What would be more cost effective?
Having a household refrigerator installed at MOT or FOT or having the unit converted to 120V at JR refrigeration.
How big do you want?
The new small refers will run 30 plus hrs on batteries. 70 wattss running and average of about 40 .
Probably substantially cheaper to do the JR conversion vs paying labor for a residential conversion. The residential is probably cheaper than the JR if you can do the work yourself. IMHO, the residential is the better end result.
Changing to a residential is an easy job, but will need help to take old one out and new one into coach. It is not rocket science.
JohnH
Just need to think about how you use the coach, pole to pole residential might make you happier. If you do a lot of boondocking the JR option may work better for you especially if you don't have solar, res will require a lot of generator time. I had JR do ours a few mos ago, so far works great. Just so you know there are other options in Shipshewana to have cooling units done. Just be aware that all JR does is replace the cooling unit, he did a good job on that. However no weather strip around the edge to stop the wind and dust he will put it on if you provide it, also not to much clean up when they where done. As always DWMYFG.
The JC option uses about the same amount of power as our Samsung residential refrigerator does, maybe 5-10% less for a converted refrigerator that is 1/2 the size of our Samsung. To run continuously off the grid with either choice you either need to run the generator for a few hours every day or add sufficient solar. In either case you may need to increase your battery capacity to make it through those long dark winter nights.
The LP refrig weighs about twice what a residential one does so like John says, some assistance is required to do it yourself. It is not particularly hard to do. If you have it done at FT or MOT you will pay as much or more than the cot of the refrigerator for labor.
Most who have made the switch to residential will give them a big thumbs up 👍. We do. There haven't been too many reports on the 12v or 120v JR swaps yet but those that have have been good.
See Another Samsung installed (http://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=22462.0)
If you get rid of the old one,offer us the spare parts,thanks.
Mis-read your original post. Where it me between the 120v JCconversion and a residential. Cost wize the JCconversion is going to be less expensive. You might talk to JR ( at JC Refrigeration) about the 12V conversion(no need for an inverter) I would go with the residential every time. No more defrost, sizes from 10-20+ cubic feet to suit your needs, and everything new. But that's just me. Lots of options.
Thanks everyone for their input. I still have not made up my mind
Ok, I'm slightly confused. Are we talking about JC Refrigeration? Home | JC Refrigeration (http://jc-refrigeration.com)
I have not heard of a JR Refrigeration.
Personally I would go with the residential conversion as it has been done many times with excellent results. If you have the skills this can easily be accomplished as a DIY project for under $2CB. Having FOT do the conversion would probably be in the $3.5CB range.
The JC Refrigeration conversion certainly is appealing but I don't think there is enough real world experience out there to make me want to try it just yet. My $0.02 worth.
Steve
Yup JC...
Question: Has fridge insulation gotten better over the past 20 years? Re-using a 20 year old fridge box may be false economy if there gaps in insulation, seals and hidden moisture damage.
RV fridges (with JR compressor) mount more securely, have better door locks and are more outside-air tight, but do not have auto defrost. We are pleased with our 6-years on a 10 cu ft Whirlpool.
This new motorhome of mine has an 18' Samsung and it appears that on a normal Arizona winter day, this refer will run about 22 hours a day, using the generator for a couple of hours before I go to sleep. I have 900 watts of solar and 6- 6 volt batteries with 672 total amp hours. For those of you who have been using the residential refer for a while does that sound about right?
Rick; we had a Whirlpool residential in our fifth wheel when we had it with 4- 6 volt AGM's and a 2800 magnum inverter. That is close to what we could get without even having solar. However, on our next coach, we will have a minimum of 900 to 1200 watts of solar for extended boondocking and a residential fridge.
We had FOT install a GE Resi fridge 6 months ago (black slate) not only does it look great (no smudges) but my beer stays cold now! We've had S/S Resi Fridge, and Dometic Absorbtion Fridge before, we like this best. Cost $2K for the Fridge and Installation, FOT was expensive, but they did a fantastic job matching the cherry cabinets.
Rick, my Samsung is on 24hrs/day but doesn't "run" for anything near 22hrs. I would guess it runs the compressor for less than half of that time, especially on a winter day. Maybe you mean 24hrs, minus the 2hrs of generator time is 22hrs of fridge running on batteries?
Before my ~750ah AGM batteries recently started to decline badly, I was running the generator for a couple of hours about every day & a half. I haven't been able to test with the new 300ah of lithium yet but I'm hoping to go longer than that. Installing 710w of solar this weekend, which should extend me a little further. I also have a dedicated inverter for the fridge, which I think helps a little.
Bob Let me restate that The refer doesn't run 22 hours but I can go from 11:00 pm till around 9:00 pm the next night and then run the gen. for an hour and a half or so. SO ABOUT EVERY 22 HOURS, I need to fire up the genny.
With 6 volt batterys probably more like 336 total amp hours at 12v, not 672 total amp hours?
On other sites have read of users extending battery drain by freezing those plastic bags filled with liquid in the freezer area and placing in refrig area at night, and shutting down refer while watching temps at night and morning.
Yes, unless they're really big 6v batteries, it's probably 336 total ahs at 12v. And you only get to use about half of that before recharging, so call it 165 ahs, best case. And your are probably only getting a 90% charge after 2hrs on the generator. Now your're at maybe 150 usable ahs. Then, if they've lost any capacity at all, (which you can bet they have) it's something less than 150 ahs. So, running the generator once per day with solar supplementing it is probably pretty good.
Trojan T105, interstate GC2, Lifeline and several other 6v batteries are 225 amp hours each, so 3 sets (6 batteries) would be 675 total amp hours or 337.50 usable.
In that case, I'd say you might expect a little more time between generator charges, especially on a strong solar day. Like I said, when my similar capacity batteries were stronger, I'd go about a day & a half with no solar. That was being very conservative with other things like TV, microwave, LED lights etc.
If you have a battery monitor kit on your system, start from 100% SOC, turn off your solar controller and watch the DC meter to see if you get your full 337 ah's before hitting low voltage or 50% SOC. If so, you're probably using a lot more power than the fridge alone. If not, your batteries are probably not at 100% capacity. I know I was running my generator 2-3 times per day on the last trip because the batteries were getting weak, and it was obvious by watching the meters.