Furrion announces 10cu. ft. 12V fridge.

[Windjammingnc]

Copying what a small company in Indiana did with retrofits, Furrion appears to have announced a 100% 12V fridge that fits into the space of existing 8 cu. ft. fridges and runs on 12V, drawing less than 50W/hr of electricity...


https://youtu.be/LxHP-59X-qw


https://furrion.com/collections/refr...v-refrigerator


Priced at $1079 direct from Furrion.


Tempted to replace the Evaporation Dometic with it's marginal performance...

[Mountndream]

i wouldn't want a 12v only. It draws the battery down too fast when i am boondocked.



if you don't boondock, its a great option i guess

[rockfordroo]

Originally Posted by Mountndream

i wouldn't want a 12v only. It draws the battery down too fast when i am boondocked.



if you don't boondock, its a great option i guess

And if you don't boondock, it might as well be 110VAC.

At 50 watts, it will pull about 4.1 amps at 12VDC. If it runs 50% of the time, that's 4 x 12 = 48 amp-hours per day. So it might be OK for an occasional 1 night boondock.

[Windjammingnc]

I'd argue if you have solar, it's probably not a big deal as they show on their page. I will say that given the poor performance of our Dometic, anything is better and this is the best option.


The downside of the Dometic is that in warm, humid weather, it's trying to vent not just the heat removed from the fridge compartment but also the heat generated by the heat source (Gas Flame or Electric element). That just reduces the efficiency overall. There are numerous times that our fridge struggles to keep the temps in the low 40s.

[Mountndream]

Originally Posted by Windjammingnc

I'd argue if you have solar, it's probably not a big deal as they show on their page. I will say that given the poor performance of our Dometic, anything is better and this is the best option.

Thats a big if, i would actually argue that anyone using solar would stay away from a 12 v fridge because of the power demands.



but most people don't have enough battery power for a long weekend with this type fridge. Having your battery die will make this fridge work even worse than the current Dometic


have you tried adding fans to the back of your fridge and inside?

[Windjammingnc]

Not yet. I can't even run it on gas when traveling since it was constantly blowing thermal fuses and this was after two repairs by mobile RV service and one at my dealer. I rigged an inverter to power the fridge when traveling... If you think 4Amps @ 12v is a large load, try 40A @ 12V. The batteries on the trailer drain rapidly since the truck alternator doesn't output voltage based on the trailer battery status but the trucks..


That said, this fridge also chooses to turn itself off randomly which doesn't bode well for food. Given that it's out of warranty, at some point I'll decide if it's worth $100's to repair/replace control boards or $1000 to just replace it, gain some Cu Ft and be more reliable, cool faster and just be less stressful.


As you can tell, the Dometic has been a nightmare since we've bought the trailer.

[kurtsont]

We were looking into replacing our fridge with the Everchill 12DC fridge. Ours cools enough but we would like more room. I saw this the other day and we will get this one instead. We never boondock and we will just upgrade our battery.

[jmaley]

In our previous RV we had a 12V with a 220 Amp battery and 200 watts solar. We could go indefinitely as long as there was any sun with no problem. Battery was usually full before noon from overnite. You can cut energy used in half if you can add 1" foam insulation to sides and top. I'd love to have 12v only fridge as no leveling problems and doesn't run your propane out if boondocking in hot sunny weather. I hate the Dometic after having a 12V only fridge.

[bikendan]

Have no use for a residential fridge or 12v only fridge.
We do too much dry camping and have never had any issues with our 2-way fridges.

[jimmoore13]

Impressive. At 4.2 amp/hours per hour, the continuous demand would be 100 AH per day, well within the capacity of a good 4 x 6 volt battery bank and a decent solar array. Assuming a 50% duty cycle, 50 AH is fairly modest draw for such a big compressor fridge.

Their claim that a 100 watt solar panel can support this thing is magical thinking. Given an average solar day, a 100 watt panel can pump out about 35 or 40 AH of charge on a decently sunny day unless you have automated sun tracking on your solar array. But a 4-panel array would have no trouble keeping the batteries charged with this and other regular 12 volt loads.

This thing seems to take the residential fridge to the next level of efficiency. That must be a very nice compressor/motor. It certainly makes more sense that the typical residential fridge/inverter arrangement.

Can't wait to hear how it performs in the field, and looking forward to them downsizing the unit to fit in place of a 6 cubic foot gas/electric.

[jimmoore13]

For those considering this fridge as a replacement for your two-way, but to primarily run on shore power, before you make the jump, be aware that a fairly heavy 12-volt load may trigger your converter/charger fan to run continuously under load. That noise may be an annoyance. And that noise will combine with the normal compressor noise of the fridge. Something to consider.

While a 120 volt residential fridge is likely to run on the 12 volt inverter only when shore power is not available (via a transfer switch built into the inverter), this 12 volt fridge will always run on 12 volt power. No problem when boondocking. But if you plug into shore power, your converter/charger will immediately work to replenish the batteries. That's a good thing, for sure, but you may have to listen to the converter/charger's cooling fan run a lot, because the nearly 5 amp/12 volt load will ask for power continuously. The charger will happily provide it, but the fridge, combined with the many other 12 volt loads...including many TVs, the water pump, the furnace, and so on...will ask a lot of the converter/charger.

My little PUP's fridge is 3 way. I inadvertently set it for 12 volt while cooling in prep for a trip, and not only did it perform very poorly, the converter fan screamed the whole time on a fully charged battery. In fact, the fan noise is what alerted me to the misconfiguration of the fridge. If the battery is a little drained, it's normal for the fan to come on BRIEFLY during the bulk charge phase when I plug in, but when the fan was still on hours later, I knew something was wrong. My comparison is a bit apples and oranges, because even a small evaporative fridge is a pretty heavy draw compared to a compressor fridge, but listening to that fan may come with the territory when plugged in and the fridge compressor kicks on.

Worth a closer look before you make the leap.

[Jay2504]

Friends of ours recently bought a new Puma toyhauler with the Everchill 12 volt refrigerator. What jimmore13 talked about is exactly what happens. We actually thought that the converter fan was the compressor fan at first, until we looked closer. At first they had it set “too cold” and it ran all the time, but with experience they were able to set it higher with less “run time”. Still we are going to replace the single group 24 battery with 2 or 3 group 31 batteries in case they want to boondock. Both the Everchill and the Furion take 11 amps to run, where do people come up with a 5 amp load? An average? I contacted Everchill and was told that their unit will last 4-6 hours on a single group 24 battery. Jay

[Mad Cow]

Originally Posted by Mountndream

i wouldn't want a 12v only. It draws the battery down too fast when i am boondocked.



if you don't boondock, its a great option i guess

Not a 12v compressor fridge. Norcold's 10cf 12v compressor fridge that fits in a slot for the typical 8cf absorption fridge only uses about 5 amps when it is cycling, and it only cycles about 30% of the time. Maybe at most up to 50% of the time on a real hot day and frequent door opening. Even less than 30% during the cool of the evening when the door is not being opened as frequently.

I have a 5cf 12v Dometic compressor fridge that is in my commercial truck. I can get home on Friday afternoon, leave the fridge going, and the the truck starts just fine on Monday morn.

If one is using solar, the solar panels will supply more than enough to both charge batts and run a 12v compressor fridge. True enough, a 12v absorption fridge is downright criminal in its power usage. But then, an absorption fridge is based on 1800's technology.

[Relder]

I currently have a Dometic 8cf refer and would like to install the 12 volt Furrion unit in my TT. I've been reading the comments about power consumption, noise , etc, and would like some input on my set-up. I have 2-12volt 100 ah battle-born lithium batteries wired in parallel, 4-170 watt solar panels and generally dry camp 4-7 days per year ( usually at the EAA Oshkosh event). My refer during the hot summer temps usually won't cool below 41-43 degrees during the day but will cool better at night. Any and all input welcomed.

[jmaley]

The 2 different 12 volt fridges I have had in the past (diff motorhomes) used a Danfoss compressor, not the same as in your home fridge. I had no trouble running either of them on solar. The Danfoss compressor was developed for use on sailboats where power is at a premium so the focus was efficiency, not "how can we make it cheaper".



Three-way fridges are usually no different than our 2 way - designed to run on either 110 volt or propane but with a small inverter to use 12 volts, the epitome of inefficiency in all three modes since a heater is used to create cold.



As I mentioned above, you can dramatically decrease the energy used by adding 1" of foam insulation to the sides and top - if possible.



I don't know anything about the Furrion fridge but presume with the numbers quoted, that it uses a Danfoss compressor or something similar. There are other manufacturers of these highly efficient units made for sailboats and offgrid houses and now starting to show up more and more in RVs, usually paired with larger batteries and solar panels as they should be.

[Slow Moon]

Is there a general perception that Dometic absorption refrigerators do not perform well?

My experience and what I have heard is that they work very well and reliably. I do understand that proper installation with appropriate venting are critical.

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by Slow Moon

Is there a general perception that Dometic absorption refrigerators do not perform well?

My experience and what I have heard is that they work very well and reliably. I do understand that proper installation with appropriate venting are critical.

I've one in my each of my 2 trailers and never had any problems.

[Windjammingnc]

Originally Posted by jimmoore13

Can't wait to hear how it performs in the field, and looking forward to them downsizing the unit to fit in place of a 6 cubic foot gas/electric.

According to their page, it appears they have 2 sizes. One to replace the 8cu ft (with 10 cu ft) and another to replace 6cu ft (with 8 cu ft)... Unless I am reading their site wrong.

[Windjammingnc]

Originally Posted by Slow Moon

Is there a general perception that Dometic absorption refrigerators do not perform well?

My experience and what I have heard is that they work very well and reliably. I do understand that proper installation with appropriate venting are critical.

We had a Dometic in our 2004 Trail Bay trailer and it's still working great (with new owners)... The Dometic in our 2018 Windjammer is a nightmare of epic proportions. If we are driving, the temperature rises into the 50's after 5-6 hours and with all Absorption fridges, takes forever to cool down. Not to mention in our case, the random shutdowns... We actually Boondock at least 10-12 days per year, not to mention overnights at Cracker Barrels, etc. Given I have to run an inverter to power our fridge when driving, after 4 hours on a reasonably warm summer day, the house batteries are usually down to 65% capacity (200AH GC - depleted about 60ah). Not what I expected from a fridge.


I saw a video on Youtube of a place in Indiana that will replace the Absorption guts of your fridge with a 12V or 120V compressor system (I believe it's around $1400).. The 12V version draws 5 Amps.

[Feel Swift]

Based on my experience with Furrion, I would be skeptical of anything that had their name on it. Two TV's that failed in the first year, a radio/DVD that went at about 18 months. A shore power connector that the LED light went out after 2 trips, a Furrion observation camera where the lens fogged over from the inside and the only solution is to buy an entire new system @ over $400, and a microwave that lasted a little over a year. The only other things we have Furrion that have yet to break are the range / oven combo, and the plastic cover on the outside 120VAC receptacle. Seeing they were up until recently a Lippert "partner" should tell you something. Junk all of it.