Another residential fridge…thrilled so far, added backsplash

Topic: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far, added backsplash (Read 2679 times) previous topic - next topic

Another residential fridge…thrilled so far, added backsplash

May 13, 2021, 12:08:13 am

We are at MOT this week. Keith and his team did an amazing job installing a residential fridge. We replaced a small Dometic with a 10 CF Magic Chef. The footprint was almost the same. We only lost 3 inches of the cabinet below but gain a lot more space inside.

The trim is going in tomorrow. I'll update later...

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Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #1 – May 13, 2021, 07:17:02 am

Looks good!

I have thought of going residential but really like the ice maker in my Dometic. Does anyone know of a small fridge that has an ice maker?

Rich

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #2 – May 13, 2021, 07:17:10 am

Nice- twice the volume.
The PO of our coach did the Amish refurbish. If Brenda doesn't like it- we will add a residential.

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #3 – May 13, 2021, 08:30:26 am

As many others on here, we installed the 18 cf Samsung with ice in the drawer. We do miss the fact that it does not have water/ice in the door, but love this fridge! So much more room and less stress than the Dometic and being full time, the extra room is priceless! Especially when you have to drive over 120 miles to a grocery store! One way!!! Gotta love Yellowstone, but buying here is pricey! Also installed the 100 lb Dometic fridge/freezer in the bay.

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #4 – May 13, 2021, 08:39:30 am

Quote from: erniee – May 13, 2021, 07:17:10 am

Nice- twice the volume.
The PO of our coach did the Amish refurbish. If Brenda doesn't like it- we will add a residential.

We had JC Refridgeration do ours a few years ago. It definitely extended the OEM Dometic's life but we are thrilled about this switch. We also added an ARP. New fridge...seemingly much more capacity, no more babying the Dometic, and no absorption fire worries.

We know our decision has trade offs. So far so good.

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #5 – May 13, 2021, 09:42:16 am

We are still totally pleased with our now discontinued 19.4 Samsung. They have replaced our 19.4 unit with a 19.5 fingerprint resistant model. Ours installed easily thru the driverside, side, front window, and the extra 2 inches let us have larger plates inside. Removing and reinstalling the refrig doors for installation was no problem. Today I noticed the model that replaced ours, also went up in price a few hundred $$.

Our install:
Residential fridge

Comparison of our model with its replacement:
Product Comparison Page

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #6 – May 13, 2021, 10:11:25 am

Looks great! I recently put a cheap residential fridge in my GV. Best upgrade ever! Did MOT remove and plug the propane line at the tank? I've heard of folks capping the line behind the fridge, but it was pretty easy to just disconnect/plug at the manifold.

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #7 – May 13, 2021, 10:27:15 am

Quote from: SnipeATX – May 13, 2021, 10:11:25 am

Looks great! I recently put a cheap residential fridge in my GV. Best upgrade ever! Did MOT remove and plug the propane line at the tank? I've heard of folks capping the line behind the fridge, but it was pretty easy to just disconnect/plug at the manifold.

Thanks. They capped the propane for the fridge at the manifold for that line in the fuel bay.

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #8 – May 13, 2021, 10:58:24 am

Do you have a plan how you are going to lock the doors from opening in transit? I've seen a few ideas online, individuals using a 3D printer to make a lock

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #9 – May 13, 2021, 12:27:14 pm

Jeff.
I'm thinking you'll be at the GV reunion?
I'd like to check out the fridge upgrade. We replaced our Dometic with an ice maker Norcold this past summer and to say my DW is extremely unhappy with it is an understatement. No room is all I hear these days.

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #10 – May 13, 2021, 12:35:22 pm

Quote from: John hobbs – May 13, 2021, 10:58:24 am

Do you have a plan how you are going to lock the doors from opening in transit? I've seen a few ideas online, individuals using a 3D printer to make a lock

Keith suggested this:

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #11 – May 13, 2021, 12:36:15 pm

Quote from: Bob & Sue – May 13, 2021, 12:27:14 pm

Jeff.
I'm thinking you'll be at the GV reunion?
I'd like to check out the fridge upgrade. We replaced our Dometic with an ice maker Norcold this past summer and to say my DW is extremely unhappy with it is an understatement. No room is all I hear these days.

We want to attend but have to get back to work.

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #12 – May 13, 2021, 01:10:11 pm

We put a Frigidaire in our Liberty and it has the ice/water in door. Cannot hear it running

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #13 – May 13, 2021, 02:04:36 pm

We had done the bags of ice thing for over a year and that was getting old. Thought about a separate ice maker but the one we had at our sticks n bricks was too hard to clean. In hindsight I might have kept the old ( original ) 4800 dometic but that ship has sailed. I could go with wider but DW won't give up the bank of drawers left of the fridge. ( just like Jeff's coach) I am going to quiz MOT on the one Jeff has though.

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #14 – May 13, 2021, 02:14:07 pm

We used a patio sliding door lock on the freezer and a short velcro strap on the upper doors. Nothing to store or get in the way. Latch part on the freezer soor is held on with VHB tape, no holes.

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #15 – May 13, 2021, 03:34:50 pm

I made one like Keith suggested and it works great. It's so easy to use.

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #16 – May 13, 2021, 03:50:58 pm

Those that have the smaller volume absorption, Magic Chef has a direct replacement. 10 cubic feet. I think it costs around 400 at Homey

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #17 – May 13, 2021, 05:29:04 pm

Quote from: erniee – May 13, 2021, 03:50:58 pm

Those that have the smaller volume absorption, Magic Chef has a direct replacement. 10 cubic feet. I think it costs around 400 at Homey

That's the fridge we we got. It's very quiet. It's a few inches taller so no cabinet cutting was required. They removed one trim piece and lowered the floor a few inches.

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #18 – May 13, 2021, 05:35:06 pm

I installed one of the Magic Chef jobs in a friends Bluebird in October. They love it.

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #19 – May 13, 2021, 06:35:43 pm

It's much bigger inside, especially the freezer....and no more defrosting. The first two fridges HD delivered were damaged. As an accommodation they issued a refund so the third fridge was $100 including delivery to MOT.

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #20 – May 13, 2021, 06:57:55 pm

Quote from: erniee – May 13, 2021, 01:10:11 pm

We put a Frigidaire in our Liberty and it has the ice/water in door. Cannot hear it running

Is it similar to ours?

Samsung residential refrigerator 21.8 instead of 17.5

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #21 – May 13, 2021, 07:37:46 pm

My Dometic 2820 crapped out on I-95 last week. The dreaded sulfur residue all over below heating tube. Today, its sitting out on the side of the road waiting for a junker to pick it up. I shopped the Magic Chef mentioned above and a Haier model of similar size at Lowe's. There's a lot more reviews on the Magic Chef so I think I will go that route too. My install plan is about like the OP's, with a small 3-4" lowering of floor in fridge space.

I do have a question for the forum though. IS it OK to power a small inverter using the old 12V wiring used by the Dometic. It looks like it comes off of a 30 amp breaker in the 12V aux power panel by my batteries. Thoughts?

jk

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #22 – May 13, 2021, 07:43:11 pm

JK,

I'm no expert. For my install they added a new breaker for the fridge and ran new wiring as the old Dometic wires were not a large enough gauge. I'm also using a Victron 1200 inverter in the cabinet under the fridge.

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #23 – May 13, 2021, 07:55:54 pm

What gauge is that 12 VDC wire-- concerned about voltage drop to (hopefully) a PSW inverter.

Were it me, I would locate a PSW inverter nearer the battery bank but in separate compartment and then either run new 120 VAC wire, of more likely, tie into/use the present wire from that back area to the outlet behind to refrigerator.

Re: Another residential fridge…thrilled so far

Reply #24 – May 13, 2021, 08:22:56 pm

Thanks for the feed back. I'll be making a course correction on locating the inverter.

jk

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