Hand me a Cold One

 

Norcold NR751SS

The trailer originally had an icebox not a refrigerator. If I was doing a "restoration" I probably would have used on of the conversion kits to turn the icebox into a fridge, but this is a renovation so I wanted to take full advantage of newer, more efficient technology.

I installed a Norcold NR751 SS (SS means stainless steel vs black). It's a  2.7 cuft electric fridge (no propane) that can run off either 12V (or 24V) DC or 120V AC. If wired for both DC and AC it automatically switches to 120V AC when that's available. I picked it up as a "Used Like New" on Amazon for a substantial discount. It was a slight ding in the frame (you may see it on the left hand side) and the shipping foam was obviously abused but otherwise it seems fine. The ding is definitely offset by the ~$400 savings!

This is a rugged unit with a steel frame enclosing all the pieces. It features a SECOP compressor so it's relatively energy efficient. Your mileage may vary, but it's supposed to draw about 6A when the compressor is running. They estimate a typical 30% duty factor, so that's ~43 amp-hours per day. My battery monitor indicated ~5 amp draw when the compressor was running.


Pretty blue light

Installation was easy. I used the manual specs (available online) to construct the cabinet and fortunately I found the manual dimensions to be 100% accurate when I lifted the fridge into place. 

In the pictures you'll note that I chose a "flush" mount. You can also chose a "proud" mount where the door stick out proud of the cabinet. You switch between the two by adjusting the mounting frame via a few screws.

I bought the AC plug from a 3rd party on Amazon because I didn't want to pay 3x for a standard power cable, I wanted a specific plug configuration (90 degree plug on both ends), and I wanted extra length to facilitate installation in a "blind" location. For the 12V DC side of things, I made sure there was plenty of lead wire for a blind installation.

Another installation consideration was 120V AC power. Since the fridge automatically switches from DC to AC power use, I didn't want to it to use AC power whenever the inverter was running (thereby using extra battery power). So I wired a shore power AC outlet for the fridge. Now the fridge will only switch to AC power use when shore power is connected.





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