Bighorn Buyer's Opinions Wanted: Refrigerator Poll (Residential-style or RV-style)

[tcbrady]

Agree with you Jim!

As far as ice makers and water in the door is considered IMHO it is a waste of money to have them for several reasons.
1. The quality of water varies widely when traveling park to park with some good and some not so good. Would not want to drink water out of the refrig. door nozzel.
2. Quality of water affects the taste of the ice.
3. Water lines to the refrigerator are hard to winterize and/or keep from freezing in cold weather.
4. Water lines become brittle and break over time causing loss of water and possible water damage
5. Broken water lines are hard to replace. Even having to sometimes move the refrigerator to get to them.

I think a stand alone small ice maker in the basement as an option is the answer.

 

[MTPockets]

I earlier stated my vote in favor of the standard RV frig, and I would most likely stay with that. Eliminating the standard AC/Propane frig would, in my opinion, be a mistake. There are many boondockers and like us, many who boondock on occasion, or stay in National Parks and National Forrest, BLM lands with no hookups. I would be concerned about how long the battery would last, where propane will work as long as needed. Some have stated issues with cooling. I say you have a problem unit. We've never had a cooling or freezer issue. Ice cream stays hard and if I turn the frig too low, liquid freezes in frig area. We've been very satisfied with the RV frig and would not want to lose that choice.

 

[farside291]

I own a 2015 Big Country and it has taken me all of 6 months of use in the winter to determine that the ice maker and water dispenser will stay winterized for the remainder of the time I own the unit. Ice maker and water dispenser in a slide...not a good idea. Ice maker in basement is an excellent idea. My vote would be to keep the 22 cubic foot side by side residential fridge, we love ours. Most owners of 40 foot trailers really don't boondock that much, do they?

 

[MTPockets]

I own a 2015 Big Country and it has taken me all of 6 months of use in the winter to determine that the ice maker and water dispenser will stay winterized for the remainder of the time I own the unit. Ice maker and water dispenser in a slide...not a good idea. Ice maker in basement is an excellent idea. My vote would be to keep the 22 cubic foot side by side residential fridge, we love ours. Most owners of 40 foot trailers really don't boondock that much, do they?

Boondocking-Check out Quartzite, AZ - hundreds, if not thousands big rigs and rigs of all kinds. Yes, lot's of boondocking going on. You have to go there and do it to see it.

 

[Mrsfish]

We're not a 40 footer, but a full profile 35' and we love to boondock. Just saying

 

[caissiel]

We have the Domestic 8 and find that all the newer Norcold units will kill a battery in one night. There is no provision to shut off the door moisture heat strip. The Domestic has option.
The vents on the wall of the units are to small for 2 door fridges. I love the 2 single door fridges option in some SOB units. Would not have one but a great option for boondocking where one unit could be shot off. Yes I can bet that over 50% of all units are bought for long travel and off the grid. Just count the units in Arizona enjoying there long stay on solar power only.

 

[Bobby A]

Our Dometic RM3962 has never given us a problem and we have been full timing for going on 5 years now. When we ordered the unit we had the factory not install the ice maker and we are so glad we did. We do not do hardly any dry camping, however we do keep a mini fridge just for beverages and that works well for us. I think Heartland should keep the options available as we all have different needs, but if you elimate the option potential buyers may look elsewhere as for some that could be a deal breaker. JMHO

 

[SLO]

Am getting ready to order a 3685RL. Would love to get the 18 cu RV refrigerator but is only available in the 3270. I could wait to order if 18 cu would be available soon. Would also consider getting the residential frig if the annual kwh weren't so high on the Frigidaire. Samsung is about a 1/3 less kwh and could be more doable on solar.

 

[pday1213]

We got our new 2015 BigHorn 3270RS with the PolarMax 18cu stainless steel refrigerator. Runs on propane or electric. Like having four separate doors which allows the right side freezer and refrigerator doors to be opened even with slides in. You can still get access to anything in the refrigerator except for any items on the lower left side door. The refrigerator and freezer sections both have separate fans running which cool the unit pretty fast. Here were the pics from Norcold site. Like having best of both worlds electric or propane.

 

[Boca_Shuffles]

We are in the process of picking up our new SOB from the factory/dealer. We chose the RV refrigerator over the Residential. We never had a problem with our RV refrigerator in our Bighorn unit. Even though we don't dry camp, I was concerned that my batteries would wear down if we had to park our unit without power for a couple days.

 

[kakampers]

In reality, anyone who is really into boondocking is probably going to have at least an adequate solar set up....the residential will do just fine using solar and an inverter. We have about 300 watts of solar and will be replacing our norcold with a residential in the future...we also plan on some extensive boondocking.

 

[Bohemian]

In reality, anyone who is really into boondocking is probably going to have at least an adequate solar set up....the residential will do just fine using solar and an inverter. We have about 300 watts of solar and will be replacing our norcold with a residential in the future...we also plan on some extensive boondocking.

and/or a generator.

 

[kakampers]

Yeah...we ordered that too!

 

[Fonz46]

We have a 2014 BH 3570RS with the residential fridge. Getting the residential fridge was a requirement for us. If it had not been available, we would have purchased SOB. I agree with others in saying to keep both.

 

[HEH458]

Our next rv will have a residential refrigerator in it. For us, it's one of the "Must Haves".

 

[olcoon]

I don't feel we'd want the residential fridge. So far we have only "semi-dry camped". Volunteered for the forest service one summer & only had electricity for 4 hrs in the morning & 4 in the evening. Granted that "probably" would have worked, we probably would have had to buy a generator to make sure. We are the type of people that at the spur of the moment will decide to take off wherever, and like the option of a propane/elec. fridge in case we get a wild hare idea to head off for the deep timber. So if we could only have a residential fridge, we "might" be looking at SOB's.

 

[Lou_and_Bette]

We have 2015 BH 3570RS with residential and like it, but if 18 had been offered I might have chosen that option for the very reasons Coley mentioned in his first post

 

[TandT]

Just my two cents. Since our Bighorn is not a RV Resort, shore power queen, the only option for me is the two way RV refer. After fulltiming for some years, I think the 18 cu ft RV fridge would be a nice option.

We like the option of traveling freely. Going anywhere, anytime, without relying on hookups, or constantly running our generator, which is annoying to everyone.
We also have a small 200 watt solar setup to help keep batteries topped off.
With all the parasitic draw in these big trailers, I don't know how a person could exist off- grid for even a day with the residential refer, without the addition of some type of solar array.

Something else has been puzzling me. A larger RV style two-way fridge costs around $4K+. You can buy a really nice residential model for $2K, maybe less. You can also buy an inverter and an extra battery to power it for a few hundred bucks, so why is this considered to be an "upgrade"? Trace

 

[karykatz]

Heartland Owners- thank you for all your input. It is very helpful for us to make decisions for future options. We couldn't do it without all your support. After reviewing the feed back Heartland RV will still offer the Residential Option on all Bighorns. Making the 18 CU RV refrigerator is still something we are looking into, but we will keep you posted. Thank you again.

 

[Toy1Ton]

how long does a LP generator have to run to bring up two dead 12 volt batteries?