JC Refrigerators

[gypsydan]

Does anyone have expereince with the JC Refrigerators?  My Norcold needs to be replaced, and I have heard this is a better replacement.

www.JC-Refrigeration.com

 

 

Edited Friday at 09:25 PM by gypsydan
spelling

[D&J]

Are you just replacing the cooling unit or the whole refrigerator. I used one of their cooling units on our Dometic and the first unit lasted 1 months and started leaking, the replacement lasted 4.5 years and started leaking. We now have a residential with a inverter, it was cheaper.

Denny

[Kirk W]

If you are looking at the Dutchair refrigerators, they are also available from Amazon and several other retailers. And that is about all that I know about them. If you do get one it would be helpful if you would return with some review information about it. 

[Danfreda1]

Yes we had our norcold 2118 refrigerator switched to straight 12 volt dual compressor. Less than 2 hours they were done. We love it. Freezer is a lot colder and actually freezes food. Uses a lot Less energy while boondocking. Great people to work with. Highly recommend them

[Randyretired]

We switched to a residential refrigerator. Even when adding some solar  and battery to run it, it was cheaper than an absorption (RV) or 12v compressor refrigerator.  It is an 18cuft energy star refrigerator on sale for $499.  Saves propane too.

[Lou Schneider]

Most modern home refrigerators are very efficient.  The Energy Guide label gives their estimated annual power usage, just divide it by 365 days to see how much power the refrigerator needs each day.   I have a Magic Chef 10.1 cu ft home refrigerator rated at 297 kWh per year so it's estimated to use 0.81 kWh (810 watt-hours) a day.  Actual usage can vary depending on outside temperatures, how often you open the doors, etc. but overall it's very close to what the refrigerator actually uses.

1 kWh (1000 watt-hours) plus the inverter overhead will use a bit less than 100 amp-hours from a 12 volt battery.  And I agree with Randy's opinion on costs.  The price difference between a home refrigerator and inverter vs an RV refrigerator (propane/electric or 12 volts only) will more than pay for a couple of $300 lithium batteries with enough left over to start building a very capable solar setup. 

Perfectly good solar panels removed from commercial installations when their tax credits expire are widely available for literally pennies per watt, team them with a $150 MPPT controller to charge the lithium batteries and you'll have a robust system.

Edited Saturday at 04:22 PM by Lou Schneider

[Danfreda1]

We already have 8 lithium batteries and 1280 watts of solar so the straight 12 volt and no propane was an easy decision. Yes it would be cheaper to put a residential one in and run the inverter all the time but this wood panel refrigerator matched all the cabinets so that’s why we spent the extra money. The norcold is 18.5 cu ft. Plenty big for 2 people full time. Uses Less that 100 amp hours per day. 

[Randyretired]

The prices on solar panels and lithium batteries have come way down recently.  I purchased a pallet of new 400 watt bifacial panels shipped for $136 each.  Looked just yesterday and the prices have dropped again.  Batteries prices have also dropped and expected to drop more soon.  Some sodium batteries have hit the market and the price wars have started.  Cells for DIY can be found for less than lead in some places at times.

[Kirk W]

2 hours ago, Randyretired said:

The prices on solar panels and lithium batteries have come way down recently. 

After a career in electrical service work that began on a submarine that had a battery made up of 126 lead-acid cells, & each weighing about 2000#, I am blown away by what we have today. We went fulltime in 2000 when the best batteries were still flooded cell, lead acid and solar was extremely rare and expensive for the RV community.

Edited Saturday at 08:33 PM by Kirk W

[D&J]

6 hours ago, Lou Schneider said:

Most modern home refrigerators are very efficient.  The Energy Guide label gives their estimated annual power usage, just divide it by 365 days to see how much power the refrigerator needs each day.   I have a Magic Chef 10.1 cu ft home refrigerator rated at 297 kWh per year so it's estimated to use 0.81 kWh (810 watt-hours) a day.  Actual usage can vary depending on outside temperatures, how often you open the doors, etc. but overall it's very close to what the refrigerator actually uses.

1 kWh (1000 watt-hours) plus the inverter overhead will use a bit less than 100 amp-hours from a 12 volt battery.  And I agree with Randy's opinion on costs.  The price difference between a home refrigerator and inverter vs an RV refrigerator (propane/electric or 12 volts only) will more than pay for a couple of $300 lithium batteries with enough left over to start building a very capable solar setup. 

Perfectly good solar panels removed from commercial installations when their tax credits expire are widely available for literally pennies per watt, team them with a $150 MPPT controller to charge the lithium batteries and you'll have a robust system.

We have the same refrigerator and when running it draws 56w. We have 200 AH lithium batteries now and I'm adding another 100 AH so we can run our refrigerator and chest freezer for a couple of days without charging.

Denny

[Blues]

1 hour ago, Kirk W said:

We went fulltime in 2000 when the best batteries were still flooded cell, lead acid and solar was extremely rare and expensive for the RV community.

I'll say. 

We started fulltiming in 2003 and added solar in 2005:  four 175-watt solar panels, at $675 each.  A year later, we added two more of those panels, and they had gone up to $825 each.  At the time, having that much solar was almost unheard of. 

And it was expensive.  The coach came with six flooded lead acid golf cart batteries, so we didn't have to pay for that.  But including $500 for an MPPT controller, our 1,050 watt system cost almost $5,400.  It was a lot.

However, almost 20 years later, we still have that same system, except in 2015 we had to replace the solar controller, and spent $615 on the new one.  But the original panels are still rocking along, and we replace batteries at the normal rate--every 7 or 8 years.  Still haven't switched to lithium.

When our Norcold 1200 (4-door) cooling unit died ten years ago, I did the math on a residential refrigerator on solar.  Assuming 1.3 kwh/day for the refrigerator, I just wasn't comfortable with 1,050 watts.  So we got an Amish cooling unit from RV Cooling Unit Warehouse and it's still working. 

I just went to their website and priced it.  The unit with AC elements and fans would be $1,560 delivered.  Ours was $1,230 delivered in 2014.  We installed it ourselves.

[D&J]

JC refrigerators sell Amish cooling units, that is where our failed units came from.

Denny

[Lou Schneider]

17 hours ago, D&J said:

We have the same refrigerator and when running it draws 56w. We have 200 AH lithium batteries now and I'm adding another 100 AH so we can run our refrigerator and chest freezer for a couple of days without charging.

Denny

I think we're both saying the same thing.  56 watts X 24 hours a day X 60% average duty cycle = 810 watt-hours as listed in the Energy Guide.   Either way I'm very happy with my refrigerator.