining Solar. The Fridge was off. I'm trying to figure out where this slight Ammonia odor is coming from. I'm looking around, and innocently open the Fridge Door. A BLAST of Ammonia, of a strength I've never experienced, blinded and gagged me. I'm GD lucky I was not blinded permanently, it was that powerful.

I bolted for the Door and got out. A Coil Braze had leaked Ammonia 'out of the blue', and the Fridge acted like a warm 'concentrator'. Estimate: ~$700- to fix it. Eff it.

I'll sell the Trailer w/o a working Fridge, but with a clean Conscience that no one else will be hurt should another Braze give way.

I'm no Drama Queen, but this was a close call...

That said, what 8ball_99 said is true for the much smaller Dometic in my 15' Play-Mor TT. It's vented well, and has no Electronics. I plan to use it, with Gas Detector working, until it kacks. My Nose is calibrated now for Ammonia detection. I've got a spare Dorm Fridge to replace it if/when. I also plan to work up a super-Insulated Cooler to go ~5 days while Boondocking.

[Gadget Man]

Well enough said...I'm going to look for a nice "dorm" refrigerator with the separate top freezer.
I appreciate all the advise from everyone.
If I ever have trouble, I can buy about 3 of them for the price of one RV Refrigerator, this plus a nice cooler for beer will be all I need.

And oh... did I mention my Son just started working at Best Buy, so I can get a real nice employee discount if I have him pick it up for me.

Gadget Man

[GPW]

Just from reading about these , it would appear all the problems started a few years back when the manufacturer changed the cooling units to "foreign" made units ... The older units seemingly working better and lasting a long time ... The fix recommended for the new ones is the Amish cooling unit (another $1000.00 ) ... and an automatic fire extinguisher , just for the fridge .... another $1000.00 )
The RV folks , just keep spending and spending to support their mobile hotels ... They must "have it to spend it" ...

Being retired, I try to get the most bang for the buck out of most everything I purchase ... I bought a commercial TT and got royally screwed... Still paying for that bad experience ... IMHO, the RV industry is just as shifty and Greedy as the Banks ....

[bdosborn]

We have an RV fridge and while its not as good as I expected its not as bad as all that. Remember that you tend to hear about the worst cases on the internet, never when the fridge quietly does its job. Its absolutely critical that the venting be designed correctly for proper performance. There are a lot of venting "fixes" on the internet, I've worked through most of them and they didn't do much for me. In the end I simplified my venting and the fridge started working better. Its still persnickity and I have to watch the temps all the time (the flame blew out last trip).

The bottom line for me is that the Waeco works better than the RV fridge in every way but one (electrical usage) and I wouldn't buy an RV fridge again. We still use both at this point but I have the RV fridges replacement picked out and its a compressor fridge.

Bruce

P.S. An interesting thing I learned in a safety class; you can't smell ammonia when the concentration gets higher than a certain level. So if you do smell it, get out quick.

[Tomcat98]

For the folks that use the 120V how much power do these things draw?

Tomcat98

[Kyle1911]

Tomcat, mine draws .7 amps of 120v running. Butttt, starting amps are unknown. Just like the "Will my generator start my AC unit?" threads, I don't know the starting load. The unit I installed in my Father in law's trailer had a "Rotor locked" rating, that was pretty high, but I don't recall what it was. Other forums I have read talk about running these fridges from inverters, but most seem to recommend 1kw inverters to handle starting them. Once running, mine should use about 8.5amps of 12v, plus inverter loss. Maybe 10 amps running on an inverter would be a good guess? Now, if it's already cold from using shore power to get the temp down before leaving home, and you are just maintaining temp, I wonder what the duty cycle on these is? I know it varies with temp, but even a high figure of 50% drops you to a 5amp continuous load... I freely admit, the Battery Gurus need to take over from here. All the 5th grade math to calculate how long a given battery would last to 50% discharge at that rate confuses both of my remaining brain cells. My non-scientific test, with two new costco golf cart batteries that I am installing this weekend, will be to plug it in to my 400w inverter, and see what happens. If it fires up, and nothing shuts off, I'll set my cell phone timer, wander out to the trailer once in awhile with my voltmeter, and see how long I can go before dropping to 12.2v. I bought a craigslist 5000k noise maker generator for our dry camping, and will use that for 4-6 hours a day to top up batteries, and cool down the fridge, but I would like to know how long I can go if the genny is not an option. Regards, Kyle

[Gadget Man]

Well, I went refrigerator shopping today. I went to Lowe's and Best Buy.
I found the 3.1 cubic foot model with the separate top freezer, both stores had them right up front of the store for the back to school dorm room shoppers.
They were right around $219.00
Home Depot has the tall skinny 4.1 cubic foot model on the web site for $249.00.
The most important thing I learned is that these little dorm room refrigerators are NOT vented out the bottom front. So you have to leave 2 inches all the way around them if you plan to build them into a cabinet.
So there goes my idea of building them tight into an insulated cabinet to try and gain some more thermal insulation.

I plan on building a stand up cabinet with my furnace on the bottom, the refrigerator in the middle and a little microwave on top.
So now, I'll just have to leave the 2" gap all around the refrigerator box.
I'm so glad I learned about the venting.
I have 6.8 feet of inside height.

Gadget Man

[GPW]

My humble plan is using a small dorm fridge (the little ones) just as a convenience and reason not to open the ice chest continuously where all the goodies will be frozen for days if left mostly undisturbed...

[Wolfscout]

Gadget Man, I built mine inside a cabinet. the way I did the cabinet leg segments there is the room necessary and because I didn't but a inside wall to the cabinet.. it has plenty of circulation room. It can be done without looking too bad. it's the walmart brand 4.5cubic foot because of the price. I paid $124.99.

[Nitroxjunkie71]

Well, I went refrigerator shopping today. I went to Lowe's and Best Buy.
I found the 3.1 cubic foot model with the separate top freezer, both stores had them right up front of the store for the back to school dorm room shoppers.
They were right around $219.00

I bought one of these about a month ago and shopped around. Wally Wrl'd had them on sale. Low & Behold, they are still on sale as of today.

GE 3.1 cu ft 2 Door Compact Refrigerator, Black $124.00

It worked great the first time I used it and the weather was HOT, HOT, HOT!