12 Volt Refridgerator question(s)

**FordmanNJ** · 01-22-2023, 06:46 AM

Howdy!

The wife and I were talking about the trailer. I made mention to the idea of getting a 12 volt fridge for the trailer. I thought it would a good idea as the campground sometimes looses power due to storms or when we travel. She agreed and likes the idea.

Who has upgraded their fridge from an absorbion style?
Did you do it yourself?
What kind of problems did you run into?
If dealer? What kind of cost did you see? (Time and materials)
What do you think of your upgrade?

That's it for now. Planning stages.

**huntindog** · 01-22-2023, 07:23 AM

Originally Posted by FordmanNJ

Howdy!

The wife and I were talking about the trailer. I made mention to the idea of getting a 12 volt fridge for the trailer. I thought it would a good idea as the campground sometimes looses power due to storms or when we travel. She agreed and likes the idea.

Who has upgraded their fridge from an absorbion style?
Did you do it yourself?
What kind of problems did you run into?
If dealer? What kind of cost did you see? (Time and materials)
What do you think of your upgrade?

That's it for now. Planning stages.

The reasons you gave for making the swap are not a very good argument. If your absorbtion is working, I would leave well enough alone.
Now if you are not happy with the perfomance, that would be a different story.
You would probably need a heavier 12V powerline, and a battery capacity upgrade. How much more is debatable. The longer you are without power the more you would need.
That could lead into needing solar and or a generator. It can get pretty involved and expensive depending on just how long you need it to run off grid.
OTOH, the absorbtion fridge you have now can run a VERY long time off grid. Other power draws would drain the battery first

**Riverbug** · 01-22-2023, 07:59 AM

Agree with huntindog. You could get a better battery if that's the concern for not having enough 12v power to get you through an outage with the two-way fridge on propane. Save you lots of money and headaches. Otherwise, if you just want one then by all means; it's just time and money. But you'll still end up upgrading your batteries to run the thing during an outage so might as well start there and test how long you can run it off grid.

**geotex1** · 01-22-2023, 08:19 AM

In the camp with the others, if working fine let it be and run propane if electricity goes out. Different story if you have performance issues. I like the 12VDCs a lot, mostly those with dual zone control, but they're still a bit too early in their evolution and most anything built now through past couple years somewhat suspect.

**goducks14** · 01-22-2023, 08:38 AM

Originally Posted by geotex1

In the camp with the others, if working fine let it be and run propane if electricity goes out. Different story if you have performance issues. I like the 12VDCs a lot, mostly those with dual zone control, but they're still a bit too early in their evolution and most anything built now through past couple years somewhat suspect.

Actually 12V fridges have been around for many years in the marine industry. There's a company in Canada that makes some of the best. RV fridges are way more reliable than absorption because they have fewer parts to deal with. Compressors are simple and you only need a cheap ($) motherboard for control. If you have an issue you only have two things to replace besides the compressor. The temp control part and the ECU. Both are inexpensive. Compressors should last years like a residential fridge.

https://www.novakool.com/

**orbsah** · 01-22-2023, 09:16 AM

A friend, who was at the Tampa show this year, sent me this text:

“All the Grand Design models now come with 12-volt refrigerators and a solar package.”

Not sure if he was referring only to solitudes but I did notice on the GD website all the solitude floor plans now indicate 12V fridge.

**Redapple63** · 01-22-2023, 09:28 AM

Folks, the OP has. 2018 Reflection 285BHS, which came with an absorption style refrigerator. He is thinking of upgrading and is asking specific questions related to that upgrade. I have never done it and my absorption fridge is working fine so far. If anyone has done this upgrade he is looking for details related to that upgrade, technical, logistical, cost and results.

Bill

**Steven@147** · 01-22-2023, 09:56 AM

I'm kind of in the same camp. If it works don't fix it. Our Dometic absorption fridge is working fine except in very hot days @ 95+, then we place fans inside the fridge and it keeps it @ 34*.

Now if it catastrophically fails, then we'll look into converting it to 12V. JC Refrigeration has a kit that costs @ $1200 plus installation. There are YouTubes on how to do this conversion step by step. Some have just taken their rig to the Jc factory and let them do it. The conversion eliminates the need to find a fridge that fits the hole. Depending on you specific rig you may have to install a larger 12v wire to run the fridge, here the JC factory looks into this and will install a larger wire if needs be to handle the load.

Also we would most likely upgrade our battery to batteries and all that entails, especially if we install lithium batts, or just run on our genny until power came back on. Some here on the forum have had the 12v conversion done and like it a lot.

Also we are in the camp that doesn't have the propane on running the fridge while traveling, (lets not go there) the 12V conversion would allow us to run the fridge while towing, but I wouldn't do the conversion just to get that functionality.

**xrated** · 01-22-2023, 09:59 AM

Originally Posted by FordmanNJ

Howdy!

The wife and I were talking about the trailer. I made mention to the idea of getting a 12 volt fridge for the trailer. I thought it would a good idea as the campground sometimes looses power due to storms or when we travel. She agreed and likes the idea.

Who has upgraded their fridge from an absorbion style?
Did you do it yourself?
What kind of problems did you run into?
If dealer? What kind of cost did you see? (Time and materials)
What do you think of your upgrade?

That's it for now. Planning stages.

I upgraded my Norcold 2118 to the JC Refrigeration 12VDC Twin Compressor unit this past May 2022. I have the ability to do the work, but physically removing the fridge out of the cubicle that it is in, and man-handling it by myself was not a possibility, so I had them do it. I knew that it would require a battery upgrade also, but keep in mind, the twin compressor conversion will draw considerably more power than say a 10 or 12 cu. ft. single compressor unit. My Norcold simply did not work very well and to me, going 12VDC vs. doing a residential style fridge was my best option.

If your absorption fridge works OK and keeps the temperatures where you want them, you can run it on propane and battery power for quite a long time. In other words, if you are at a campsite and running it on 120VAC, and the power goes out, switch it to propane and run it that way. The fridge still needs 12VDC for the controls to work and the fridge to run, but at least you can keep it running for quite a while...depending on what else you have on in the trailer, like lights, fans, etc.

The one huge advantage of the 12VDC compressor refrigerators, is that they operate very similar to a residential or home fridge. Turn the unit on and within a 2 to 4 hour period of time, the freezer is below zero and the fresh food compartment is in the 30 degree range.....and it will pretty much stay that way as long as you have enough battery for it to run....or your plugged into shore power and the converter/charger is supplying the 12VDC to keep the battery charge. I love mine and my only regret is that I didn't do it sooner. The cost for mine was aprox. $1800, and that included the purchase of the conversion unit, THEM installing it, and THEM disposing of the old absorption equipment that they took off of my fridge. Another nice thing was the fact that it fit right back into the same cubicle, since it was/is the same fridge. No modifications of the trim or cubicle, the same mounting brackets were used, and it looks exactly the same as before the mod....except for the rear of the unit! LOL!

If you are interested, here is a link to my write up about the JC Refrigeration mod that I had done to mine....
https://www.mygrandrv.com/forum/show...d-Working-Well

**Soundsailor** · 01-22-2023, 10:10 AM

Not really on topic, but just a statement that we really love our 12-volt refrigerator. Much more stable than the propane/electric one we had on our old pull-behind. The temperatures are even throughout the interior, the freezer keeps things frozen, and it works as well as the one in our kitchen at home. We did upgrade our battery system to support it when off-grid.