Foretravel Owners' Forum For owners and Fans of Foretravel Motorcoaches September 06, 2025 ...

What are your plans for charging that size battery bank?

I have the same Dometic 1492 fridge.  I've spent the couple of years trying to figure out the best replacement.  Mine is still working pretty good, after dialing in the fans.  But it still poses a fire risk, and I worry every time it is running.  Yes, I could put in a fire suppression system, but that's not a failsafe solution either.  And it still takes a whole day to come to temperature, and is temperamental in extreme temperatures or if a warm gallon of water or left-overs are placed inside.

I have looked at every possible residential and DC powered fridge currently on the market to find a good replacement.  None will fit in that space without either giving up the cabinets below, or doing cabinet work to accommodate the void that would be left on one side.

I even looked into custom made DC fridges.  They never returned my call or email, and I really don't love the style of that fridge anyway.  It was going to be something I was willing to live with, but if they don't respond, that won't work.

Even though so many have mentioned the replacement cooling units from JC Refrigeration, I just really wanted a new box, something that would be efficient and has a little better layout than the 1492.  The seal on my fridge is great, and the inside is still new looking.  I don't love the wood paneling on the outside, but that can be updated with stainless, if I really wanted. 

JC also manufactures complete DC refrigerators, but they do not make one to replace the size of the 1492, (36" wide and 58" tall) and don't ever intend to make one. 

They sent me a couple of photos of installs of their stainless fridges, one of which was in a Foretravel.  But even with their smaller unit, the Dutchaire 2417, at 23.5" deep (which is slightly less than the standard 24" counter depth) the fridge box still sticks out past the fridge opening by a couple of inches, and then the doors are another couple of inches past that.  There are a bunch of plumbing and electrical lines behind the cabinet below the fridge that will not allow a full height, counter-depth fridge to sit flush with the front of the opening.  And the latches they use to keep the doors closed leave a little to be desired, not exactly factory looking.  But the nice thing about theirs, they are 33" wide, so they would fit nicely in the 36" opening with minimal cabinet work, and allow the doors to open nicely.

All of this to say, I just got the JC Refrigeration dual compressor 12 DC Dometic 1492 replacement cooling unit delivered today. 

A significant downside of this dual compressor 12 volt cooling unit is it is rated at an average draw of 140 watts (11.6 amps at 12 volts) versus their 2417 DC fridge, rated at an average draw of 51 watts (4.2 amps at 12 volts).  Quite a difference, and probably mostly just due to using it with the old design fridge with the cooling fins and a 20+ year old box.  And this is why I decided to install 1,840 Amp hours of lithium batteries, instead of the initial plan of 920 Ah.

I'm kind of glad it took so long to decide, as I understand they originally used a single compressor for these replacement units, and you used your old fridge control board and electronics, neither of which worked very well.  Now they are dual compressor and they supply their 3D printed control board with each unit.

It should be a fun project to get this replaced!  I'll start a new thread for that.

Attached are the photo examples sent by JC Refrigeration for their manufactured 12 volt fridges and door locks, in case anyone is looking to go that route.