What Are the Advantages of a 12V RV Fridge?Ī fully 12V RV refrigerator has several advantages over an absorption fridge. Most RVs still come from the manufacturer with absorption fridges, so for the purposes of this post we want to compare the 12V RV fridge with the more common absorption RV fridge powered by gas and electricity. ft residential refrigerator (if you had the room AND it could fit through your RV’s door, window, or windshield!). For example, the 12V fridge shown above is a 10 cu ft unit while our residential RV fridge offers 18 cu ft of space… and you could even get a 21 or 24 cu. Residential refrigerators come in a much wider range of sizes, including much larger than is available in a 12V RV fridge model. That extra power draw is eliminated with a 12V fridge.īut the other difference is size. This is a benefit of a 12V fridge over a residential fridge because an inverter isn’t 100% efficient, so power is lost in the conversion. The fridge runs directly on the 12V DC power supplied by the rig’s battery bank. With a 12V RV fridge, there’s no need for an inverter because there’s no need for that conversion. An inverter is necessary to convert 12V DC power into the 120V AC power that a residential fridge uses. The most significant difference is that you need an inverter to run a residential fridge in an RV. (Our friends Tom & Cait Morton have this very fridge and love it.)Ī 12V RV refrigerator is similar to an RV residential refrigerator that always runs on 120V AC power (like the one we have), however, there are a couple of significant differences. This Dometic DMC4101 12V DC compressor refrigerator is a 10 cu ft RV fridge that has significantly larger capacity than a similarly-sized RV absorption fridge. Many van and car campers use small and/or portable 12V compressor fridges, but for the purpose of today’s topic, we’re referring to the larger version such as this 10 cu ft residential-style Dometic fridge. (This has its advantages and its drawbacks as we’ll see momentarily.) So what’s the difference? In a nutshell, an absorption fridge uses heat to trigger a chemical process that creates cold in the fridge & freezer compartments, but a 12V-only fridge uses only electricity to run a compressor to create a cold environment. In the RV environment, a 12V fridge is most often powered by the rig’s house battery bank (often charged by solar panels), though it can also be powered by the alternator of a vehicle or motorhome while the engine is running. While 2-way (or 3-way) fridges are absorption refrigerators, a 12V fridge uses a compressor that operates exclusively on 12V DC power, eliminating the need for both LP (liquid propane) gas and 120V AC. Power consumption varies based on the quality of the compressor used by the fridge’s manufacturer. How Does a 12V RV Refrigerator Work?Ī 12V fridge exclusively runs on 12V DC power at all times. Traditionally, in fact, RVs were supplied with fridges that could cool in 120V AC power mode when plugged into shore power, OR in LP (gas) mode when boondocking (not connected to any other power source), OR in 12V DC mode when the engine’s alternator is running. Some RV fridges have the ability to work in two or even all three modes. We noted that an RV fridge can work on 120V AC supplied by shore power (such as that provided at a campground’s power pedestal), by LP (liquid propane) gas, or by 12V power supplied by a battery bank that can be charged by an engine’s alternator or by a solar system. In our post about the RV refrigerator in general, we discussed the various types of RV fridges and how they work. 8) Free RVing Tips, Tricks, Reviews, Giveaways & More.7) Do You Have a 12V Refrigerator in Your RV?.6) 12V Compressor Residential-Style Refrigerators for RVs.5) What Type of RV Refrigerator Is Best?.4) What Are the Disadvantages of a 12V RV Refrigerator?.3) What Are the Advantages of a 12V RV Fridge?.2) How Does a 12V RV Refrigerator Work?.
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