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residential refrigerator upgrade question

tewitt1949
Explorer II
Explorer II
I have a travel trailer that we are putting in a magic chef frig but we heard that since we move/travel quite often, we will have to let it set unplugged for 24 hours before plugging it in. They say vibration stirs stuff (contaminate) in the Freon and will harm it if plugged in. I find it hard to believe but just thought I ask what others do.

While traveling we just leaved it closed up and since its 110v its not running, until we get to the campground.
Terry Witt
28 REPLIES 28

WILDEBILL308
Explorer II
Explorer II
Bill.Satellite wrote:
Right, #1 is safety. After that is storage temps (colder and maintain accurately). Convenience. I have not had to defrost the freezer in the last 18 years! Amount of storage available. No issues at the fuel station with open flame or going through tunnels with propane restrictions (if you are all electric). For me, the ice and filtered water through the door is an awesome add-on. No burners to keep clean and no aux. fans required to keep it cool even in hot weather.
Lastly, and most important, it makes the wife happy and an RV fridge does not! Guess I should have started there!

Bill the #1 is the wife likes it, #2 is safety.:B
Bill
2008 Newmar Mountain Aire
450 HP CUMMINS ISM
ALLISON 4000 MH TRANSMISSION
TOWING 2014 HONDA CRV With Blue Ox tow bar
A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.
-Mark Twain

Bill_Satellite
Explorer II
Explorer II
Right, #1 is safety. After that is storage temps (colder and maintain accurately). Convenience. I have not had to defrost the freezer in the last 18 years! Amount of storage available. No issues at the fuel station with open flame or going through tunnels with propane restrictions (if you are all electric). For me, the ice and filtered water through the door is an awesome add-on. No burners to keep clean and no aux. fans required to keep it cool even in hot weather.
Lastly, and most important, it makes the wife happy and an RV fridge does not! Guess I should have started there!
What I post is my 2 cents and nothing more. Please don't read anything into my post that's not there. If you disagree, that's OK.
Can't we all just get along?

WILDEBILL308
Explorer II
Explorer II
steved28 wrote:
Bill.Satellite wrote:
I find that there are so many advantages to a residential fridge that the few minor advantages of an RV fridge are insignificant.


Just curious, what are the "so many advantages"?

Just off the top of my head a realey big advantage is they don't catch fire.
Bill
2008 Newmar Mountain Aire
450 HP CUMMINS ISM
ALLISON 4000 MH TRANSMISSION
TOWING 2014 HONDA CRV With Blue Ox tow bar
A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.
-Mark Twain

steved28
Explorer
Explorer
Bill.Satellite wrote:
I find that there are so many advantages to a residential fridge that the few minor advantages of an RV fridge are insignificant.


Just curious, what are the "so many advantages"?
2019 Winnebago Sunstar LX 35F
2000 Jeep Wrangler TJ Sahara

Belgique
Explorer
Explorer
Bill nailed it. As he often does BTW.
Hickory, NC
2007 Fleetwood Discovery 40X

AllegroD
Nomad
Nomad
Executive wrote:
Bill.Satellite wrote:
I find that there are so many advantages to a residential fridge that the few minor advantages of an RV fridge are insignificant. I get it if you are a hard core dry camper planning to spend months in the desert. You absolutely should have an RV fridge.
As to the above comments, very few people who have installed residential fridges ask "How do I keep it cold on long trips" since they have already connected it to an inverter and it will be cold all day and all night without issue, no matter how long the drive.
Hurricane or not, loss of power can happen anywhere at any time and that why I have a generator (oh, and wheels and tires to get the heck out of the way). So what if I need to run it a few hours each day?
Backhoe? Same thing! I have plenty of power on board.
Since these kinds of events are very rare and easily dealt with, the convenience of a home fridge allows us to be at home when we are away from home. Of course, I feel the same way about my Insta-Hot tap on the kitchen sink and my DirecTV and cellular internet connections. None of them intended for RV's, but they sure are welcome additions to have available.


We need a "LIKE" button.....:)....Dennis

Ditto.
We have a Class A. While traveling down the road, the inverter feeds the RR and the alternator more than adequately keeps up the batts.

Executive45
Explorer III
Explorer III
Bill.Satellite wrote:
I find that there are so many advantages to a residential fridge that the few minor advantages of an RV fridge are insignificant. I get it if you are a hard core dry camper planning to spend months in the desert. You absolutely should have an RV fridge.
As to the above comments, very few people who have installed residential fridges ask "How do I keep it cold on long trips" since they have already connected it to an inverter and it will be cold all day and all night without issue, no matter how long the drive.
Hurricane or not, loss of power can happen anywhere at any time and that why I have a generator (oh, and wheels and tires to get the heck out of the way). So what if I need to run it a few hours each day?
Backhoe? Same thing! I have plenty of power on board.
Since these kinds of events are very rare and easily dealt with, the convenience of a home fridge allows us to be at home when we are away from home. Of course, I feel the same way about my Insta-Hot tap on the kitchen sink and my DirecTV and cellular internet connections. None of them intended for RV's, but they sure are welcome additions to have available.


We need a "LIKE" button.....:)....Dennis
We can do more than we think we can, but most do less than we think we do
Dennis and Debi Fourteen Years Full Timing
Monaco Executive M-45PBQ Quad Slide
525HP Cummins ISM 6 Spd Allison
2014 Chevrolet Equinox LTZ W/ ReadyBrute
CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR TRAVEL BLOG

Bill_Satellite
Explorer II
Explorer II
I find that there are so many advantages to a residential fridge that the few minor advantages of an RV fridge are insignificant. I get it if you are a hard core dry camper planning to spend months in the desert. You absolutely should have an RV fridge.
As to the above comments, very few people who have installed residential fridges ask "How do I keep it cold on long trips" since they have already connected it to an inverter and it will be cold all day and all night without issue, no matter how long the drive.
Hurricane or not, loss of power can happen anywhere at any time and that why I have a generator (oh, and wheels and tires to get the heck out of the way). So what if I need to run it a few hours each day?
Backhoe? Same thing! I have plenty of power on board.
Since these kinds of events are very rare and easily dealt with, the convenience of a home fridge allows us to be at home when we are away from home. Of course, I feel the same way about my Insta-Hot tap on the kitchen sink and my DirecTV and cellular internet connections. None of them intended for RV's, but they sure are welcome additions to have available.
What I post is my 2 cents and nothing more. Please don't read anything into my post that's not there. If you disagree, that's OK.
Can't we all just get along?

wa8yxm
Explorer III
Explorer III
Have never heard the "Stirs stuff, contaminates, in the freon" line. in fact it's not freon but another refrigerante since 19something but that's a nit)

However I have heard many who have upgraded bemoaning "How do I keep it cold on a long trip".. You knwo with a tank of propane and a RV type Absorption Cooling Unit.. I never ask that question.. I just push the button and it stays cool.

Himacane (Used to call'em hurricanes but alas this one was named Matthew) came calling a bit closer than I was comfortable with and power was lost for like 3-4 days.. No problem Propane held. Generator kept batteries happy.

Less scary for me (Not for Digger) Digger O'Grady ran his backhoe through a little cable (The thousands of volts PRIMARY power feed to the RV park cable) (I'll bet that was impressive) and power was down for a few days till the power company spliced.. NO PROBLEM.

Many advantages to Absorption cooling units.. Many.
Home was where I park it. but alas the.
2005 Damon Intruder 377 Alas declared a total loss
after a semi "nicked" it. Still have the radios
Kenwood TS-2000, ICOM ID-5100, ID-51A+2, ID-880 REF030C most times

YC_1
Nomad
Nomad
STBRetired wrote:
Don't know how contaminates could get into the refrigeration system. It is a sealed system which means nothing can get out, or in. The only things in the refrigerant are what was put there at the factory. Park it and plug it in.


Being brand new and hitting the road for a Summer trip I did not want to risk a failure do to running on inverter. I also wanted to test it to see how long it would stay cold. It did outstanding.

As for the OP.

Keep your shopping down and the freezer full of some frozen milk jugs. Move those to the refer side when making the long trip. Since this will not be a daily routine it should keep things nice and cold.

Once you arrive do your major shopping in the local community.
H/R Endeavor 2008
Ford F150 toad >Full Timers
Certified Senior Electronic Technician, Telecommunications Engineer, Telecommunications repair Service Center Owner, Original owner HR 2008

Executive45
Explorer III
Explorer III
Way back in the day, which was long ago, the caveat was a refrigerator could only be transported UPRIGHT. Then the magic of science stepped in and things changed. EVERY modern day fridge can be laid FLAT, even upside down, altho that's not recommended.

To the OP. Don't worry about your fridge. If you have to turn it off while traveling, simply power it on when you get to your destination. It'll take about an hour to chill and all will be good again. If you're going to travel with it ON as we do, and you have an ice maker, either turn that OFF or turn on the water pump as the ice maker could be damaged by trying to operate with no water in it....Dennis
We can do more than we think we can, but most do less than we think we do
Dennis and Debi Fourteen Years Full Timing
Monaco Executive M-45PBQ Quad Slide
525HP Cummins ISM 6 Spd Allison
2014 Chevrolet Equinox LTZ W/ ReadyBrute
CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR TRAVEL BLOG

DutchmenSport
Explorer
Explorer
375 miles (on the road, 2 week-ends worth of travel) on my new 5er. Residential refrigerator running 24x7 on the inverter. So far, hasn't missed a beat! Freezer compartment at a steady -2 and the refrigerator on a steady +36 degrees. I'm pretty certain you can turn them on immediately after transport.

When we had our new refrigerator delivered at home, in the house, the delivery guys set it up (put the doors on and stuff), and plugged it in immediately. 20 minutes later it was cold.

tewitt1949
Explorer II
Explorer II
Thanks all to the reply's. It pretty obvious what I was told isn't correct. I'm gonna take my chances and leave it plugged in when traveling and when I plug the trailer in to the camp ground power it will start running. Thanks all.
Terry Witt

WILDEBILL308
Explorer II
Explorer II
tewitt1949 wrote:
I have a travel trailer that we are putting in a magic chef frig but we heard that since we move/travel quite often, we will have to let it set unplugged for 24 hours before plugging it in. They say vibration stirs stuff (contaminate) in the Freon and will harm it if plugged in. I find it hard to believe but just thought I ask what others do.

While traveling we just leaved it closed up and since its 110v its not running, until we get to the campground.


I take it the people who are telling you this don't have a residential refrigerator. Like I have said just leave it plugged into your inverter. When you are plugged into shore power it will pass the power through and when you unplug it will pull from the batteries. Your alternator will keep the batteries up when traveling. Once the refrigerator and contents are cooled down it doesn't take much power to keep it cool.
Bill
2008 Newmar Mountain Aire
450 HP CUMMINS ISM
ALLISON 4000 MH TRANSMISSION
TOWING 2014 HONDA CRV With Blue Ox tow bar
A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.
-Mark Twain