Fridge

[kelpie]

My RV fridge quit on me again and it is the original to the rig (12 years old) so I am afraid it may need to be replaced. A full timer I met at a cg told me that she bought a regular, household type fridge at Sam's after measuring the space carefully, and just slid it in. Household one are sooooo much cheaper so I'm very tempted by this option. I need to know the pros and cons if any of you have done this. I know one "con" would be that it would no longer work on propane, but I'm pretty sure I have never used mine on propane since I had it so don't think that would be big issue.

[Acadianmom]

Sorry to hear you are having fridge problems. If you decide to have the fridge taken out I would have someone that knows what they are doing close off the propane line to the fridge. I did this in a trailer used as a camp. That worked out well but the trailer never moved so don't know how one would hold up going down the road.

There is an RV repair place, Billy Thibodeau's Premiere RV(www.billyt.com) in Scott, LA that puts in house refrigerators. I know that would be too far from you but their web site talks about replacing rv refrigerators. I have used them for other things and recommend their work. Maybe they can answer some of your questions.

I never run my refrigerator on propane so if mine went out I would check into replacing it with a house one. You would have to secure it some way so that it wouldn't fall out of the cabinet.

Martha

[carold]

Mine switches to propane when traveling or boondocking. carold

[cpatinjones]

There is an RV repair place, Billy Thibodeau's Premiere RV(www.billyt.com) in Scott, LA that puts in house refrigerators. I know that would be too far from you but their web site talks about replacing rv refrigerators. I have used them for other things and recommend their work. Maybe they can answer some of your questions.

Martha, I will bookmark BillyTs site. Always good to have another RV place to get work done that is recommended.

[Bethers]

How do you keep things cold when traveling? Do you not let it switch to propane? It's not good for the food or fridge in the hot weather to let it get hot and have to start from scratch again. Just sayin'. And with temps what they've been this summer, that poor fridge would have had a hard time keeping up.

But do have it checked before you decide it needs to be replaced. Might be something fairly simple. Also think of resale value if you think you might sell/trade-in this rv. It would have no value to the greater percentage of people if it didn't have a fridge that would work on propane.

That said, if you really never use it on propane and never intend to - and don't intend to sell it anytime soon, you could consider a standard fridge. I know in my rig, the cabinet would have to be rebuilt - might cost a couple hundred dollars to do - so add in all the costs, before deciding. Then do what would be best for you.

[retiredhappy]

I just had to replace the 13 year old frig in my rig. It orginally had a three-way but I replaced with a two-way that automatically switches from electric to LP. I drive with the propane on to keep the frig cool. I'm with Beth, its much harder on the frig to let stuff get warm and need to cool down. I do turn off the frig when I get gas but other than that, I want my stuff to stay cool. I boondock whenever I can and want the frig on LP. I guess a house frig would be okay if you never boondock and always have electric.

[Pooker]

I would just wonder about the travel ability of a household refrigerator. RV ones are designed to go bouncing down the road, but regular ones? Not sure. Of course, if someone was only going to stay permanently in place it would be totally a different story.

I rarely drive with my propane on. First of all, I would forget to turn the fridge and propane off when I gassed up - or forget to turn them back on when I finished. I'm not sure if the laws regarding this are the same in every state either. I've seen 4 or 5 RV's totaled by fire over the years and I'm nervous about providing the additional fuel for a fire. Unless it is extremely hot and humid I don't have a problem with anything spoiling. Back in the early tenting days we used coolers with ice. The food had to last in the cooler. My fridge is a giant cooler. If the inside is cold and the freezer food frozen, it will keep quite a few hours IF YOU DON'T KEEP OPENING THE DOOR! I freeze two of those blue icees. When I turn off the fridge, I put one in the freezer and the other in the fridge. I'm good even after 6 or 7 hours.

There are quite a few new RVs that are all electric. I'm thinking the electric fridges are still RV ones and not the same as household ones. Might be a good idea to ask? Perhaps there's a good reason.

I'm really interested in this, too, because my fridge hasn't been right lately. Went camping this week and the fridge part was in the highest point of the "safe zone" on the thermometer. Had the setting on max. However, it was 107 degrees and felt humid, so that may be the reason. All RV refrigerators have a problem when it's hot & humid. I have a little portable fan to circulate the air, but wouldn't you just know it had died. We had a fan installed in the fridge back (outside) in one of our previous rigs and that worked well when it was too hot out. Also, best if you can get the back panel in shade, too. I just had mine fixed a year ago because it wasn't keeping cold, but it was blinking the codes. My owner's manual says the codes can only be reset once! What's with that?

Pooker

[carold]

I've never turned off my propane while gassing up. We've turned it off at a few tunnels when required. carold

[Acadianmom]

I also worry about a fire. I keep some of the blue ice in the freezer and just transfer some to the refrigerator when I'm traveling. If it's really hot I will freeze a large container of ice at home and put it in the refrigerator. I travel with an ice chest in case I have a problem and put drinks in there so we don't have to keep opening the refrigerator door. I have a thermometer in the refrigerator and freezer that I watch to make sure it doesn't get too warm. If I planned on doing any boondocking it might be different but I like electricity a lot.

Martha

[Sandersmr]

My refrigerator is so small, I don't really have room for extras like blue ice. I keep it on propane when traveling and since it's a trailer that's far enough from where I'm gassing, I don't worry too much about turning it off. I do carry a cooler a lot of times filled with drinks, and at Thanksgiving we put the ham in the cooler since it wouldn't fit in my fridge - but then I have to worry about ice. With drinks, it's not so critical.

[dpf]

Ahhh…something else that I can give insight. The refrigerator in our previous TT died. At the time we knew that we were looking different RV in a year or so and also knew that the additional cost of a new RV refrigerator would not be recouped in the sale of a 1987 TT. We placed it with an Avanti 6.1 apartment size refrigerator/freezer. I don’t believe they make that model anymore but they do make a 7.5 cf that would actually fit in the space better. In fact we had trouble finding a dealer who had one in stock. Dealers kept telling us that everyone was buying them to replace RV refrigerators.

Were we happy with it? Yes. Especially the difference in price! But there were issues that had to be worked around. First off the electrical outlet that the old refrigerator was plugged in did not supply enough power for the household refrigerator because RV refrigerators do not have the same type of compressor. The freezer would get to 0* but the refrigerator part would only go down to about 55-60. So it was necessary to run an extension cord straight from the refrigerator to the 110 outlet on the pole when camping. We never traveled far with it, but I do know that after 3-4 hours that the temp in the refrigerator had not dropped at all. When parked it didn’t seem to have a much trouble maintaining a temperature in hot weather as an RV refrigerator. It had more room than the original refrigerator. Also you have to make sure that you have a method of keeping the doors closed during travel…discovered that after the first trip! DH suggestion was duct tape… We put eye bolts in the woodwork and used a heavy duty bungee straps in front of both doors to keep them closed. Our friends who bought the TT attached latches with epoxy glue and it works great…I had never thought of that! Duh.

[Acadianmom]

Yep, a door lock would be most important. The refrigerator at the camp is a Danby. I have read good and bad reviews about them. This one has been there at least 5 years and is only used for about 6 or 8 weekends a year. We turn it on when we get there and it's cold enough for food in a couple of hours. It must get enough electricity because we have never had a problem with it. Clean it out and leave the door open a crack when we leave. The only thing I don't like is there is only one outside door so the freezer compartment freezes up pretty fast if it is humid and the door is opened a lot. I would definitely get one with a freezer door. I don't know the size but it holds more than the RV refrigerator it replaced.

Martha

[Bethers]

The rv's I know of that have only electric are of two sorts - park model rv's that aren't meant to travel, and then some that are meant to travel, but the people usually go down the road with their generator running (for the fridge, ac and/or heat, etc). Those fridges are built to withstand the bouncing, etc. And most important - as much as I say leveling and the fridge aren't real important, it's my understanding with a standard fridge it is more important. So something else to consider.

I don't turn my fridge off to get gas. I do turn it off to fill the gas, and for some tunnels and ferries.

Many, many days I travel more than 3-4 hours - especially with a break for sightseeing or lunch. So even if I wasn't a boondocker - I would be losing way too much food due to bad temps - and possibly causing food poisoning because of foods spending too much time in the danger zone and spoiling - even without my being aware.

[retiredhappy]

My trick for remembering to turn the fridge off and then back on is one of those hair clips. When I stop for gas i turn off the frig and put the hair clip on my shirt. If I start to drive off I feel the clip when I put on my seat belt and VOILA , get up and turn frig back on. I also use a clip that I keep on my sunvisor for the emergency brake. When I stop for a break and put the clip on the steering wheel if I set the brake.

As we get older it takes all kinds of tricks to help our memory.

[kelpie]

Thanks, all. You've given me lots to think about and check on. There is a cabinet underneath the fridge so I thought possibly that could be cut out and a small apartment size one could be slid in there and then some part of cabinet replaced at bottom to keep it from sliding. I wonder if one of those kid proof locks would work to keep it closed? Another two questions is how to plug it in since the current one is wired directly in somehow and also about the fan to keep it from overheating. I don't have any issue with my food not staying cool when it worked. Once it gets cold the first night out, it pretty much stays cold during the day even if I open once or twice. Until this year I hadn't done much lengthy travel in hot weather though but even that didn't seem to create any problems. I'll keep you posted as I explore it further. I need to earn some cash first before I can even take her in to be checked. The a/c is out also and the water heater isn't working properly so it will probably be an expensive visit..