RV Refrigeration
An RV refrigerator is one of the most important appliances in your rig. It's also a large investment and you'll want to do whatever you can to keep it working well for years to come.
Residential refrigerators are all the rage in new RVs, especially those big shiny Class A motorcoaches. They are nice to have and they certainly offer a lot of space for food and beverages, but for most full time RVers who do much boondocking they aren't the best choice for an RV refrigerator.
Absorption RV fridges are the more common type of RV refrigerator and have been in use for decades. They replaced the old literal "ice box" style of RV refrigerators and can be powered by electricity, propane gas or both.
They work using an evaporation and condensation process that is similar to the way your home refrigerator works, but they don't use a compressor. Instead, they have a boiler that uses either electricity or propane gas (or both) to heat a mix of water, ammonia and hydrogen gases to evaporate and then condense.
The advantage of this is that they can be run off a variety of power sources and don't require any maintenance like the compressor refrigerators do. However, they take a little longer to cool down and can have issues when the RV is not level or when the temperature changes dramatically.
To help them do their job better, try to shop for smaller amounts of fresh foods more frequently and limit how often you open the fridge. Also, allow plenty of space for air to circulate and try not to pack items tight together as this can make the fridge have to work harder. You can also add an inexpensive RV fridge fan to help speed up the cooling process and keep temperatures more stable.RV Refrigeration
An RV refrigerator is one of the most important appliances in your rig. It's also a large investment and you'll want to do whatever you can to keep it working well for years to come.
Residential refrigerators are all the rage in new RVs, especially those big shiny Class A motorcoaches. They are nice to have and they certainly offer a lot of space for food and beverages, but for most full time RVers who do much boondocking they aren't the best choice for an RV refrigerator.
Absorption RV fridges are the more common type of RV refrigerator and have been in use for decades. They replaced the old literal "ice box" style of RV refrigerators and can be powered by electricity, propane gas or both.
They work using an evaporation and condensation process that is similar to the way your home refrigerator works, but they don't use a compressor. Instead, they have a boiler that uses either electricity or propane gas (or both) to heat a mix of water, ammonia and hydrogen gases to evaporate and then condense.
The advantage of this is that they can be run off a variety of power sources and don't require any maintenance like the compressor refrigerators do. However, they take a little longer to cool down and can have issues when the RV is not level or when the temperature changes dramatically.
To help them do their job better, try to shop for smaller amounts of fresh foods more frequently and limit how often you open the fridge. Also, allow plenty of space for air to circulate and try not to pack items tight together as this can make the fridge have to work harder. You can also add an inexpensive RV fridge fan to help speed up the cooling process and keep temperatures more stable.rv refrigeration