MountainInMyMirror
Between Keyboard and Chair
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Joined: 09/18/2011
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I've looked around a little...
Some rigs have LP fridges, some electric, some that can do both...
Boon docking interests me most...
My question is...how does one keep them running..? Do they only need a little LP..? If it's electric, does one need to run a gen often..?
Do most boon dockers just do without the fridge..?
(I know it's getting cold now...but in summer, cold water is nice...and a lot more food options..)
Thank you
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K3WE
Missouri
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Joined: 05/24/2005
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Fridge works like a charm and uses very little LP and very little electricity...the amount is basically inconsequential compared to water heating, air heating and lighting.
There is a "surface heat/anit-sweat" switch you should probably shut off.
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SAR Tracker
SoCal
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Joined: 05/29/2003
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A refrigerator alone running on LP (and 12 volts for the control board) will run for weeks on a 5 gal tank.
That said, using a hot water heater, furnace, and stove top will eat into the contents of said 5 gal tank.
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2011 F250 2WD 6.2L Gasser
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"Common sense is in spite of, not the result of, education" - Victor Hugo (1802-1885)
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MountainInMyMirror
Between Keyboard and Chair
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K3WE wrote:Fridge works like a charm and uses very little LP and very little electricity...the amount is basically inconsequential compared to water heating, air heating and lighting.
There is a "surface heat/anit-sweat" switch you should probably shut off.
Really? I thought fridges took more...
Are the models used just low power ones..?
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Fishinghat
Western Washington, USA
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Joined: 10/03/2002
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RV refrigerators run on an ammonia technology, while residential units run on freon. That makes the RV units more expensive than residential refrigerators, but they allow running with very little electrical power. They use a tiny flame from propane to heat the ammonia to cool the refrigerator. That makes them ideal for use when shore power is not available. They work quite well.
While connected to shore power, RV refrigerators can use 120 volt electricity to heat the ammonia so you don't use up your battery power or propane. In this mode, they use more electric power than a freon type. For this reason, some very high end motorhomes have all electric systems including refrigerators, but they require more house batteries (generally eight instead of four) and the generator has to run more frequently to recharge the batteries.
Holiday Rambler Navigator DP, Hummer, and Honda VT1100C Shadow
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hmknightnc
Wilmington, NC
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All modern LP RV refers take very little propane. Like others have stated thier useage is inconsequential compared to propane water heater and stove. You do need to keep a battery for the 12 volt control in decent shape. Again the refer uses very little DC power but other items in RV will require it to recharged as often as daily depending on what other items are being used. I've left my FW in spots for up to a week with all DC shutdown except refer and had no problems
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Veebyes
Bermuda & Maryland
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One trick to help the fridge use even less propane is to to park with the fridge side of the trailer facing north, always on the shady side.
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KD4UPL
Swoope, VA
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The refrigerator will probably use the least amount of 12v and LP of any of the other devices in your RV. It's not the appliance to worry about when "boondocking". The furnace will use the most 12v and LP if you camp when it's cold. An RV with 2 full 20 lb. tanks and a good solar panel should be good to go for many weeks camping in the mild weather conditions must of us camp in.
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frankfish
florida
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On thing about LP refers - they must be very close to level, or running them can ruin the cooling unit - Many$$$$.
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Golden_HVAC
Fulltime, CA, USA
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Joined: 08/19/2003
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Hi,
The refrigerator, propane leak detector and CO monitor will together consumeabout 35 amphours per day from the battery. Most batteries can hold a maximum of 100 AH, so expect to get about 3 nights out of two batteries. THen you will need to recharge the battery with a generator.
The LP gas refrigerators have a fairly small flame, it is about 2,200 Btu's, and will run about 45 hours on 1 gallon of propane. It needs to run about 8 - 12 hours per day in the summer, while less in the winter. I found I was buying about 13 gallons of propane the summer I spent in Yellowstone every 3 weeks, your useage may vary - depending on how much you run the water heater and furnace. There is 95,000 Btu's in a gallon of propane, most water heaters are 8,000 Btu's while a furnace is between 30,000 and 40,000 Btu's.
If you plan a lot of dry camping, then a Olympic Catalytic heater is nice to have, it will not draw any 12 volt power, and used about 6,000 Btu's of gas, is on constantly, so provides a level amount of heat. Works great down to about 25F outside, when you need to run your furnace as well.
If you plan on extended dry camping, then a solar system is a great investment in very quiet way to recharge the batteries. While it might cost $1,000, it will last for well over 20 years, and payback is fairly quick if you consider you are saving more than $10 a night in campground fees! Mine was paid back in the one summer camping in Yellowstone! And I got to stay in some fantastic places, where a campground would not have been allowed to be built there.
The lights each use about 1.1 amps per hour, while the water pump is really not worth adding up the power, it will pump out 120 gallons in one hour, while using 8 amp hours, so a 30 gallon tank can be pumped dry for 2 AH.
Most chargers will put back about 35 AH in the first hour, and 15 - 20 AH in the second hour they are run. So it is better to run the generator twice, first thing in the morning, and later in the afternoon, then to run it all at once for the day.
It is also good for the battery to get it 100% full at least once a month, even if that requires plugging in at a campground for one night. Good time to do laundry and dump the tanks anyway.
Fred.
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