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We like the external ice and water dispensers, and AFAIK, the residential fridges have more capacity. I also believe they do a better job of cooling (and freezing). We have not had an issue with excess heat. For us it had nothing to do with sales hype. But I guess my point was that they work very well for many people. I understand you do not like them, but for those of us that will most likely never boondock, they are nice to have. I don't feel that things are as dire as you project, but I suppose that still remains to be seen.
FWIW, I've noticed that Haylett RV almost always equips their RVs with RV fridges, so I'm sure there are others that do the same. You should be able to find what you're looking for.
That math is 120V I think. Through the inverter the DC draw is going to be closer to 70 amps, but it does not run constantly. I looked into running a larger charging wire from the truck into my fifth wheel but decided to go the solar route instead.
I have an Victron unit tied into my batteries and know exactly what the draw is . . .
That's the key. Folks that are always at a camping spot with hookups are great candidates for a residential model refrigerator. Those of us that do mostly boondocking will want the traditional RV refrigerator that doesn't need 120 vac.
I just want to know what special properties they have. You can get ice makers in RV fridges, so thats not it. The residential unit is nothing more than a way to make manufactuing cheaper/ easier for the builder. It causes the owner to be tethered to a 120VAC source and unnecessarily heats the interior of the coach. If it suits your needs, that's great. A lot of newer owners have been talked into it being told it's just the way the industry's going, and hyped by the sales force as the newest greatest thing. Now they're realizing the limitations. Last weekend we were trailer shopping and had two salespeople at different lots tell me they're now getting a lot of blow-back on the resis and opt out whenever possible. I did discover Keystone is still keeping it optional on the upper end trailers. I was really interested in some if the upper echelon products from Jayco and Heartland, but they have taken a hard line on the issue. I guess we'll stick with Keystone (currently have a Montana).
The RV industry really has me perplexed. My Wife and I have been RV-ing for 25 years, and currently own our fourth 5er. Now shopping for #5. I swear I've never seen an industry try harder to kill itself.
I have to agree with you, we do have a chest freezer and dorm refrigerator but when we know that we will be dry camping they are empty. When our Dometic cooling unit died I installed a new Amish cooling unit and it works better than the original. We have the chest freezer because we live in our trailer 7 to 8 months a year but it will hold for 3 days if needed the dorm is a beer frig when we are sitting somewhere in the winter for
I just went through this with my fifth wheel with a 1000 watt inverter and residential fridge. In my case, I needed bigger batteries.
Short answer: A 200ah LiFePO4 battery does the job splendidly. Dual Optima Blue Top D34M lasted 7-8 hours, while Interstate Deep Cycle's lasted less than that.
Long answer:
After a trip to Florida from Central Virginia and arriving with no 12V power and a warm fridge with warm food I didn't want to eat, I bought a DC amp-meter to try to explain what was happening.
2amps: inverter on
65 amps: fridge turning on and for a few minutes afterwards
27 amps: fan/compressor on in fridge
2 amps: fridge on, no compressor
3-6 amps: interior lights turned on
25 amps: slide out motors
The original Interstate Deep Cycle batteries were each rated at 140 minutes of 25 amp. (that's just over 2 hours of continuous 25 amp draw, each).
The Optima batteries are C20 55ah. That means 2.75 amps per hour for 20 hours, or, in theory, 27.5 amps for 2 hours (each). On the long leg of our trip, these batteries didn't last. They did last on the shorter (<5 hour) leg.
(I am no battery expert despite all the research I've done. The whole battery rating thing is very confusing, please correct me if I'm wrong).
A driveway test during my diagnosing showed that the Optima batteries were about 75% discharged after about 6-7 hours powering just the inverter/fridge.
My new LiFePO4 200ah battery is as big as 2 of the other batteries, but lighter. In the past few days I ran the inverter/fridge on just the battery, and used the furnace for a few hours and pulled the slides in and out a few times. I ran it that way for about 36 hours and still had 60% battery capacity left! Voltage was right around 12.8.
I admit that it isn't hot yet and that the fridge doesn't have to work as hard as when it's 90+ degrees out, but I'm looking forward to our summer trips this year and not worrying about running out of battery.
The next problem could be charging the battery, but my RV's converter puts in 25 amps to the battery and seems to charge it back up just fine overnight.
I also noticed that my slides move in/out the same as if I'm on shore power. Before the new battery, the motors would "lug" since they couldn't get the current they needed from the batteries. They now work just as quickly with the new battery as if I'm on a 50amp power pedestal.
Of course, my experience could be unique, but I'm willing to bet you just need bigger/better batteries.
After doing a lot of digging I found my problem. The 7 way in the bed is connected to the 7 way on the bumper. It has smaller gauge wiring than the bumper connection. So, when I plug into the bumper 7 way, I get 13.65V at the trailer batteries instead of 12.8-12.9 when plugged into the bed. I believe the smaller wires prevent the trailer batteries from getting all the voltage. Both locations show 14.1V at idle
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