One of the planned upgrades to our 5th wheel RV is to change out the old RV refrigerator and replace it with a residential model. We found a good RV shop near Radford Virginia, close to our old home town. So with a little advance planning, buying the new refrigerator and inverter, and some labor costs, we will have the upgrade completed.
Why make the change?
Our coach came with an RV fridge that runs on propane or electric and the technology is based on absorption. In very basic terms, the absorption RV refrigerator uses heat, and a combination of ammonia, hydrogen gas, and water. These chemicals react and go through various tubes, and the evaporation and condensation process of these chemicals are what cools the refrigerator.
They are great for camping without any electric hook ups (boondocking), because it will run off of the propane. You use electricity when connected to shore power and then change over to propane when on the road. That is the pro of this type of fridge.
The cons are a smaller a actual size and a lack of cooling efficiency. The cooling efficiency problem is that these units take much longer to cool off once a door has been opened. Also, when installed in a slide out, the absorption unit does not operate as well due to side vents versus a roof top vent.
For weekend campers, the smaller size and lack of cooling efficiency are no biggies. For full-timers like us, it can become a real nuisance. We just did not realize the issues when we bought this RV.
Unique Customizations
The RV shop that we selected to perform this work was a small shop near Christiansburg, VA. (our old hometown). Unique Customizations is owned by Josh Smith, a young entrepreneur and Army Reservist. He has 2-3 employees and takes on some of the larger RV jobs that other shops may decline.
I had him do a small warranty job when we were in town in May. He was efficient and knew what he was doing. He replaced one of the six hydraulic leveling legs for the RV.
Josh has performed 3-4 of these refrigerator conversions, but this was his first in a 5th wheel camper. The others were in motorhomes. The difference is in the electrical systems.
Work Performed
We measured the opening for the new fridge about a dozen times. And probably more importantly, measured the RV door to make sure the new model will fit. On some models with a more narrow door, the installers have to remove a large window to make this installation. Ours fit through the door with a 1/2 inch to spare!
The old RV type fridge was removed in about 30 minutes. The new one was then installed in another 30 minutes. So, the first hour went very well. The next step was a little more difficult.
Since a residential fridge uses a 110 volt supply only, we only had two options for moving day (unhooked from shore power). Option #1, is to simply power down the fridge and close it up until we arrive to our destination. Not a bad choice since we usually only travel 4-5 hours in a day. A closed up fridge would not lose too much temperature.
Our other option for moving day was to install an inverter and beef up our 12 volt batteries. An inverter will convert the batteries 12 volt power to the 110 voltage required by the fridge. We chose this option just to make sure that we could power the fridge during an unexpected longer day on the road. It happens.
Refrigerator
The model that Pat chose was a Whirlpool counter depth, side by side model that measures a whopping 21 cubic feet and is 36 inches wide. The stainless steel model is not supposed to show fingerprints as much. We are very happy with it so far. Plenty of space and zero in the freezer while 35 in the fridge.
Inverter
The RV tech chose a larger inverter than we actually needed to allow for any future additions to the circuit. Right now, we only power the fridge. The 3,000 watt inverter is a Samlex Power pure sine wave model. It has an option to add a remote unit to monitor the battery voltage. I will probably add this soon.
Results
The work was all performed and checked out well. The initial set up was to run the inverter full time to power the fridge, but we ran into complications with that arrangement. Josh came back out to the RV park to change the circuit to switchable between shore power and the inverter.
The additional battery gives me 196 amp hours that should power the fridge for 16 hours based on a fridge 50% duty cycle.
Well that is one item scratched off the list of 23 actions while we are here in our old Virginia home area. It’s gonna be a busy time! By the way, the Hurricane Florence spared us here in SW Virginia. A little wind and about 3 inches of rain.
Let me know if questions on this upgrade or leave a comment if you wish. Take care and God Bless.
Sounds good to get that work done. The refrigerator is something that many of us take for granted. The ranch I went to this summer has zero electricity and they have used some RV propane refrigerators in the past. Before that (1960’s) they had some very old full size propane refrigerators. They are very expensive to replace. It would be good to put some type of solar bank system in place there. When I was there this summer I made ice last a little more then one week. After that just did without for the next 3 weeks.
Safe travels
Robert
See you in about two weeks…
The RV type of refrigerators are very expensive at about 3-4 times that of residential unit. Sounds like you need a good used low miles RV fridge for the ranch! See you soon in DC.
That was quite the project. Bill had wanted the type of fridge you took out but it was not possible. Sounds like it was a good thing we stuck with what came with it!
We are enjoying the change so far. If your RV fridge is working fine, then I would stick with it.
Whas there any weight difference between the two?
Hi Julie, the Norcold was 330 pounds and the Whirlpool is 225, I believe. Some folks say it is an even swap due to the residential unit has a larger capacity.