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Old 01-25-2019, 01:33 PM   #1
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Outdoor Kitchen Fridge

I haven’t found this, have searched....sorry in advance
Is the outdoor fridge 110V only?
If so, has anyone replaced it w a fridge that operates on LP

Seems a little bit like if it is 110 only it would be the first thing I rip out of the outdoor kitchen for more storage.

Thoughts?

Thank you in advance, apologize for questions that could be answered if I would just get my butt down to the dealer and look....work gets in the way of fun sometimes.
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Old 01-25-2019, 01:50 PM   #2
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with the outside fridge typically being a much smaller unit only for a few drinks, it's doubtful that the manufacturers would go to the trouble of running both electricity and propane just for this unit, even if such a small 'rv style' fridge could be found.

I would say that most folks don't use the small fridge except when they've arrived at a campsite and loaded it with drinks, after plugging in.

You could certainly add a simple Power Inverter to keep it cooled during travel, if that's your concern.
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Old 01-25-2019, 01:58 PM   #3
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Cost of propane fridge vs electric fridge? No brainer. Don't know anyone that has replaced electric with gas.
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Old 01-25-2019, 02:13 PM   #4
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You can definitely get a small LP fridge. I would never opt for that(my opinion) as you can buy a small inverter generator, a small fridge and a bunch of fuel for less.
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Old 01-25-2019, 02:47 PM   #5
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Venting a 2-way fridge would be a challenge in an outdoor kitchen since the back-side would be to the living area. You'd need to be very particular about insulating it and giving it a good way of getting rid of hot air.

For me, we would put stuff into the outdoor fridge at home, slap a baby latch on it so it stayed closed, and would arrive at camp with items that were decently cold. At one time, I considered what it would take to wire up an inverter to run it. I never followed through with it, but at this point- it doesn't seem like it would be too hard.
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Old 01-25-2019, 02:53 PM   #6
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Most people I know remove it and one of the reasons I would never buy an outside kitchen in the first place.
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Old 01-25-2019, 03:40 PM   #7
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Most people I know remove it and one of the reasons I would never buy an outside kitchen in the first place.

So funny how different circles of people/friends are. I know a LOT of people with outdoor kitchens and none have removed the fridge out there.
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Old 01-25-2019, 03:58 PM   #8
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Venting a 2-way fridge would be a challenge in an outdoor kitchen since the back-side would be to the living area. You'd need to be very particular about insulating it and giving it a good way of getting rid of hot air.

For me, we would put stuff into the outdoor fridge at home, slap a baby latch on it so it stayed closed, and would arrive at camp with items that were decently cold. At one time, I considered what it would take to wire up an inverter to run it. I never followed through with it, but at this point- it doesn't seem like it would be too hard.

This is EXACTLY what my first thought was- how would you vent it? And we absolutely LOVE the outside fridge on our Puma. Cool down all the drinks in it and the kids can grab something without having to go in and out of the camper. There are some manufacturers making extremely efficient 12V fridges, but the ones I've seen are larger- as in more than 10cu.ft. The easiest thing to do would be to install an inverter. Cool it and the contents down really well while on 110V, then switch it over to 12V while traveling/camping as the case might be. Be careful about keeping the door shut, grab things quickly and don't put anything else in it that would need to be cooled down and I bet it'd take very little energy to keep it cold.
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Old 01-25-2019, 04:02 PM   #9
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So funny how different circles of people/friends are. I know a LOT of people with outdoor kitchens and none have removed the fridge out there.
Most of the people I know dry camp so they don't wan to run an inverter running one of those things. If you always park in an RV park always with electric, then I can see people would like them.

We have one of those Yeti clones for drinks. Way better option than keeping them in a fridge in my opinion.
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Old 01-25-2019, 04:11 PM   #10
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Outdoor fridges are essentially dorm fridges so AC only. There are some good 120AC/12VDC fridges, but they are expensive and use a lot of current. If you are considering the thermo-electric ones, read the specs carefully as most only cool 30-40 degrees below ambient so on a 90degree day your beer will be at 50. The configuration of a propane fridge is wrong for mounting in an outside kitchen.
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Old 01-25-2019, 04:24 PM   #11
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I've been considering adding an inverter to my outside refrigerator. From all data available and online research I can get by with a 300-400 watt TSW inverter. Before doing so I want to see what the actual duty cycle is (time on per 24hrs actually cooling) by hooking a simple plug in clock (non digital) to the power leads of the compressor (after the thermostat). If I set the clock to 12:00 the hands will start moving whenever the power is on to the compressor. After 24 hours I can then see how much the clock has moved forward. Dividing the number of hours by 24 will give me the duty cycle. Anticipating a question, yes, I will make sure the unit is fully cooled down before starting the test.

In reality most refrigerators are only running 30% of the time or less. If they don't have defrost/door sweat circuits they often get by on very little power.

As for initial cool down in use, that would happen when "docked" and again while driving down the road. Keeping it cool should fit well into my allowable power draw per day which being single, isn't all that much to begin with.

As for removing mine? No chance. I don't need more storage space. The more I have the more unnecessary things I tend to drag along.
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Old 01-25-2019, 04:28 PM   #12
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I've been considering adding an inverter to my outside refrigerator. From all data available and online research I can get by with a 300-400 watt TSW inverter. Before doing so I want to see what the actual duty cycle is (time on per 24hrs actually cooling) by hooking a simple plug in clock (non digital) to the power leads of the compressor (after the thermostat). If I set the clock to 12:00 the hands will start moving whenever the power is on to the compressor. After 24 hours I can then see how much the clock has moved forward. Dividing the number of hours by 24 will give me the duty cycle. Anticipating a question, yes, I will make sure the unit is fully cooled down before starting the test.

In reality most refrigerators are only running 30% of the time or less. If they don't have defrost/door sweat circuits they often get by on very little power.

As for initial cool down in use, that would happen when "docked" and again while driving down the road. Keeping it cool should fit well into my allowable power draw per day which being single, isn't all that much to begin with.

As for removing mine? No chance. I don't need more storage space. The more I have the more unnecessary things I tend to drag along.
Or you can do it the easy way and just plug it in for a few days with a kill-o-watt meter to AC and see what it takes exactly. You can't use the kill-o-watt meter with an inverter unless its a PSW inverter and even those will make your measurement not exact.

Most of the people I know that remove it do it to remove unnecessary dead weight
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Old 01-25-2019, 07:12 PM   #13
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Outdoor kitchen refrigerators are great when the piece of junk Dometic craps out on you.
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Old 01-25-2019, 08:38 PM   #14
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Or you can do it the easy way and just plug it in for a few days with a kill-o-watt meter to AC and see what it takes exactly. You can't use the kill-o-watt meter with an inverter unless its a PSW inverter and even those will make your measurement not exact.

Most of the people I know that remove it do it to remove unnecessary dead weight
I own a cheap electric clock. I don't own a kill-o-watt meter nor do I want to buy one.
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Old 01-26-2019, 12:42 PM   #15
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Titan Mike, I have a small Black and Decker refrigerator, that works just fine. I bought a MSW 400/300 watt inverter, and it would not start the compressor. I know the inverter works fine because I have used it for other things. I suggest that you go one size bigger with the inverter, or even a 750 watt unit. The thing to look at carefully when getting an inverter is how much current it uses on “standby” just sitting there not powering anything, like when the refrigerator is not running. There is a wide difference between models in standby current for a given size. If you have an inverter already, try it out before mounting it. Jay
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Old 01-29-2019, 08:19 PM   #16
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We have the large one in ours. We use it all the time for drinks, and making breakfast. Keep eggs, butter, etc in it. I typically turn it on 24 hrs before the trip, fill it with drinks (typically pre cooled) and it will stay cool for a several hour drive until we plug in again. It also cools down much faster than the crappy fridges inside and stays colder. Don't bring coolers anymore.
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Old 01-29-2019, 09:54 PM   #17
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We have the large one in ours. We use it all the time for drinks, and making breakfast. Keep eggs, butter, etc in it. I typically turn it on 24 hrs before the trip, fill it with drinks (typically pre cooled) and it will stay cool for a several hour drive until we plug in again. It also cools down much faster than the crappy fridges inside and stays colder. Don't bring coolers anymore.
So what do you do when you dry camp with no electric?
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Old 01-29-2019, 11:36 PM   #18
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If we do not have power or are using a generator we typically won't run it. But we do not camp where there isn't power. Also if we have our generator we are using it to tailgate so in that case we bring coolers. Ice chills beer faster anyway.
We bought ours specifically for the outdoor kitchen. My parents rig had one and it was used all of the time. Rockwood has the best equipped outdoor kitchens available IMO. Ours has large dorm fridge, sink with hot and cold, microwave, counter space, pull out 2 burner stove, and wall hung grill. We almost never cook inside. Only if it's raining or late at night.
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Old 02-08-2019, 04:50 PM   #19
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If we do not have power or are using a generator we typically won't run it. But we do not camp where there isn't power. Also if we have our generator we are using it to tailgate so in that case we bring coolers. Ice chills beer faster anyway.
We bought ours specifically for the outdoor kitchen. My parents rig had one and it was used all of the time. Rockwood has the best equipped outdoor kitchens available IMO. Ours has large dorm fridge, sink with hot and cold, microwave, counter space, pull out 2 burner stove, and wall hung grill. We almost never cook inside. Only if it's raining or late at night.
Wow, we have no sink, or microwave in our 2888WS outdoor kitchen.
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Old 02-08-2019, 05:52 PM   #20
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I've been considering adding an inverter to my outside refrigerator. From all data available and online research I can get by with a 300-400 watt TSW inverter.
I finally found (actually stumbled across) the manufacturer's actual power specs for my outside kitchen fridge. It draws .8 amp or a whopping 96 watts.

Smallest TSW inverter I've been able to find is a 300W unit made by Bestek and only $45 on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/BESTEK-Power-...J45KZCSP5ER161

Even if the compressor draws three times the run amperage this inverter should be able to handle the task.

Another "to do" on my list as soon as our first real winter in 20 years thaws out. That and an upgrade on the "Charge Wire" size to the 7-Pin on my Tow Vehicle. Will probably just run a larger wire and use an Anderson connector. Can then have extra cold storage, kept cool while driving down the highway.
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