Refrigerator

[prevost63]

I also installed a 110V fridge abot 2 years ago.It is a 10.3 cubic foot made by Sanyo called a absocold.I selected it because it had the lowest current draw.I think it is around 6.3 amps on startup & 1.8 amps when running.It has so much more room inside than the old Norcold 8 cubic foot.I run the fridge off of a 2000 watt Trace inverter with a 8D house battery when not connected to shore power.No regrets.I did have to install a small RV aftermarket latch in beween where the 2 doors come together,just for added insurance against the door flying open.

[FloridaCliff]

I wish I had asked this in the first post.

How are you all securing the door underway?

Cliff

[belfert]

I wish I had asked this in the first post.

How are you all securing the door underway?

The two conversions I have seen both had child proofing locks from Target. on the frig.

Brian Elfert

[Dallas]

I wish I had asked this in the first post.

How are you all securing the door underway?

Cliff

We secure ours with Aircraft Velcro. I bought it at the Boing Surplus store in Seattle. I riveted one piece to the door and another longer piece to the fridge, it holds so well, it's hard to get it loose sometimes.
Neat stuff, if you have an unruly neighbor kid, put some on the branch above his trampoline... he'll hang there for days!
Dallas

[NewbeeMC9]

We have a GE apartment size of unknown size (not too big) the tag claims 1.9 amps draw.  The stick on child locks have seen there last leg, and we had a milk casualty the other night.  Luckily there was enough room in the other jug to transfer and save most of it.
Also, If you leave it shut down for long periods of time, make sure you have a way to prop it open.  I may go with the Dallas's velcro trick next time.  Maybe fold a handle into it.  This would allow me to block the open too.

[belfert]

1.8 or 1.9 amps current draw is pretty high compared some of the frigs now.  My Haier claims 1.2 amps.  There are lots of newer frigs that are 1.5 amps or under.

Brian Elfert

[NewbeeMC9]

1.8 or 1.9 amps current draw is pretty high compared some of the frigs now.  My Haier claims 1.2 amps.  There are lots of newer frigs that are 1.5 amps or under.

Brian Elfert

Your right Brian, I definetely wouldn't say it's the best fridge out there. however for me it falls in the "already there and works for now" catagory.  Its somewhere around 9/10 cu, ft and manual defrost.  When it stops, I'll rethink/repost(maybe search the archives).

I also for got to mention the search mode on the trace inverter.  If I leave the bus sitting  i can put it the inverter in search mode and it won't waste energy inverting until there is a load like when the fridge cycles.  I have to uplug the radio or any thing with a clock/memory because the phantom loads play with the search mode.  The inverter is only around 15% effecient way down in the low amps meaning it would take almost another 1.9 amps (round to 4 total) to run the fridge when it cycles.  Keep some mass in the freezer and it will help cycle less too.  We half-fill the water bottles and have them ready to go and a ice bucket helps.

It does keep the beer cold but I prefer it in the cooler in the living room (outside)

All the talk about cold beer is distracting me 
I had better go check the cooler to see if there is any left from when we were having one with Dallas last week.

[Dallas]

1.8 or 1.9 amps current draw is pretty high compared some of the frigs now.  My Haier claims 1.2 amps.  There are lots of newer frigs that are 1.5 amps or under.

Brian Elfert

Your right Brian, I definetely wouldn't say it's the best fridge out there. however for me it falls in the "already there and works for now" catagory.  Its somewhere around 9/10 cu, ft and manual defrost.  When it stops, I'll rethink/repost(maybe search the archives).

I also for got to mention the search mode on the trace inverter.  If I leave the bus sitting  i can put it the inverter in search mode and it won't waste energy inverting until there is a load like when the fridge cycles.  I have to uplug the radio or any thing with a clock/memory because the phantom loads play with the search mode.  The inverter is only around 15% effecient way down in the low amps meaning it would take almost another 1.9 amps (round to 4 total) to run the fridge when it cycles.  Keep some mass in the freezer and it will help cycle less too.  We half-fill the water bottles and have them ready to go and a ice bucket helps.

It does keep the beer cold but I prefer it in the cooler in the living room (outside)

All the talk about cold beer is distracting me 
I had better go check the cooler to see if there is any left from when we were having one with Dallas last week.

Jon,
Whaddaya mean ONE! I seem to recall cracking that second pony, just before the fish jumped into the tub so we could clean them!
Boy that was a fight. Watching 5  big bass fight over enough room for 3! LOL
Well, at least we enjoyed it.
Thanks for stopping by.
Dallas

[FloridaCliff]

Well I broke down and picked up a refrigerator today.

I didn't want to head up to Dallas rally with the little frig out of my shop.

I went to Lowes to pick one up.

I am getting the Whirlpool 10 cuft stainless.

They were sold out.

Ended up passing another Lowes later in the day and found it marked down $100.00 and I get a  $25.00  gift card.

I hope this is a sign for how good my weekend is going to be.

Cliff

[gumpy]

I bought an Avanti a few years ago when I found one on sale. It has automatic defrost, which I tried to bypass with a switch. When in defrost cycle, the compressor will not operator, so I wired it so the defrost timer will still advance, but not energize the defrost coil. That way, if I turn off the switch when it happens to be in the middle of a defrost cycle, the timer will still advance normally and the compressor will eventually come back on. That was the theory, anyway. The problem, though, is that it will not advance the timer if the inverter is in search mode. There's not enough current draw to turn on the inverter, so it just sits. Meanwhile, the compressor can't turn on until the defrost timer advances. Catch 22. Took me a while to figure this out (and I'm still not sure I have). So I need to rework my bypass switch. I may just eliminate it, or wire it to the timer and put a pilot light on it so I know not to shut it off when on defrost.

My Father-In-Law bought a Hier, like Brian bought, but his has a manual, push button defrost cycle. Very nice.

For securing the doors, I bought child cabinet straps from Wal-Mart. They work very well. I added a piece of sticky velcro to hold the strap out of the way when parked, so it doesn't flop into the door. Here's a photo (doesn't show the velcro dots) :

[NewbeeMC9]

My Fridge has one of the stras like gumpys and it has finally given up.  However, It was installed with the latch on the side of the fridge and the strap on the door.  The strap came apart from the latch.  The most stress is the left hand turns with  a couple gallons of milk on the top shelf.

I think I might replace the straps with those type and put them on gumpy's way.
( Then I wont have strap envy LOL )

[gumpy]

I think I might replace the straps with those type and put them on gumpy's way.
( Then I wont have strap envy LOL )

That seems to be a common theme with you and my bus!  You really might need to see a bus doctor about that. 

These straps have worked out very well for us.

I found some round sticky backed dots of velcro which I used on the latch. I put one part on the latch part (on the end of the strap) right behind the thumb tab, and the other part on the other end of the strap, so when I'm parked, I just fold the strap back on itself and the velcro holds it and keeps it from getting shut in the door.

The adhesive on one of the staps came unstuck for some reason. I just re-cleaned the fridge surface with alcohol and reattached. No problem since. Make sure you clean the fridge well with alcohol before attaching, as any dirt, grease, grime, or body oil on the surface will keep the adhesive on the strap from sticking properly.

craig

[TomC]

It sounds like I'm the odd ball with my set up (what's new?).  I have a Norcold 6.3 marine compressor type reefer that automatically switches from 12v to 120v.  On 12v it pulls 5.5 amps.  That works out to be .55 amps at 120v.  I bought it as a return for about $650.  To supplement it I also bought the Norcold 100# chest reefer/freezer.  This can be adjusted to be either all reefer or all freezer.  On this last 17 day trip, this worked out great.  We defrosted the reefer twice (don't like much buildup-really cuts down efficency).  Just fired up the freezer, when cold switched the items from the reefer to the freezer covering the non freezer stuff in a towel.  Then in the defrosting reefer, take out the drain drawer below the coils and stuff a towel to catch the water.  I do this after breakfast and by mid afternoon is ready to be wipped down and transfer the food back to the reefer.  Quick and easy (though sounds complicated).  While I've had zero problems with either of the Norcolds and the size is sufficient, going with an 120v apartment reefer might be a thought.  Good Luck, TomC

[belfert]

It sounds like I'm the odd ball with my set up (what's new?).  I have a Norcold 6.3 marine compressor type reefer that automatically switches from 12v to 120v.  On 12v it pulls 5.5 amps.  That works out to be .55 amps at 120v.  I bought it as a return for about $650.  To supplement it I also bought the Norcold 100# chest reefer/freezer.  This can be adjusted to be either all reefer or all freezer.  On this last 17 day trip, this worked out

I would love to have a 12 volt fridge, but they are way too expensive.  I've not found one for less than $1000. I've also read that the Norcold version is prone to failure.  The 12 volt fridges I looked at used a 120v to 12v converter to run on 120v so there was no reason to get the 120 volt version.

My fridge and Prosine 3.0 inverter cost a little over $1000.  A 12 volt fridge would make more sense if I was trying to boondock for a week with no generator.

Brian Elfert

[NJT5047]

You're better off with a 110VAC fridge powered by an inverter.  Most (that's most, not all) RV fridge uints no longer  offer the 12V feature.  They either run on LP or 110VAC.   12VDC fridges would run a battery stone cold dead in short order.  Many MH units were wired so that the 12V feature wouldn't operate unless the engine was running.   At the worse, your inverter will cut out when bat volts drop to 10 volts or some value proximal, so the batteries won't be damaged by gross discharging.   The cutout voltage trips up battery calculations for using inverter powered items.  Be sure you factor the battery bank amps available above the cutout voltage.   
If I hadn't wanted the LP feature, 110VAC/inverter would also have  been my choice. 
All you gotta do now is size your battery bank according to your best guess use.   When dry camping, it's amazing how much battery power can be used by a few incandescent lights left on and and entertainment systems.   When one has 25 or thirty lights in a coach, keeping them off is almost a chore.  LED lighting is ideal to limit this problem, albeit at some expense.
Cheers, JR