2014 Thor Challenger37GT- propane

[dgood7]

I am a newbie. We just got our coach last week. Our coach has a hose refrigerator and we are plugged in.

Simple question - do I leave the propane valve open or can I close it?

[FW28z]

Not sure what you mean by a hose refrigerator... but most fridges are dual powered - 120VAC and LP (and also 12VDC for the control circuit).

There is no ill effect by shutting the gas off to the fridge, other than it won't run. If the switch is in Auto for example, and if 120VAC is present, the fridge will run on electricity.

But if you disconnect 120VAC, when in Auto position, it will attempt to use gas.

But, if you don't turn the gas on, you will simply get an error (blinking LED, etc) on the fridge that gas is not present.

Otherwise, no ill effect.

[anaro]

I think it was a typo, I think he meant house fridge. If your fridge will run on either propane or electric, set it to auto. We leave propane on so the battery and propane will kick in and keep the fridge cold in case of power failure.

[HarryT]

I too believe he meant house refrigerator. If so, it only runs on AC so yes it is OK to shut off the propane.
Harry

[FW28z]

You are probably correct. I was trying to think of all of the combinations of hose, but for some reason, I didn't think about house.

[dgood7]

I did mean house. Thanks for the replies. Some of my neighbors (I have a seasonal lease while I finish work) weren't familiar with the setup and we're insisting that the fridge did not run off the inverter while traveling.

I plan to tun it off unless I need it or someone convinces me I need it on.

[dgood7]

I should have read closer. I seems as though leaving it on auto would be best. That way, if there's a power failure and I'm away, I've got the propane as a backup.

Does that make sense?

[FW28z]

A couple of things to think about. If you are driving, consider running the genny or inverter if you have one rather than using propane for the fridge.

I have read the wisdom of some experts that recommend avoiding running the fridge on propane while traveling as it could be a safety issue, however I have an Aunt/Uncle that have had a Class A for 30+ yrs that do so.

Also, those same experts recommend that the fridge has to be fairly close to level when running - either on electricity or propane. You can potentially damage the fridge if you are not level enough. However, driving around you are probably level enough most of the time that damage won't typically occur.

When we go on a trip, if it is only a couple of hours drive, we just shut the fridge off as it will stay cold for a few hours on it's own without running. But if it is a fair distance, I run the genny.

For my genny, I burn about 1/2 gallon an hour. Given we are getting about 10MPG, the fuel burned for the genny is insignificant. For example, at highway speeds (60mph) we are burning 6.5Gal per hour with the genny rather than 6gal. without.

(we used to burn 25gal per hour on our boat, so we're happy as can be with the fuel mileage of our RV).

I am sure there are other strategies that more experienced RV'ers here can provide, but that is what we do.