Converting our RV Fridge to a High Efficiency DC Compressor- 8x More Efficient! and Better Cooling! 

At that time of this video the costs for the unit for a fridge like ours was$ 595.00 for AC and $800.00 for the DC unit. The larger units probably are a bit more expensive but I am not sure. They can install it for $150 or ship them to you. Their upgraded absorption unit was $650.

I don't plan on doing a fridge conversion and stumbled upon this while looking for other fridge info but just wanted to say that I appreciate the in-depth nature of this video, the good editing, and the follow up segment at the end. Really great content guys! Will check out your other stuff.

Tom, THANK YOU for this video!!! Our fridge in the RV was becoming less reliable, and when I started looking for replacements today, I find your video. You are truly a Renaissance Man! We are doing the funds reallocation to place the order next month! I figure we will save that much in just the ice we have been buying! Again, thank you!

Tremendous guys! Really informative and takes away the apprehension of doing this project on our own should we ever bulk up our electrical storage. Appreciate all the "engineer's" attention to detail along the way!

Another great video. I like how you explain what you are thinking. Congrats on a successful install.

This is great work guys. I can't believe you did all this and shot the video while doing this. This is what makes RU-vid great. Don't have words to thank you for your hard work. Keep up the good work.

You guys did an excellent job on this video. One of the most complete and thorough how to / reviews of any product I've ever watched. And I've watched a lot of them.

VERY well done video, and loads of good info as well! I was unaware of this options existence. Thanks for the education. As a Broadcast Engineer myself, I do appreciate your attention to detail. I have had (what I believe is) the exact same Dometic fridge in my 2007 Heartland BigHorn 5th wheel. After being unimpressed with its cooling, I added two 6 inch computer fans to the top outside vent, blowing out...basically sucking the warm air out from the upper rear fins. Then I added a small DC fan inside of the unit, blowing on the fridge fins. The end result of this was a fridge that stayed about 33-36 deg, and a freezer that stayed between zero and +8 all last summer. Oh, and I should mention that I cleaned the burner, and flue too. Very important! Something must have really been wrong with yours to cool so poorly. Although I haven't had to use it personally, the upside-down trick does work too. Absorption fridges don't have to cool poorly, but many of them do when they aren't working well. They also don't use very much propane when they are working well...Nothing like the furnace or water heater. Just a tiny little flame. They do take a while to get going however, and that is a more significant draw-back. I don't mind getting a 30# tank re-filled once or twice a season. If we were full-timing like you, I might feel differently. Propane is basically a waste-gas anyway...A by-product of the refining process. They used to just burn it off until they realized people would buy it. As a side-note, my parents used to have a gas home fridge, and installed a new Arkla-Servel gas air conditioner in their home in 1968. It was an overly complex PITA, and it sprung an unfixable leak after about 12 years. So I've had both good and bad experience with absorption cooling. I fully understand why you folks went this route, but it's probably not a path I'd take. At least not till I have tons of solar on the roof, and a Tesla battery. :-)

Well done guys. You gave an outstanding liniar explaination with no fluff or redundency. Your explaination gave this diy'er the kick in my confidence to stop procrastinating and get on with it.

Thanks, this was a great find! I was kinda shocked at how much propane our fridge uses! We're upgrading our solar from 100W to 1400W, so a DC fridge is a no brainer (works better AND uses less power). We're also waiting for a 24VDC mini-split air conditioner due out later this year from Hotspot Energy. Solar boondocking will be SO much easier with air conditioning that uses 200-500W instead of 900-1200W of power plus inverter losses.

Hello again, Tom! This video was so incredible that I just had to watch it again! What a big all day project that you and your wife took on. I'm very impressed with everything that you do on your channel and with everything in your lives.

Wow! Good on ya. Watching you guys over the last year or so, you’ve come a long way. Cool... Thanks for doing and sharing these things...

You will find you will love a small impact driver so much better for the type of work you are doing...its a tool improvement that I was really glad to discover.Especially for self tapping screws...more power more control

Wow. This is really great. As a refrigeration mechanic I'm impressed and was not aware they made these. The cost is honestly very good and the dc unit was definitely the way to go.

Nice to know there are conversion kits like this out there. I would have thought they would be cheaper to buy than a new absorption kit. Thanks for the tutorial.

West RV repair in Livingston TX installed the AC compressor AC unit from JR REfrigeration. Our unit work wonderfully. Freezer reaches 18 degrees and the fridge is easily maintained at 38 even in the hot weather of Texas. Best mod I've done on my rig.

Great video. I will be driving out to their factory this summer and have them install the 12v unit on my Dometic RM2652. They estimated about $800.

Just worked on a project with Furrion on their 12vdc refrigerator and they're really incredible. Now I"m looking for some dumb excuse to replace our refrigerator (our RV refrigerator is still working great, even on really hot days). This is a great option too - another terrific video!

Well Tom, as usual, great work. I will check in to this kind of fridge change.

Well done. Thanks for the video. Nice to have a strong woman to help you. I like the look of that fridge/freezer with the nice wooden door panels.

The control box on the side of the compressor is a timer which protects the compressor from short cycles and monitors the pressure on the input and output of the compressor. All compressors have a 5 minute minimum stand down which starts either when power is first applied or when the compressor cycles off. The cycling that you saw on first start would be the refrigerant moving around the lines which causes random pressure swings and the controller will shutdown the compressor to protect it. Once things equalize and the 5 minute timer expires then the compressor can start again. Your Air Conditioner has one of these circuits as well.

We have a Norcold fridge and the DC compressor will vastly improve its operation. Thanks again!

Dude! You are a pro. I hope the manufacturer pays you for this monster install. I prefer an un-vented residential 115V frig and use my inverter when on battery. If my battery gets low, fire up the gas generator and power everything including the battery charger to get back on battery power. No special wiring, and no issues in freezing weather.

Thanks for this video content. It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for. You guys did an awesome job converting you’re fridge over to a compressor style. Nice work 👍. I will definitely be getting in touch with JC refrigeration in regards to my own conversion.

I have the JC 120 V unit and love the way it performs in my 1200 series Norcold

I am not gonna use this anytime soon. But the last words looked too honest. Thumbs up for the genuine review 👏🏽🙏🏼🙏🏼

Drove out from California to Indiana to have JC refrigeration do the conversion to 12 V About 5 weeks ago. It is a game changer. I can now boondock and have the electric refrigeration. At around 75ﾟ F my old unit when on electric would burn about 20 amps per hour. With the new unit it's a tad above 4 amps per hour. That's 480 amp hours per day down to 100 amp hours per day. One 150 watt panel would probly keep up with it. I have got 950 watts So even on cloudy days I'm putting out enough. The people at JC refrigeration couldn't be nicer. They will let you park in their parking lot the night before your appointment. Thank you so much for doing this video. It has been a huge plus for me. Cost around a $1000 for my Dometic 2652. One note: There is a low level sound and some vibration. Not a bother to me at all but everybody's different

That's an interesting new option. We had JC Refrigeration install their so-called 'Amish Cooling Unit' in our Norcold 1200 last year. Very impressed with the unit and the factory install. And it works great!

Yeah man I’m glad I found your video because if I start having problems with mine that’s exactly what I’m doin but I think mine is ok for now it actually freezes stuff a little in the refrigerator

Outstanding video! With all the problems with the propane refrigerators, we just installed 1 KW solar power and 2 120 amp Lithium batteries and a 6 kw inverter to power our 120 volt ultra high energy efficient refrig-freezer and have been very happy.

I am never going to do anything like this but I love watching this guy do it

Funny ... I just did the same conversion to our fridge - works great, doesn't it? We're full-time and my wife was hiking the Appalachian Trail when I got my unit, so I ended up doing the whole conversion (including removing and reinstalling the fridge) by myself after putting the kids to bed. It was a long night, but by 0600 my fridge was icy cold! So happy I did the conversion! Kudos to the folks at JC Refrigeration... One thing to note is that they only have compressor conversions for a couple of Norcold/Dometic models (mine is a Dometic 2652).

This is a great product and even better video! Great job. We chose to replace our not old with a frost free fridge. And added a drawer cooler and mini dishwasher. In the same space. It was still $400 less than this conversion. This is an amazing kit if you’re not skilled enough to close off this old space for a interior vented/cooled fridge. Thanks for the video!!

What an awesome idea. The propane electric fridges are super expensive to replace. Converting it to 12v makes so much more sense.

Awsome video once again guys! Way to Gitter Done. You really make it look easy!!

One of the best RV retrofitting videos I’ve ever watched. Bravo.

A few builders of trailers are now getting rid of the absorption fire starters in favor of new 12V 3Amp larger fridges and freezers. With a solar panel and better batteries you will never have a problem running it 24/7. You no longer need to go regular residential which draws to much power.

Great video. Our Norcold fridge like your is 15 years old and luckily is still working like new.

New to your channel. I'm 64 and don't know half of what you know electrically. We hope become full timers in two years. Jobs and family are putting us off a while. We'll continue watching your journey, take care and be safe.

Keep up the good work. Safe travels and God bless you. RV lifestyle is awesome !

Super well done and interesting video. I'm learning that the gold standard of 12-24 volt DC fridges is a pricey one. No matter whether retrofit, or brand new it is expensive to have DC refrigeration. Buying a new DC fridge to install in your RV would have surely been much more money than the conversion though. I'm glad it all turned out well for you guys.

Great informational video. We will be full time in 2 months and this is going to be one of the first things we do. Nice to see young smart peeps teaching some old peeps some good info. I am subscribing to your channel because of this video.

Super Video u 2! I know it seems silly to point out but you do a great job of talking clearly and pronouncing words correctly. Easy for us “older DYIers” to n

Thanks for the video. Very informative. I'll keep this in mind until my RV is a little older it's brand new.

Great information. Mine is not working all that great and they don’t like warm food, takes too long to cool down. This is a great way to convert it because it’s about half price of a new gas/electric unit or the same for a 12v replacement unit. The 12v unit does increase the storage from 8 cuft to 10 cuft. Might be worth the cost.

Wow! I didn't know you can convert a fridge like that. Amazing!

I had a full size residential refrigerator in my boat and mostly running on inverter for two or three days. If you do this there are two things that you must keep in mind. The current draw was not bad when the compressor ran but the big surprise was the defrost cycle. The defrost could pull enough power the cause the inverter fan to run. To save power and keep things quiet I installed a switch to disable the defrost when it was on inverter power. The ice buildup minimal for a few days and went away by next weekend when on shore power. Just remember to turn it back on. You also want to install a delay on timer so that if there’s a momentary power interruption that the refrigerator compressor has time to reduce starting pressure. If there’s too much pressure in the system and it hasn’t equalized it can stall the compressor and it trips a safety but that safety will only do that a limited number of times before the compressor or safety device fail.

Great video, I've been looking to do something about my RV fridge since is also around the 50 degrees and 20 on the freezer, I also have enough solar power to run any model and your DC option seems nice, but for my case I think I prefer to buy a residential unit that has a big condenser on the back and it has the same outside dimension of the existing fridge, I saw one in home depot for just over 500 dollars, I only wish there was an option of having both compressor and evaporation style unit so if I have too many cloudy days I could still use the propane as backup, again great video

Thank you, very nice production, I enjoyed watching the retrofit.

this is a really great video I am very impressed with your imagination, knowledge and skill. I am sure that many RV users with three way fridges will be converting to compressor fridges. One question I would like to ask is would it have been a good idea to apply additional insulation to the side(s) of the fridge prior to installing it in place as this would have helped to keep the fridge cool and reduced power consumption (although with your solar setup i guess you have plenty power). I appreciate you uploading this video.

The AC/DC compressor systems are worth the investment from my experience. Even the cooler size systems like the Dometic CFX-40US Portable Electric Cooler Refrigerator/Freezer 1.4 cu. Ft. that I picked up with a Insulated Protective Cover for $563 total works great. I burnt out a thermoelectric system and decided I didn't want to spend the money for ice and limited capabilities on my next investment. Neat to see the larger DC system (which is easier to transform from AC to DC versus DC to AC) cost is reasonable compared. Thanks for detailing the conversion and system!

Tuned in for the last minuet of the program. Looked interesting. Will watch it later if thats an option on your sight.

This is fabulous. If mine was not residential I'd do this as soon as I could.

Great Job! Thanks for sharing. Happy Trails!!

Good job guys. I’ve got one of those lovely 4 door nevercolds. Simply put running it on solar is out of the question even with my 2300watt system. All said, I think I’ll go residential for three reasons: more finite control; over fridge, freezer temps, an ice maker and auto defrost :) Anyhow ... awesome conversion.

My Norcold 2118 was sucking our batteries dry, using 11KW/day, or emptying a 30# propane bottle in 6 days. And temp control was the unsatisfactory. I was very frustrated! In March 2020 I installed the DC compressor unit. It only took about 2 hours, working slowly, and the instructions & photos were easy to follow. Customer service was great! It is now July. We love this conversion! It draws a small 1.25 KW/day, hardly even noticing the draw on our 600A system. I did have to run a 10ga wire from a 12V node to the fridge because the compressor start spike was too much for installed 12ga wire, but that was simple. I added a 15A fuse for safety. I also added an adjustable thermostat to replace the thermistor. Temps are now always in the right range. The fridge stays cold, and the freezer stays frozen, no matter if it’s below 50 (Montana) or over 100 (Las Vegas) outside.

Nicely done! Interesting that I am looking to do just the opposite - switch out a 12v compressor fridge for a dual propane/electric due to battery capacity and noise.

very cool upgrade! i wish i could have a propane/ DC compressor fridge, but i guess you can' have it all. i will definitely be looking into this upgrade once i upgrade my solar, and my absorption fridge starts loosing performance.

Great video, you two did an amazing job with the installation and information all around great job I actually watched the whole thing no skips.👍🏽

You Two Make A Great Team. Your From A To Z On Change Over Of Refrig Has Just Been Amazing In Delivery & Explaining Step By Step. Must Say Best Presentation Of How To Do Have Seen On RU-vid. Thank-You Again For All Your Time & Unselfish Gifting Forward. Safe Travels & Keep The Needs To Maintain From The Corona-19 Virus Pandemic. As Over 100,000 Daily Now Becoming Ill From The Virus. Always, Tommy :-)

Nice work, you two are a great team!

Incredible video!! Well thought out and presented. Thank you.

What a great step by step instruction video.

Thank you for this video, very informative.

Thank you so much, for making this video.

Awesome video with great details

Thank you for your informative and helpful videos!

Excellent how to video! Thank you.

That's an interesting re-fit kit, although my older (1989) propane or 120-Vac freezer/'fridge used about "a birthday-candle's worth" of propane, (or a tiny amount of shore-power), to run it for a solid 5 weeks of one of the hottest months on record for the area I was in, (USA mid-eastern seaboard, and the average temperature & humidity were 99-degrees F & 98% R.H.)... I try to keep my freezer at about -5-degrees F, & the 'fridge runs at a nice +33- to +35-degrees F, and while my "house-based" units can't get the freezer to near that cold for the freezer, (with the fridge at a nice +34-degrees F), the RVs' R-717 "ammonia-water" system easily kept things at +33 degrees F in the 'fridge, and a nice "hard-frozen" -5 degrees F in the freezer section. (With both sides of my family having been in some form of "the food business" for at least 4 generations, they all agreed that "Pasteurized cow's milk" stays perfectly good for over a month at that low +33 degrees F, if it was kept properly cold from the dairy to them, or to me.) Also, after some "usually never-needed" maintenance, I checked my "R-717" or "ammonia-water" systems' levels & pressures, after evacuating & properly & safely cleaning & leak-testing the "plumbing" of the system, & there was NO "Hydrogen subsystem" or similar to be found; it works the same way the first freezers for the generic "Olde Towne Ice House" systems usually did: when the super-heated, and therefore pressurized, gaseous ammonia-water mix is released through the thermostatic expansion valve, (or capillary-tube, or whatever is used in place of a TEV, since that's what the R-12, R-22, & other "R-bad for the environment" "Freon"-based* refrigerant systems I've had used), *("Freon" is a copyrighted trade-name, property of the respective owner; I can't get my present tablet to let me put a proper "scienter" symbol in here), and the MH freezer/'fridge has a large, finned aluminum plate which goes from "outside" to "inside" the freezer section, where it pulls the heat needed to "phase-change" the "refrigerant" so it will, with some energy added in the form of latent heat, re-condense back to a liquid. My trusty (but not rusty) MH 30-yr.-old unit, gets that extra latent heat from a substantially thick, finned aluminum plate, which takes the heat from "inside" the freezer & moves it into the refrigerant, (which is "outside" of the unit), with a thick, flat aluminum plate extending down from that finned upper part in the freezer going through a well-fitted slot leading to the 'fridge section, to carry some of the heat from the 'fridge section as well... (Basically, all combination "refrigerator-freezers" only "cool", or move the heat OUT of, the freezer section, & get additional heat out of the 'fridge section.) Just as one cannot put darkness into a room, but one CAN put light INTO the room, "cold" cannot be removed from a space, but the heat CAN be moved from inside a space to outside, (or to a different place.) A "heat-pump" is simply an "air-conditioner" which can be reversed with two simple electrically-operated valves. This was the first time I've even heard of an "R-717" (or "ammonia-water")-based system needing anything other than the R-717 & a little heat to get the phase-change-cycle going! Thanks for an informative & well-explained "bringing an old-timer like me up-to-date" post! (And if anyone can tell me, or the mechanics I know, how on earth to change the spark plugs & do a "tune-up" on a Ford 460-cid "gas-burner" engine, which was "shoehorned" into the requested space it's in, by John Deere, (who built the Heavy-Duty Truck Chassis which the fiberglass "Dolphin 3450", ("Deluxe apartment on wheels"), which was assembled by the now-defunct National RV of Perris, Calif., we'd really like to stop doing "routine maintenance" by taking the entire engine & transmission out from UNDER the rig, doing literally everything while it's all "out", then putting it all back "in"!) Cheers, from a retired "Higher-Than-High-Tech-Engineer"! "Keep the roof up & wheels down!" Phoenix NightOwl Jr.

Very well done video! I did not know this was an option for my Dometic Refer. Thank you for sharing! 😎

I'm glad you have a working solution now. I have an older unit that can cool the freezer down to -20F when the outside temperature ranges in the 60s to 70s. The freezer still stays down to about -5F when in the 80s to 90s. The frig stays in the safe range too. I actually have a problem with the frig getting too cold and freezing.

You da man! That was one of the best instructional video I've seen. Great tip about JC Refrigeration, I never knew upgrade kits like this existed. You've got me thinking now. We've never liked our double door absorption unit, but that's all there was before. Now I have an option. Thanks for sharing your project.

Very well presented video. Bravo!

GREAT job on this video!

Great video. Very well explained !👍😊

You really put a lot of effort into this. From my perspective I don't think many people would be as successful as you .

Like your follow up section and the info about low battery cut out.

Very informative. Excellent presentation and content.

You both are Awesome and so is this video. Happy Trails and stay safe.

Well done.

So cool thankyou I'm in this boat as we speak

I usually watch such videos at 2x. It's bloody impossible with you, man! And congrats on such a great job!

great job Tom

Great job, yall showed me just about everything i was wondering about im sold!~

I did that very thing! I tore out the old one and slapped in a comparably sized Haier residential unit. I discovered there was 8 cubic feet of wasted space in that opening, too.

Very helpful information, great presentation. I did not know anything about the ammonia system. I learned a great deal in this presentation. Thank you.

Great video and install would recommend getting a 12v heater rod to defrost your fins also a small muffin fan 12v dc to better move cold air in this space you also could power this muffin fan on outside solar cell. I have the old style gas , electric and gas type with heater or flame to run it. I have a old Dometic which was considered to be better than the newer models by some rebuilders and i mostly use gas which lasts 7 days or 120v ac when stopped . 12 vdc always runs down my battery fast.

Great video - thanks for sharing!

Good ad. Thanks for the information.

Man, it was this video that had us shopping for a new TT with a 12V Fridge as a must-have. So we ended up with a 2021.5 19Bhles Surveyor Legend 12V 10.7 Cubit Inch Fridge by Norcold. Even has a night mode for silent operation for 8 hours.

very informative video. Excellent work.

Fantastic post!

Awesome video...thank you

Wow. That was my kind of high quality nerd troubleshooting 🤓

Impressive.

Interesting idea and worth experimenting. I had this idea to use old car ac system and compressor but gave up. Reason - inefficient. If it works as you say, then good to try but.... Propane fridge does not use 600 watts. Its motherboard draws very little current to maintain the flame and some more to start and stop relays during the cycle. Never 600W as you say. You can do it with this unit but you need a heck of a battery bank to run electric all the time.

Nice Job!!

Great info. Looks like a great system and hope you’re near us when we get to that point! LOL. We didn’t know Cait was the brawn - keep lifting Cait!

Perfect for my off grid cabin

Thanks for taking the time to share this with us. I just sent an email to the company to hopefully be able to afford this upgrade. I understood everything, but kinda lost me on the wiring and reconnection. You did say their customer service was excellent, so I'm sure they could help with that for me! Great job and Congratulations! Did you get the auxiliary fans hooked up? Take care, Razor!