Foretravel Owners' Forum For owners and Fans of Foretravel Motorcoaches September 15, 2025 ...

Residential Fridge

October 28, 2013, 11:47:42 am

Has anyone added a residential fridge to a GV? What are the advantages/disadvantages of adding a residential fridge? 

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Re: Residential Fridge

Reply #1 – October 28, 2013, 11:58:36 am

I changed mine out (not GV though) and been very happy with it. Constant temps even in hot climes and no thought of fire. Cheaper to replace if it dies. Simple swap over and we use solar to power it thru' secondary 1000w inverter. Never would go back to the old way. No reason you cannot do this in GV as I have had one and looked at the one my Brother now has while I was remodelling their GV. Simple to do.
John H

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Re: Residential Fridge

Reply #2 – October 28, 2013, 05:30:51 pm

I am really wanting to replace the side x side Dometic in our '02 U320 with a small residential unit.  Other folks have put in a full sized fridge, but I can buy produce and let it rot in a small fridge just as easily as I can a large one ... and I want to gain storage space and not lose the cabinet under the fridge!  I am looking at getting the Haier model that is rather like the one you installed, John ... It is an apartment-sized fridge, I think.  No defrosting!!!!!!!

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Reply #3 – October 28, 2013, 05:45:35 pm

Love our full sized counter depth works.  Rudy Legget put in a smaller unit and put in a sliding pantry next to the fridge. That looked and worked well. 

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Reply #4 – October 28, 2013, 05:49:18 pm

Yes Carol that Haier is a copy of the whirpoolI put in ours and others have it too. Ruth did not want a bigger one and it really does carry all we need for a long time. We like fresh food here and right now I am eating a local apple that she bought in our fruit co-op-not store bought from ;last years crop, just picked a few days ago.
 The biggest part of doing the change over in my view was getting the old one out. I took it all apart so it could go thru door but did need strong help for that part. We love the side slide out cabinet and that more than offsets the lost space in fridge. I can send you a drawing of that cabinet if you want as I designed it and made it to fit the opening that was left. I had a door made to match others. The finished size of opening will decide your cabinet width but should be close to ours. If you have the seperate powered freezer unit like we had then there is most probably a 120v box at back with 2 outlets (feeds) in it. If so you can also do what I did and put a smaller inverter under the bed and follow the Modification on Beamalarm for adding a 2nd inverter. This will allow fridge to be powered from coach batteries while driving and then you do not have to worry about fridge warming up.
John H

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Reply #5 – October 28, 2013, 10:02:55 pm

Upgrading to a residential refrigerator was the best money we ever spent. The new step is a close second.

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Reply #6 – October 29, 2013, 01:03:33 pm

OK, this is something that I have wondered about.

We have been full timing for 5 years in a 30' Lazy Daze Class C. I keep trying to talk Gayle into something a bit larger in the form of a used FT.

We have spent the last two summers mostly boondocking getting power from our three solar panels with little need for the generator. If I can get her in a smaller FT I would be interested in a residential fridge. How many batteries do you have to have and solar to make that work?

Assuming that you were in a period of too much cloudiness how much time is spent running the generator to keep the fridge going?

Jim

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Reply #7 – October 29, 2013, 07:43:38 pm

With 600 watts of AM solar panels and 700 Ah battery bank we ran the generator at breakfast for about an hour and then left it off until the next morning. The battery bank was usually at float charge by noon. We have a residential refrigerator, watch a couple of hours of TV at night and run two laptops.

This was in Quartzsite during the winter so there was some gas furnace useage but we usually set the thermostat at 60 degrees at night. And, this rig was 43 feet with 4 slides - not our current 1 slide better insulated 40 Foretravel - so I expect  an improvement in performance once I get the solar system installed on the Foretravel.

That refrigerator was a 22 cf GE Profile french door unit. I currently have a similarly sized Frigidaire side-by-side.

By the way, Lazy Daze makes a terrific unit!! We are 6 month travelers now but full-timed for 8 years - best years of our lives!!

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Reply #8 – October 29, 2013, 11:02:13 pm

We have 750 watts of solar and 765 amp hr lifelines batteries and the fridge is 11 cu ft whirlpool. It consumes approx 12% of battery over night with some lights (LED) and the tv. Fridge is run off 1000w p sine extra inverter that is very lean on "standing amp use" not like the Xantrex 2500.
 If the sun comes up in morning the batteries are 100% by 11am. We just spent a few days on Calif coast using pretty much everything incl Microwave each day and coffee m/c with absolutly no problems . Once home we left the fridge running with food in for 3 days and no sun and it used18% of battery life. Darn good if you ask me!!
John H

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