Everchill 12v Fridge from RecPro - Run on Solar / Batteries - Pros and Cons to 12v Refrigerators
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- Опубликовано: 9 сен 2024
- In this video we talk about the benefits of a 12v fridge especially when you have a solar system. We show you our install of the Everchill 12v French Door fridge from RecPro. We also give you a look at the fridge!
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I’ve watched several of these 12 volt/absorption fridge swaps now, and considering doing the same thing when we finally get to purchase our new fifth wheel, (old travel trailer was a total loss due to hail).
But what I don’t see anyone doing in any of these swaps is adding insulation around these new refrigerators. Seems to me when the old fridge is removed, that presents the perfect opportunity to clean and insulate that area before installing the new fridge.
And yeah, the older technology - being able to run on propane while boo docking IS an advantage - you are 1 million percent correct about it becoming a very dangerous situation.
My sister and brother in law boo dock anytime they go camping. They just love the idea of it all. But in their very first camper, a small travel trailer, they were boo docked and running their fridge off of propane. They’d had an eventful day swimming and fishing etc, and were tired at the end of the day. Went to sleep, him, her and their son, and was woke up half way through the night as a fire had developed due to the fridge. Luckily he was able to put it out, but the camper was lost. The fire had begun to work its way up that wall of the camper. Idk about anyone else’s camper, but most campers are built CHEAPLY and when they burn, THEY BURN. Sis and brother in law got VERY LUCKY.
And for most, this type of event may never happen, but for the few it does happen to, it could be catastrophic- life ending.
We’ve even run our old fridge off of propane, but ONLY when we had to, if there was electric available, that is what we used.
Hopefully we get to get ourselves into a new to us used fifth wheel sooner than later, and I will then begin to figure out when we will be able to upgrade to a 12 volt, IF it doesn’t already have it. I’d really love to be able to upgrade to the French style fridge as well, but may not be able to.
Awesome video, corny dad jokes, God Bless and keep you and yours safe.
Wow, your video was great so I actually called RecPro for recommendations about if it would fit my rig, same type of installation. Their customer service representative that answered was to put nicely, useless. Asked a simple question about if it would work in my rig, answer was "no one here can give you advice on if it will fit or work". Tried to rephrase, "how about if it will work in a specific configuration?" Response again, "no one here can answer that question." "Is there someone who can answer a question about installation, if it will work?" "That will be our tech department that is not available." Wow... RV and RV parts industry just sucks....
That's really a bummer, I had no issues with their Customer Service. In fact they were quite helpful.
The best thing you can do is break out the old measuring tape to be sure.
Everchill hits a home run with this fridge. Very nice. Very classy.
We love it!
I have a cabin in Northern Minnesota which is totally off the grid. I have a Dometic absorption refrigerator and is nothing but a pain! I shut it off every time when I leave and it takes a day to cool down,then I eave the next day. This video was spot on. I just bought one of these from RecPro for $2000.
Not only am I going to have better efficiency and better use of space but I won't have to gapping holes in the side of my cabin to let in the minus 30 below in the winter! Great video! Put my mind at ease that I did the right thing investing in this refrigerator
That's awesome to hear! We still love this fridge!
You got a thumbs up 👍 for the dad joke alone
Great video. Thanks for sharing! Eventually we plan to swap out our 8 cu ft Dometic adsorption fridge for a 12 volt compressor fridge.
Interesting side note: one of the people who lives on our camp road did this conversion to their RV. They love the compressor fridge!
They ended up keeping the adsorption fridge, roughed together a cabinet for it and set it up on the porch of their camp. They run it on 110V only and use it during the summer, when they host large gatherings.
Thank you so much! It’s definitely a great idea to repurpose your old absorption fridge after replacing it. Glad to hear that they did.
Very nicely done video. Excelent job covering the pros and cons. I got an extra 2cuft of storage space vs a absorption of the same size. You can safely run it while traveling which is not advised with propane and in some places is illegal. These are a great DIY upgrade if you have the 12V power to run it while boondocking and your propane will go much further.
Thank you! We absolutely love this fridge.
That corn dog box sizing comparison - very helpful!
Haha, when you have a kid that wears them out like our son, it’s a standard unit of measurement.
Thanks guys!! You sold us! 😂😂
😍so glad to hear that! Hope you love it as much as we do!
Wow, you are easy to entertain. You'd be in heaven in an appliance store removing plastic wrap lol. Seriously, I'm sure 12v is the way to go, especially with the way electricity is skyrocketing in California. I don't think I'll go with such a large one for several reasons, that is the largest 12v fridge I've ever seen actually. Cool video, I'm still studying, and then I'll buy.
Haha, I’m pretty sure it’s the largest one that you can get right now. It works great for our family of 5 living full time in our RV. It feels like a normal residential fridge.
Thanks for the information you did a clean installation
Absolutely! Thank you so much!
Great info in the beginning, thank you.
Absolutely! Thanks for watching!
That was an interesting video, well done! I'm getting a 12v refrigerator, my temperature ranges between 34 degrees to 49 degrees. But I think it's at least 15 years old, and it socks power! Thank you for confirming my choice.
No problem! Going forward, we will always have 12v fridges in our future rv’s.
Well done video, very helpful!
(Dad jokes approved)
Thanks so much!
We have not done the solor upgrade yet, but i see the benefit of the fridge, nice video.
Thank you! We love it!
Looking good 👍 👌 😎
We installed an Everchill 12vdc and will never go back to an absorption type. For all the reasons stated in the video.
Awesome! We still love ours!
Looks good 👍
Thank you!
What no ice maker?
great vid
Thank you! 😊😍
Did you run your previous absorption using your inverter and batteries (you stated that it takes 400+ watts to run an absorption fridge)? If so, you missed the most major reason to have an absorption fridge - you run it using LP gas so that it will not burden your battery(s). I do agree with your other points, but absorption fridges do have their place relative to camping and traveling.
I've run them off of propane in this rig, and previous RV's we've had. They are significantly more efficient on propane, but I just don't like the idea of an actual fire running the fridge. It's a high risk scenario.
Great overview and comparison.
Thank you!
Great video! We too did a similar upgrade to our camper but we went with the Dometic 12V single doors 10cu ft. Our's was in a slide too si I appreciate the running new wire comments! Thanks to you other video we too are looking our next appliance upgrade to be the greystone stove! ! Any lessons learned since installing them?
The biggest thing is getting help getting the fridge into place. Installing the stove wasn’t bad at all! No regrets at all!
Super, tons, preventative, etc., let ignorance rule.
Nice video production. My absorption is working fine, so hard to justify a new fridge. Plus, there’s the “no propane” laws when driving which I did not know about. I’ve always kept the fridge running cuz I was unaware of this rule…. Now I don’t know how I’ll keep things cold on drive days?? Once a “bee” like this gets my my bonnet, it will buzz around until I make the change or forget. LOL.
Haha I know the feeling! Ours was working fine when we made the change as well. I wouldn’t go back for anything though!
Ignore no propane rule. Problem solved.
@@thomaspayne5232 well, I have been to date. Installing a DC-DC charger so that could be a solution, but I'll check the power consumption on this. After all, the point of the install is to recharge batteries on drive days, not run fridge.
@@jimsjacob An LP fridge is good when you only have a 30 amp connection to play with like you do in a class C RV. So is a gas cooktop, gas oven, gas furnace, and gas water heater. Imagine having to run electric fridge, space heater, induction cooktop, convection microwave, electric water heater, power outlets, TV, and A/C all off a 30 amp connection? IMO there isn't much incentive to sacrifice amps to go from an 8 cu.ft LP fridge to a 10 cu.ft electric fridge when you consider the added energy use and upgrades necessary to run it. But I can see how going from an 8 cu.ft LP fridge to a 16 cu.ft electric fridge would justify sacrificing the amps because it's double the capacity. A power management system would be a must.
Mines taking 3 days to cool off but the freezer works fine.
Why are other videos saying the opposite? That absorption fridges use way less electricity (because they can run on propane) than a 12v? People are worried without huge battery banks and solar, they can't boondock any significant time with a 12v.
Ty sir
Absolutely! Thanks for watching!
so what was the correct size flare cap used for the lp line???
I live in my RV full time docked to an AC outlet. I do have a battery hook up as well that is continuously recharging from the AC. I am asking because my 2way RV Fridge is now not working. It maybe the heater rod, not sure. Anyway would this 12v work well for me also? I suppose it would be good to have a back up battery then? Thanks, great video! Oh, I have a hard time with noise..I am so glad you shared that.
This would definitely work for you. It uses much less power than a residential fridge would(which would be your other option). Honestly you can’t go wrong with either of you are stationary.
Hi..
Is this a true 12v refrigerator, or does it simply have a built-in inverter?
We have 1070 watts and 8 kilo Vault batteries. The refer is a Samsung that as you know is a power hungry beast. Wanted to replace our with the exact same unit you installed. My worries have been the size of the unit. Now that someone has placed one in there RV may I please have the exact measurements of yours. Our samsung is tight in the hole. thanks for the video of your install.
Glad you liked the video. The measurements give on the website are correct, I double checked. 28 1/2 Wide x 30 deep x 69 3/4 High.
@@TodayWeGo darng my cavity is only 28 in deep and 30 W x 70 H guess I;m out of luck there.
How much solar power is needed to run it?
I like the fridge. Real nice. But how did you secure it so it won't move during travel? I didn't see you do that part? Or do you not have to?
We haven’t secured it at all. I’m sure it moves a little but we haven’t had any issues.
I bought the 10 cubic ft 12 volt model to replace a failed Dometic absorption mode. When I installed it the refrigerator turned on right away with the pretty blue lighting inside. It still only kept the ambient temperature that was outside. The fan would run but the compressor wouldn't stay on. I received a set of replacement parts, main board, compressor board and the power coil. Still a no go. Received an entire replacement unit. All this time my RV was inside my pole barn on 30 amp shore power. Second fridge powered up, ran a while, got to the perfect temp then stopped cooling again after a day. I had my batteries tested and they were in marginal condition so I replaced the deep cycle batteries with much better best I could get models for $800 for the pair. After three days running on shore power it was staying at the perfect temp but now went back to ambient temperature. So frustrated I have no idea what to do.
Hmm, that definitely frustrating. Do you have the correct gauge wire running from your distribution panel to the fridge? Is the fridge grounded to the frame?
@@davidocasek5541 I'm using 10 gauge wire with 15 amp fuse. There is no ground available in the area of install where the Dometic used to be. I don't anything in the install instructions about using an additional ground to the refrigerator frame ground built in. I did not run new wiring but used the existing 12 volt wiring that previously went to the dometic. The is a 24' travel trailer. The fuse panel is under the fridge and also houses the propane furnace. I have never removed the fuse panel or looked at the area behind it.
Maybe the different models differ there, I know with ours we were supposed to ground it to the frame. Is there anything else connected to that wiring or is the fridge it? I’m thinking maybe low voltage potentially causing damage to the components?
@@TodayWeGo This is the 10.7 cu ft model. I will relook at the instructions and see if I missed grounding. Looks like I need to get into the area under it as well that houses the fuse panel and furnace. I'm thinking the 15 amp fuse should be sufficient for the 7 amp draw. Will try to trace back the wiring all the way to the panel.
@@TDC_Dragon Did you ever figure out the problem? We too installed the Dometic in ours and I thought I had a similar issue. Ours seems to be ok althoughI thought I was having an initial issue but it simply took about 5.3 minutes for the compressors to turn on once the power to the RV was turned on. We ran 10 gauge wire to the panel box on its own 20amp fuse. I tested it with the my VOM and the amp clamp and saw the 7.3 current moving and the wetbulb thermometer showed it cooling to ~37 degrees. I hope it stays that way, it's really frustrating when everything you do still doesn't work!
But how long can it run off of the batteries? What size of battery bank do you have? What size is your solar array that is keeping the fridge from killing the batteries?
We haven’t tested just the fridge on batteries. It would last a really long time though. 600ah of lithium at 12v. Our solar array is 2510 watts.
Wish you do an update on the Refrigerator?.
It’s coming soon, life has been hitting us pretty hard lately so getting videos out has been tough. Just know that we still love it and wouldn’t have any other fridge in the RV!
@@TodayWeGo Hope things are Ok and thanks for the reply guys.
Installed this same EverChill July 2023. Used it July, August, and September. Camper was winterized and ready for winter 10/07/2023. Just opened camper last week. Been plugged into 110v supply from my house. Refrigerator will not cool. Power to fridge but no cooling. Any ideas where to start? I’ve check incoming power. Will not cool on 110 or from inverter.
Blown fuse. Read your manual where its at on the fridge.
Thanks for the video. I appreciate it. Good job.
What amount of battery storage do you have and solar?
How long could you be “off grid”? My wife and I are thinking when we get our, we won’t be “off grid more than 20 days or so?
We have 600ah of lithium batteries. We also have 2520 watts of solar on the roof. As far as being off grid, that really depends on all the conditions, weather, sun, temperature, power usage, etc. in the end we are limited by our black tank size. We can stay off grid for about a week as a family of 5.
How did you fasten it down? How well does it travel? Any problems keeping it closed?
It’s actually not fastened down at all. We haven’t had any major issues at all with it moving. It has walked left or right slightly after some moves, but nothing too concerning.
we had dual dometic fridges in our fifth wheel..16cf, we are installing the exact same fridge...nice ain't it?
It’s wonderful! We love it
Marell just wondering if you've had the frig installed and did yall do it yourself or have someone do it. I want to put one in but I'm not strong enough.
@@rvfuntimes6144 got the old ones out and are doing the cabinet work. Our dometics sat off floor, this one sits on...have to do a bit. went right thru door np...kids helped us..is 12vdc, and wiring is there, also having to modify behind. Get rid of propane lines and all. Weather and health has slowed us down quite a bite.
What are the cons if we have a generator? We don’t do solar, but do boondock a day or three here and there… we supplement with our generator but currently have an absorption fridge. It has issues and we are looking into 12v fridges or residential… thoughts on either? Leaning towards a 12v but don’t know if that’s the best fit for us… we full time park to park except when on the move which is when we boondock a day or 3. No lithium batteries either, just generator and lead acid. Any advice would be appreciated!
If you’re going to have a 12v fridge I would recommend either having multiple batteries, or keeping the generator running. If the battery dies, so does the fridge.
Newbie here. Do you run your fridge while traveling? Heard it could damage compressor to do so.
So far we’ve had no issues and it’s been running for almost a year straight now.
My residential ac fridge runs off of batteries and solar
Are those curtain rods? Or are they special bars..?
They are bars designed for this purpose, I believe they are made by Camco. Honestly, I don’t see any reason you couldn’t use curtain rods though.
Thanks you convinced me not to buy a camper with a gas fridge.
Good news is a lot of campers are now coming with the option to get a 12v fridge.
Have you run any amp/watt draw tests over course of 24hrs using your Victron equipment?
That’s a great question! I have not run any tests. I’m having issues with my Cerbo GX connecting to VRM at the moment. I’m not sure if there is a way to track it locally. That’s a really good idea though. I can say pretty confidently though that it won’t be much just from checking the draw periodically. If I can get it figured out, I’ll definitely let you know.
that is.... as long as your VRM issues are not that the Cerbo is not connecting to wifi/internet at all
Everchill 12v refrigerator has a 45% failure rate. Aweful idea.
Over a year with zero issues so far.
Howdy...is there a follow up review on this fridge after over 6 months of use? Was going to replace mine with Cannon/Everchill but seeing quality complaints online. How is yours doing?? Thx
We will actually be doing a 1 year review in the near future, but we are loving this fridge still. Zero issues and zero regrets so far.
We had the Everchill 12v 10.7 cu ft as standard equipment in our Rockwood Mini Lite. Refrigerator was DOA but freezer worked. With all the run around we got from Everchill and Forest River, I would never get another Everchill or Forest River product. Still waiting on parts that may or may not fix the refrigerator. Everchill should have just replaced the unit instead of trying to fix a brand new non functioning unit.
Most Fridgs will run on 24 volts doubling the efficiency. The Question is, why are you running 12 volt system.
Wow! I’m looking to get the same fridge. How did you secure the fridge for travel? can it be bolted to the wall?
Believe it or not it is free standing. There are little adjustment screws on the bottom to level it out and lift the wheels off the ground. It’s very stable! I’m sure it could be bolted to the wall, but it is designed to be free standing. It’s a fantastic fridge!
Forgot to ask how is it working after 2 months.
We love it, it’s working great, no issues at all. Probably my favorite upgrade that we did
@@TodayWeGo just wondering if your going to do an update of refigerator?
Guys buy a cooler that holds ice for 5 PLUS days really who boon docks longer than 5 days lol I mean who hasn't tent camped do you wonder about your fridge clearly not. lets not over complicate camping lol. But good to know for regular rv park hook up stuff
What are the venting requirements? I saw that you sealed your old bottom vent. Do these not require a bottom fresh air vent, baffling behind or roof vent? Great video!
That’s one of the really cool things about 12v fridges. They vent just like a regular household fridge. They just need a small air gap and vent to the inside of the rv.
If you know or if anyone knows of someone that would help me replace my residential with one of these I would be great full for any suggestions. in 2017 we had our residential replaced account of a defect. I know it come through the front door. It took several boddies to do it and they had a platform to set at front door to move it in and out. I want one of these so bad just can't find someone that will help me do it.
If we’re ever near each other I’d be happy to help. I would definitely at least recommend 2 people to get it into place.
@@TodayWeGo I was thinking of building a platform near at door to help move it in.
Dude take the bottom of that gas line off underneath the 5er and cap it there. Why would you even want to chance an lp leak inside the trailer?
I definitely could have. I’m confident that the connection is solid. Just as easily could leak at the old fridge or the oven.
@@TodayWeGo sure it could, but, in my train of thought it’s probably better to eliminate one potential internal gas leak. They are much more dangerous than an external one the breeze may carry away. The bonehead contradictory thought process you revealed in the video should only have consequences for you. I’d reconsider that bad habit when it may adversely impact other family members.
You compared 12V fridge to LP fridge running on 120V electric. 🙄LP fridge is 2 way and on propane it's way more efficient than what you said.
Thanks for the comment.
If you just spent $2500 on a fridge you shouldn't have any issues.
Agreed
Quit blaming all the missing corn dogs on your kid, we can tell it ain’t all him dude.
STAY AWAY FROM 12 VOLT REFRIGERATOR .ThEY ARE A NIGHTMARE.
We absolutely love ours! I’m curious about your experience?
My iceco 12v compressor cooler has been a godsend.
Then both of you are plugged in to a power source.and no nothing about camping
@@only1USA. 😂 mine draws less than 2 amps most of the time, and I don’t use it for camping, it’s used for work. It’s plugged in my pickup about 1/2 the week with one small ford sized group 34 battery. Hasn’t killed the battery yet working 13-14 hour shifts or overnight. If you’re going to try to insult somebody you’d probably better “know” how to spell.
@@TheMajictech no disrespect but you are not a camper.as for the spelling how childish.
Get ready for it to go out lol. 12v is garbage
Going on 2 years without issue. Sounds like you had a bad experience
Mine made it three months.