Residential Fridge while traveling?

Dargo · 04-22-2019, 09:25 PM

Another question,
I have a residential fridge in my new 5th wheel. Do you travel with it running, I just assumed that is why they come with an inverter?
Now I wonder if movement will ruin it while driving down the roaf?

RipinSC · 04-23-2019, 05:01 AM

You are correct. You leave it running when traveling and your inverter powers it off your batteries. Keep your battery water level maintained. We have traveled for 8 hours with no problem off the batteries.

MontyRV · 04-23-2019, 05:16 AM

Ours has lasted over 12 hours on the road, without much drop in battery voltage. In the fridge manual, it explains how you can turn cooling off, which will help out tremendously. I haven't had to do that yet, though.

AKRUEBBE · 04-23-2019, 08:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RipinSC

You are correct. You leave it running when traveling and your inverter powers it off your batteries. Keep your battery water level maintained. We have traveled for 8 hours with no problem off the batteries.

x2

robkelly · 04-23-2019, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MontyRV

Ours has lasted over 12 hours on the road, without much drop in battery voltage. In the fridge manual, it explains how you can turn cooling off, which will help out tremendously. I haven't had to do that yet, though.

x2

oh355mbqs · 04-23-2019, 09:29 AM

We have the residential, will never go back to an RV fridge. This will be our 3rd season with it, we have probably traveled 12k miles with it. We have went 18 hours with very little voltage drop. I have not changed the cooling, didn't know that was thing until I read this thread. I don't check water, my Interstate brand deep cycle batteries are sealed. I did install a propane generator for overnight stops at Walmart etc. That has worked well because it will also run the AC. I have been tempted to run it while driving, but so far I haven't had the need. Didn't even have the generator for the first 6k miles we traveled, just the batteries and charging from the truck.

RipinSC · 04-23-2019, 10:36 AM

Cooling off shuts the frig down. You don’t want to do this when traveling. Cooling off is to be used if you are on shore power for storage and you don’t want your frig to be on.

rkymntsno · 04-23-2019, 02:49 PM

We've had our new 5th wheel two weeks now. Took our first trip this past weekend. I kept the fridge off cuz it was for just the weekend and we knew we just had a couple of things to keep cold, milk and some fruit. So we kept it in a cooler and then put it in the small outside fridge, lol, that just works on shore power. I didn't want to have to wipe down the big fridge just for a couple of days out. When we ordered our 355mbqs, I was real skeptical of the residential fridge and what a pain in the ass winterizing it was gonna be. After reading from the experienced guys on this form, we decided to stick with the res fridge. Really nice. Think we made the right decision. Will turn it on next weekend when we take our big trip up to Kansas City. I like how hard the factory makes it for you to remove all the packaging in the new fridge. You can't open the doors all the way to get the bins out to remove the tape and the Styrofoam. Gotta stick with it and it'll all come out.

Dargo · 04-23-2019, 06:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rkymntsno

We've had our new 5th wheel two weeks now. Took our first trip this past weekend. I kept the fridge off cuz it was for just the weekend and we knew we just had a couple of things to keep cold, milk and some fruit. So we kept it in a cooler and then put it in the small outside fridge, lol, that just works on shore power. I didn't want to have to wipe down the big fridge just for a couple of days out. When we ordered our 355mbqs, I was real skeptical of the residential fridge and what a pain in the ass winterizing it was gonna be. After reading from the experienced guys on this form, we decided to stick with the res fridge. Really nice. Think we made the right decision. Will turn it on next weekend when we take our big trip up to Kansas City. I like how hard the factory makes it for you to remove all the packaging in the new fridge. You can't open the doors all the way to get the bins out to remove the tape and the Styrofoam. Gotta stick with it and it'll all come out.

What winterizing is needed for the residential fridge?

rkymntsno · 04-23-2019, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dargo

What winterizing is needed for the residential fridge?

The icemaker and water dispenser. Turns out it's easier than I thought. Been told gravity drains the lines. First time, will probably have dealer winterize and I'll watch.

oh355mbqs · 04-23-2019, 07:58 PM

Dargo and rkymntsno, winterizing the residential fridge is easy. It's all in the owners manual, just follow the directions. rkymntsno, do you you have electric where you store your camper? I keep our camper at our house and installed a 50 amp plug for it. Once we de-winterize the camper and load the fridge the first time, it stays loaded and plugged in the entire season. The only time it gets emptied is when it's time to winterize. To me that is another advantage, we always emptied the RV fridges that we had, I didn't trust them to stay running all that time.

Dargo · 04-23-2019, 08:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oh355mbqs

Dargo and rkymntsno, winterizing the residential fridge is easy. It's all in the owners manual, just follow the directions. rkymntsno, do you you have electric where you store your camper? I keep our camper at our house and installed a 50 amp plug for it. Once we de-winterize the camper and load the fridge the first time, it stays loaded and plugged in the entire season. The only time it gets emptied is when it's time to winterize. To me that is another advantage, we always emptied the RV fridges that we had, I didn't trust them to stay running all that time.

Thanks,
I ask because the manual to my first Jayco was very generic and was not specific.

rkymntsno · 04-24-2019, 07:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oh355mbqs

Dargo and rkymntsno, winterizing the residential fridge is easy. It's all in the owners manual, just follow the directions. rkymntsno, do you you have electric where you store your camper? I keep our camper at our house and installed a 50 amp plug for it. Once we de-winterize the camper and load the fridge the first time, it stays loaded and plugged in the entire season. The only time it gets emptied is when it's time to winterize. To me that is another advantage, we always emptied the RV fridges that we had, I didn't trust them to stay running all that time.

Oh355, no, no power at storage. I've read the manual and it seems pretty easy to winterize. What bugs me more is the exposed water lines under the slide for the fridge. Now if we plan on being in freezing weather, we have to insulate those lines to keep from freezing. How can Jayco say it's cold weather ready with exposed water lines?

AKRUEBBE · 04-24-2019, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rkymntsno

Oh355, no, no power at storage. I've read the manual and it seems pretty easy to winterize. What bugs me more is the exposed water lines under the slide for the fridge. Now if we plan on being in freezing weather, we have to insulate those lines to keep from freezing. How can Jayco say it's cold weather ready with exposed water lines?

This coming winter I'm going to winterize my 5er using the easy preferred method.................taking it down to Arizona

Ranger3 · 04-24-2019, 08:41 AM

Has anyone had to deal with warranty issues on their residential refrigerators in their 5th wheel?

Slurugger · 04-24-2019, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ranger3

Has anyone had to deal with warranty issues on their residential refrigerators in their 5th wheel?

Yes - Jayco will tell you to reach out to Whirlpool as it's their responsibility. Whirlpool will direct you to a particular group who handles it. Suggest that the unit is at a dealer / service center because the appliance tech will NOT remove the fridge if that's required to repair. He said it's against their insurance policy. So they need the RV service tech to do that - I assume they billed Jayco for that time.

As for winterize - I prefer the air method but be patient as there is a surprising amount of water in those little lines. The anti-freeze approach leaves the taste in the ice for a long time.

Turning off for travel - When ours was being serviced I asked the appliance tech if turning it off would help avoid issues. He said he wasn't concerned about it bouncing down the road. Something about how the Whirlpools they put in are the 'older style' compressor design and are better suited for road travel.

Summary - Res fridge isn't perfect but we won't go back to RV fridge.

RipinSC · 04-24-2019, 10:26 AM

Air method is the only way to go. You do not want to run RV antifreeze through the refrigerator. Winterizing is not real easy. Make sure you close off the valve after blowing out the frig prior to running antifreeze through your RV. I would like to see the easy instructions mentioned by others. My manual says nothing. I called Jayco and they referred me the the Whirlpool web site. Useless. I watched a few U tube videos on how to do it.

oh355mbqs · 04-24-2019, 12:00 PM

In section 8 of the 2017 owners manual for the Eagle fifth wheels, there is an entire section on winterizing appliances and it gives the steps for several different fridges and washer dryers, mine is the Frigidaire. The owners manual specifically says to not use anti freeze in the residential fridge. It also walks you thru the steps of turning off the water line that feeds the fridge so you don't get anti freeze to it. The owners manual for all Jayco products back to 2003 can be found here.... https://www.jayco.com/owner/manuals/?year=2019&cat= The page can be sorted by year and type of Jayco trailer.

rkymntsno · 04-24-2019, 12:47 PM

I blew out the lines of my Open Range for the past two years and it worked fine for San Antonio weather. I'm gonna do the same thing with this Jayco and res fridge. Thanks for the info.

WayneTaylor · 04-24-2019, 12:54 PM

Ranger 3, Yes Whirlpool has fixed ours 4 times now. Twice on the road last year in upper Michigan. Both times it only lasted about 24 hrs. Now for the second time here in Ga. once at dealer and second time in our drive. Whirlpool has been great about trying to rectify the situation. They even extended the warranty during our last phone call to setup repair schedule.
When we were on the road we went to a discount store and picked up an counter top fridge and set it on the floor at the end of the island. Got us buy, just had to shop for cold stuff more often. That was better than spending our vacation trying to get it fixed.

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