Furrion Arctic 12 v dc Refrigerator

[Country Campers]

Along with my battery upgrade and probable small solar setup we have decided to replace the Dometic 8 cu. refer with the Furrion 12 v dc. There is a couple reasons why this was done. The ability to operate on 12 v dc., the ability to run the refer while traveling with out the use of propane, the larger capacity. The new Furrion is a 10 cube which does not sound like much of a difference but the difference is huge. There is no cooling fins in the fridge compartment, there is no coils or heating chimney on the back. The shelves inside go the whole way to the back wall which will make the storage of items much better in which they will not be piled on top of each other. The freezer is much larger as well. The weigh is pretty much the same, I removed the old one and installed the new one by myself, really not much room for another helper in the tight space in the doorway and between the island and the slide out wall. The Furrion ran for about 3 hours to get to the middle setting on the control, the control is just a simple knob. This fridge takes about 5 amps while the compressor is running. That coupled with the faster cooling is well worth it to me. After 4 days of running the battery bank is down to 35%, 2 UT1300 batteries with 105 ah each, I am not sure yet if that is good or not but the regular solar/lithium guys will be sure to let me know, the fridge was the only thing running at this time outside of the lights that I turned on while checking on the fridge. This info was provided by the new BMV-712, yes TucsonJim I did get it and it is way cool ( I am a closet gadget guy and I am in therapy for this).
The removal and replacement was not to difficult , the Dometic had 2 screws on the bottom in the back and 2 up top in the front. The new Furrion does not have any access to the back for attachment so it got 2 on the top and bottom from the inside. Another item is the gas line. This goes thru a "T" at the back of the fridge, connects to the fridge and passes on to the oven. I replaced the "T" with a union to allow for usage of the oven, checked for leaks also. The new Furrion has a fuse that is in the back at the bottom covered by a plate. This is not accessible from the outside even with the original cover removed. To take care of this issue I replaced this fuse, 15 amp, with a 30 amp fuse. This circuit is on a 15 amp fuse already so if there is an issue the fuse in the power distribution panel should catch it , hopefully.
Here is a couple pictures, one of the empty cavity , one of the new fridge. The Furrion is the same physical size so it slid right into the opening, which was not very square so there was a little shimming to do.



The shiny black door panels was a mistake, they scratch easy and dust clings to them, not sure what we will do there maybe contact paper or something.

Brian

[TucsonJim]

Congratulations Brian. That's a big install. We sure like our 12V reefer, and wouldn't consider going back.

Jim

[KSC_Travels]

Country Campers

Congrats! I have been eyeing a 12V replacement for my Norcold 1210 as well - for all the reasons you mention (plus reliability - mine lost all its ammonia a couple of weeks back) - so I have been curious about the actual energy consumption by these types of fridges.

Interesting data on your actual energy consumption. The published Tech Specs on that fridge say rated energy consumption is 1.08kWh per day. Assuming I am doing the math right, at 12V that is ~90Ah per day. Your actual data suggests significantly less than that (used 65% of 210Ah = 136Ah / 4 days = 34Ah per day @12V = ~0.408kWh). That's pretty impressive (and good news)! I am assuming that current ambient temps are not very high right now and fridge is not being opened and closed a lot, but still, very impressive.

Thanks for sharing!

[TucsonJim]

Country Campers

Congrats! I have been eyeing a 12V replacement for my Norcold 1210 as well - for all the reasons you mention (plus reliability - mine lost all its ammonia a couple of weeks back) - so I have been curious about the actual energy consumption by these types of fridges.

Interesting data on your actual energy consumption. The published Tech Specs on that fridge say rated energy consumption is 1.08kWh per day. Assuming I am doing the math right, at 12V that is ~90Ah per day. Your actual data suggests significantly less than that (used 65% of 210Ah = 136Ah / 4 days = 34Ah per day @12V = ~0.408kWh). That's pretty impressive (and good news)! I am assuming that current ambient temps are not very high right now and fridge is not being opened and closed a lot, but still, very impressive.

Thanks for sharing!

On my Norcold 12V version, I consume about 65-70 Ah per day. But that could be because I'm in Tucson and more compressor time is required to keep it at temp. But even when it's 110°F outside, the refrigerator keeps the internal temp at 40°F or less, and the freezer at about -5°F or less.

On the Norcold version, they have a "nite mode". You push the button when you go to bed and it throttles back the energy consumption for eight hours. Since you're not opening the door during that time, it saves a little bit on compressor time.

Jim

[Country Campers]

Country Campers

Congrats! I have been eyeing a 12V replacement for my Norcold 1210 as well - for all the reasons you mention (plus reliability - mine lost all its ammonia a couple of weeks back) - so I have been curious about the actual energy consumption by these types of fridges.

Interesting data on your actual energy consumption. The published Tech Specs on that fridge say rated energy consumption is 1.08kWh per day. Assuming I am doing the math right, at 12V that is ~90Ah per day. Your actual data suggests significantly less than that (used 65% of 210Ah = 136Ah / 4 days = 34Ah per day @12V = ~0.408kWh). That's pretty impressive (and good news)! I am assuming that current ambient temps are not very high right now and fridge is not being opened and closed a lot, but still, very impressive.

Thanks for sharing!

Ken

This was all done in my garage. Temps remained in the 65 - 70 degrees outside and inside for this week. I opened the doors to check the temp once a day. We are going on a 4 night trip next week, although the temps will be in the 60's during the day and 50's or less over night I will be doing an experiment to see how the batteries hold up. My plan is to leave with full batteries and turn the converter off. I want to see how long we can camp with just the 2 batteries. We will be at a full hookup site so I am not worried about running out of power. This will also help in the planning of solar and generator power that we may need. I will also be watching the truck output to see what it is and if will keep up to the fridge draw. The other thing that I noticed was the 5 ceiling lights in our camper pull about 1.5 amps when they are on. This seems like a lot from 5 little LED lights. The only other draw during this time was the propane detector which seemed to be around .4 amps, not sure if there is anything else that was drawing, radio should have been off, I added a switch long ago to turn if off completely.

I am very please so far with the fridge and after this trip I hope to have some more info. Talking with owners at the Rally a month ago they all seemed pleased. Jim has had his for about a year I think and has said it is very good and we will like it. Just with the cool down time I would never have another absorption type fridge, not having to wait a day or more to reach temp is well worth this investment to me, the rest is icing on the cake.

Brian

[Country Campers]

On my Norcold 12V version, I consume about 65-70 Ah per day. But that could be because I'm in Tucson and more compressor time is required to keep it at temp. But even when it's 110°F outside, the refrigerator keeps the internal temp at 40°F or less, and the freezer at about -5°F or less.

On the Norcold version, they have a "nite mode". You push the button when you go to bed and it throttles back the energy consumption for eight hours. Since you're not opening the door during that time, it saves a little bit on compressor time.

Jim

The Furrion has a "dry mode" or "boondocking mode" I have to read more on this to see what it does but I think it is similar to your Norcold.

Brian

[KSC_Travels]

On my Norcold 12V version, I consume about 65-70 Ah per day. But that could be because I'm in Tucson and more compressor time is required to keep it at temp. But even when it's 110°F outside, the refrigerator keeps the internal temp at 40°F or less, and the freezer at about -5°F or less.

On the Norcold version, they have a "nite mode". You push the button when you go to bed and it throttles back the energy consumption for eight hours. Since you're not opening the door during that time, it saves a little bit on compressor time.

Jim

Still... more than reasonable consumption and impressive cooling! At this time there is (seemingly) only one option to replace mine - the Norcold Polar Elite N15DC (same cutout size). However, it looks like I might have an issue with island clearance on my 303 when slide is in (seems the doors are about an inch thicker than the 1210). I would have to move the island over an inch assuming I have that inch on the other side.. sigh).

Thanks for the info!

[Country Campers]

Turned the charger on today, 4 days of run time and the batteries were down to 16%. I can see where the batterie will not last more than about 3 days while using everything else in the camper, I would guess that turning the heater on will kill just about any battery bank.

There is a "Off Grid" portion of the dial setting, the usage associated with this depends on the ambient temperature, around 68 degrees is optimal anything above that impacts the battery usage, The other item that I noticed is the Furrion has a dial setting and not an LED display and control, this will save a little amperage in the long run.

Brian

[howson]

davetedder and Country Campers -- moved the last two posts to their own thread. See https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...ring-questions

Also -- noted that was your first post, davetedder, so please check out the Welcome Letter to New Members to learn more about this forum: https://gdrvowners.com/forum/main-fo...to-new-members

[skrantzman]

The shiny black door panels was a mistake, they scratch easy and dust clings to them, not sure what we will do there maybe contact paper or something.

Brian, what about something like these 10mil wood veneers with 3M adhesive backing. This one happens to be Birch, but you can get them in oak, mahogany, cherry etc. They are real wood, but thin enough that you can cut them with a sharp utility knife. If you get an unfinished veneer, you can then stain it to match your cabinets. Or you just might find that this Walnut veneer with a clear matt finish applied might just match your cabinets close enough. Anyway, just a suggestion as an alternative to your shiny black door panels and contact paper.

[Country Campers]

Brian, what about something like these 10mil wood veneers with 3M adhesive backing. This one happens to be Birch, but you can get them in oak, mahogany, cherry etc. They are real wood, but thin enough that you can cut them with a sharp utility knife. If you get an unfinished veneer, you can then stain it to match your cabinets. Or you just might find that this Walnut veneer with a clear matt finish applied might just match your cabinets close enough. Anyway, just a suggestion as an alternative to your shiny black door panels and contact paper.

We had looked at those and some of the other similar products but we did not decide on what color or grain to get, we have basically forgot about it and for now are just dealing with the way it is.

Thanks for thinking of this.

Brian

[Country Campers]

We have just spent a whole week, 8 days actually, with the 12 v fridge installed last fall. The week started fairly mild low 70's and ended in the low to mid 90's, extremely hot where the air conditioners on all RV's were struggling to keep the inhabitants cool. The fridge performed flawlessly, no ice build up inside and keep the food nice and cool and the ice nice and hard, sorry I do not have a temp probe installed inside to meter the temps.

Great unit that used about 15% of the battery bank, 210 ah size, over night and the solar had that charged fairly quickly the next day with plenty of sun. We are very happy that we made this change, we have larger capacity, 10 cf verses 8 cf in the old one, and we can operate it with out the use of propane. Not using propane is not that big of deal for us as we have done it for years but I do not have to worry about it when entering tunnels or gas stations or if it gets blown out while traveling.

Brian