Author Topic: house 110 fridge vs 2 way electric gas  (Read 9959 times)

Rod Tomlinson

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house 110 fridge vs 2 way electric gas
« on: May 22, 2015, 08:38:20 PM »
1996 36' Beaver Monterey.  I keep hearing conflicting talk from various rv service people. Some say get a house 110 fridges and others say a 2 way gas electric. We will be gone for a long trip 6-12 months. Some general opinions would be helpful. Should I keep the 2 way or switch to a 110 house type? Will the 2 way really keep foods frozen? If you open the door to get something, will it take 2-2 hours to recoup?

Mike Groves

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Re: house 110 fridge vs 2 way electric gas
« Reply #1 on: May 22, 2015, 09:26:02 PM »
I converted my 2-way into a 3 way by unplugging the fridge from the non-inverter circuit and plugging it into the same inverter circuit that the ice maker was plugged into.  This way I just have another option.  The fridge circuit doesn't require as much power as the under sink instant hot, so depending on how I want to use it, I can with no more detriment than the instant hot.  Typically I get the fridge cold using the gas, then once that is done, while travelling I allow the 110 to keep it cool.  When I stop for any extended period, back to gas.

I think the value most find in the 110V home fridges is the cost and storage and familarity vs the 2 (3) ways, rather than the amount of energy required to run it.  I know I'm not using any more energy when my 3 way is on 110V to keep things cold as the home fridge would use (based on the specs provided by the manufacturers). 

I think those that install the house fridges might really need those extra batteries (that are in today's RVs equipped with home fridges) because you can't switch over to gas to get them initially cold.  I would think you'd need to consider running your generator at least until they are cold, unless you do have the batteries and charging systems which are designed into these new coaches.

Therefore, when considering the cost you might also reconsider the original design of your coach's batteries and charging systems and how those systems might have to be re-engineered to accommodate something the coach wasn't originally designed to accommodate.

Mike

Dick Simonis

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Re: house 110 fridge vs 2 way electric gas
« Reply #2 on: May 22, 2015, 10:41:43 PM »
I've also been mulling this over but as long as the existing Dometic continues to function well...reckon I'll stick with it.  No problem with frozen food with the singular exception of ice cream which does not get rock hard.

Gerald Farris

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Re: house 110 fridge vs 2 way electric gas
« Reply #3 on: May 23, 2015, 04:31:39 AM »
Rod,
As long as you refrigerator is functioning properly, why are you asking about replacing it? Don't you have something else that you would prefer spending two thousand dollars on.

Gerald

Keith Moffett

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Re: house 110 fridge vs 2 way electric gas
« Reply #4 on: May 23, 2015, 05:14:43 AM »
Rod, in our Patriot we had a small fridge / freezer that we could keep plugged in on the first slide tray in the basement.  Seemed like a good idea but we never got to use it.  The gas / elec fridge worked great and kept things frozen just fine.  We never left the doors open for long, especially while traveling each day and recovery time was never an issue.  The only problem we had was keeping it from getting too cold.  Remember though that propane doesnt work too well above 5000 feet so be patient.
2007 Patriot Thunder
45' C-13
2006 Explorer Ltd.
DW is Carol
Safe travels and
May God bless!

Mike Groves

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Re: house 110 fridge vs 2 way electric gas
« Reply #5 on: May 23, 2015, 03:03:06 PM »
1996 36' Beaver Monterey.  I keep hearing conflicting talk from various rv service people. Some say get a house 110 fridges and others say a 2 way gas electric. We will be gone for a long trip 6-12 months. Some general opinions would be helpful. Should I keep the 2 way or switch to a 110 house type? Will the 2 way really keep foods frozen? If you open the door to get something, will it take 2-2 hours to recoup?

In re-reading the original post, I see I didn't do any job at all in regards to trying to help.  Our 1999 Marquis has the New Dimensions 82 (I don't have the rest of the part number on me right now) which is a 2 door split fridge/freezer, and it gets cold, stays cold, and in fact putting it higher than a 2 on the 1-5 settings has been cold enough.  We live in the Pacific Northwest so it doesn't get too hot or humid here.  We open the doors all the time, and there's no problem.  If its allowed to cool, then it cools the box just like any refrigerator would.  At this point there's no reason to consider replacing it, but as I said in an earlier post, before replacing with a residential refrigerator I'd have to consider the current coach power design.

Sorry for not having responded to the question better the first time.  I know that we do get off on tangents here sometimes, and I'm sorry to have done so.

Mike
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Rod Tomlinson

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Re: house 110 fridge vs 2 way electric gas
« Reply #6 on: May 23, 2015, 08:21:43 PM »
reply to Gerald. Just getting nervous, leaving for 1 year in 4 weeks

Joel Ashley

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Re: house 110 fridge vs 2 way electric gas
« Reply #7 on: May 23, 2015, 08:31:54 PM »
Each time this topic reappears, my mind takes the same trip that Gerald's does (well put, Gerald, by the way). 

Our Monterey's Dometic, which sounds similar to Mike's, has operated virtually flawlessly.  We had a Dometic in our '84 Pace Arrow that needed a new cooling unit twice only because of my initial lack of RV knowledge once and outright stupidity the second time.  No fault of the fridge;  I did add a rear compartment venting fan to it though - no modifications have ever been needed on the Beaver's unit.  Just keep them relatively level when parked more than a half hour, and do regular maintenance.  Operationally, the newer one in the Beaver actually has required less care, is more efficient overall, and is less sensitive to ambient changes than the older ones, in spite of being larger and more complex in engineering. 

Since we dry camp a lot, a non-gas fridge would require additional batteries I'd have no idea where to put, or I'd have to use fuel running the genset a lot more than we do.  Others who rarely dry camp for extended periods and have one probably find very handy the extra space provided for food by a house fridge.  But I prefer forest camp environs too much.  The gas operation is quiet and efficient.  Should the coach propane system fail from a siezed regulator valve or something, I could always extension cord the fridge over to an inverter-powered outlet until repairs can be done.  On a side note, the Pace Arrow's old fridge was 3-way, but its 12 volt operation (mostly for on the road) didn't keep the heater hot enough to move cooling unit chemicals very well, and was certainly never intended to actually cool down from scratch.

There are plenty of members here that love the house fridge in their coach.  You have to approach it from how you use your own rig and whether changing out an unfailed RV fridge is worth the cash.  Many made the change only after being faced with a faulty unit, since at least some money was on the line for repairs anyway.

Joel
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Clackamas, Oregon
36.9 ft. 2006 Monterey Ventura IV, aka"Monty Rae"
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Dan Murphy

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Re: house 110 fridge vs 2 way electric gas
« Reply #8 on: May 24, 2015, 01:59:52 PM »
On our previous coach the Norcold quit with very little warning as we were traveling to the Florida Keys. We replaced it with some help from a mobil tech in Ft Myers and we were very satisfied with the residential unit we installed.

When we traded for our Beaver it had a Dometic gas /elec.On our trip out west last year the unit could not keep cool enough on the very hot days and it was a constant worry to us.We installed a fan behind the unit and that helped but then it quit defrosting and the ice maker quit also.
We replaced it this March and we are extremely happy with the new residential unit again.

We do not camp without electric very often but when we do the refrigerator runs fine on the inverter or generator.

It makes tons of ice and there is so much more room for food and drinks like Beer!

Marty and Suzie Schenck

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Re: house 110 fridge vs 2 way electric gas
« Reply #9 on: May 24, 2015, 06:50:19 PM »
I also agree with Gerald, don't replace it until it breaks. Ours broke and I thought long and hard about going to a residential or fixing what we had. We did like the Norcold. We went with a residential, Samsung RF197 went in through the door and in the same place with very little modification to the cabinet. The old Norcold also went out through the door. I also did not or do not need to add more batteries, I have four 6 volt deep cycles and they do the job just fine. If we were to dry camp, I would have to keep an eye on power use and run the generator for 1-2 hours a day. You can dump the Samsung down (set to economy mode, turn ice maker off) and it uses very little power. In a pinch, I have 700watt super quiet Kawasaki generator that could run the refer only. At full load the refer only requires 160watt.
Again, don't replace it until it breaks. Marty

Mike Groves

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Re: house 110 fridge vs 2 way electric gas
« Reply #10 on: May 24, 2015, 07:19:11 PM »
Marty and Suzie,

160W is certainly efficient.  I replaced all my coach ceiling lighting at 10W per bulb so that's about 400W (all on) I've reduced to about 40W now if all my LEDs are on.  Meaning I've cut down way more than enough to engineer a Samsung like yours back into our current electrical system with spare.  Of course I suppose no one turns all their ceiling lights on but at least half are used on a regular basis for most (salon and kitchen), and that;s still 200W so you're able to use the fridge full power for less than the half what the original halogen bulbs took.

Unless I am mistaken (due to a faulty memory), my instant hot takes 900W from cold, and the fridge is at 500W from cold , but I'll check it next time I visit.

Thanks for the information on the power requirements.

Mike