Norcold

[kingofmonaco]

My norcold refridgerator just died after 12 great years of service . I can smell faint amonia but see no evidence of leaking yellow liquid like most do. I unpluged the unit and purchase a small fridge to get by on since we are in the middle of our eastern Canada vacation. My question is do I go residential or replace the coil with the new Amish type coil. One thing is we find ourselves doing a lot of boondocking and we use propane side of the Norcold often. If you  all could give me your opinions and  models of residential fridges that would fit into a Monaco Windsor 2002 would be much appreciated.

[hermanmullins]

I don't normally recommend a gas absorption unit, but in your case that would be, IMHO, the best option. 

I have a Samsung RF-18 in our Dynasty. But in your case, with your heater below the refrigerator I wouldn't know which residential would fit.

Herman 

[richard5933]

Depending on the actual size you need and the capacity of your battery bank, there are refrigerators made that will run on both 12vdc and 120vac. That's what we use in our coach, and when I search for a replacement recently I found that there are still a few made by Norcold that can replace many of their LP units. We went with a Vitrifrigo since they were the only ones making a unit to fit into the cabinetry, but there are at least a few companies making these right now.

A good 12vdc fridge uses a compressor instead of the absorption unit, and will sip electricity at around 3 amps or less. Even some of the larger ones only use about 5 amps. They cool well and if the one we're replacing after 44 years is any indication they are reliable.

Might be an option if you want to avoid the danger of the LP fridge.

[manholt]

There has been several years of writing about Norcold on  this Forum.  Replacement with a Residental is rely the best way to go.

What size and type, is your inverter/converter and is your furnace located under your current fridge?  Most have gone with a Samsung.  You will need a couple of extra batteries.

Richard has a good thought...but, expensive and small...mostly used today in Marine application!

[desertdeals69]

I replaced my rv Dometic with a residential from Best Buy.  I have a furnace under so it needed to be no higher than 60 inches.  I picked a 10+ cu ft Insignia with freezer on the bottom.  It is only 24 in wide so I had 8 in to build a slide out pantry.  The fridge was on sale for $299 and I bought the extended warranty to 5 years for $100.  There is more room inside it than the old fridge.  Been on the road for almost 2 months and it is working fine.  Don't have to worry about being perfectly level.

Will be in Gillette so if anyone wants to see it.

 

[kingofmonaco]

I do have the furnace under the fridge I have a 2000 watt inverter with 4  6volt batteries

[thezafts]

Some residential refers need pure sign wave inverter, some will run on cheaper modified sign wave inverter.

if a small residential like 10.7 cf Whirlpool, it should run on MSW inverter, mine does, and takes about 100 ah for overnight.  Your 4 GC batteries will supply that at 50% stare of charge. Now they need to be changed by solar, generator or driving.  Assumed no shore power. If you are connected to shore power most of the time, residential is much less expensive way, unless you need major cabinet work.

You need to shop for what will fit in your space. For my install I just had to trim off 1/2” on both sides.

[desertdeals69]

25 minutes ago, thezafts said:

Some residential refers need pure sign wave inverter, some will run on cheaper modified sign wave inverter.

if a small residential like 10.7 cf Whirlpool, it should run on MSW inverter, mine does, and takes about 100 ah for overnight.  Your 4 GC batteries will supply that at 50% stare of charge. Now they need to be changed by solar, generator or driving.  Assumed no shore power. If you are connected to shore power most of the time, residential is much less expensive way, unless you need major cabinet work.

You need to shop for what will fit in your space. For my install I just had to trim off 1/2” on both sides.

I chose the Insignia because the freezer is on the bottom and the fridge is at eye level.  It draws 1.7 amps on 120v.  I have a PSW Xantrax 3K watt with 6 AGM 6 volts.  800 watts of solar on the roof with a 40 amp MPPT controller.  Like I said earlier I will be in Gillette if anyone wants to see it.

[richard5933]

46 minutes ago, desertdeals69 said:

I chose the Insignia because the freezer is on the bottom and the fridge is at eye level.  It draws 1.7 amps on 120v.  I have a PSW Xantrax 3K watt with 6 AGM 6 volts.  800 watts of solar on the roof with a 40 amp MPPT controller.  Like I said earlier I will be in Gillette if anyone wants to see it.

To produce that 1.7 amps at 120vac your inverter is consuming about 17 amps at 12vdc. That's over 200 watts. This is the part of the equation that pushed me to a 12vdc compressor fridge. It only consumes 2.6 amps at 12vdc, which is about 31 watts. Mine is a smaller fridge, but there are larger 12vdc units out there and I've yet to see one that consumed as much electricity as a residential fridge. Nova Kool has a 9 cu ft two-door (fridge over freezer) unit that only consumes .2 amps at 12vdc.

If one has a large enough battery bank to run the residential and a way to keep the batteries charged, then no problem. However, if the battery bank/inverter is not large enough or lots of dry camping is in the plans, then maybe there are better options than a residential fridge. All depends on how someone is planning to use their RV.

[desertdeals69]

10 minutes ago, richard5933 said:

To produce that 1.7 amps at 120vac your inverter is consuming about 17 amps at 12vdc. That's over 200 watts. This is the part of the equation that pushed me to a 12vdc compressor fridge. It only consumes 2.6 amps at 12vdc, which is about 31 watts. Mine is a smaller fridge, but there are larger 12vdc units out there and I've yet to see one that consumed as much electricity as a residential fridge. Nova Kool has a 9 cu ft two-door (fridge over freezer) unit that only consumes .2 amps at 12vdc.

If one has a large enough battery bank to run the residential and a way to keep the batteries charged, then no problem. However, if the battery bank/inverter is not large enough or lots of dry camping is in the plans, then maybe there are better options than a residential fridge. All depends on how someone is planning to use their RV.

The thing that reduces the consumption is that the refrigerator doesn't run all the time. After its cold it only comes on about once every 2 hours and for only a few minutes so the consumption is not that bad.  After I installed it I ran it for over 2 days in my garage, where there is no sunlight, before the batteries needed recharging. If I'm dry camping and need to conserve power I switch off the ac to all the electronics as they draw almost as much current when turned off as turned on.  I'm glad your happy with your setup, I'm happy with mine. 

[richard5933]

3 hours ago, desertdeals69 said:

The thing that reduces the consumption is that the refrigerator doesn't run all the time. After its cold it only comes on about once every 2 hours and for only a few minutes so the consumption is not that bad.  After I installed it I ran it for over 2 days in my garage, where there is no sunlight, before the batteries needed recharging. If I'm dry camping and need to conserve power I switch off the ac to all the electronics as they draw almost as much current when turned off as turned on.  I'm glad your happy with your setup, I'm happy with mine. 

I'm assuming that whether 12v or 120v, any well insulated refrigerator will cycle on & off like that. Of course, as the temps go up inside the coach the more it will cycle. If you're going to be at Gillette I'd love to see how you have things set up and compare notes.

[manholt]

Richard.  DD69 will be in Gillette and likely, he will drop by Hermans coach the 19th for an informal meet/greet, for forum members.  I will also be there!  Comparing notes is what we do!  

[kaypsmith]

Here is a link on solar (12 volt) reefers back in 2016.

And if one wants to use an AC refrigerator these days, inverter technology is the best way to go for sipping electricity.

[richard5933]

Looking forward to it.

If all goes well we'll have our new Vitrifrigo installed by the time we leave for WY. Of course, that's if I can find a good way to reduce the opening size by about 1" left and right.

Then we can compare and contract the various ways of keeping beer cold.

[manholt]

Beer & Ice cream!  One cold, one frozen!  You can always go out to eat.

[kingofmonaco]

Thank you everyone for your input. After weighing all the pros and cons I went with the Amish helium charged coil replacement. I installed the unit myself and all is working great . Again thanks for all the info you provided.