12V Fridge or Residential Fridge: Which is Better

[bhbery]

Just noticed a nice 16cu french style. 1st one I have seen that large. I have the double door dometic and looks to fit. Something to keep in mind....

Do you have a link to that 16cu?

[bhbery]

I don't know the name of the company, but there is one that will convert a regular RV fridge to a compressor-type.

JC Refrigeration in Shipshewana, IN makes conversion kits. https://jc-refrigeration.com/

[mostad]

So you hit on what I was asking about. That is the 12v wire being too small. Did JC say that running a new 12v was a big project with the fridge being in the slide? If so, then I may need to look at a residential myself instead of a 12v since the 120v plug is already in place in the slide. We are also considering getting either 200 or 400 amp hours of lithium batteries, an inverter/charger, and the small Honda generator.

No they did not say that the wire was to small, however I know the wire is only 12 gauge and if you want to run a compressor I felt that I would need bigger wire. I have to idea how long the wire is and JC says it pulls almost 8 amps. Now you need to add in cooling fans and anything else on that same circuit and you could be exceeding the amperage for 12 gauge wire very quickly. I know this same circuit runs the vent fan and light above stove , circuit board on fridge, lights inside the oven and of course the cooling fans on fridge inside and out. I’m not sure if it runs anything else.

There is nothing to prevent you from putting it in the slide. I figured it would be a bigger project trying to pull a larger wire into the slide out is why I did not do it.

I am much happier with the true residential fridge, but that’s just me.

Good luck

[my12by60]

No they did not say that the wire was to small, however I know the wire is only 12 gauge and if you want to run a compressor I felt that I would need bigger wire. I have to idea how long the wire is and JC says it pulls almost 8 amps. Now you need to add in cooling fans and anything else on that same circuit and you could be exceeding the amperage for 12 gauge wire very quickly. I know this same circuit runs the vent fan and light above stove , circuit board on fridge, lights inside the oven and of course the cooling fans on fridge inside and out. I’m not sure if it runs anything else.

There is nothing to prevent you from putting it in the slide. I figured it would be a bigger project trying to pull a larger wire into the slide out is why I did not do it.

I am much happier with the true residential fridge, but that’s just me.

Good luck

As I said in my original post, we were very happy with the residential fridge that we had in our Cedar Creek for 9 nine years of use. The auto defrost of a residential is nice and we never had a single problem with the unit. As long as one can deal with the extra power draw, I think residential is a great way to go. We are investigating the 12v only models as I think some may have a lower power draw than the residential + inverter. I still don't have my arms around how that power draw comparison shakes out.

The residential install looks just as easy as the 12V. And the residential eliminates the worry about the adequacy of the 12v wiring coming into the slide. Absent some convincing reason that the 12v is better than the residential, we are leaning toward the residential right now.

[Overtaxed]

No they did not say that the wire was to small, however I know the wire is only 12 gauge and if you want to run a compressor I felt that I would need bigger wire. I have to idea how long the wire is and JC says it pulls almost 8 amps. Now you need to add in cooling fans and anything else on that same circuit and you could be exceeding the amperage for 12 gauge wire very quickly. I know this same circuit runs the vent fan and light above stove , circuit board on fridge, lights inside the oven and of course the cooling fans on fridge inside and out. I’m not sure if it runs anything else.

12G wire is good for 20 amps, so you probably would have been OK, but, depending on how much was on at once, it might have gotten tight.

I put myself on the wait list for a JC compressor setup, but I'm going to get the 120V unit. There's already a plug right there, and we always have power available at home or when we're camping (well, assuming my generator problems get fixed). So I'm just going to make my life as easy as possible, pulling that fridge out, peeling off the back, all that sound bad enough without running wires into a slide!

JC is a long ways out though, probably going to be next year before they get more stock assuming you're not on the list already.

[my12by60]

12G wire is good for 20 amps, so you probably would have been OK, but, depending on how much was on at once, it might have gotten tight.

I put myself on the wait list for a JC compressor setup, but I'm going to get the 120V unit. There's already a plug right there, and we always have power available at home or when we're camping (well, assuming my generator problems get fixed). So I'm just going to make my life as easy as possible, pulling that fridge out, peeling off the back, all that sound bad enough without running wires into a slide!

JC is a long ways out though, probably going to be next year before they get more stock assuming you're not on the list already.

The RV forums seem to have more than one thread discussing how the 12v fridges are having issues with the 12G wiring. Voltage drop has been mentioned as an issue as has the blowing of small inline fuses located in the bottom rear of many of the 12v models. I am not sure how much if any of the complaints on the 12v problems I have read about actually trace to the 12G wiring. I just don't know enough about wiring and these 12v fridges.

[Riverbug]

We just bought a used 2017 29RS that came with the standard 8 cu ft 2-way fridge that GD was using in 2017. Our prior fifth wheel (2007 Cedar Creek) had an Amana residential fridge with a dedicated inverter for the fridge only (mounted in front compartment). We had 4, 6-volt batteries and an Onan 5500 gas generator. The residential Amana worked great for 9 years without a single service issue. So we are fans of the residential fridge option. We love the larger interior space, quicker cool down, auto defrost, extra safety (no gas burning) and reliability.

So we are thinking of switching out the 2-way for either a residential + inverter set-up or going with one of the new 12V options that are out there. This GE 12V on sale at Camping World seems like a nice deal for only $800:

https://www.campingworld.com/ge-9.8-...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

As far as I can tell from my reading, the upside of the 12V fridges is that they don't require an inverter to be running all the time. The negative is that most? all? of the 12V models don't have auto defrost like a residential fridge. Also, I see more than a few folks reporting problems with their 12V fridge. Some of the 12V issues seem to relate to inadequate wire gauge between the fridge and 12V system.

What are the thoughts from you folks as to which direction is preferred: 12V or residential?

I know some will be tempted to mention that 2-way is the way to go. But since we have already lived with residential and loved it, I don't see us wanting to return to the 2-way fridge. Thanks for any comments.

Also, is the Reflection 150 door width from 2017 wide enough to take the existing fridge out without any drama?

My vote would definitely be for 12v. That said, I've never had an issue with any of our 2-way fridges either (3 travel trailers and 2 motorhomes). But, I actually hoped our new trailer would have the 12v as I had been hearing that was the direction GD is moving - but it was 2-way and we didn't want to mess with trying to upgrade.

[Jims94vmx]

Do you have a link to that 16cu?

At bottom of original link....

Here is the 16cu
https://www.recpro.com/rv-refrigerat...ors-stainless/

[my12by60]

We bought and installed this Magic Chef residential fridge from Home Depot:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Magic-Ch...0BE/302245062?

We then sold our outgoing Norcold 8 cu ft unit on craigslist for $750.

The hardest part of the swap was getting the Norcold out the front door. The door was plenty wide without taking the doors off the Norcold, but the first step going to the upstairs in our 29RS floorplan partially obstructs the floor in front of the door so we could not position the Norcold squarely in front of the door without getting it partially perched on that first step.

The second issue we dealt with was that the Magic Chef was a bit deeper than the Norcold. After we got the Magic Chef into the opening, we realized that the 110 volt plug was now obstructed and not accessible for the Magic Chef. Luckily for us, the 29RS has the outside entertainment area directly beside the fridge compartment. So we just used a hole saw to make a small hole for the plug to fit through and fed the Magic Chef power cord through the hole then plugged it into the 110 volt outlet in the outside entertainment area. We had already removed the mini-fridge in the entertainment compartment earlier because we did think we would use it preferred to use the area for more outside storage. So the plug for the mini-fridge was vacant.

[goducks14]

Per Magic Chef you need 5" clearance top and sides. Also not recommended for RV's. Looked at a lot of 120V fridges and most weren't recommended for RV use with an inverter and most needed more side clearance than you can get with an RV.
https://images.thdstatic.com/catalog...4c5b6d8c0d.pdf
Good luck with your new fridge.