Newbie Refrigerator Questions

[TxDuece]

So we just purchased our very first RV, a North Trail 25 LRSS travel trailer. We currently have it at a storage site without power connected. We are planning our first weekend getaway which leads me to my questions.

What do you do to get your refrigerator ready for food and beverages before taking off for a short trip? Do you put your food in the refrigerator while it's still warm and power up the unit? Do you pre-cool the unit the day before? Do you take your food in a cooler and then put it in once the unit reaches temperature? Any tips and pearls of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

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[jimtoo]

Hi TxDuece,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and to the family. We have a great bunch of folks here with lots of information and all willing to share their knowledge when needed.

I think most folks turn the fridge on, or cool it down, the day before.

Be sure and check out our Heartland Owners Club, it's free now. Join us at a rally when you can and meet lots of the great folks here and make friends for a lifetime.

Enjoy the forum and your new unit.

Jim M

 

[klp605]

Hi TxDuece,

I think most folks turn the fridge on, or cool it down, the day before.

Enjoy the forum and your new unit.

Jim M

Congrats on your new purchase! I 2nd Jim.

Many who do not store their unit at their homes will bring it at least 1 day prior to their home to not only load the camper but to plug in the refrigerator. If you don't already have a 30 amp (or 50 amp) to 15 amp power converter, you may want to purchase one. That will be sufficient to run your fridge. When we want to leave early in the morning, I will plug our camper in 48 hours in advance so that I can load the fridge and freezer the night before. After a few trips, you will learn what works for you.

 

[TxDuece]

Thanks for the feedback. Since we live in a residential neighborhood bringing the unit home isn't really a viable option. Would running the unit on propane the day before be an option? Thanks for the help with this.

 

[danemayer]

Thanks for the feedback. Since we live in a residential neighborhood bringing the unit home isn't really a viable option. Would running the unit on propane the day before be an option? Thanks for the help with this.

If you start with a fully charged battery, 1 day will probably work for you. But you probably need to install a battery cutoff switch so the alarms and other parasitic loads don't run the battery down while in storage.

 

[Mrsfish]

Often times I don’t have time to precool the refrigerator. I load it up with as much as I can (replacing the warm air with Cool food) put a bag of ice in the freezer, turn it on and take off. Other than some frozen water in the bottom of the freezer it works very well. Maybe not ideal, but it works

 

[Power247]

Since moving a few years ago we cannot fit our camper at home either. Make sure your storage location allows you to run propane appliances unattended, ours does not.

Our solution is to freeze a case worth of bottled waters & juice pouches the week prior to our trip. Then load the fridge and freezer with them before heading out. By the time we get to the site and set up the fridge is cold enough to be loaded with food.

Greg
2012 | RAM 2500 | CCSB | Custom tuned by Double R Diesel
2016 | Heartland Pioneer | DS310

 

[kowAlski631]

We take ours to a local campground at least a day in advance to load and make sure nothing has gone sideways since our last trip. It's worth the cost of an extra campground day.

 

[Lynn1130]

Luckily my HOA allows 72 hours to load or unload RVs so parking at the house to pre-cool is not an issue. I have run without electrical hooked up for a couple of days while cooling the fridge but I also have 2 6 volt golf cart batteries so can go at least that long safely. Generally I hook to power just to save propane. I use this to keep track of the inside fridge temps so as not to have to keep opening doors to check temps. https://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-0098...igerator/freezer+wireless+digital+thermometer

Preloading without cooling is not an option here because temps in the fridge can be above 110 when pulled out of storage and it takes at least a day to get them down and even at that with daytime temps above 100 the fridge might not make it below 50 during the day. Even with temps above 40 you take a chance of some ugly bugs growing in food left in the fridge for extended cool down times. We cool the fridge for several days and then load the morning we leave. The inside temps are usually in the 30s in the early part of the day.

 

[NYSUPstater]

Lots of good suggestions for OP. Another option which was hit upon is to freeze at home a plastic water jug or 2 to aid in keeping it cool while on the road. Perhaps cooler/freezer bags for food in fridge? If at all possible try to get it up and running before you load it, then the ice jugs would work better. Like AP said too, make sure you can run the unit on propane while in storage.

 

[weekender01]

Preloading without cooling is not an option here because temps in the fridge can be above 110 when pulled out of storage and it takes at least a day to get them down and even at that with daytime temps above 100 the fridge might not make it below 50 during the day. Even with temps above 40 you take a chance of some ugly bugs growing in food left in the fridge for extended cool down times. We cool the fridge for several days and then load the morning we leave. The inside temps are usually in the 30s in the early part of the day.

I agree with Lynn1130 and no way would I load food in a hot fridge even with frozen jugs, ice, etc. It would take a lot to cool and maintain 40 degrees or cooler which is the FDA recommended temp for a refrigerator. In Georgia it takes a good 24 hours or longer for our refrigerator to cool off enough to load food.


It is a tough situation you are in and if you cannot plug in or your storage facility will not allow propane use unsupervised your best bet may loading food in cooler and covering with ice.

Good luck.

 

[Oregon_Camper]

You could install an inverter that only powers the refrigerator. Then go over the day before and turn on inverter and turn on refrigerator. Might be best to have 2 batteries and some solar panels as well. I'd try this one time when I was NOT really leaving town...just to see how much impact it makes to your battery bank while being on for 24 hours.

Here is a link to the inverter/converter I installed in our RV. Might be a bit overkill for your situation, but it gives you an idea of what is possible.

https://youtu.be/jjevQ10M97Y

 

[Silverado23]

Adding a solar panel and an extra battery or two is well worth it if you use your RV very often at all.

I added lots of panels and three batteries to my NT. It is nice being able to run the refrigerator off of propane and solar between weekends. Saves us from having to shutdown and then start it all back up every few days.

I added enough solar that all of my 12v circuits are nearly exclusively solar powered. During the late fall/early spring is the only time that I even have the convertor on just in case the furnace decides that it needs to run for more time than the sun can charge the batteries. Even then, I usually can go most of days on solar anyway.

 

[ILH]

So we just purchased our very first RV, a North Trail 25 LRSS travel trailer. We currently have it at a storage site without power connected. We are planning our first weekend getaway which leads me to my questions.

What do you do to get your refrigerator ready for food and beverages before taking off for a short trip? Do you put your food in the refrigerator while it's still warm and power up the unit? Do you pre-cool the unit the day before? Do you take your food in a cooler and then put it in once the unit reaches temperature? Any tips and pearls of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

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For many years we would store our RV with the master power off. The day before the trip we'd turn the power back on, then start the fridge on propane. The parasitic power draw was fine for up to 3 days. However, we could never make it a full week - between weekends until we added a second battery. But even then, one of two weeks would draw down the batteries significantly between trips. Potentially damaging to batteries.

Two years ago I added an 80 watt solar panel that keeps the batteries charged between trips - no more run down batteries! The panel can be disassembled just before leaving on a trip. I have pictures if you want them.