Whirlpool residential refrigerator pros/cons

[Swed824]

Wondering how long the refrigerator can keep food cold while traveling, or should we have gone with a frig with propane backup.

[JayBees]

It keeps cool via electric. I will say ours died this winter and still not working. They put a freezer door on it and a damper valve that brings cold air in from freezer. In a Jayco so carried a 2 year warranty thankfully. Out of warranty in October of this year. Tuesday service man coming back out. He and I both agree it sounds like air flow problem.
We shut it down for half days twice this week hoping it would come back up and the second time we did it cools better. Freezer only gets to 32 but so far that’s better than the last 4 months.
My opinion is it’s a residential fridge and not designed to be sitting over the axles and wheels. By the way the repair man said the warranty is voided when Jayco drilled the holes in both doors to add a lock. So now we just tie wrap the doors together in hopes it will stay closed.

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by JayBees

. By the way the repair man said the warranty is voided when Jayco drilled the holes in both doors to add a lock. So now we just tie wrap the doors together in hopes it will stay closed.

Bull hockey. They have been using them in the high end motorhomes and fifth-wheels for decades with door locks.

[oh355mbqs]

Hi Swed824,

We have a residential fridge in our 5th wheel, don't think I will ever go back. Do a search here, there are lots of threads about it. I don't remember the brand of ours and can't check right now because it is back at the factory, that's a whole other subject. Our fridge runs off of the inverter, have never had a problem with it keeping things cold on the road, also have not had a battery problem. On our big trips we have traveled up to 17 hours or so in a day.

[JayBees]

Originally Posted by Grumpy

Bull hockey. They have been using them in the high end motorhomes and fifth-wheels for decades with door locks.

My opinion too grumpy. He said the screws are breaking the insulation seal. Will air till it’s out of warranty and put the piece back on

[morleyz]

Very satisfied with the residential fridge in our 330RSTS. Cools off very quickly, which is nice when you can't precool it (and don't have to run over to storage and fire up on propane the night before camping). We use the ice maker and door water cooler all the time, so it saves on having to carry ice and water. We are generally connected to power or the TV and the truck seems to keep up with the load just fine when we're traveling. Only negative is running on the cheap deep cycle battery we get a very short run time if we need to be disconnected.

[DonaandDon]

OK, so I'm not getting it.

Residential refrigerators;

1) Are supposed to be used with more than one battery. Yes most dealers only put one deep cycle in your rig, normally due to it's an extra cost above and beyond the prep charge and "they" charge to much for them too.

2) Residential refrigerators are normally ran off inverters with voltage monitoring.

3) I have tested my Frigidaire turned off for 6 hours and freezer temps raised to 28 degrees from zero.

[oh355mbqs]

Our dealer installed 2 Instersate deep cycle batteries. We have run our fridge for 6 hours or more setting in a parking lot, no problems at all. Not sure of the brand, may be a Frigidaire.

[Mustang65]

Originally Posted by oh355mbqs

Our dealer installed 2 Instersate deep cycle batteries. We have run our fridge for 6 hours or more setting in a parking lot, no problems at all. Not sure of the brand, may be a Frigidaire.

What is your battery voltage after the 6 hours of running?
Don
My Registry

RVing with SOLAR

[DonaandDon]

My voltage drops to 12.4 after traveling for 5-6 hours.

[JayBees]

Originally Posted by Grumpy

Bull hockey. They have been using them in the high end motorhomes and fifth-wheels for decades with door locks.

Grumpy service tech cane again today and found the new freezer door has a gasket problem that let humid air in and this froze inside up, so a second door is now on order. I asked about why a warranty issue with lock screws in the door and he said he can’t install as it voids warranty’s. He said I could do it after he’s done, he’s just not allowed. So this helps clarify his position
Now been since April without a reliable refrigerator. Tired of hauling around a cooler everywhere we go but at least we can take food with us

[ETCrockett]

I have the Whirlpool residential fridge and would never go back to a smaller fridge. We love the size, ice maker and water in the door. It will cool from 85+ after being in storage in about 4 hours. We leave it on while towing and our batteries will still be 13.5 volts after 6 hours of towing. In fact, we can run off the batteries while dry camping for 8 hours before voltage drops to 12 volts and we have to fire up the generator.

[DonaandDon]

Originally Posted by ETCrockett

I have the Whirlpool residential fridge and would never go back to a smaller fridge. We love the size, ice maker and water in the door. It will cool from 85+ after being in storage in about 4 hours. We leave it on while towing and our batteries will still be 13.5 volts after 6 hours of towing. In fact, we can run off the batteries while dry camping for 8 hours before voltage drops to 12 volts and we have to fire up the generator.

Have you measured the voltage charge from your F-450 to your rig while towing? I have heard a mod needs to be added to your Ford to charge correctly.

[ETCrockett]

Originally Posted by DonaandDon

Have you measured the voltage charge from your F-450 to your rig while towing? I have heard a mod needs to be added to your Ford to charge correctly.

Great question Don! No I have not. The F450 came with 2 batteries, 2 alternators, and FW plugin inside the bed. I never thought to check how much voltage is flowing from TV to FW. Another factor to consider my Pinnacle came with a bank of six 12 Volt batteries.

How would I measure the charge between TV and FW?

[Fleetman]

Have Whirlpool double door with ice maker. 2017, no issues, freezer maintains -4 and fridge +42. Shut down at night (6-8 hrs) and run off one deep cycle 12v battery with 15k inverter. Freezer still @ 0 and fridge @ 42-45. No issues. Not intending to ever go back to gas/electric.

[kcordell57]

I found this out the semi hard way. The morning after picking up my new 317RLOH, my inverter was beeping with alarm for low voltage. I have (dealer installed) 2 deep cycle RV/Marine batteries. I figured after driving for a few hours, the batteries would charge back up and the inverter would be running again. Nope. When I arrived at my destination, 2 of my buddies there with their Ford trucks and I told them what happened. Oh, you need the fuse that Ford doesn't include to power the 12V part of your 7 pin. Yes, the Ford's require another fuse. To check, go to the 7 pin on your truck, 1 is ground and 4 is 12V for charging RV battery. Have to check with truck running. If you get 0, you need the 30amp fuse and it goes into #27 (it's all the way in the back closest to the firewall. The fuse is called an M Case fuse ($3.99 at Autozone, the Ford dealership gave me one, no charge). Strange from Ford is for a truck with the trailer tow package, doesn't include this fuse. After installing the fuse, check the 7 pin again with the truck running and you should be around 13.8v. Now you are charging your batteries.

[jamaddox]

Originally Posted by kcordell57

Nope. When I arrived at my destination, 2 of my buddies there with their Ford trucks and I told them what happened. Oh, you need the fuse that Ford doesn't include to power the 12V part of your 7 pin. Yes, the Ford's require another fuse. To check, go to the 7 pin on your truck, 1 is ground and 4 is 12V for charging RV battery. Have to check with truck running. If you get 0, you need the 30amp fuse and it goes into #27 (it's all the way in the back closest to the firewall. The fuse is called an M Case fuse ($3.99 at Autozone, the Ford dealership gave me one, no charge). Strange from Ford is for a truck with the trailer tow package, doesn't include this fuse.

I have a 2017 F250 and found the fuse was in (and on mine there is a big fuse and little one) but when checking the plug I still did not read anything. Since I bought my truck in a farming community the dealer may have installed those fuses. Someone on a Ford forum said toy have to be running and have a tow harness plugged in. That seems a little excessive until I heard my mother in law tell me a story about how the drained their battery overnight by leaving it plugged into the truck accidentally.

My point was that even within each truck line, things might behave a little different