Dometic RV fridge RH460LD any good?

[crazy charlie]

Came across one of these used and was wondering whats good or not so good about this fridge?? Wanting to put a 2nd fridge in my boat and only know Norcold.Anyone??

 

[airshot]

Had a Dometic in my motor home, never an issue..

 

[crazy charlie]

Had a Dometic in my motor home, never an issue..

Thanks.Is the silent operation the only feature???

 

[airshot]

Being both electric and propane there is nothing to make any noise. Ours was an older model, but keot things nice and cold and the freezer would keep ice cream hard !! Some don't, the ice cream gets soft.

 

[Scott Danforth]

generally norcold is used in RV's and dometic was more in the marine market, however the lines are blurred lately. both make a reasonable product. Dometic has better customer service. Norcold's customer service is non-existent.

 

[ahicks]

You need to compare apples with apples! Both of these manf's offer both compressor type friges AND absorption types. The compressor types are elec. only, while the absorption are the combo type that run on gas or elec.

Both have their downsides. The compressors are rarely totally silent for instance, where the absorption is silent. The absorption SHOULD be run as level as possible, and they need to vent heat coming off the absorption unit (a critical function!).

As far as RV's are concerned, the hot setup in the bigger/nicer ones, are regular home types (with compressor), that are either shut off when on the road, or run off some of the massive inverters often seen on the bigger stuff....

 

[Horigan]

One big benefit of compressor refrigerators is that they are way more efficient (lower amps) in DC mode than absorption. If you're running off a battery/solar, you want a compressor refrigerator. I don't hear the compressor frig on our 30' boat.

 

[airshot]

While it wouldn"t work very well on a boat, in our RV, we ran ours on propane. It was colder and used just pennies of propane to keep it running. Friends have 12v DC fridge, that thing eats batteries for lunch. We ran our propane fridge most all summer on a 30 lb tank of propane. In a boat...your gonna need a good electrical system for battery power.

 

[QBhoy]

Here in Europe at least…the dometic brand is what used to be known as Waeco. As far as I know, at least.
I bought a waeco CF11 portable 12v fridge (can also freeze down to -18oC) for the boat. It’s simply been an incredible thing for us. It will have done easily over 1000 hours trouble free. What’s most incredible about it is how efficient it is. Once it’s down to temperature, it’s ridiculously efficient and barely tickles the battery. Also has a battery protection system on it that can be adjusted to 3 levels. Meaning the boat will always have a strong battery to start, should for some reason the fridge depleat it. That’s never happened to me though. Been left on all day and all night, along with stereo and diesel heater on occasion. Single battery install of 110ah marine combo starter and leisure.
Anyway. Top quality product for sure. Not cheap though. I paid about £400 for my model. Much more expensive these days and branded a Dometic in recent years.

 

[mr 88]

While it wouldn"t work very well on a boat, in our RV, we ran ours on propane. It was colder and used just pennies of propane to keep it running. Friends have 12v DC fridge, that thing eats batteries for lunch. We ran our propane fridge most all summer on a 30 lb tank of propane. In a boat...your gonna need a good electrical system for battery power.

I would not personally run a open flame RV propane fridge on my boat . Especially if the fridge was installed with no ventilation and near the bilge . The last RV I had used that method to cool the fridge . Is yours a different set up.,flame free ?

 

[airshot]

I would not personally run a open flame RV propane fridge on my boat . Especially if the fridge was installed with no ventilation and near the bilge . The last RV I had used that method to cool the fridge . Is yours a different set up.,flame free ?

No...as I mentioned, not a good idea for a boat !!