I recently purchased a used 2021 Salem hemisphere 29xbhl. The dealer told us that it was prepped for solar, the type that will just keep the battery charged. He also said that a full charged battery could run the RV fridge for about 3 weeks if it wasn't opened and closed (seems unlikely imo)
If I was to get the solar panel, is it possible to keep the RV fridge powered on all the time without draining the battery? We were thinking about adding a second garage fridge, but if this is something that will work, I wouldn't have to buy a fridge or pay the monthly electric to run it.
I suspect being a 2021 model it may have a 12VDC fridge and there is no way you would get 3 weeks out of a battery. I dought you would get 3 weeks with a propane unit with just the 12VDC controller.
My Rockwood 2891BH has a 12v residential Fridge and the only way the fridge will last 3 weeks on batteries alone is....Well it won't.....unless you have some type of solar system. With 190 watts of solar I still have to run my generator every few days. When I was testing the entire system before our first cross country trip I ran the fridge off Solar and batteries only and it was fine for a week, but it was empty and I didn't open it.
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Retired Army
Current Elementary School STEM teacher
Electric Race Car GM
Robotics Team Coach
2022 Rockwood Ultra Lite 2891BH
2019 Ram 2500 Bighorn Mega Cab 6.7 Diesel
Your dealer lied to you, especially since they probably only installed a cheap 12v marine dual purpose battery, whuch is not a true deep cycle battery.
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Dan-Retired California Firefighter/EMT
Shawn-Musician/Entrepreneur/Wine Expert
and Zoe the Wonder Dog(R.I.P.)
2016 PrimeTime TracerAIR 255, pushing a 2014 Ford F150 SCREW XTR 4x4 3.5 Ecoboost w/Max Tow Package
4pt Equal-i-zer WDH and 1828lbs of payload capacity
I recently purchased a used 2021 Salem hemisphere 29xbhl. The dealer told us that it was prepped for solar, the type that will just keep the battery charged. He also said that a full charged battery could run the RV fridge for about 3 weeks if it wasn't opened and closed (seems unlikely imo)
If I was to get the solar panel, is it possible to keep the RV fridge powered on all the time without draining the battery? We were thinking about adding a second garage fridge, but if this is something that will work, I wouldn't have to buy a fridge or pay the monthly electric to run it.
Anyone done anything similar?
The dealer was blowing smoke... Prepped for solar usually means (like on mine) there is a proprietary connector outside with a wire running to the batteries. It's a 10A (as I said, proprietary) connector, and there's no charge controller in the TT (at least in mine). If I were to add the recommended solar I'd be spending around $500 for a 100W panel with built-in controller. That will only maybe keep the batteries trickle charged.
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2021 Forest River Wildwood 171RBXL
Towed by 2018 Toyota Tundra TRD SR5
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