Re: Which Residental Fridge would You Recommend?

[robert.lewis.tl@gmail.com]

'I would appreciate the advice, experience and recommendations from this group for the replacement of our Norcold 1200 with a residentiai fridge. I think the power efficiency has improved and it should be possible to run with the house batteries and an upgraded solar system. we don't plan a lot of extensive boondocking but would add additional solar it needed.

Robert and Bev Lewis
2000 Safari Continental, since 2017
3126B Cat, 330hp
MD3060 Allison

https://safaritoonces.org'

[dan krupicka]

' I have a whirlpool 14.6 cu ft top freezer bottom fridge which fit thru the side window without removing the frame..$450 at Lowes 2 years ago..Love it...I can have solid ice cream now..
Dan 99 continental 4006

From: Safarifriends@yahoogroups.com on behalf of robert.lewis.tl@... [Safarifriends]
Sent: Wednesday, August 7, 2019 9:34 AM
To: Safarifriends@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Safarifriends] Which Residental Fridge would You Recommend?     I would appreciate the advice, experience and recommendations from this group for the replacement of our Norcold 1200 with a residentiai fridge. I think the power efficiency has improved and it should be possible to run with the house batteries and an upgraded solar system. we don't plan a lot of extensive boondocking but would add additional solar it needed.

Robert and Bev Lewis
2000 Safari Continental, since 2017
3126B Cat, 330hp
MD3060 Allison

https://safaritoonces.org
'

[babygreatlakes]

'If your plan is to run your refrigerator on 12 volts through the inverter, be conscious of the power drain. Though the refrigerator may state it only draws 1.4 amps, that's at 120 volts. That will equate to 14+ amps inverted at the batteries. I say 14+ amps because ther 14 amps from the refrigerator plus additional loss in both the wiring and the inverter. 
I have a "Kill a watt" meter that I plug onto the outlet then load it with the appliances I plan to run on ot. I leave it operating for 24 hours then come  back to see what my actual power consumption has been. I needed to know what my draw would be because I had the need to have several medical devices running through the night. The loss of any on would have been life threatening. It can be quiet an eye opener to find out what you are actually drawing. 
Remember Watts Law when looking at power usage:Volts * Amps = Watts
Watts / Amps = VoltsWatts / Volts = Watts

95 Serengeti 38' Magnum mid entry.Allison 6 speedCumins 8.3CMarc in Renton WA'

[astrnmrtom]

'Attachments :I chose a 16.9 cf Fisher & Paykel double door model with bottom freezer drawer, because it would go in the front door after taking the doors off and the passenger seat out, and it fit in the existing cabinet with only a simple modification. I lowered the cabinet floor mostly because I wanted to get the refrigerator as low as possible so my wife could reach the back of the top shelves. Since my Serengeti has Hurricane heat, the only thing below the cabinet floor was a heat coil and it was on a 3" riser. I removed the riser and placed the register on 3/4" blocks and the "new" cabinet floor was lowered to about 2" above that for airflow to the register fan.
I sealed up the roof vent with plywood in the inside, left the cover in place and sealed the inside of the bottom vent with reflectix and aluminum tape. I left the cover off the compressor compartment so I could access the coils for cleaning by removing the lower vent cover.
I painted the interior of the cabinet black and made new grates for the top and bottom. There's a 1" gap on each side but with the black cabinet interior you don't even notice it. This and a top vented trim piece provides plenty of air circulation.
I removed the wheels and leveling feet, purchased bolts to thread into where the leveling feet were and drilled holes in the floor under where the feet were and ran bolts with washers up into the threaded feet holes.  At the top I had screwed plumber's strapping into the upper cabinet and once in place removed the hinge trim on the refrigerator and removed one screw from the hinge and added a washer and ran the screw through the strapping. The new refrigerator is in there more securely than the old Norcold.
FYI, unfortunately the Fisher & Paykel was the best fit but also the most costly by far. I lucked out and found one in Lowe's scratch/dent/return section. The only thing wrong was one of the wheels was broken (I removed the wheels anyway). It was a special order return and they'd marked it down from $2100 to $800! We'd been saving up to purchase one new and when I saw the price tag, I threw my arms around it and guarded it like a hungry dog with a bone until my wife could find a sales person to confirm the price wasn't a mistake.

One important thing to note about these three door Fisher & PayKel refrigerator is the crisper bins sit in a full width pull out drawer that has a lip. You must open BOTH main doors to pull out this drawer to get stuff out of the crisper bins because you have to pull out the drawer to reach inside. Also this model, and the one with ice maker and water in the door will NOT fit a gallon jug of milk in the door.
One nice feature is the shelves can be adjusted in 1" increments. For shipping each shelf had a pair of soft rubber like disks wedged between the shelf sides and the slots. Normally these would be discarded but I kept them and leave them in place as added insurance against the shelves moving or rattling. They work great!
These refrigerators use DC compressors with a built in inverter so they run just fine on a modified sine wave inverter. I can barely hear it run and it draws about 1-1/2 amps @110v. I've since swapped out the old Heart 20d inverter for a pure sine wave inverter. I'm running 600 watts of solar and there no problem so far with running it off the inverter overnight and getting a full charge during the day. This is on 4-12v "deep cycle" batteries that have seen better days. Winter may require some generator time but hey, this was well worth the work.
My original Norcold still worked and I was able to sell it for $300 to a guy who lives off grid, so the whole swap wasn't much over $500 and a few days work. I had to take the doors and cooling unit off the Norcold to get it out the door - and almost got it stuck half way through the door at one point, but paused, thought it through, made an adjustment and out it went - phew! Two silver haired seniors - my wife and I - were able to get the new one up the steps and in the door - me pulling up on the dolly, and my wife pushing from the bottom. I had to lay it almost flat on the floor to clear the dash and TV cabinet. It wasn't super easy, but we made it. 
Attached are pictures of the lowered floor - with my 7 year old supervisor for scale, and a photo of the finished installation.

Tom Masterson1998 Serengeti 3706300hp Cat, Allison 3060
'

[W Taylor Hudson]

'Great job Tom!  Also great to know the new inverter drive Asian compressors are comparable with out classic Heart inverters. We should expect they would as are inverters are feeding a DC rectifier in the fridge inverters.  You are out ahead of most of us. Happy Motoring!v/r, Taylor Hudson‘98 Serengeti (4060), CAT 3126acquired 2018

On Thu, Aug 8, 2019 at 11:38 PM astrnmrtom@... [Safarifriends] wrote:
 
I chose a 16.9 cf Fisher & Paykel double door model with bottom freezer drawer, because it would go in the front door after taking the doors off and the passenger seat out, and it fit in the existing cabinet with only a simple modification. I lowered the cabinet floor mostly because I wanted to get the refrigerator as low as possible so my wife could reach the back of the top shelves. Since my Serengeti has Hurricane heat, the only thing below the cabinet floor was a heat coil and it was on a 3" riser. I removed the riser and placed the register on 3/4" blocks and the "new" cabinet floor was lowered to about 2" above that for airflow to the register fan.
I sealed up the roof vent with plywood in the inside, left the cover in place and sealed the inside of the bottom vent with reflectix and aluminum tape. I left the cover off the compressor compartment so I could access the coils for cleaning by removing the lower vent cover.
I painted the interior of the cabinet black and made new grates for the top and bottom. There's a 1" gap on each side but with the black cabinet interior you don't even notice it. This and a top vented trim piece provides plenty of air circulation.
I removed the wheels and leveling feet, purchased bolts to thread into where the leveling feet were and drilled holes in the floor under where the feet were and ran bolts with washers up into the threaded feet holes.  At the top I had screwed plumber's strapping into the upper cabinet and once in place removed the hinge trim on the refrigerator and removed one screw from the hinge and added a washer and ran the screw through the strapping. The new refrigerator is in there more securely than the old Norcold.
FYI, unfortunately the Fisher & Paykel was the best fit but also the most costly by far. I lucked out and found one in Lowe's scratch/dent/return section. The only thing wrong was one of the wheels was broken (I removed the wheels anyway). It was a special order return and they'd marked it down from $2100 to $800! We'd been saving up to purchase one new and when I saw the price tag, I threw my arms around it and guarded it like a hungry dog with a bone until my wife could find a sales person to confirm the price wasn't a mistake.

One important thing to note about these three door Fisher & PayKel refrigerator is the crisper bins sit in a full width pull out drawer that has a lip. You must open BOTH main doors to pull out this drawer to get stuff out of the crisper bins because you have to pull out the drawer to reach inside. Also this model, and the one with ice maker and water in the door will NOT fit a gallon jug of milk in the door.
One nice feature is the shelves can be adjusted in 1" increments. For shipping each shelf had a pair of soft rubber like disks wedged between the shelf sides and the slots. Normally these would be discarded but I kept them and leave them in place as added insurance against the shelves moving or rattling. They work great!
These refrigerators use DC compressors with a built in inverter so they run just fine on a modified sine wave inverter. I can barely hear it run and it draws about 1-1/2 amps @110v. I've since swapped out the old Heart 20d inverter for a pure sine wave inverter. I'm running 600 watts of solar and there no problem so far with running it off the inverter overnight and getting a full charge during the day. This is on 4-12v "deep cycle" batteries that have seen better days. Winter may require some generator time but hey, this was well worth the work.
My original Norcold still worked and I was able to sell it for $300 to a guy who lives off grid, so the whole swap wasn't much over $500 and a few days work. I had to take the doors and cooling unit off the Norcold to get it out the door - and almost got it stuck half way through the door at one point, but paused, thought it through, made an adjustment and out it went - phew! Two silver haired seniors - my wife and I - were able to get the new one up the steps and in the door - me pulling up on the dolly, and my wife pushing from the bottom. I had to lay it almost flat on the floor to clear the dash and TV cabinet. It wasn't super easy, but we made it. 
Attached are pictures of the lowered floor - with my 7 year old supervisor for scale, and a photo of the finished installation.

Tom Masterson1998 Serengeti 3706300hp Cat, Allison 3060

'

[Bilmac36]

'Robert, Was glad to see your question as I think I will need this information sooner than later.Have enjoyed reading the various replies and learning what others have done.Tom, have to agree with Taylor. And definitely understand hugging and guarding it like a dog his bone! 
Y’all enjoy!Y’all Willie, Connie is ‘95 Continental, 8.3L, Ally 6spd 

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 9, 2019, at 6:52 AM, W Taylor Hudson fpengr@... [Safarifriends] wrote:

 
Great job Tom!  Also great to know the new inverter drive Asian compressors are comparable with out classic Heart inverters. We should expect they would as are inverters are feeding a DC rectifier in the fridge inverters.  You are out ahead of most of us. Happy Motoring!v/r, Taylor Hudson‘98 Serengeti (4060), CAT 3126acquired 2018

On Thu, Aug 8, 2019 at 11:38 PM astrnmrtom@... [Safarifriends] wrote:
 
I chose a 16.9 cf Fisher & Paykel double door model with bottom freezer drawer, because it would go in the front door after taking the doors off and the passenger seat out, and it fit in the existing cabinet with only a simple modification. I lowered the cabinet floor mostly because I wanted to get the refrigerator as low as possible so my wife could reach the back of the top shelves. Since my Serengeti has Hurricane heat, the only thing below the cabinet floor was a heat coil and it was on a 3" riser. I removed the riser and placed the register on 3/4" blocks and the "new" cabinet floor was lowered to about 2" above that for airflow to the register fan.
I sealed up the roof vent with plywood in the inside, left the cover in place and sealed the inside of the bottom vent with reflectix and aluminum tape. I left the cover off the compressor compartment so I could access the coils for cleaning by removing the lower vent cover.
I painted the interior of the cabinet black and made new grates for the top and bottom. There's a 1" gap on each side but with the black cabinet interior you don't even notice it. This and a top vented trim piece provides plenty of air circulation.
I removed the wheels and leveling feet, purchased bolts to thread into where the leveling feet were and drilled holes in the floor under where the feet were and ran bolts with washers up into the threaded feet holes.  At the top I had screwed plumber's strapping into the upper cabinet and once in place removed the hinge trim on the refrigerator and removed one screw from the hinge and added a washer and ran the screw through the strapping. The new refrigerator is in there more securely than the old Norcold.
FYI, unfortunately the Fisher & Paykel was the best fit but also the most costly by far.. I lucked out and found one in Lowe's scratch/dent/return section. The only thing wrong was one of the wheels was broken (I removed the wheels anyway). It was a special order return and they'd marked it down from $2100 to $800! We'd been saving up to purchase one new and when I saw the price tag, I threw my arms around it and guarded it like a hungry dog with a bone until my wife could find a sales person to confirm the price wasn't a mistake.

One important thing to note about these three door Fisher & PayKel refrigerator is the crisper bins sit in a full width pull out drawer that has a lip. You must open BOTH main doors to pull out this drawer to get stuff out of the crisper bins because you have to pull out the drawer to reach inside. Also this model, and the one with ice maker and water in the door will NOT fit a gallon jug of milk in the door.
One nice feature is the shelves can be adjusted in 1" increments. For shipping each shelf had a pair of soft rubber like disks wedged between the shelf sides and the slots. Normally these would be discarded but I kept them and leave them in place as added insurance against the shelves moving or rattling. They work great!
These refrigerators use DC compressors with a built in inverter so they run just fine on a modified sine wave inverter. I can barely hear it run and it draws about 1-1/2 amps @110v. I've since swapped out the old Heart 20d inverter for a pure sine wave inverter. I'm running 600 watts of solar and there no problem so far with running it off the inverter overnight and getting a full charge during the day. This is on 4-12v "deep cycle" batteries that have seen better days. Winter may require some generator time but hey, this was well worth the work.
My original Norcold still worked and I was able to sell it for $300 to a guy who lives off grid, so the whole swap wasn't much over $500 and a few days work. I had to take the doors and cooling unit off the Norcold to get it out the door - and almost got it stuck half way through the door at one point, but paused, thought it through, made an adjustment and out it went - phew! Two silver haired seniors - my wife and I - were able to get the new one up the steps and in the door - me pulling up on the dolly, and my wife pushing from the bottom. I had to lay it almost flat on the floor to clear the dash and TV cabinet. It wasn't super easy, but we made it. 
Attached are pictures of the lowered floor - with my 7 year old supervisor for scale, and a photo of the finished installation.

Tom Masterson1998 Serengeti 3706300hp Cat, Allison 3060


'

[Robert Lewis]

' Thank you Tom and all those that have helped with the advice and replies.
I came across a youtube last night on "where RV's go to die". With no intention to resurrect the Last stand of the NorCold Alamo, I am more convinced than ever the absorbsion fridge design is fatally flawed. According to the people @ VisonRV 95% of the writeoffs are fridges and front tire failures. My front tires are 7 years old this year, so I think they are second on the list as well.
I can do all the updates/upgrades or accept that wrong is still wrong even with a bit of right added. The Titanic is still the Titanic whether at the bottom of the ocean or taking on passengers. "Just saying, know what I'm saying ", (Breaking Bad)
Robert and Bev Lewis2000 Safari Continental, since 20173126B Cat, 330hpMD3060 Allison
https://safaritoonces.org

On August 8, 2019 8:38:45 PM "astrnmrtom@... [Safarifriends]" wrote:  
I chose a 16.9 cf Fisher & Paykel double door model with bottom freezer drawer, because it would go in the front door after taking the doors off and the passenger seat out, and it fit in the existing cabinet with only a simple modification. I lowered the cabinet floor mostly because I wanted to get the refrigerator as low as possible so my wife could reach the back of the top shelves. Since my Serengeti has Hurricane heat, the only thing below the cabinet floor was a heat coil and it was on a 3" riser. I removed the riser and placed the register on 3/4" blocks and the "new" cabinet floor was lowered to about 2" above that for airflow to the register fan.
I sealed up the roof vent with plywood in the inside, left the cover in place and sealed the inside of the bottom vent with reflectix and aluminum tape. I left the cover off the compressor compartment so I could access the coils for cleaning by removing the lower vent cover.
I painted the interior of the cabinet black and made new grates for the top and bottom. There's a 1" gap on each side but with the black cabinet interior you don't even notice it. This and a top vented trim piece provides plenty of air circulation.
I removed the wheels and leveling feet, purchased bolts to thread into where the leveling feet were and drilled holes in the floor under where the feet were and ran bolts with washers up into the threaded feet holes.  At the top I had screwed plumber's strapping into the upper cabinet and once in place removed the hinge trim on the refrigerator and removed one screw from the hinge and added a washer and ran the screw through the strapping. The new refrigerator is in there more securely than the old Norcold.
FYI, unfortunately the Fisher & Paykel was the best fit but also the most costly by far. I lucked out and found one in Lowe's scratch/dent/return section. The only thing wrong was one of the wheels was broken (I removed the wheels anyway). It was a special order return and they'd marked it down from $2100 to $800! We'd been saving up to purchase one new and when I saw the price tag, I threw my arms around it and guarded it like a hungry dog with a bone until my wife could find a sales person to confirm the price wasn't a mistake.

One important thing to note about these three door Fisher & PayKel refrigerator is the crisper bins sit in a full width pull out drawer that has a lip. You must open BOTH main doors to pull out this drawer to get stuff out of the crisper bins because you have to pull out the drawer to reach inside. Also this model, and the one with ice maker and water in the door will NOT fit a gallon jug of milk in the door.
One nice feature is the shelves can be adjusted in 1" increments. For shipping each shelf had a pair of soft rubber like disks wedged between the shelf sides and the slots. Normally these would be discarded but I kept them and leave them in place as added insurance against the shelves moving or rattling. They work great!
These refrigerators use DC compressors with a built in inverter so they run just fine on a modified sine wave inverter. I can barely hear it run and it draws about 1-1/2 amps @110v. I've since swapped out the old Heart 20d inverter for a pure sine wave inverter. I'm running 600 watts of solar and there no problem so far with running it off the inverter overnight and getting a full charge during the day. This is on 4-12v "deep cycle" batteries that have seen better days. Winter may require some generator time but hey, this was well worth the work.
My original Norcold still worked and I was able to sell it for $300 to a guy who lives off grid, so the whole swap wasn't much over $500 and a few days work. I had to take the doors and cooling unit off the Norcold to get it out the door - and almost got it stuck half way through the door at one point, but paused, thought it through, made an adjustment and out it went - phew! Two silver haired seniors - my wife and I - were able to get the new one up the steps and in the door - me pulling up on the dolly, and my wife pushing from the bottom. I had to lay it almost flat on the floor to clear the dash and TV cabinet. It wasn't super easy, but we made it. 
Attached are pictures of the lowered floor - with my 7 year old supervisor for scale, and a photo of the finished installation.

Tom Masterson1998 Serengeti 3706300hp Cat, Allison 3060

'