Goodbye Refrigerator

JohnDanielsCPA

Today, I bid farewell to my 2017 T@B 320S three-way refrigerator.  After playing human thermostat for two years, on 12 volt, 110 volt and propane, and failing miserably (temperature range from 17 degrees to 61 degrees), I had to conclude that my risk of getting sick from food experiencing such huge temperature fluctuations was no longer worth it.  I took it to my local RV repair shop and had them remove it.  In its place, I will use the cabinet for storage.  Meanwhile, I purchased an ARB 50 quart fridge earlier this year, and it has been rock solid (and includes its own thermostat).  I have read through countless posts about various things that could be wrong with the fridge, and various techniques one could employ to get it to behave itself, but really?  It’s a fridge!  It really shouldn’t require that much of my attention.  I have owned several RVs in the past and never had this much problem with a refrigerator.  So, goodbye and good riddance!  Hopefully, the new ones (with the two side vents) will behave much better.

Photomom

John, I have that ARB too. We used it for a week in the Adirondacks when we camped without hookups. It worked well but we hooked it to the T@B battery and had to run our generator for 3 hours every day to keep the battery charged. We also had to keep the ARB in the back of the SUV (bears) and were lucky to be able to park close enough to the T@B since I only have a 6 ft 12v extension cord. I also wasn’t happy that we had to run the cord out the back of the SUV and slam the hatch on it.

Would you share the practicalities of how you hooked up and powered your ARB?

Photomom

BTW, we used the fridge as a pantry on that trip. For a refrigerator it makes a good pantry.

Photomom

Also, are you concerned about resale value for your T@B?

Sharon_is_SAM

@JohnDanielsCPA, you’ll love it!  Ours is installed in place of the clamshell frig.  We have 150 amp AGM battery and we towed from Cleveland to Moab and back without problems - including leaving the ARB run for up to 19 hours between charging while towing.  Once out west, solar did it’s magic.  For a while I monitored temperatures remotely, but, once my monitors died, I decided that the ARB was one less thing to worry about.

 @Photomom, how big is your battery?  How many amps were you consuming daily?

Luckyj

Photomom said:

John, I have that ARB too. We used it for a week in the Adirondacks when we camped without hookups. It worked well but we hooked it to the T@B battery and had to run our generator for 3 hours every day to keep the battery charged. We also had to keep the ARB in the back of the SUV (bears) and were lucky to be able to park close enough to the T@B since I only have a 6 ft 12v extension cord. I also wasn’t happy that we had to run the cord out the back of the SUV and slam the hatch on it.

Would you share the practicalities of how you hooked up and powered your ARB?

I am puzzeled.

you have an SUV, so more tyan likely a large battery in it, why did'nt you kook it up to the SUV battery?  Mine will run for up to 4 days on my wrangler battery.

jkjenn

Luckyj said:

I am puzzeled.

you have an SUV, so more tyan likely a large battery in it, why did'nt you kook it up to the SUV battery?  Mine will run for up to 4 days on my wrangler battery.

I really had great performance from mine on my recent trip. But I use a GZ Yeti battery and keep the Yeti charged from the TV inverter. I prevailed and added a couple of bottles of frozen water to the ARB this time, and kept the fridge full and it seemed to make a big difference

JohnDanielsCPA

My ARB stays in the back of my Jeep.  While in the Jeep, we have it hooked up to a wire that connects directly to the battery, so it’s always on.  While in camp, I either hook it up to the T@B battery (I have two six volt batteries with 220 amp hours of capacity) or connect it to an extension cord if on hookups.  My solar panel keeps the T@B battery always topped off, so any drain on 12 volt is quickly recovered.  The Jeep battery recharges when we are out “touring.”  But, just in case, I have the ARB set to turn off if it pulls too much from the battery.  I have found the ARB uses an average of 1.2 amps per hour, or about 30 amps per day. 

As for the resale value of my T@B, I don’t plan to sell it anytime soon.  We were very careful when we originally chose the T@B, and it has met or exceeded our expectations.  Nevertheless, I will store the refrigerator in my garage, so if we choose to sell our T@B in the future, it can be easily hooked back up if the buyer really wants it.

Photomom

Luckyj said:

Photomom said:

John, I have that ARB too. We used it for a week in the Adirondacks when we camped without hookups. It worked well but we hooked it to the T@B battery and had to run our generator for 3 hours every day to keep the battery charged. We also had to keep the ARB in the back of the SUV (bears) and were lucky to be able to park close enough to the T@B since I only have a 6 ft 12v extension cord. I also wasn’t happy that we had to run the cord out the back of the SUV and slam the hatch on it.

Would you share the practicalities of how you hooked up and powered your ARB?

I am puzzeled.

you have an SUV, so more tyan likely a large battery in it, why did'nt you kook it up to the SUV battery?  Mine will run for up to 4 days on my wrangler battery.

Some vehicles may have live 12v outlets but ours is only on when the vehicle is on.

To answer another question, it is a group 27 100ah battery. We used it only for the ARB, to charge phones, iPads, and my Fitbit, and for the T@B stuff you can’t turn off.

Sharon_is_SAM

Our charge line coming off the TV battery is always hot.  @Photomom I think there is some kind of adapter that you can use on the end of the TV 7 pin to run your ARB. Someone posted that this year I believe.

Photomom

SAM said:

Our charge line coming off the TV battery is always hot.  @Photomom I think there is some kind of adapter that you can use on the end of the TV 7 pin to run your ARB. Someone posted that this year I believe.

Yes, I’ve seen that. There is still the issue that it is outside and the ARB is inside. I also found a YouTube video showing how to hack a Highlander to make the 12v outlet hot all the time but it looked very dodgy.

Still looking for that perfect solution. At some point I may have to break down and try to get the T@B fridge fixed. But if it broke after 2 years, what are the chances it will stay fixed?

JohnDanielsCPA

Sorry if I wasn’t clear.  There is a specific wire you can get that is intended to power the ARB off 12 volts.  Most 12 volt outlets built into cars may not be as heavy a guage as the ARB needs.  Here’s a link to Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/ARB-10900027-Arb-Fridge-Wiring/dp/B0742LV4JW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1532565744&sr=8-1&keywords=Arb+wire+kit

It has to be “installed.”  It connects directly to your battery, gets fed through the car’s firewall, and terminates inside the vehicle.  I have a Jeep Wrangler, so I was able to feed it along the passenger side to the rear and connect it there.  The ARB can then plug directly into this outlet.

TABaker

I have a 2007 T@B with 12v fridge and love it.  I even have a small freezer to bring along freeze pops and ice cubes trays.

2Cougs

@Sharon_is_SAM- We also have a clamshell... and our local RV repair place has deemed our fridge not repairable due to there being parts in our Norcold that cannot be gotten to (they have talked directly with Norcold and Norcold admits using some fridges that were subpar).  I would love to see a pic of your ARB installed.  Did you have to give up your cupboard to make room for it?

Sharon_is_SAM

Check out this thread @2Cougs, 

Our new CSS has arrived!

We sacrificed the drawer and cabinet.  I would not change a thing.  We have more than enough room for food storage and we have elected to use a camp kitchen now.  

Love our ARB!