Installing a Residential Refrigerator in a RV

okay guys I might be smiling but I really did not want to make this video there's a lot of hubris when I call myself a z expert like who do I think I am as an expert but it's important to remember I don't really think I'm better or have more skills than anybody else and in my opinion an expert is just somebody that probably knows a little bit more about things that won't work than uh anything else we've been doing something enough to know things that don't work or we were trained and know things that don't work but more than likely the main reason why we know things that don't work is because we made mistakes and sadly this is one of those opportunities where I get to pass on some information about things not to do so I'm obviously back here over at the shop and I'm back here still working on a good friend at this Gray Hawk from Jayco and the owner of this asked me to either fix the gas absorption refrigerator that this hat in it that wasn't cooling properly but of course the price to fix it was pretty astronomical and so they decided they want to put a Residential Refrigerator in which of course would have been my preference too based on even the last video I made uh doing a cooling unit on a refrigerator now I did make a video on the swap out or the change out because every refrigerator is going to be different but I went with this hair worked uh basically the exact same size it's a Residential Refrigerator 110 only freezer on top refrigerator down below fit very perfectly there's the model number if you guys really want it I did have to manufacture a little bit of a bracket up there I modified the feet a little bit so I could put a screw down there and then we capped off the propane back here put some screws through the back of this thing so it wouldn't fall out and then I even went through the hassle of closing up the vents on the back of the refrigerator door was it difficult not necessarily that difficult I did this all myself dragged the refrigerators in and out by myself a little bit complicated but no big deal but what was the mistake that I did well you guys already saw it but you don't know that you saw it last thing I had to do was figure out how to keep the doors from opening in transit and because this magnet wasn't going to do it there's not a really good place to put a latch in between like a lot of Manufacturers would do I thought about getting uh I'm already manufactured bracket and putting it in there where a bar goes over here I don't really like the straps that stick onto the side there's not a lot of area to stick it on and I also find them to be aesthetically unpleasing because uh usually the strap hangs out somewhere and then when you open and close in the door that strap's flapping about and then I still don't trust adhesives that much so in the cleverness that I thought was me I came up with this I took a strut bracket that would go to a screen door uh gas strut at the top maybe I can see you kind of see the picture of it right there maybe I'll try to put a picture of it with more sense and I put it in right there and then drilling that hole out just a little bit I was able to use a quick connect pin right there not that crazy complicated it's a lot easier to use works really well the doors are nice and secured and it's mounted everything into what would be really solid steel because that's where the door brackets would go if you move the doors to this side and you can see there are already holes right there for it but even though a lot of Manufacturers put screws on the front of these refrigerators this is where I found something very important on this hair uh refrigerator on one of the screws I put in and these are really short screws you can see how short those things are there is much to my dismay there's a refrigerant Line running down the side of the frame right here why it's on the front of the frame I don't know but I found out that right there I don't know if you guys can see right there there's a refrigerant line and all the refrigerant came out of this so unfortunately that means I get to buy a whole brand new refrigerator which I think you guys might have seen in the back of my truck right there I also get to remove this brand new refrigerator do the work a second time for free share my shame on the internet not for any other reason then so hopefully somebody else can learn from my experience because never would I have ever thought there was a refrigerant line in the side of a refrigerator right there [Music] technician that was wrong or let alone that I made a mistake this is one of those learning experiences that I think could possibly help somebody in the future or at least uh past me in the past but it's also a really good learning experience not for me but for everybody else because I'm interested why there's a refrigerant line right here and I think we're gonna figure that out together so I am curious exactly where the line is how many times I threaded the needle maybe with all these the other screws I put in there and how many other refrigerators out there I might have just lucked out of not damaging the refrigerator with because I put a lot of things on the front of refrigerators before foreign line right there and if it's what I think it is it's it's a very clever piece of engineering just unfortunate for me [Music] so let's see what we got here refrigerant line is right there found it perfectly I put a horn right there and I didn't hit anything but I was a little bit too off so I tried to thread the needle be perfect and that's when I hit the line if I could reenact it there were no tears it was just disappointment because I knew that I had to tear this all apart again and start over from the ground up and buy a whole new refrigerator there it is see it is right there too and it goes across right right here let me tear this apart some more and I'll tell you what I think it is so it is a bit of a clever piece of engineering that the refrigerator manufacturer put together you can see that refrigerant line going through right there it's about the size of almost a capillary tube it's very very small on most refrigerators between the freezer section and the refrigerator section uh they put a heater right in this area right here so that condensation doesn't form right on that cold metal and then become water and damage the front of the refrigerator or the cabinet or the floor down below on an RV and a lot of refrigerators especially the ones with the French doors or the flapper heater it's an electric 12 volt heater but it looks like they're using the refrigerant line on the high side because this will get hot and it'll warm this area up and so they're using that almost free energy to simplify the refrigerator design and you'd only need a heater on anyways with the refrigerator is going to keep this from getting cold and having condensation form on it and so if it's running this is going to get hot so that brilliant design is something I did not account for and the thing is I didn't even need a screw right there in hindsight I would have been done but so my mistake hopefully everybody's learning experience I still would never expected to see refrigerant line on the side right here so even if you've tried to screw something on the side and I sometimes do screw things on the side I still go to hit that and I put screws up here on the top um maybe we should tear that apart and make sure there's no holes right or lines up here in the top foreign so the good news is there is nothing at the top of the screws we're going into it's just foam it's just a foam box with a metal on the outside reinforcement steel right framing right there for the hinges so if you need to move the hinges from that side to that side so we I learned a pretty valuable and moderately expensive lesson today be careful what you put a screw in on a refrigerator and that's why I'm making this video so maybe in the future get a thermal imaging and check for our Refrigeration line when you're running it maybe it's time I invest in a one of those Ford looking infrared adapters that I see everybody else have at this point it definitely would have paid for itself with the cost of this refrigerator but on the bright side we're still way ahead of replacing the RV refrigerator now this refrigerator is available through Lowe's or online so there but it looks good this one's just a stainless steel door on it I might be going back to black from the other ones because I think the black might look better but we'll find out now whenever you're uh switching out a refrigerator it's really going to be the measurements that are going to determine the refrigerator you're using and this one was 23 and a half by about 58. and 22 and a half now [Music] the owners of this Gray Hawk have been keeping track of me as I post these videos and now they'll know what I did to their RV which of course isn't the end of the world everybody knows I'm human I think everybody likes to see people admit to mistakes I think you just have to uh put this one in and so though I did not intend on making a video about doing a RV refrigerator swap out to a Residential Refrigerator swap out and this isn't a direct how-to I did block off the roof using some foam so that opening right there is closed off now secured all the wiring back there out of the way I made sure that I had room to install it so it would fit you might at least get a little bit of an idea how to swap out an RV refrigerator to a Residential Refrigerator inadvertently on this video so hopefully no we know now we can alleviate problems in the future and know how to do this better in the future now personally I know the stainless steel doors are popular and a normal upgrade but the black stove top and a black microwave I really think the black doors will look a lot better so I think I'm gonna put those on foreign you guys put in the comments [Music] try to make it look so easy but I make a lot of mistakes too I can edit out most of the problems [Music] also helps that I work by myself quite a bit and so nobody else has to witness all my mistakes swearing and tears [Music] so again I'm not necessarily an expert in a sense that uh I'm better than anybody I know much better technicians than me just in my life foreign don't worry guys I can already hear you in the comments I did already cap off the actual Supply to that refrigerator line but I left it capped off here too so hopefully if somebody in the future wants to reverse this they can do it pretty easily and they won't be upset with me but I can also hear you guys in the comments still only the good stuff in my shop foreign so I'm just saying as an expert is usually somebody that knows the wrong way of doing something because they've done it the wrong way and they've learned their lesson but that's not always true because I still feel like this is a pretty good plan and now that I know where I can't put a screw maybe it'll work even better so it really does work out very well right there I mean it looks Factory it's a nice decorative finish on it and the only screw that would be worrisome is that one right there there's no refrigerant line below that hole just above it it's even so perfect because with the door closed the screw holes don't interfere with the seal at all right there what do you think I think I should try for take number two but I gotta give myself a fighting chance here not to make a mistake this will at least eliminate the possibility of me making a mistake foreign or somebody in the future seeing holes and thinking they should put screws in it [Music] you guys happy now we're good but has it really being stubborn if now I know where it can go because lining it up right there it's definitely out of the way of the refrigerant line up there wish me luck so we won gonna do it right about there there so let's do the bottom one first huh so far so good right there right on top okay with that back off again look at that it's right where the screw hole should be no hiss I think we did it foreign that's holding up we got some power there the lights on fans on all right now I'll just let it uh cool off while I clean up my big mess I made doing this job twice but I hope that was kind of fun to watch me mess up maybe we all learn something together and while I would prefer not to learn the hard way that's why I'm making this video so that at least maybe somebody in the future sees it and says maybe I should be careful where I put those screws in the refrigerator but now although it took us two tries to do this I'm still ultimately pretty pleased with the way it turned out and although again my customer doesn't have to pay for the second installation and that's all on me all said and done it's still a lot cheaper than rebuilding or repairing that uh probably 20 year old gas absorption refrigerator from norcold and for what it's worth I think it looks like a pretty good installation unlike a gas absorption refrigerator this will get cold in the matter of an hour or two so we just had this thing turned on probably about two hours ago and we're down to 11 degrees inside ahead and the freezer and the refrigerator is already 45 degrees 42 degrees Arizona summertime you'd be lucky after 12 hours to get those temperatures already and once it's down at the temperature the compressor stops running so you're really not using that much so I do like residential refrigerators for that purpose and I don't know if you guys really saw it or not it says it uses 2.5 amps or 145 Watts that is insane it's a 110 heating element on a gas absorption refrigerator is usually about 300 350 Watts this is even more efficient and faster than getting an inverter and maybe a solar panel on the roof is still going to be a lot further ahead if you're interested in boondocking a bunch of Class C I could see boondocking a lot more but I still like the residential refrigerators at this point they're just far superior you have more room inside of them they get so much colder so much faster now maybe the only thing I didn't show you on this quick connect pin that I put on there if you're asking is this white collar it's nothing more than a screw protector quarter inch screw protector looks like that it's just a little rubber cap I cut the end of it off so it would fit through there it does two things as a it acts as a cushion and as a spacer slight that off hopefully all right so oh don't lose that without it we put that on it's just barely catches on the top right there it's a little bit looser too so I want to put it put it on it goes right again straight there and keeps the pen from going down too far so it's a nice cushion for it easy removal no straps getting in the way Once you pull it out you got good access to the refrigerator you might hit your head on that maybe if you're looking in maybe but that's on you right but there it was guys a mistake that I made that I hope nobody else has to make because I showed you the mistake itself but not to break anybody's bubble hi I am very prone to making mistakes hopefully this is the last video we have on this Gray Hawk it is a fun little Class C motorhome it's time for me to move on and figure out some other things to do thanks a lot for watching guys I hope that helps somebody and might have figured out how to install a residential refrigerator to replace a gas absorption refrigerator why we did this uh mistake that I made but thanks a lot for watching guys bye don't worry we will get a manometer and do a good drop pressure test okay and then maybe an expert is just somebody that's and maybe an expert in my opinion is somebody that just knows a few things and maybe I just considered an expert to be but that I I mean not way ahead but even with two of these refrigerators it's still cheaper than one of those foreign

Channel: AZ Expert

Views: 59,684

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Id: JW5DINfYCVc

Length: 24min 1sec (1441 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 27 2022