RecPro 1.7 Cu Ft 12V RV Refrigerator | Compact | Reversible Door

I'm replacing the ammonia absorption fridge in my RV. This one has a decent price, while other similar ones of other brands were 4X higher in price. Unit is well made, and cools well. It is very quiet in operation. It appears to have reverse polarity protection. I had inadvertently gotten the hookup messed up, and cringed once I discovered why the unit wasn't running. I thought maybe I'd damaged it, but correcting the polarity, it started up and began cooling. Nice engineering! After getting a question directed to me, I wrote this: My unit has worked fine. I've tested it in hot conditions (120 deg F ambient), as well as cold conditions (50 deg F ambient) It usually regulates the refrigerator temperature to +/- 1deg F. The freezer actually gets colder as the ambient gets hotter, due to longer compressor run time. The door latch holds the doors from opening while on the road, even with rough roads and side-to side sway from crosswinds. I suspect some people are having problems due to inadequate wiring. This unit is a frost-free design and will need to defrost from time to time. While it runs at about 3-5 Amps, during defrost it will pull nearly 20 Amps. If the unit is in a humid environment, and the door is opened frequently, it will accumulate frost on the evaporator coil. If it doesn't defrost properly, eventually the coils will frost up completely and then it will quit cooling. This seems to be a common thread among the low star reviews, "It cooled for a few days, then quit". If you keep running it in this condition, it will eventually kill the compressor. Wire size tables are easily found online. Take twice the distance of your wire run (one path to and one path back, total length twice the distance between fridge and power source) and calculate the voltage drop for 20 amps. If you have 1.5V or more drop, you will likely have problems. If so, shorten the distance, or go to a larger wire size, i.e., lower number size. Another potential issue is not having enough cooling air space around the unit. This unit uses the outside of the cabinet for the condensing coils. There needs to be about 3 inches or more of free air space on both sides of the unit. It also needs to have about the same space above the unit to allow the air to flow. During operation, the sides of the unit will get warm, if they get really hot, then you don’t have enough airflow. A third potential problem is mounting the unit. It has to mounted as if free standing, to allow proper airflow, but must be rigidly held in place to avoid tipping over while on the road. This will require some creativity to do it. You cannot mount into a tight cabinet space because you won't get enough airflow around the unit. There's some fear mongering about the use of iso-butane in the unit. This is the same gas used in most butane cigarette lighters. You carry those around in you pocket and don't worry about it, right? Yes, there's more gas than in a single lighter, but not a large quantity either. The previous fridge, a Dometic ammonia absorption 3-way, was far more likely to catch on fire as is this one. And it contains hydrogen gas, as well as ammonia which are both highly flammable. And don't forget, underneath your RV is a large tank of propane holding a hundred times or more amount of highly flammable propane. So keep it in proper perspective. The previous fridge utilized outside air vents for the heat, and for the combustion products. You will need to seal those off, if your unit had those, to avoid letting outside air into the RV. I think this is actually a well designed unit at a good price compared to the other brands on the market. Be sure to watch for the issues I've mentioned above, and it should work well for you.

I could not be more pleased with this refrigerator. Everything went smooth from fit to finish. The fit was perfect from the Dometic DM2852 to this 12volt RECPRO. And, the install went so smooth - my Sandstorm RV had the 12volt wires already in-place and tapped into the chassis ground which was used for the 110volt connection on the old Dometic. Once connected it fired up and worked flawlessly. My Sandstorm already had a solar panel on the roof and that tied in with the existing 12 volt wiring which was already in place with the Dometic. I've been testing/watching the meter with my 12volt batteries and they are holding up about 2 days without plugging into AC power for the camper. Surprisingly, these batteries are original to my camper in 2018 (6+ years).

Reasonably priced, and gets very cold. I love it! Not to mention there is more space in here since our previous the ever chill had a tiny freezer area, that took up room. The whole fridge gets cold unlike the other model we had. I will say since we had a different fridge the pos, neg, and ground wire had to be split by a professional, not me cuz idk what I’m doing. So I paid someone to split and change the ends. Or whatever those are called lol. Anyway, it’s quiet too. I love my perfect little fridge so far. See photo for the thingy I’m talking about that had to be changed. They didn’t fit into this fridge idk why… we have the Coleman lantern 17b. I’m just a girl, idk what I’m doing lol.

It worked for 5 months and now won't turn on. I have power to the light but what I had in the freezer is now thawing out.

We installed this at our off-grid, solar/low voltage cabin in the Rockies to replace a Grape Solar fridge that died after about 8 years. Compared to that, this is a much better product - I just hope it lasts longer. - Nice quality: glass shelves, separate freezer, designated spaces for cans, and a light inside - It is very quiet - very low noise. - Starting at 70F inside (and outside), it took 3.5 hours to drop the temp to 36 degrees before the compressor shut off. It was mostly empty except for a few cans of soda inside. So 9.5F per hour empty is a good assumption. - It takes roughly 80 watts (+/- 5) when the compressor is running. - I would estimate a 50% run rate at 70F external temperature. For example, it turned on at 12:52am when the fridge was at 40F, and turned off at 1:21am after dropping to 36.6F. It next turned on at 1:55am. - Given that run rate, I'd think it takes about 960 watt-hours per day in a 65-70F setting (without door opening losses) - Wide voltage range - will operate down to 10.5 volts, which can be helpful. - While the documentation says it can have an a starting current rush of up to 20 amps, we did not see that. We have it on a 10amp marine style DC circuit breaker that never blew. - Our wiring from a buck converter regulated to 12.3 volts (our solar/battery is 24V) is maybe 6 feet of 8awg, 25 feet with 4 conductors - a pair of 10awg and a pair of 12awg in parallel, and another 6 feet of 12awg at the end. I'd estimate our voltage drop as 0.6, meaning we have 11.7 volts at the fridge with the compressor running. - The fridge has 3 terminals for wired connections - plus, minus, and ground. No wire included. I'd add that this is very low power consumption compared to your 3 way RV fridge. Our Dometic 3cf 3 way we have in our camper takes like 150 watts when running 12VDC. Until we put in a DC-DC charger, we got less than zero charging from our tow vehicle's 7 pin connector.

It fits in the hole in my RV that other brand came out of. I like that it has separate controls for freezer/fridge temperature. It seems to use same amount of power as my old fridge that quit if not less power. It's miniscule though. I love the magnetic door close vs latch. I don't know if I trust the door lock for travel mode. (Maybe i dont under dtand how it works? I pulled on the doors and the latch slides open. Stuff might not fall out, but if the doors crack open on travel, then the compressor will work harder. Easy enough solution. I can secure it for travel mode in other ways. My biggest gripe would be how it secures in the opening. Screwing to RV cabinet trim is a no go on any late modle RV. The fridge that I pulled out, had 1/2" of trim that left a mark on my cabinet trim. This fridge exposes that. This is the second Recpro product I've put into my RV. The first was a roll up sliding shower stall door. Now this fridge. I'm definitely a fan of RecPro over the other brand.

I live off grid and this refrigerator works awesome, stays cold. No issues so far.

Installed this a week ago to replace the propane/110 v/12v original Norcold refrigerator. So far it is keeping everything super cold at the medium settings. I love not having to deal with the gas and smelling the fumes when traveling. It is deeper but narrower than the old frig. I used the extra space on one side to create a broom closet. I still need to make the door and do some trim work.