Residential or standard fridge

[Happydaze]

I really don't see the need for a residential fridge. It's just the wife and I and we have put more food in our RV fridge than we could eat in 10 days or more. We also discovered that many areas have grocery stores. It keeps our ice cream cold and rock hard. Also, in nearly 60 years of travel, everyone in my family has a trailer or 5th wheel, we have never experienced a fire or observed one caused from a RV fridge. Of course we were taught to always level your rig. A residential fridge would be nice in a trailer that is primarily used as a destination trailer. As far as reliability, I have never had my fridge stop working. But my daughters 2 year old Samsung just broke in her house. I guess you can get a bad unit in anything.

[Havasu Bill]

Originally Posted by Myrtle Beach Carl

I love the size of the Residential Fridge, but is there a way for fridge to run off of battery power? We usually go to full hook up parks, but sometimes need to use our generator. Am I missing something that I already have in our unit?

For my Cardinal the inverter runs the residential fridge. Make sure your inverter is powered on and you should be good if your system is similar to mine.

[doc73]

We've always had the rv fridge until this 5er. It has a nice LG residential fr design that is huge and does in fact keep colder than the rv fridge did. I do not want to add to being one sided but with only two trips, one to Disney for 1000 miles it's been good. It is nice to have the space.

I am not sure why they cannot be kept cold on the road, unless there is not an invertor of course. Ours has a 2000 watt invertor and has had no issues being cooled when on the road for 10 hours of driving. No battery issues. I will run an eu2000 at night but the battery is always full when we stop.

[spock123]

I have four Trojans hooked up to a inverter that runs my residential refrigerator, I unplugged the camper at home this year and my residential refrigerator ran for 4 days without power. I have no problems on long days with my refrigerator, it will even try to make ice when traveling, water will splash out. DW loves the refrigerator and we do dry camp some and we have no problems. The refrigerator fell off its mount but that was Cedar Creek fault. The residential refrigerator works for us, I have looked at the RV refrigerator but it’s smaller and it doesn’t get some things cold enough. Buy what works for you and what you like. If I was in the market for a new Cedar Creek I would get the residential refrigerator and spend the difference on disk brakes. We went to Alaska this year and we had no problems keeping our refrigerator cold or keeping our doors closed. Also with all the space in the refrigerator we didn’t have to buy as much high priced food.

[Jim34RL]

Originally Posted by NMWildcat

Definitely weigh the real cost differences in the total price of the RV. I honestly haven't seen anywhere near a $2k total price difference in rigs we have looked at, especially ones that ran a larger inverter.

Good luck!

I have the Dealer price list that Forest River provides the dealer with when you place an order with them. I ordered a 2016, Cedar Creek 34RL and the listed up charge over the residential fridge for a side by side fridge with the raise wood paneling (to match the cabinets), Gas/Electric is $2023. If you get the attachment 20 CU.FT stainless steel fridge the price deference is $800 more for the RV fridge. But the 20 CU FT fridge is not available on the 34RL model only the standard 18 CU FT model with inverter is provided. This is where the $2023 price increase comes from.

This is the retail price list the dealer could or could not charge this much. This is up to the dealer and he could charge less if he wanted to..

[HESN22]

Definitely not residential fridge ... too limiting ... who needs all that extra weight that all that extra space would soon fill up with ... food and bottles etc are heavy ... our RV fridge keeps ice cream, ice cubes etc frozen solid. If RV fridge breaks down and needs to be replaced, it doesn't fit through trailer door ... they have to dismantle the slide it's in ... as we found out from the Cedar Creek sales rep.

[NMWildcat]

Originally Posted by Jim34RL

I have the Dealer price list that Forest River provides the dealer with when you place an order with them. I ordered a 2016, Cedar Creek 34RL and the listed up charge over the residential fridge for a side by side fridge with the raise wood paneling (to match the cabinets), Gas/Electric is $2023. If you get the attachment 20 CU.FT stainless steel fridge the price deference is $800 more for the RV fridge. But the 20 CU FT fridge is not available on the 34RL model only the standard 18 CU FT model with inverter is provided. This is where the $2023 price increase comes from.

This is the retail price list the dealer could or could not charge this much. This is up to the dealer and he could charge less if he wanted to..

I agree. But I'm talking about total price. With residential you also have to have inverter, wiring, and installation that you don't have to have with RV fridge. Inverter eats up most of the $$ difference.

[Cypressloser]

Originally Posted by NMWildcat

I agree. But I'm talking about total price. With residential you also have to have inverter, wiring, and installation that you don't have to have with RV fridge. Inverter eats up most of the $$ difference.

This is the same price difference we were quoted when we did a custom order in 2013 ($2,500 cdn.) and it did include the factory installed 1800 Watt inverter to power the microwave and the tv. How much solar can you get for $2000 ($2500 cdn.), way more than you need to power a res. fridge even on cloudy days.

Edit: Norcold 18 ft3 4 door 12xx vs. LG 22ft3 french door with water filter, ice maker and water dispenser in the door.

[Jim34RL]

Originally Posted by NMWildcat

I agree. But I'm talking about total price. With residential you also have to have inverter, wiring, and installation that you don't have to have with RV fridge. Inverter eats up most of the $$ difference.

You have missed my point. The 18CU. FT residential with a invert is standard on the Cedar Creek line. The RV fridge is an attachment so the $2,000 + up charge is over and above the retail cost of the standard model with the 18 CU. FT fridge.

[NMWildcat]

Originally Posted by Jim34RL

You have missed my point. The 18CU. FT residential with a invert is standard on the Cedar Creek line. The RV fridge is an attachment so the $2,000 + up charge is over and above the retail cost of the standard model with the 18 CU. FT fridge.

Ah, got it. Everything we looked at had residential as the option. Guess CC won't make the cut for us. Too bad, I was looking forward to seeing them

[Cypressloser]

Even though the residential fridge shows as an option, it should lower the price of the trailer by $XXX. If not, then there is something wrong with the dealer.

[NCBBA11043]

A lot of responses center around solar and extra batteries. And many have stated it depends on how you camp. For us - gas/electric was the way to go. Our Silverback 33IK doesn't really support multiple batteries well, and we do a lot of camping in the woods, so solar would be iffy. Same reason I went with a portable satellite dish - at least I can move that around to try to catch a signal.

[ard58]

For those who haven't heard, a substantial number of RV fires are related to problems with RV refrigerators.

That's odd news. We have been RV'ing for 15+ years and have never seen or talked to anyone that has mentioned an RV fire, of any sort.

[NCBBA11043]

A lot of people are saying the gas/electric doesn't stay as cold as a residential fridge. This could be true in a 5th wheel IF the fridge is mounted in a slide AND if auxiliary / exhaust fans have not been added to force the air over the coils. A residential system doesn't need to vent. I added a pair of fans to my 5th wheel and can keep the t'stat at 3 (out of 5) and have the freezer stay in single digits on 90 degree days.

[twdenman]

Originally Posted by FrankG

If you think all RV refrigerators are the same look at the Norcold 2118 4 door 18.3 cu. ft. Unit. All I can say is it a 5 star unit. (no inverter required)
2118 PolarMaxâ„¢ | Products | Thetford

We have this 4 door unit in our rig. I monitor temperatures in the freezer. I have it set on medium coldness. Won't 9 degrees freeze ice cream? We love it. The top doors are separated. So you can keep ice cream on one half of freezer, until you want it. :-) We like the propane option for boondocking.

[FrankG]

Originally Posted by NCBBA11043

A lot of people are saying the gas/electric doesn't stay as cold as a residential fridge. This could be true in a 5th wheel IF the fridge is mounted in a slide AND if auxiliary / exhaust fans have not been added to force the air over the coils. A residential system doesn't need to vent. I added a pair of fans to my 5th wheel and can keep the t'stat at 3 (out of 5) and have the freezer stay in single digits on 90 degree days.

The refrigeration system on a residential unit disperses the energy (heat) into the interior of the RV and will put this heat load on the air conditioner. Let's see, a 6 amp refrigerator will negate 6 of the 15 amp consumption (15,000 BTU) air conditioner. That's 40% of the cooling capacity of the air conditioner going to remove the heat generated by the refrigerator. The only saving factor is the refrigerator only runs part time.

[mwdilday]

Originally Posted by FrankG

The refrigeration system on a residential unit disperses the energy (heat) into the interior of the RV and will put this heat load on the air conditioner. Let's see, a 6 amp refrigerator will negate 6 of the 15 amp consumption (15,000 BTU) air conditioner. That's 40% of the cooling capacity of the air conditioner going to remove the heat generated by the refrigerator. The only saving factor is the refrigerator only runs part time.

Not exactly. If the insulation on the fridge was 100% effective (no heat transfer) the compressor would never run unless the door was opened. A residential fridge does not add heat to the living space other than the heat generated by the electrical and compressor systems. The heat is transferred between the living space and the fridge.

[doc73]

Hmm, not noticed any heat issues with the residential fridge vs the rv fridge, but with two AC we made our trailer a meat locker! (Actually froze up one of them, oops) I will say it did give us a HUGE shelf above the fridge now that we would not have had from the RV fridge due to no need for a roof vent.

[Cypressloser]

Dang, we have a food fridge, a wine fridge and a beer fridge and still have the furnace running and the electric fireplace.
I better go and get myself one more fridge

[cbvp]

Originally Posted by HESN22

Definitely not residential fridge
... too limiting ... who needs all that extra weight that all
that extra space would soon fill up with ..
. food and bottles etc are heavy ...

What extra weight??????

Dometic RM1350 13.5 cu. ft. cap. RV Ref Net weight 231lbs.

Samsung RT21M6213SR/AA 21.1 cu. ft. cap Res Ref Net weight 198.4 lbs.

Samsung is 7.6 cu. ft . larger
Samsung is 32.1 lbs lighter.

A case of Miller Lite (bottles) weighs 30.6 lbs. Life is great


Dometic is coming out and Samsung going in on 12/11/2017.


C.B.

PS Dometic is for sale!