Refrigerator Replacement

[rex]

CAN YOU REPLACE AN RV REFRIGERATOR WITH AN ALL ELECTRIC TYPE
ie: kenmore, G.E. ETC) ?

[AYRSTRM2]

yes you can. We do, and it works great, while we are plugged into 110v at a campground. Maybe someday we will upgrade to the two way, but for now it works just fine for us.

John

[Pahaska]

Search the forum. There have been threads on the subject and photos of all-electric refrigerators.

They are great when you are hooked up to AC power and would be the cat's meow for a full timer who stays in one place or moves infrequently, but I question their practicality if you want to do any hot-weather travel, boondocking, or even an occasional all-nighter in a Wal Mart parking lot.

Personally, I spend extended periods off hookups and an all-electric box would not work for me at all.

[Airstream 1975!]

Hi Rex, welcome to the forum. While I am restoring our 75 27' Overlander we have been debating both. I finally got the original 2 way Dometic to work. (and boy does it ever). I haven't tried it with gas yet. I have it in the garage plugged in filled with beer. We did however purchase a 4.4cuft magic chef from Home Depot. It is all electric and does not have a freezer. It is shorter than the Dometic. We thought of using the magic chef with a microwave situated on top. We have small kids and the microwave comes in handy and we probably wouldn't be anywhere long enough to use the freezer portion except for ice. You just have to weigh the pros and cons. I think I might just clean up the Dometic for now and decide later. Either way I have cold beer. Rob

[walter1]

Yes you can. This is the setup my 64 Safari had when I bought it. Original owner stayed at campgrounds with power hookup so didn't need LP unit. When old Dometic died they replaced it with a new small GE apartment size refrigerator with freezer. I works great as long as you have AC hookup. I do a lot of boondock camping so needed 2 way LP unit also. Hmmm, perhaps I'll sell the GE. Its 2 years old and used little.


If you camp only at campgrounds AC unit will work well.
Walter

[overlander64]

Greetings Rex!

Welcome to the Forums!

Originally Posted by rex

CAN YOU REPLACE AN RV REFRIGERATOR WITH AN ALL ELECTRIC TYPE
ie: kenmore, G.E. ETC) ?

I agree with Pahaska. A previous owner had replaced the original Dometic in my Overlander with a Kenmore compressor type refrigerator and it was not a practical solution for my mode of travel. One of my primary reasons for purchasing the Airstream was to participate in the Wally Byam Caravan Club International, and for rallying as well as caravanning the electric compressor type refrigerator just did not work. It is not uncommon at rallys or during caravans to have long periods without 120-volt electricity or have situations where there are extreme limitations to the amount of electricity that you may utilize. After one season of rallying and caravanning, there was no question - - the coach had to have a new Dometic 3-way refrigerator similar to those that I had in my previous Brand X RVs. During that first season with the Overlander, I only had five days of thirty where the compressor style refrigerator could be used; the balance of the time it was the daily battle of the ice chest and finidng places to buy ice to replenish my supply.

Unless you are confident that you will not be caravanning, rallying, or boondocking, you will want to stick with an RV refrigerator. Also, given my experience with the Overlander, the lack of an RV type refrigerator would devalue a coach on the re-sale market by at least $1,200 for a large number of potential purchasers.

Good luck with your decision!

Kevin

[77 R GO C MH]

The significant difference in cost of the two units may help you make your decision rather easily.

[hhuber]

A PO replaced my fridge with a GE. I would never have even considered this but I must say it has not been a problem for us. We are limited in this part of the country by our heat. There is no way you could camp in LA or FLA in the summer without AC so therefore we need electricity. When I grow up and have time to boondock I'll look for cooler waters.
We purchase things such as meat or chicken when we reach our destination and some things do fine in an icechest which we use anyway.
If I had and extra $1000 I'd probably go with the Dometic but for now we're really fine.

[JohnG]

My Dometic is shot too and I have thought many times so far about just placing a 110 unit in its place. A new 110 that is the exact same measurements cost 415.00 delivered to my front door. A new Dometic will cost around 1200.00 a big difference. I don't like the color (White or Black) but I guess one could always cover it or paint it a different color.

Lately I have even considered it a little more seriously when I found that I could get an inverter for less than 500.00. I just kind of need to know what kind of power in watts the inverter would need to be to run a refigerator and how bad it would hit the battery when traveling.

[uwe]

There are ways to not spend $ 1200.00 for an RV fridge.
I paid $ 600.00 recently for a reconditioned Dometic for my 63 Overlander.
It has a brand new cooling unit, and is perfectly clean inside. You would be hard pressed to find a difference to a new one. It came with a 3 year warranty! It's a 6cuft 2-door model,RM26something.
The company is Crane's refrigeration in Northern California.
CoolFun inc. also rebuilds broken RV refrigerators with warranty. I bought my electric unit for my other fridge from them.
So, with a little creativity, there is no need to spend the big bucks, or go with an apartment size refrigerator.

[newae]

We have an electric frig in our A/S and it has been great. Since we usually dont travel far away I hook it up the night before at the house and fill it up. Food stays cold for trips up too eight hours away and we travel in Florida in the summer. I also like the capacity. It holds more than many of the two ways I have seen. The only problem is you are obliously limited on your campsites due to it being electric. I wonder if it is heavier than a two or three way??

[rex]

Will I Have Any Problems With The Compressor Style Refr. As Far As The Pull From The Main Breaker Will It Trip When Compressor Kicks On?

[JohnG]

Originally Posted by rex

Will I Have Any Problems With The Compressor Style Refr. As Far As The Pull From The Main Breaker Will It Trip When Compressor Kicks On?

I did a little research last night on how much amps, or watts it takes to run a refrigerator and was surprised.

To figure your watts your just take the amperage and multiply by the voltage thus Amps X Volts=Watts (Example 4 Amps x 120 Volts = 480 Watts)

You need to know this since most electric products tell us the amperage instead of the wattage.

A full size refrigerator runs on around 800 watts and takes another 2300 watts to kick in the compressor according to the "This Old House" website. http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/know...2981-5,00.html

From this I guess an electrical inverter rated at 3000/6000 such as the Coleman PCP3000 would do the job without a hitch.

The Coleman runs around 350.00 new and a new household frig to replace the Dometic RM 100 runs at 300.00 The frig I have in mind is the Summit CM115 because it is basically the same size, only a half inch shorter, and it has a dual evaporator which means that it will work better than the single evaporator models. This comes in at almost half the cost of replacing the Dometic 1200.00 Vs 650.00

I may have missed something, but it looks like it will work. Does anyone have thoughts on this type setup?

[TomW]

Originally Posted by JohnG

I did a little research last night on how much amps, or watts it takes to run a refrigerator and was surprised...From this I guess an electrical inverter rated at 3000/6000 such as the Coleman PCP3000 would do the job without a hitch...

Good information to know, but I do not believe the original poster planned to run a compressor style refrigerator on an inverter. If nothing else, your research showed he would need an additional trailer full of batteries to do it

The way I read the post, he was curious if his current 120 vac wiring/breaker would accomodate the load. I would think "yes" as long as he does not have any other big users of electricity, like a microwave, on the same circuit.

Tom

[rex]

Originally Posted by tcwilliams

Good information to know, but I do not believe the original poster planned to run a compressor style refrigerator on an inverter. If nothing else, your research showed he would need an additional trailer full of batteries to do it

The way I read the post, he was curious if his current 120 vac wiring/breaker would accomodate the load. I would think "yes" as long as he does not have any other big users of electricity, like a microwave, on the same circuit.

Tom

YOU ARE RIGHT I WANTED TO KNOW IF IT WOULD HANDLE THE LOAD AS IS. WE WILL BE USING OUR A/S AS PERMANENT RESIDENCE FOR ABOUT 6MONTHS. WE JUST BOUGHT SOME PROPERTY ON THE GULF. WE WILL HAVE POWER WATER AND SEPTIC.

[JohnG]

Tom,

I posted some of it to tell him what wattage draw different appliances will require and he can figure if his circuits will handle the 120 refigerator along with other things running.

I did post the inverter part to ask other forum members what they think. I only plan to use the inverter when towing and it only needs 1 battery with a charge line from the way I figure. This is just to give the 120 refrigerator a dual power so it can be used mobile. You would only need a trailer full of batteries if you intended on using the inverter and were not hooking to shore power. Something I would never do since the heat in this part of the country dictates that you camp with your AC otherwise you might turn to a piece of bacon...........

[TomW]

Originally Posted by JohnG

...I did post the inverter part to ask other forum members what they think. I only plan to use the inverter when towing and it only needs 1 battery with a charge line from the way I figure...

In that case, although I missed the power draw of your proposed replacement refrigerator, I will bet it is higher than my absorbtion unit. I allowed in another post it may be prudent to check the capability of the charge line.

Good luck with your project!
Tom

[JohnG]

Originally Posted by tcwilliams

In that case, although I missed the power draw of your proposed replacement refrigerator, I will bet it is higher than my absorbtion unit. I allowed in another post it may be prudent to check the capability of the charge line.

Good luck with your project!
Tom

Quote From Post

Originally Posted by tcwilliams

Your real problem will be feeding the inverter. Your charge line is probably only rated for 20 amps dc. 235 watts takes about 19-1/2 amps. Although your inverter is up to the challenge, your charge line may not be.

I guess one would need a heafter charge line, probably 6 guage to be safe on that one. Looks like the inverter idea has no standing. Glad to see this was hashed before.
Thanks Tom

[flidhais]

Which Kenmore model would replace a Dometic RM 75?

[richie rich]

if the trailer didnt come with a fridge id never miss it.a decent ice chest wll keep things cold for days. ice is always available.really now ,is there so much to do while camping that there is no time left to get ice up at the guard shack? life just is not as complicated as we make it.i garrentee i got a buck for ice. for $1200 i can find an entire tow vehicle