The refrigerator has been relying on heat, (an open flame) to cool our refrigerator and freezer. The temperatures in the freezer and refrigerator vary hourly, daily. Eric and I check the temperatures morning, noon and night. When the temperatures are too high (refrigerator - 40 degrees or higher, freezer 30 degrees or higher), we shut off the refrigerator for five minutes and restart it. Often, the temperature of the freezer and refrigerator drops. Sometimes they don't.
The Absorption cooling system doesn't keep frozen foods as cold as a residential freezer. Ice Cream must be eaten when it's brought home or it becomes as soft as a Milk Shake.
This is the back of our Norcold
Absorption Refrigerator.
Everything changes today at JC Refrigeration in Shipshewana, Indiana.
Our motorhome goes into a
work bay.
The Refrigeration Coils in the foreground are for Absorption Refrigeration. CJ Refrigeration has been replacing Ammonia filled Absorption Coils for years.
Different work stations
are set up for different
types of refrigeration
jobs.
Our refrigerator is removed from
the kitchen's wall, laid down on
its front on the floor &....
Moving Blankets have been put down to protect the floor of the motorhome.
removed from the back
of the refrigerator.
The new Cooling System, (Option 1 on JC Refrigeration Website) including a new Refrigeration Coil, will be installed and a new Compressor will be installed. Our refrigerator will run on Alternating Current only. We will no longer be able to switch the fuel source from electric to Liquid Propane.
The benefits: A colder refrigerator and freezer. We will be able to keep Ice Cream in our freezer! Eric and I will eventually stop monitoring the refrigerator and freezer temperatures three, or more times a day.
The drawbacks: We have only one way to keep the refrigerator and freezer cold, AC Power. Because we have Solar Panels and Lithium Batteries I'm willing to gamble on having electricity power our refrigerator.
After an hour & a half our
motorhome leaves the
work bay.
We will wait for the refrigerator and freezer to cool before leaving. The system is checked by a technician and it's working properly.
Eric looks up at the new
Refrigeration Coils.
They're a lot smaller than
the Absorption Coils.
the refrigerant to keep
our refrigerator &
freezer c-c-cold.
The cost of the conversion is $1,392.00 and takes less time than removing our current refrigerator and installing a residential refrigerator. Those costs can easily run to $1,000.00 or a lot more because of labor costs. The windshield may have to be removed to get the old refrigerator out and the new refrigerator into the motorhome. Cabinetry work is necessary because the residential refrigerator is not the same size as the RV refrigerator.
The way we did it was way easier and almost certainly cheaper and definitely better looking.
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