Those of you with residential refrigerators installed in your coaches, do you have the refrigerators running while driving? I am especially interested in those that travel the mountains of the western US and Canada.
From where I live in the CO mountains, unless I go southeast, I will be climbing to at least 9,000' and many times 11,000'.
My Samsung residential refrigerator (model number: RS22HDHPNBC) has developed a refrigerant leak according to the appliance repair tech. He commented that he sees lots of problems with Samsung refrigerators at altitudes above 7,000'. On our most recent trip we went over Fremont Pass (~11,300') with the refrigerator running. I am wondering if I should not have had the refrigerator running at that altitude?
I have never turned off any of the residential refrigerators I have had in coaches. 9,000 ft is the highest I have traveled though.
First time I have ever heard of any kind of problem with Samsung fridge and high altitude. It would never occur to me to shut off our fridge, or to avoid a Rocky Mountain High. (John D. reference)
Now AIR BEDS...that's another story!
I have been 10,666' (Vail Pass) and many other high points, but do not have those exact heights, and have not had a problem with my Samsung RF18HFENBSG. The only time I had a problem was when I did not run the AC and the interior of the coach got to around 110 degrees and the ice cream was not hard, but still cold like soft serve. The sun was also beating on the refrigerator side of the coach. Decided to run the AC and suck up the electric bill ;), not a problem after that.
I had mine over 7000 feet many times and no issues
Not sure elevation is that important.
BUT, when leaving a CG, I turn OFF the residential refrigerator. We have a remote-read thermometer in the refrigerator. The readout was at the driver's side ( the one NOT holding the steering wheel-- ya, you read correctly). If/when it reaches 42 degrees F, it went back on. That kept food safe, but did not work the inverter or refrigerator more than necessary.
There is nothing in the installation or use instructions for out RF18... Samsung regarding altitude. We have been over many passes in the 9,000 ft range with no problems. Ours is on all the time.
I severally doubt altitude was an issue leading to a refrigerant leak. A couple of ? That might lead to extremely high refrigerant head pressure that may cause a leak to occur.
Did you seal off and insulate the external access panel?
Did you seal off the old roof vent?
While under way these air leaks could bring in a considerable amount of hot ambient air causing extremely high head pressure.
Somehow the condenser air behind or below the refrigerator needs to freely circulate into the inside of the coach to avoid high head pressure leaks and failures. Best done by gravity, but A pancake fan could help.
In a nutshell, a poorly ventilated condenser coil in a hot space is going to lead to extremely high head and tubing pressures and high tubing temperatures while vibrating and bump loads which will cause tubimg joint failures.
Vent it and add some support to any cantilevered sections of the coil.
Yah I suck at explaining stuff.
Brett, how did you (or, rather, the "driver" - hey, I resemble that remark! :)) ) turn the refrigerator off/on while underway?
We have the Samsung RS22HDHPNSR (same as the OP's RS22HDHPNBC, only stainless steel not black), and there does not appear to be a way to turn off the refrigerator unless it is done by cutting off the power (ie, unplugging it or shutting off the inverter).
Just turned on/off the inverter. The refrigerator is the only thing we run on it while driving.
If other 120 VAC things running while driving, turn on/off the breaker for the refrigerator in the main 120 VAC breaker panel.
There is no on/off switch for these Samsung Refrigerators. Samsung recommends unplugging it if it is not in use for an extended time. I wired the outlet for mine to a switch on the front end end the kitchen cabinets (along with another duplex outlet). Makes it easy to shut power off.
My brother got a Samsung and he had a compressor failure and leak in his house. The repair guy said that Samsung expects a certain number to fail in a year he got a new fridge out of the deal.
Since perfection is such a elusive goal, I imagine
every manufacture expects a certain number of
every product to fail in a year.
That's why they invented warranties...
A residential refer was, I am sure, designed to be at the same temps as the human owners live it and to be stationary.
That being said they seem to work well as far as the moving.
Interesting that there is no off switch and the refers compressor is basically never off.
My buddy found more than 10 degree swings in a old style on/off compressor refers temp
Our son lives in Leadville, CO (10,200) and we visited there when we had our Samsung in the coach. We were camping in Buena Vista, because I just cannot hang at the 10,000 level for too long, and BV is about 7,500. We had no issues with our fridge at BV, nor when we drove to Leadville and stayed for just a few days. We never turned it off ... driving, boon docking, or in a campground. Never a problem, and it is still treating the new owners well as far as I know.
Way back when, we replaced the inverter with a new one just so we could run the residential refrigerator when necessary. We've done it that way a couple of times, but usually the generator is on while driving. That keeps the air conditioners running and lets the navigator have all of her toys working.
We've not yet been in the mountains with our coach, so don't know how anything will handle the altitude. I think the highest we've ever had the coach was about 6000 feet for a few minutes.
We have our Samsung RF18 refrigerator operating while we travel. Typically it is powered by our Magnum inverter, but if we need to use our generator for other reasons then it powers the Samsung. So far everything has worked perfectly.