By Cheri Sicard
If you are confused about the different RV refrigerator options, this video can help clear up some confusion. Jared Gillis, from one of our readers’ favorite RV YouTube channels, All About RVs, wanted to do an RV refrigerator comparison among the most popular options:
- Absorption, or your typical propane/electric RV fridge
- Compressor, or your typical 12-volt RV refrigerator
- Residential, or home-type refrigerator.
Jared says that he was more surprised than anyone at the results of his tests. Before he conducted his experiments he had no intention of swapping out his RV’s absorption refrigerator. After his tests, he is now seriously considering it.
The 12-volt refrigerator runs off a small 12-volt compressor and does not need an inverter to run it.
Watch the video as Jared provides a lot of details, starting with the amounts of power it takes to run each of these three refrigerators. Spoiler alert, it takes A LOT less energy to power the 12-volt RV refrigerator, except when boondocking, when the absorption fridge running on propane takes less.
He also goes into how much solar you should carry to offset the power consumption of the fridges.
The video also looks at the operating temperature. While all the fridges worked well, the 12-volt was the clear winner as its freezer had the lowest temperature.
Next Jared compared how long it takes for the fridge to get down to temperature. At 2 1/2 hours, the 12-volt fridge was once again the clear winner.
He cites other advantages, such as better operating in hot weather and the lack of need for vents in 12-volt refrigerators.
Swapping out an RV refrigerator is an expensive proposition (and one I felt hard last year). Jared says you might not want to swap out if your current fridge is working well. But if it ever goes out, it’s good to know about your options.
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Thank you, Cheri! We have had residential refrigerators in both our RVs. We typically travel to places with electricity, so they have presented us with no problems. If we regularly boondocked, then the other two types would be attractive alterations once we had lots of solar panels and lithium batteries installed. Meanwhile, safe and enjoyable travels to you! 🙂
As I have mentioned before, we had our fridge die while down in Houston – in an RV park. Of course, the day it died it was 103° out. Wifey frantically looked for a replacement fridge (I was in the hospital) and was shocked to find out how much these absorption fridges cost. Didn’t matter because she was unable to locate one – anywhere. She was able to find an AC fridge at Lowe’s that fit exactly in the space our Norcold sat. And for ‘only’ $450! We have 700 watts of solar on the roof, a pure sine wave inverter, and two 100ah lithium batteries so this was going to be our boondocking dream once we left Houston. So far, this fridge works flawlessly. Yeah, 12 volt might be better, but . . .
If you lose power for whatever reason the absorption fridge is your best friend. These comparison articles tend to leave out some of the other advantages of all those considered. I’d suggest doing very thorough research before choosing.
We had a 4 door NotSoCold(adsorption) in our 2006 WinnebagoJourney. We had to throw out a week of food at Bryce Canyon (8000ft) when it was 85-90 deg out. We came home and replaced it with a 17cuftGE residential refrig from Lowes. The NotSoCold weighed 440lbs. The GE weighs approx 125lbs. The GE takes 80watts (actual kilowatt meterreadig) per hour. It runs less than50% of the time. It takes about 960 watts or less in 24hours. We had already 800watts solar and 400amp hours of Lifeline 6 volt AGM batteries. We had camped a week at Quartzite, Glacier National Park, Yellowstone and other places for horse events. Never had a worry about the refrigerator. I got a broom closet too.
We switched out our “NoCold, Norcold” fridge after it caught fire, which is the first or second leading cause of RV fires! We kept the “Fridge Box” and had JC Refrigeration replace the “Guts” with a two compressor 12V conversion. WOW! Doesn’t use that much power and the ice cream now stays frozen!