Read This Before Buying An RV Refrigerator
The first thing you need to know about RV refrigerators is that they don’t work the same way as your home refrigerator. In fact, RV refrigerators don’t necessarily work the same as each other! There are different kinds of RV refrigerators, and you can choose the right style based on your style of RV’ing.
Your home refrigerator uses a compressor and ammonia gas to suck the warm air out of the unit (we don’t need to go into the details here).
Your RV refrigerator uses heat to start a similar chemical reaction (again with ammonia gas) which, through evaporation and then condensation, cools the inside. The primary heat source for RV refrigerators is typically a small propane burner.
Many
units include a 120 volt AC electric heating element for use when the
RV is hooked up to a power source at your campsite, and/or a 12 volt
DC battery to keep it running when you’re on the move.
See
our recommended RV Refrigerators
If you know you’ll always be staying someplace with AC power, you can use another type of RV refrigerator referred to as an “AC/DC Compressor Style”. These refrigerators don’t use propane, but rely on the AC power when you’re hooked up to a power source, or the DC battery when you’re not.
The upside of the Compressor style of RV refrigerator is that you don’t need propane and the refrigeration unit will still work if the refrigerator isn’t level. Compressor style RV refrigerators can be up to 30 degrees off balance and still keep the unit cool. The propane refrigerators must be in perfect balance to work.