Why The 12volt RV Fridge is Amazing! RV Fridge Comparison. 

The fact that you fixed that compressor refrigerator says a lot and one of the reasons I subscribe. The other fact that the RV Repair Facility did not fix the issue and that no one there saw the potential in repairing it is the reason I do my own work. If they are not smart enough to do simple diagnosing then they are not touching anything I own. Great video, thank you!

We had to order our trailer because I absolutely wanted a 12v fridge. The advantages substantially outweigh the disadvantages and since we rarely boondock it was a no brainer. The dealer was not to happy since they had 3 of the exact same trailers on the lot with absorption fridges but that's their problem.

There is a third option for an RV fridge, replace the absorption mechanism with a compressor system from Jc Refrigeration/ DutchAire. This uses the current fridge "box" while replacing the tubes, burner, and electric heaters on back with 12 volt compressor system. They also sell a120 volt replacement too. I did this with my 14 year old Norcold at a price at that time of around $800. One thing that a self contained 12 volt compressor fridge does is add additional heat to interior of RV, which during hot weather can make the interior uncomfortable or put more work on your air conditioner.

I have a lot of experience using absorption refrigerators and and some recent experience with DC compressor fridges, primarily through using large cooler style refrigerator/freezers. If the upright DC fridge works like my coolers, I think an advantage you overlooked is that you don't have to "pre-chill" everything before it goes in, as you do with the propane fridge. You mentioned that it takes awhile (8 hrs) to cool the propane one before you load it, but you also have to load it with food that is cold to start with. The ones I've had would take DAYS to cool foods from anything close to room temp. If you tried that with certain foods I'm sure they would spoil before they got down to a safe temp. DC compressor fridges, based on my limited experience with large car coolers, work every bit as well as if you were putting stuff in your kitchen fridge. I made 31 lbs of ice from tap water in less than 24 hrs recently with one of my coolers. I know that I couldn't do that with any absorption fridge that I've owned. You're a lucky puppy to have gotten that fridge for free. Good job! Now use it.

Love your videos! I've been a full timer for 5 yrs and still learning. That's where your videos come in handy cause you are a wealth of knowledge and a blessing.

Been wondering about 12V fridges. Thanks for doing all this research and posting

My Starcraft trailer I bought last summer came with a 12v refrigerator. It has worked great! I can’t imagine having any other style! Thank you for the video- yours are very informative!

I'm impressed that you hauled a conventional fridge into your 5th wheel for this!

RV Tech here with 36 years experience . The majority of fires that I have seen in rvs are because of propane fridges. We deal with both of the RV fridge manufacturers and I'm here to tell you that profits is number one on their mind! When my rv fridge kicks the bucket, I will not hesitate for a second and install a compressor fridge!

our new trailer just arrived and we inspected it today - opted for the 12 volt firdge - and was happy to see it was a norcold. cant wait to try it out! looks great.

For our RVs, we have owned both Absorption and 12 Volt. Winner: 12 Volt!!! It keeps the temperature more consistent.

Our new GD Reflection 337 came with a 16 cu ft 12v Furrion fridge and I’m loving it. We had an absorption fridge and switched to residential in our motor coach, but this 12v beats them all.

We just upgraded from our old pop-up to a new Surveyor Travel Trailer and so have not tested the 12V compressor fridge yet. The pop-up had a 3-way absorption fridge. You can significantly improve the cooling efficiency of the absorption fridge by installing a 12V muffin fan ( like a 120mm computer fan ) to blow on the outside radiator of the fridge. The absorption fridge relies on convection of the air to rise from the lower vent to the upper vent to cool the radiator. A small fan can significantly increase the air flow. In our pop-up, the under counter fridge would cool in half the time with a fan blowing on it, vs not using the fan. I used a small switch to turn the fan on when we turned the fridge on, and to shut it off when we packed up at the end of each trip.

We just purchased a new Hrand Design Reflection 5th wheel and it came with a 12 volt fridge. This video put my mind at ease and I’m excited to get the new coach out and go camping! Thank you for the video!!

I love your channel. I have learned so much from you. You are in my top three recommended RU-vid channels. Just a thought for you. They have larger 12v refrigerators. Grand Design has one in their new larger RVs. Now I know that you don't need one now, but if and when you do, the larger 12v's would compare to your RV fridge you have now. Keep these great videos coming.

Great video. I've been considering a 12v fridge for our trailer if ours goes out. Thanks for the data and pros/cons.

I have been looking at the JC Refrigeration replacement units thinking that my 17 year old absorption unit will fail some day. I had not convinced myself that this is the best way to go as we don't boondock very often but I think you have convinced me.

Great info! Great video! I need to replace my absorption fridge, and think I will go with a 12v. Your info really helped!

Purchased a new Grand Design Reflection 320MKS in February and it came with the 16 cf Furrion side by side 12v frig. Wow! 2500 mile trip to AZ and back and frig never skipped a beat. Cooled down in less than 2 hours and stayed there for a month. Also came with the 165w solar package so frig is powered 24/7. Swapped out the OEM batteries to my Lion UT1300 lithium (x 2) and never went below 75%. The system is awesome.

Very helpful. Thank you. Especially appreciate the power consumption comparison.

We have a 12V compressor fridge in our 2022 Motorhome. We live in Arizona and have had other Motorhomes with absorption fridges. It would take us 48 hours to cool down them down in the summer. The 12V cools down much quicker. It runs much smoother but we are struggling trying to run it on batteries only. Fine while driving but if we park it for 24 hours the 200 W solar panels don’t keep up with it. This is probably a result of the lead acid batteries not charging fast enough or having been discharged too deeply. Thank you for your videos

Love your short and to the point videos. Always informative. Thank you

Great comparison. Loads of good info. Thanks you!

That is exactly the comparison I've been wanting to see. Thank You!

Great explanation. Never even thought about changing out the fridge for efficiency. Thanks for sharing. Peace

Outstanding video and as always full of information!

Thank you SOOOO much for having actual facts and an informative video. So hard to make good decisions with all these opinion pieces!

You made an excellent video and it covered all the details I really appreciate it

Jared- we upgraded from our absorption to the Dometic 12v DMC4101RH and I agree with you in saying that due to the high-cost of these things, it's almost cost prohibitive to swap-out only to get a little more space if you have a working unit. But since our absorption was costing us more and more to trouble-shoot between the burner, the lower control board, we made the switch. However a consideration that I also took into account was the stable amperage draw of lithium rather than lead acid. Blown boards (at worse) and blown internal fuses seem to be common with these 12Vs due them pulling higher amperage to maintain the 12V in order to compensate for the lead acids depletion when not properly charging (i.e. boondocking and letting the battery drain down too much before re-charging- which is easy to do for people unfamiliar with 12V systems). As as a result of this sensitivity that the 12V fridges have, we upgraded our lead-acid to a single BB lithium as well as the Progressive 9160 charger with Victron's Battery monitor, DC-DC and MPPT chargers. Needless to say, the battery upgrade with the chargers and all of the ancillary pieces (wire, battery terminals, fuses, tools, crimpers, cable loom, insulation, touch-up paint, spray-foam, dicor, wood, ) cost almost as much as the fridge itself! Admittedly, the monitor, DC-DC and MPPT chargers were not needed and argueably neither is the Progressive charger. But, we saw it as both piece-of-mind and the ease of expandability of future upgrades to the battery system. This was esp. true since we had to move the battery to the storage compartment (we have a 2015 Outback TT) in order to protect the lithium. So figuring out where to put everything and adding the expansion while we had it opened-up made sense. Lastly, not only was re-wiring needed for the battery, we needed to run a NEW 10 gauge line from the camper's fusebox to the fridge. For many rigs this will be easy and in some cases not necessary, but in a rear living travel trailer with the fridge in a slide and only a previous 14 gauge wire from the absorption fridge, we needed the new wire and it became a whole new animal! I point all of this out to try and help your followers get an understanding of the second and third-order issues they may want to think through before buying an expensive 12V fridge. Especially those that have a Travel Trailer that did not previously have lithium batteries and has the fridge in a slide. It would be really interesting if somebody would do some type of root-cause analysis out there on the repair/replace of 12V fridges (less than 2 years old) to understand if a depleted lead-acid is a contributing factor to the 12V fridges coming in for service. If it is, this could be a big market for shops to tap into to install a lithium. So far our upgrade/conversion is working well, but we haven't really had it out as of yet to test it for long trips. Cheers!

I have been wondering what the "real" deal was and this is very helpful. Thank you Jared for making this video.

Another GREAT food for thought video! Thanks

Very informative. Our Ekko has the 12 volt fridge, and works great. ( as good as the one at home, and yes it cools down very quickly when we get ready to leave.)

Always good information. Thank you

Very good information, thank you for digging into the data.

Thanks for your time

thanks for video. needed these details

Thanks for providing lots of details.

Excellent video!!! Thank you for this info.

thanks Jared. Great information!

Thanks for making this video

I have a Norcold 12 volt fridge/freezer in our Tiffin Wayfarer and LOVE it. I had the Dometic gas/electric in my last RV and was always having trouble with it. It would get too warm even in cooler weather. And the ice in freezer would not completely stay frozen.

Interesting video! Always wondered about the 12v fridges.

Great job/ My 12v fridge was full when I was away for 10 days, the RV lost power due to a storm on day 2. This RV has a very small solar panel which was enough to keep everything frozen, which was a lot while the fridge area had very little. Great units!

Glad you mentioned the footprint vs. the interior volume. When renovating an old camper, we compared the absorption vs 12v compressor, and when we found the interior volume was that much better for the compressor- we when that direction.

Love my 12 volt. Cool quick and keeps items colder.

I have the JC refrigeration conversion on my norcold unit for over two years now. Totally happy with it and love having a cold refrigerator and ice cubes in the freezer! Plus, I was able to get solar added to my roof by JC refrigerator while getting the g12 volt conversion on the refrigerator at a very reasonable price. Thus never worry about cold food or the low power the unit draws. Should have done it sooner!

I use a 55 liter dometic "cooler" and it's insane nice.... 3.5-4 days of run time with 80 degrees ambient and set to 34 on a 100AH lifepo4 battery!!

We just went through this exercise. We have a 2021 5th-wheel and the Norcold 2118 18-cubic foot reefer never performed adequately. We replaced the absorption assembly with the dual-compressor unit from JCRefrigeration about a week ago and it has been performing superbly since then. While replacing the guts of the reefer we found out why it was not performing very well, there was NO thermal paste between the cooling unit and the cooling plates in the reefer. I would definitely consider this a manufacturing defect but try to prove that to Norcold. Regardless, we now have a 12-volt DC refrigerator and both the refrigerator and freezer functioning correctly so very happy with the change.

We have a 12v in our Navion and it's fantastic. We boondock with 200w of solar and rarely have to run the generator. Besides think of all the space you gain.

I was fearful of buying this used KZ240TH with 120vac/12vdc fridge but you made me quickly realize that some solar panels and some lithium batteries will serve my extensive Boon docking requirements well. Thanks.

Absorption = $1/Day or More!!! You also need to account for running an absorption fridge in the driveway. We left ours on between trips and our electric bill spiked, after looking at the daily reports from our electric bill we narrowed it down to the fridge. Our Dometic cost us over $1 per day to run on shore power, My whole house runs just under $3 per day normally. Crazy!

Love your video. I would like to see a more pro and cons list. If you had time

That was great! Thanks.

Definitely a thought for the future

Great information!

Excellent info and great find.

❤❤ Great info. Thanks for sharing. Would like to have seen your diagnosis and parts replaced on your newly acquired fridge. 👍👍

Great info. Thanks.

A couple things to keep in mind. The residential fridge is likely larger, maybe much so. Ours is 20 cu ft which is huge for an RV. It also has auto defrost which is nice and some like the ice maker. With that said, the Hisense fridge in our unit hasn't been 100% reliable and can sometimes just stop cooling requiring a power cycle.

I have the Furrion 12 volt and loved it until about 6 months in, it stopped cycling off and just stayed on all the time. I took it in under warranty, thinking that they would do something like replace a thermostat, but no, they just ordered a new one. So after 2 months I have a brand new one working great. I upgraded to a fairly large solar system (600 AH, 1500 Watts, 3000 multiplus) and the power consumption of the fridge is comparatively quite modest. Thanks for all the informative videos.

I really like your videos..... keep up the awesome job!!!

We switched to 12v fridge when we got a scratch and dent fridge in Elkhart. We love our 12v compressor fridge, we've had absorption and residential also.

We boondock in below freezing temps to go snowmobiling, sometimes below zero F. The Norcold absorption fridge does not work well in those temps causing me insulate the exterior vent door leaving only a small opening for combustion air. That mostly solved the problem. So I'm intrigued by the 12v compressor fridge as a better solution. A plus is sealing up the vent door and roof vent to lower heat loss. Thanks for the review.

I upgraded / replaced our 8 CuFt Absorption Fridge with a 10.7 CuFt Compressor Fridge, we are so happy with the 12V DC Fridge. No worries about traveling down the road with Propane on, no long cool down time.

Great video mate

After going from our absorption fridge on our 278bh, to our 12vdc on our 324mbs, we are happy with the 12vdc fridge.

I hope it is frost free. If not after continuous running the inside coil may freeze up. At least that is what happened to the 3 different units we had. Finally just purchased a 120 volt AC unit from Best Buy. Current draw is 109 watts normal and 140 for the defrost cycle. Ours has been running 24/7 for just over 2 years. Have had zero issues. If you would like you can check out a update video on the channel. Thanks for your videos we appreciate the time and effort you put into them.

My adsorption fridge gave up due to a leak in the cooling coil. I priced new lpg fridge, rebuilding my old cooling coil and a 12v comressor fridge. I went with the 12v compressor fridge at 1300.00 cdn. And it fitted where my old fridge came out. I loved it and worked great even off level. I upgraded my camper and back to the lpg fridge. Ho boy do I miss the fridge

Awesome video. My little absorption fridge broke. Gonna try the Whynter 45 12V compressor cooler. Thanks for the great info

We made the swap to a 12v fridge (Everchill French Door) last year and aren’t looking back. We absolutely love it! It is incredibly efficient. Another big bonus with the 12v fridge is no longer having to defrost!

Love our 12V fridge!

We purchased a new Forest River with a 12 volt fridge last summer. I was very concerned about the power consumption because be are often dry camping and before buying this trailer relied on coolers and ice. Our first run with it last year - there were some growing pains - we have a 190 watt solar panel that came with the RV, but camping in the forest did not provide enough solar to charge our batteries enough to keep our fridge going. I’ll admit, I don’t have the best battery system yet (230 amps, 6 volt AGMs) but , because of this fridge, I’m making significant changes to our RV to be able to support the fridge while dry camping. All at a significant cost - $2000 this year, just to hook up a dc-dc charger, battery monitoring system and portable solar panel (wire is expensive too!!). So 12 volt fridge is nice, but be prepared to upgrade your power supply if you do any type of dry camping!!!

On my second RV and it has a 12 volt, first on had propane/120v absorption. The 12 volt definitely cools better. Was camping in July in the Florida sun and ice cream stayed frozen in freezer! Only down side is many manufacturers only include on battery so I would recommend a 2nd one, especially if you don't have a generator. Another tip, monitor RV voltage when you plug in the connector to the tow vehicle. When tow vehicle is running, the RV should show 13+ volts. I had an issue where truck wasn't sending power to RV to keep the battery charged and after being on the road 12 hours the fridge ran the battery down so much the jacks barely worked. Tow vehicle charging is fixed now but I still make sure the RV voltage goes up when I start the truck .

Plussed. Subscribed. I'm in the market for a new RV and I do want a compressor fridge. The rental ones (Cruise America) are all absorption... and in Arizona they are almost useless. They can reduce tempy to 20°F below ambient OAT. When it's 110°F out, 90°F isn't a "win". It's a "get your butt to an Igloo cooler and buy ice bags daily." Thanks for the in-depth analysis -- especially the watt hours and per day usage. I already knew how to size my inverter... but thanks to you I know how to size my battery bank. Solar's great... but again... in Arizona we boondock OUT of the sun. That means RV engine power to charge those batteries. Again, thank you! Ehud Tucson, Arizona

Always informative. We have a 2014 303 whose frig just went out. I opted for a new Norcold because we don’t have any solar. But if I did I would have opted for a 12 volt.

Nice job, great video... we made a mistake not knowing any better that our RV did NOT come with a 3 way fridge. But glamping for years with a domestic 12v in my jeep and going away for 2 months, I wanted another fridge that can run on 12v. So after speaking with a dealer and they wanted like one $2000 to change out the fridge I bought another Domestic CFX 75 size which REI had at 20% off so came in at about $1100. We used that as our primary until we got to an RV park where we were staying for a few weeks, but in between we kept the Domestic going. We boondocked for 7 days, using 400 watt solar panels to keep our batteries charged, 2 lead acids and never had any issues. Of course the Domestic does occupy some space but didn't really get in the way. Beats spending another $2000 to swap out a perfectly good 2 way, and then what would I do with it anyway. So now we have 2 fridges. The Domestic one uses so much less power, can be digitally set the temp etc.. and monitored via the app. Just my $0.02.

Thanks Jerad I bought a rv that had a 2 way fridge and the dealership put a 12 volt fridge in because that’s what I was looking for and it was there word that I bought it but they put the fridge in the rv at there cost but didn’t close the vents so I notice it wasn’t cooling the bottom part as well as the last 12 volt fridge we had in our last rv thanks for the info on the vents

Great video! Thanks!

I replaced my propane fridge with an ever chill 12 volt compressor fridge. It worked well,even in 110 degree weather.

We had our absorption refrigerator converted to a 12V at JC Refrigeration. The 12V does a great job and is peace of mind on travel days and Harvest Host stays.

Good information! Two things: at 4:35 you referred to the 12 volt compressor as a 12 volt absorption refrigerator. But more importantly, I have a 2022 Geo Pro 19FD with the 12 volt compressor fridge. When I ordered the unit I added an additional 195 solar panel, which give me 390 watts of solar to better handle the fridge when off grid. And the trailer is capable of a third panel if I like. However, I have been running a time and temperature test on the unit since last October. And I have noticed that when the outside temperature drops, and so does the inside temperature, the refrigerator reverses itself and warms up into the mid to upper 50's. The freezer into the 30's. But when I placed a ceramic heater in the trailer and set it at 72, on very cold days the refrigerator stayed between 38 and 42, and the freezer between -5 and -1. I contacted Forest River because I have experienced this before with my 1974 VW camper. Back then it came with a compressor fridge, but it would not cool down. I took it to the dealership, they tested it and said it worked perfectly. Again at home, it would not cool down. Back at the dealership, it worked perfectly. So I asked the service tech what they were doing to make it work perfectly. They said, nothing special. They just took the unit out of the camper, placed it on a open workbench and powered it up. It was then that I realized the issue was ventilation. They installed two small vent slots in the cabinet side near the compressor, and it immediately began working perfectly... in the camper! My point is, that the compressor fridges are still new to many makes, and I feel that venting them into the microwave cabinet above, or whatever is available, would not hurt. I am in contact with Forest River on this subject, and will continue to test this until late summer. While it is still under warranty I may ask it be replaced because at the highest setting it cools down to an average 40 degrees, and that's not right, as you pointed out. At the next to the highest setting it should cool down to 35 to 37. All in all though, I truly love the compressor fridge more than the absorption fridge. Didn't like absorption in our 1964 Shasta, don't like it now. Anyway, just wanted to give you my testing experience. Safe travels!

My Norcold was working perfectly. But I exchanged it for the EverChill 12v refrigerator. Best decision I’ve made. Love it. As you said cools faster, works better in the heat of summer and cold of winter because it is inside the RV not fighting the outside weather. Also you get more usable space inside. And no worries about the rv not being level or not being able to run while driving. I spent two days driving in the southwest where it was 115 and you can’t turn off the refrigerator for any extended time period.

We’ve had our 12v compressor fridge in our new RV for about 8 months now and can say without reservation that we would never go back to an absorption unit. The 12v refrigerator is better in every way. It takes only 20 minutes to get down to temp and is unaffected by outside ambient temperatures. Admittedly we have lithium batts and 400w of solar on our roof, but with that we can boondock for days and have a cold fridge-and frozen food in the freezer. In mind mind, there isn’t even a debate anymore.

I also have the furrion 12v and i had to replace it 2 times so far 3rd time a charm

We switch to a 12v last year . Love it wouldn't go back

I’m getting ready to convert the Norcold in our 28BH to 12v dc compressor with the DutchAire conversion kit. Hopefully will have it in soon.

Love our 12v fridge in our camper. Stays cold and has alot of room.

12v fridge works really good, had so much problems with regular rv fridge.

This is a great debate, The main factors for me where energy consumption and size. That being said there would only be myself and my bride. And we would be 95% full time which would weigh in on decision as well...With your data and our situation I think 12 volt or residential would prob win. Nothing against 3 way...thanks for taking the time to do this comparison and sharing‼️

I have one just like that and I love it, My propane lasts forever now.

That 12v fridge will slide right into my 8CF absorption fridge space in my Imagine 2970RL.

Really informative video. I just wanted to share an experience. We have a truck camper and we swapped out our dometic absorption fridge for a 299$ 7 cu ft residential 110V dorm fridge. And it’s working great. We are averaging 50-60 ah to run the fridge per day in 80 degree weather in Baja. This is with our 1000w PSW inverter running all day. A DC compressor fridge is great, however these cheaper fridges are also very efficient and much cheaper.

I donot have 12 v on my fridge at all. Still rocking the old absorbtion with gas/120v only. I have wondered what the 12v fridges were like. In my case, I probably would not swap only because i like the propane option when boondocking. Considering that I do not have solar "YET". Thanks for the review.

Great comparison info. I have been repairing R V s for 45 years. most of my customers camp with hook ups. So, power draw is not an issue. Customer that have toy Box R Vs camp with no hook ups, so absorption refrigerators are the way to go. Norcold refrigerators on # 9 setting will freeze milk in the lower compartment. and i have seen the freezer at 0 degrees in 24 hours of running. If solar panels are installed, then 12 volt refrigerators are fine . Plus running the generator for about 1-2 hours a day is going to override the battery loss from the 12 volt Refer.

Thank you for the information. I am planning my next RV and was not sure if I wanted the residential, 12v, or propane combo. Not planning allot of boondocking. I guess I am at a loss for why they are so expensive (because rv is associated with them?). So I am thinking of longevity. 12v sounds great but what could I expect for useable lifespan. No one will be able to answer that one because they have not been out all that long...Welcome viewers comments. Thanks again.

I figured I needed more freezer room to supplement our 1200 Norcold, since we boondock 50% of the time. I added a small cheap chinese 40 Quart 12v freezer, 1 180W bougerv solar panel, plugged into my ac50s Bluetti. Very effecient, 35 watts at -4* (when the compressor is running. No problem as the little Bluetti is getting up to 122W . $180 for the panel, 40 for cables/ connecters/sealant, $239 for the 12v compression fridge/freezer.

great great stuff

Minor cold 12 ft.³ refrigerator freezer wasn’t cutting it in the heat so I converted it to a JC refrigeration conversion with a compressor 120 V. I should’ve went with the 12 V unit. But this fridge does the trick.

Awesome! Would love to know how much more power the larger 12v fridge would use. We have the 18cu norcold and its performed pretty well except one day in the desert at 100 deg, my son left the fridge cracked all day while we were gone and we weren't able to get the temp back down.

You can also get a 12volt compressor conversion kit for your existing rv refer. You simply take off the old absorption unit and install the new compressor unit, that way no cabinet work is required, they work as well as any compressor unit.