Help, residential refer versus RV refer pros and cons

mrcomer

Past Ohio Chapter Leaders (Founding)
I’ve searched our forum but have not found anything yet. Can some of you out there help me weigh the pros and cons of the residential refers to the RV refers? I’d also like to hear from people who have had both. Do you prefer one over the other? Why?

BTW, we currently have a Dometic RM1350 4-door refer with icemaker. It has done well so far but at times we have issues staying cool. I have added the fan on the fins inside to reduce frost build-up and that has made a significant difference. Looking forward, when we decide to upgrade this issue will be one to decide and input now will be greatly appreciated, although it maybe a few years before will make the change.

FYI, we are not looking to upgrade our current refer. Later in life we want to upgrade our RV and we would order the appropriate refer then. Thanks.

Costs?

Weight?

Electrical/propane?

Size?

Air circulation?

Practicallity?

Water or ice in the door?

Ice maker?

Locking doors for travel?

Reliability?

Replacement later on?

How long will it stay cool while travelling?

So with a conventional RV refer you have both propane and electricity, 12volt and 110 volt, vents for proper circulation, initial high costs at purchase and high costs for replacement, harder to keep cool in the high point of the summer, not as common as residential therefore not a lot of choices when it comes to replacement.

With a residential refer there is only 110 volt either from pedestal or from an inverter, venting not as much of an issue, initial costs may be a wash versus RV style refer including extra battery-inverter-additional heavy wiring, should stay cooler longer because of better insulation?, more interior room? Heavier than RV style? Amp draw with standard compressor-will this be a problem on a 30 amp pedestal while running the air conditioner? Can you hear the compressor at night when you are trying to sleep?
 
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For20hunter

Pacific Region Directors-Retired
This is a very individual upgrade that everyone's answer will be different. There are so many things to consider before making this decision. For example, what are you camping needs and styles? Do you do a lot of dry camping or boon docking? Do you live in a climate where you get freezing temps while you are using your fifth wheel?

The Residential fridge definitely is something that keeps the appropriate temps as long as you have power. You can run it indefinitely while you are traveling, but once your truck is turned off or disconnected you only have about 10-18 hours before your batteries start to discharge to the point where I would be afraid that it would cut off the power from your Inverter.

The cost depends on whether you are ordering it with a new coach or if you are removing an existing non residential fridge and replacing it with a residential fridge. If you are doing that, you need to measure the space available in your existing refrigerator spot and purchase a fridge that will fit in that spot.

The ice maker is great, but it is something that is very temperamental when it comes to freezing temperatures as the water feed lines for it are usually exposed outside the coach and will need to be drained and blown out anytime there is a freeze because they are very small and thin water lines.

The residential fridges are definitely heavier, but that weight will depend on which model you get.

The residential fridges only run on AC Power so you would need an inverter installed which connects to the batter and that is what powers it, so as I stated above, you would have power indefinitely while your truck is hooked up and running or plugged into shore power.

We have had no air circulation or cooling issues at all with our residential fridge, no matter what the temps are outside or inside the coach.

Locking the doors for travel will also depend on which model you get. We have the factory installed latches that hold each door at the top, but as I understand it there have been a lot of problems with these cracking as the plastic ages. A lot of people just use velcro straps either looped around the doors or holding them to the fridge body to keep them closed while traveling.

In the end, you must first decide if a residential fridge is for you. If you dry camp or boon dock, unless you are planning on investing a lot of money into a solar system then a residential fridge is probably not a good option for you. Once you decide it it is for you, then measuring your space to decide what fridge will work for you is the next step. Once you get that fridge picked out then you will know the added or additional weight of it.

We have had no problems running ours on a 30 amp pedestal with the AC going, but that is based on the fridge we use. There are others far less energy efficient that might have an issue with that. That would be another consideration to think of when selecting your fridge after you learn the amount of space you have for it and what size your coach will hold.

Hope this helps,

Rod

I’ve searched our forum but have not found anything yet. Can some of you out there help me weigh the pros and cons of the residential refers to the RV refers? I’d also like to hear from people who have had both. Do you prefer one over the other? Why?

BTW, we currently have a Dometic RM1350 4-door refer with icemaker. It has done well so far but at times we have issues staying cool. I have added the fan on the fins inside to reduce frost build-up and that has made a significant difference. Looking forward, when we decide to upgrade this issue will be one to decide and input now will be greatly appreciated, although it maybe a few years before will make the change.

Costs?

Weight?

Electrical/propane?

Size?

Air circulation?

Practicallity?

Water or ice in the door?

Ice maker?

Locking doors for travel?

Reliability?

Replacement later on?

How long will it stay cool while travelling?

So with a conventional RV refer you have both propane and electricity, 12volt and 110 volt, vents for proper circulation, initial high costs at purchase and high costs for replacement, harder to keep cool in the high point of the summer, not as common as residential therefore not a lot of choices when it comes to replacement.

With a residential refer there is only 110 volt either from pedestal or from an inverter, venting not as much of an issue, initial costs may be a wash versus RV style refer including extra battery-inverter-additional heavy wiring, should stay cooler longer because of better insulation?, more interior room? Heavier than RV style? Amp draw with standard compressor-will this be a problem on a 30 amp pedestal while running the air conditioner?
 

farside291

Well-known member
It's heavy in the slide, the fridge runs off inverter while traveling so stay cool is not a problem, truck charges batteries. Size, bigger than any refer I've had yet, 22 cubic feet. Cooling excellent I keep it set to -2 for freezer and 38 for fridge, stays constant. Ice maker and water through the door, I loved it...until it sprung a leak in the line, but there are fixes on this forum for that. I just keep it turned off and use a table top Ice maker (10 cubes/6 minutes) and bottled water then I dump the ice from the table top ice maker into the ice maker bin in the fridge, walla, ice through the door. Plus I don't have to worry about the water line freezing in the winter because it runs on the outside of the slide. The doors have locks on the top that secures them for travel. During PDI no one told me, fortunately the DW put the eggs in the drawer! Everything else was on the floor of the RV. Found the locks shortly there after. Reliability, others will be better to answer this, I have only had mine for 1 year with no problems. I did find the exact same model at Sears for $1300, pretty sure it was the same. I am not sure if my unit would run on a 30 amp connection, might but would have to limit electrical use for sure. If I had it to do over, I would get the same fridge again, no regrets. I have not had any problems on the road running off the inverter or plugged in.
 
B

BouseBill

Guest
I think Rod pretty much said it all:) Our biggest plus is you don't have to worry about trying to keep the RV type fridge cold on really hot days. With the residential fridge ya set the temps and don't worry about it LOL.
 

boatto5er

Founding VA Chap Ldr (Ret)
I replaced our RM1350 with a Samsung residential fridge this past weekend. First trip with the new fridge is starting Thursday. I'll give you a comparison when we get back.


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IronJ

Well-known member
Our new rw 420 was optioned with the residential fridge/inverter /dual battery...

One caveat tho is that I also have the onan 5500 genny with the remote command installed which starts the genny if it gets too hot inside or the battery's voltage gets too low..swithes on automatically when shore power is lost...

Anyway, for us it was the fact that the residential unit is 23cu ft....the freezer actually fits stuff, and it makes ice....(I also have a dorm style small fridge on the outside of the camper)

We had the norcold rv fridge before...while it had no issues cooling, it was small and that we hated..

We don't boondock THAT much, but given our setup I don't see any issue keeping power maintained. ..if it were not a toy hauler with built in genny i may have been a little more on fence going to residential unit. ..but now my wife LOVES this fridge...so I doubt we will ever have a rv unit again..lol

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Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn

Well-known member
WE LOVE our residential fridge!!!!!
The 22 cf is so big we no longer have to carry an ice chest for all of the drinks. And with the ice maker we no longer have to have a bag of ice rock hard in the freezer. And we no longer have to keep buying ice every few days for the ice chest. Also it keeps the ice cream frozen and everything else the right temp. JUST LIKE HOME :)
However I do have 4 12v batteries, a 5500 onan, and 320w of solar, and a total of 3000 watts with 2 inverters...so nothing to worry about here.
We really like the external temp display to be able to monitor the temps.

- - - Updated - - -

Our new rw 420 was optioned with the residential fridge/inverter /dual battery...

One caveat tho is that I also have the onan 5500 genny with the remote command installed which starts the genny if it gets too hot inside or the battery's voltage gets too low..swithes on automatically when shore power is lost...

Anyway, for us it was the fact that the residential unit is 23cu ft....the freezer actually fits stuff, and it makes ice....(I also have a dorm style small fridge on the outside of the camper)

We had the norcold rv fridge before...while it had no issues cooling, it was small and that we hated..

We don't boondock THAT much, but given our setup I don't see any issue keeping power maintained. ..if it were not a toy hauler with built in genny i may have been a little more on fence going to residential unit. ..but now my wife LOVES this fridge...so I doubt we will ever have a rv unit again..lol

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Did you install the remote command after or did your rig come with it ?
 

IronJ

Well-known member
I did it after. ..I was initially ordering an xlr thunderbolt and was planning on installing it on that one...so I bought it before the fact. ..not sure if you can get em equipped from factory that way? ..

Slick lil unit...will run genny if power goes out and temp is too warm (aka your dogs won't die)

Runs genny if battery's need charge...and also runs on its own to work the genny monthly...

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jbeletti

Well-known member
I did it after. ..I was initially ordering an xlr thunderbolt and was planning on installing it on that one...so I bought it before the fact. ..not sure if you can get em equipped from factory that way? ..

Slick lil unit...will run genny if power goes out and temp is too warm (aka your dogs won't die)

Runs genny if battery's need charge...and also runs on its own to work the genny monthly...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G925A using Tapatalk

Heartland does not offer the Auto/Remote start (EC-30 / EC-30W) but that add-on looks cool! Spendy though (~$700). Wish I had it.

Quick story - we were at the WI rally and one warm afternoon, they needed to shut the power off to replace a power pedestal at a site. Power was out for around 2 hours. We ran our generator so we were fine, but my neighbor was out shopping and I called them to see if I could get into their RV and start their generator so their ACs would continue to run and keep their dogs cool. For that reason alone, it was a very nice/useful feature to have.
 

scottyb

Well-known member
I never had any trouble with my Norcold, but knew that it would come one day. It never really kept things very frozen. I believe they actually use more power while running on AC than a new residential fridge. Now we love our residential fridge. IMO, unless you simply tow from one FHU site to another, you need at least 4 batteries and a generator for it to be sustainable. I have boonedocked for up to 4 days with 6 batteries (no solar), but still had to run the genny 3 - 4 hours each day. Solar could have redeuced or eliminated that assuming you are parked in the sun, but you still need the battery capacity.
 

Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn

Well-known member
I did it after. ..I was initially ordering an xlr thunderbolt and was planning on installing it on that one...so I bought it before the fact. ..not sure if you can get em equipped from factory that way? ..

Slick lil unit...will run genny if power goes out and temp is too warm (aka your dogs won't die)

Runs genny if battery's need charge...and also runs on its own to work the genny monthly...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G925A using Tapatalk
The Dog is the main concern. and the rest of the features are pretty cool too.
Is yours the same one that Jim listed ?
 

IronJ

Well-known member
Yes, I have the ec-30w....main reason for me also was the dane..they don't fare heat well...it's is a rather pricy toy tho.(but I guess that makes it right up my alley...lol)..if i recall correctly I only paid ~ 575...install is simple as well...

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Jesstruckn/Jesstalkn

Well-known member
Yes, I have the ec-30w....main reason for me also was the dane..they don't fare heat well...it's is a rather pricy toy tho.(but I guess that makes it right up my alley...lol)..if i recall correctly I only paid ~ 575...install is simple as well...

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I will put it on my list thanks
 
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