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Old 07-25-2020, 12:28 AM   #1
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Residential refrigeration

Okay guys and gals, I have been doing some thinking and was to the dealership today looking and the one unit that we look at had one, so educate me on them? Can you use it towing down the road? What is the different between the standard and the residential are they a pain or what are the pro and con? Thank you guys because I know that I can depend on you to bring me up to par on them.
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Old 07-25-2020, 12:46 AM   #2
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Most have inverter to run the fridge on 12 volts as you are driving. Request a second battery at the dealer. They should include it but usually will not if you do not request it.

Only major downside I know about is if you dry camp. Not as easy with these because you need to keep the batteries charged, so a small generator to recharge once a day or solar.
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Old 07-25-2020, 01:55 AM   #3
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Hmmm, okay I don't think that I could get use to that thank you for your comment.
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Old 07-25-2020, 08:29 AM   #4
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We love the residential fridge.........would no own an RV fridge, too much going on to breakdown. I've had both and prefer the RF............JMHO.
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Old 07-25-2020, 08:36 AM   #5
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I changed to Residential

I made the change last month. Took out the Norcold 4 door and replaced with a Haier 16.4 cu ft residential. I added a 1200 Watt inverter, and so far it has done great traveling down the road in operating the new fridge. I changed because the Norcold was getting worse every year. It struggled to keep in fridge under 40 degrees in the summer. I tried fans, both internal and external, to no avail. So I replaced it. But I almost never dry camp. So that is not a real issue for me. Those rare times I do will be short in duration, and I will use a 2000 Generac inverter/generator to charge my two batteries. If you plan to camp without electrical hookups, then the absorption fridge is the way to go. I would make sure the absorption fridge is well ventilated, and there is enough room at the top of it to adequately move the air behind the fridge and out of the RV. I think that was my Norcold's problem. It did not have enough room in the way Jayco installed it to operate correctly. It just depends on how you're planning to RV.
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Old 07-25-2020, 08:53 AM   #6
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We had way too many problems with a Notcold in a motor home to ever want another one. Many folks love them and I guess they work fine for them. It probably depends on whether or not they are installed correctly. Our experience was almost runny ice cream to something like soft serve. With the residential's we have had the temps stay rock solid, nice hard ice cream. I'm sure folks boon dock with a residential fridge so you might want to investigate the work around before writing one completely off.
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Old 07-25-2020, 10:22 AM   #7
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We love the residential frig and could never go back to the RV frig. Cools down fast and stays cold in the hot south. I tow for 8 hours and have no problems.
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Old 07-25-2020, 10:36 AM   #8
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Love the residential and will never go back to a gas/electric fridge. We don’t boondock, but if we did I’d simply add a couple of solar panels to the roof to help keep the batteries topped off.

I’m running 4 6V batteries and after 13 hours on the road still have close to a full charge on them.
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Old 07-25-2020, 12:04 PM   #9
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We are really glad ours is residential...we have dual batteries, so as we are driving down the road, the fridge cools down and by the time we get to the camp site, fridge is good to go. We haven't added solar yet, so most of the time we are on shore power or attached to the truck traveling...haven't had any problems yet with it, unlike our previous dual fuel fridge in our TT.
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Old 07-25-2020, 12:17 PM   #10
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Everyone has a different camping/RV'ing priority. Ours is to be as independent as we can be... be it boondocking or an overnight in a Walmart/Cracker Barrel parking lot - not being dependent on finding electrical hook ups every night when the weather is cloudy all week. We keep our 4-door Norcold in auto mode all year long and it works great in 100+ weather, no matter if on LP or AC.
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Old 07-25-2020, 12:27 PM   #11
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Hi Robkelly, can you post a picture of your battery compartment? When it comes time to replace the two 12v batteries I currently have, I think I will upgrade to four 6v batteries. What group size 6v do you use?

As for the original question about residential refrigerators, I have one in my Eagle 321rsts. I do not dry camp, but if I needed to spend a night or so in an overflow area, I would use a small generator. The two 12v batteries I have now do a good job when traveling.

Residential refrigerator
PROS
Cools down quickly
This works great for me now because I store my Eagle at a location other than my home. When I bring the Eagle home, I plug it into a standard outlet for lighting, turning on the refrigerator, and to help top off the batteries. I usually try to wait until I am on shore power before leveling and deploying the slides.

Holds temperature well

No need to worry about using propane while on the road
I never worried about this when I had a Whitehawk and a standard RV refrigerator, although some people do not like the idea of running propane while towing their RV.

Usually provides more space than an RV refrigerator
My Eagle has a Whirlpool 36-inch-wide-counter-depth-side-by-side 21-cu ft

CONS
Not the best choice for a person who likes dry camping or camping with no shore power available
I do not have solar so I must rely on a generator. I take a small 2000 watt generator with me just in case I need it. So far, I have only used it to assist with putting out slides when I take lunch breaks while traveling. I have not dry camped so far, but may need to when I begin to travel out west.

Some people feel that residential refrigerators are not made for the rough conditions of traveling in a trailer.


So far I am very happy with the residential refrigerator. The two 12v batteries are still holding a charge of 12.6 volts after many trips. I have not been on the road more than 8 hours at a time before stopping for the evening and plugging into shore power. Then back to driving again the next day. I never had any trouble with RV refrigerators in my previous campers. When I was in the process of ordering my current Eagle, I went back and forth a few times before deciding on the residential refrigerator. My wife and I plan to snowbird in the southern states during winter; that combined with camping predominantly in improved campgrounds were the reasons I chose the residential refrigerator. In the future, if I were to start dry camping, I think I would get a new to me rv with a standard RV refrigerator.

Everyone has their preference on how they like to camp. If you like dry camping or going to BLM land, I would choose an RV refrigerator. If you like to camp in improved camping sites with at least 15 amp (preferably minimum of 30 amp), then a residential refrigerator may be a good choice.

Good luck on your decision!
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Old 07-25-2020, 01:35 PM   #12
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Okay, okay guys thank you so so much I was going back and forth trying to decide is it right for us and after reading all of your comments it seem like that we can do this.

We never dry camp and when we do go on long trips we always find a camp ground in route going to our destination.

Wow, this is good to hear so now I can be a little more comfortable going this route, yeah we know about soft ice cream I don't like soft ice cream when it should be hard. Thank you , thank you for your comments so now I can tell my wife that it's okay to get a residential refrigerator.
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Old 07-25-2020, 01:42 PM   #13
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We have the residential fridge and really like it. I run two 6v batts and after an 8-10 hr drive, batteries are near full. That’s in 90-100 degree heat. I suspect I could make it overnight with no hookups without issue if fully charged, but any longer and I’d need the generator to run. We do carry a Champion 3400 with us just in case.

I don’t know that’s there’s a reasonable solar setup that could really keep up with a residential fridge without some generator assistance. May be wrong there. For the way you camp Big1 I think you’d be fine as from what I’ve seen you stick to improved campground.
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Old 07-25-2020, 08:51 PM   #14
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Residential fridge

We have a residential fridge in our 2018 355MBQS.. we love it. Plenty of room inside the fridge and freezer. It’s side by side. And the ice maker is wonderful. The original fridge went out the very first day we owned the trailer. They had to remove the dining room exterior window to remove it and put the new one in because it wouldn’t fit through the door. With all that we love it. Never boondock here but travel a few hours to the campground and no issues.
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Old 07-28-2020, 07:58 AM   #15
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I watched a bunch of videos with the guy from Haylett RV in Michigan before we bought our Pinnacle. Very informative most of the time. Sales pitches part of the time. I just saw he a had a new one on rv refrigerators so thought I would watch it. He says he will no longer order a residential in any of the units he sells. In the background there is a travel trailer with the slide completely removed so they could get the residential fridge out. He says they are not designed to take the abuse of rv travel.

We had a Samsung RF18 in our previous fifth wheel that went all over the country and parts of Canada for 65K miles and never had an issue. Prior to that we had a Norcold in a motor home that was nothing but problems. When we shopped this time if it didn't have a residential we walked. Our Pinnacle has an access port behind the fridge that allows access to the workings of the fridge so it can stay in place and still be serviced. I hope the Whirlpool is as good as the Samsung.
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Old 07-28-2020, 09:05 AM   #16
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We have the Whirlpool residential and love it - even better than the high-end LG that we had at the stix/brix house. I've read enough about RV fridges to know that I would not want one, but on the other hand we never plan to intentionally boon-dock and that's just a lifestyle choice.

We have a year and a half and just over 4,000 miles, but apparently have driven hard enough to crack the trailer sidewall (fixed now). We use the ice and water dispenser a lot. We feel that with the water softener, the inline house water filter, and the filter in the fridge, that we are comfortable re-filling drinking water bottles and saving room at the landfill. I've heard some complain that the door lock for transit is not reliable but ours has worked fine. For some odd reason, the Whirpool fridges come with only two glass freezer shelves, and additional ones are expensive, but I easily and inexpensively fashioned spares from 1/2" plastic food cutting boards from Sam's club. Others have used 12" floor tiles and 12" frozen pizzas work in a pinch :-).

I have heard that the residential fridges will go through the doors of a Pinnacle or Northpoint with the fridge doors off, but have not tested that, luckily. I have heard that some other Jayco models can't allow this, but can't recall which ones.

We are now in the north Texas plains with temps almost at 100 F without a shade tree, and so far the A/C's and fridge are keeping up!

All the best
Angus
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Old 07-28-2020, 12:53 PM   #17
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We went back and forth when we ordered our 319 MLOK. Went with the Dometic RV dual door. We had the rig out last week.Temps. in the high 90's and one day it was 105. The Dometic performed flawlessly. I was worried after reading negative post but so far pretty happy with our rig. The A/C kept us cool too...never over 73 deg inside but we have the bedroom A/C option.
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Old 07-28-2020, 05:27 PM   #18
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Haylett posted a video yesterday stating why the will no longer offer residential fridges. They are not authorized to do warranty work by the fridge manufacturer. Time to call the maytag man. The video was shot next to a rig with the slide out removed so the fridge could be replaced, would not fit thru the door.
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Old 07-28-2020, 05:53 PM   #19
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I saw the video. Interesting they had to take the slide out to get fridge out.
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Old 07-28-2020, 06:49 PM   #20
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I think the access door behind the residential will make a huge difference if and when repairs or needed. Won't help much if needs replacing.
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