Residential refrigerator

[RVcrazy]

Are you glad you have it? How long does food stay cold when traveling without power? I am using 85 degrees as a baseline. Do you open the fridge for breakfast? How does that affect how long it stays cold? Thanks for any helpful hints!

[ford_truck_guy]

I too like our residential fridge.. With the inverter. I can run from PA to the Florida Keys without the fridge shutting off...

[wowens79]

We've got a resi in out TT. I was worried if I'd like it when we bought the TT, because we store the camper at a storage place, and I was concerned with cool down time, and battery life.

When I go to get the camper, the first thing I do is turn on the inverter, then hitch up. By the time I get hitched up, drive the 15min to the house, and start loading up the fridge is cold. We typically will load our clothes etc, and by the time we get to loading the fridge it is ready to go.

Our truck sends enough power to the trailer batteries that they stay charged with the fridge running while we drive.

The only reason I might consider an RV fridge is if we boondocked a lot. We are in the southeast, and there just aren't many places to camp that don't have hookups, except to tailgating at football games.

[janstey58]

I'll never go back to propane, ours will run on batteries for 2 days w/o solar or plug in, and solar augments that when the sun is out. Can't beat a decent freezer with ice maker and water in the door. Much more food room in the fridge as well.

[rk911]

RVcrazy wrote:
Are you glad you have it? How long does food stay cold when traveling without power? I am using 85 degrees as a baseline. Do you open the fridge for breakfast? How does that affect how long it stays cold? Thanks for any helpful hints!

we love it! no more fretting about the RV fridge warming up, lots more space too. when we're on the road the res fridge is running 24/7. when not hooked up to shore power or on genny the fridge runs off the 2000-watt inverter. if you've bought a new/newer RV with an OEM res fridge you likely have an inverter as well. if you've replaced or are thinking of replacing an RV fridge with a res fridge I suggest you make your life even easier by adding an inverter and extra batteries if needed.

[azrving]

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[MetalGator]

I just went from a travel trailer with a Propane/electric frig to a motor home with a residential frig. I much prefer the residential. Now I can keep ice cream in the freezer! I don't boon dock though but I think the residential frig cools better, especially if you are in and out of the frig all the time like my wife!

[MandKJohns]

I have a resi fridge in my TT and it works very nicely. I agree with JFNM if your going to have lots of hookups and power then a resi fridge will be fine. I personally don't boon dock any so a resi fridge is no problem to me. I go about a month between trips with no power to the TT in between. It usually takes about 4 hours for the fridge to get to temp. Then usually about 20 hours to lose it's temp and freezer start thawing out.

[dons2346]

I have gone 20 hours without power to the refer. Everything was still frozen.

Yes we open for breakfast, just don't "surf" the refer. Your other questions cannot be answered with any intelligence because of the unknowns

[ulvik]

I have had both and both worked fine but regretfully we boondock quite a bit and the residential fridge did suck up our batteries quite a bit. So we personally prefer gas/electric units just because of that. But if you don't boondock a lot definitely prefer residential units.

[JFNM]

Yes, I am glad I have it. It is a Samsung RF24FSEDBSR 23 cu. ft. Counter Depth 4-Door. It works fabulously - normally zero and 37 degrees (freezer/fridge). Mine is very rarely without power as I have lots of solar and a big lithium battery (and inverter) - I boondock nearly all the time. The only times it is without power is when doing some sort of battery/electrical system maintenance. It stays cold during these short outages but, with the internal temperatures on the door, you can certainly seeing it slowly warming up. Purely a guess but I would think mine would have 4-5 hours before the freezer got up to near 32 degrees if the doors are kept closed. I would not recommend residential unless you always have hookups or are able to power it from the coach (solar, battery, generator).