Refrigerator

[sundancev]

We are bonafide newbies. Been full timing since August 2010 and have spent winter in South Florida where we have lived most of our life. We are getting ready to start long trip to NE and Eastern Canada with hope to reach Victoria BC and return to South Florida by mid October.

We bought our motor home used 48K miles and have found it to be splendid albeit with a rapid learning curve. We have a 2004 39' Fleetwood Providence with double door Dometic 1292 refrigerator. We seem to have to defrost very often i.e. every week or two weeks. For several days after defrosting we find water pooled underneath at front of refrigerator. I pulled the lower vent cover from the outside of our motor home and found water puddled at the rear in and around the small metal square boxes that appear to be designed to catch water. I read Dometic manual instructions concerning the CLC button in high temps and high humidity. Since we are in Ft. Lauderdale and it has been warm we turned on the CLC and found in a day or so the water at rear of refrigerator had in fact dried. Two days later the water is back and freezer is heavily frosted. We checked the drain at bottom of freezer and middle of refrigerator by pouring water in drains to determine if the in fact drain was plugged (hence causing water to backup) or not and both drained. I read the info about plugging the drains to keep warm air from coming in via those points but I am not sure of the method used to plug and what other problems might arise because the drains are plugged.

I have also read with considerable interest the discussions about using a conventional RR refrigerator. We have a Freedom 458 series Inverter rated at 2000 watts continuous and from manual read it is a modified sine wave. The Fleetwood Owners manual indicates the inverter can be used to specifically power TV, lights, microwave and other appliances (unnamed), but specifically excluding air conditioners. Since the 1200 watt GE Microwave can be used from inverter power, I wonder if the refrigerator cannot also be powered by the Inverter. Our 350 HP Cummins reportedly has a 160 amp Alternator which would seem to provide substantial replacement amps to the batteries while we are driving. From other discussion threads, it appears "modified sine waves" are not looked upon favorably and wonder if that is true in our case. Any thoughts/advice readers may have on the numerous questions above is appreciated.

[wolfe10]

Welcome to the FMCA Forum.

Indeed, the intrusion of warm/humid air is the cause of your frosting/need to frequently defrost.

Check three places. Do the "dollar bill test" all around the door gaskets-- you are looking for firm resistance to pulling the bill out when the door is closed on the bill. The other place is the condensate drain. There should be a factory restrictor (either a plastic insert in the outside end of the hose or a crimped area of the hose. You can also use zip ties to make the drain form a "drip loop" so there is a water trap to exclude warm outside air from "rising" into the refrigerator. Also, check where any lines or wires enter the freezer unit from the back-- sometimes the putty falls out leaving an air gap.

Different residential refrigerators have differing sensitivity to MSW inverters. Some will work fine on them, others will work poorly or shorten their life. Best advice is to check with the refrigerator manufacturer.

As to whether a residential refrigerator would be a good solution for you has more to do with how often you are not plugged in to shore power than whether your alternator/inverter can keep up with the additional load while on the road. If you are not on shore power, you will need a large battery bank, large/high amp charger, lots of extra generator run time, etc.

Brett

[Guest BillAdams]

I lost a long post about my using a RR in my coach with your same inverter/charger. Works fine but does require some changes to your camping habits. If you would like information drop me a line and I will see if I can regurgitate the info I tried to post and lost.

[sundancev]

Brett, thanks so much for prompt response. We have 4 200AH gel batteries with 160 AMP Alternator. Since posting I also talked to Fleetwood. They think the present Dometric 1292 should work fine with the 2,000 Watt Freedom Inverter installed with the coach. That being said, they also think the LP Gas use in this unit is designed to work very well assuming burner is cleaned etc. They suggested most any RV dealer can properly check the burners etc. After reading some of the other forum postings and your helpful comments, I tried the $20 bill test and did not find noticeable problem anywhere. The previous owner of this motorhome had let it sit in a warehouse for a year prior to selling to us. It was covered up with spiders and dirt dobbers. The techie at Lazy Days said it took him an hour to clean out all the dobber nests in the gas appliances (hot water heater, refrigerator, furnace). I found some more build up in the little metal pans in the area where all the drains go through the floor to vent.

I am going to put a loop in the drain water line and see if that helps. I am also going to have a complete check of all LP Gas lines, fittings etc. before we start our 6 month whirlwind trip north and west next month.

If we can use LP Gas for refrigerator while moving from town to town that will be much better than running our generator for only the that appliance. I may try to switch the wiring for the plug to an inverter circuit also since the Fleetwood tech suggested no reason it would not work dependent on what other load might be in place at the time.

[wolfe10]

Yes, a properly functioning LP powered refrigerator is the normal way to travel with an absorption refrigerator.

A complete "burner area tune-up" is part of the refrigerator's required annual maintenance-- should be a description in the refrigerator owners manual. No special tools and no parts are needed.

From an energy stand point it makes much better sense to burn a small propane flame to produce the heat needed to run the refrigerator rather than to burn diesel in the engine (not efficient) to have the alternator produce extra 12 VDC (not efficient) to run an inverter (not efficient) to power an electric heating element!

Running a generator just to power the refrigerator would be even more power inefficient, and over time would carbon up the generator from running at too light a load.

Brett