Propane refrigerator -pros and cons

[StillHope]

Aloha,everyone!
My future house is going to have a gas(propane) stove.
I need to buy a new refrigerator.
I searched the forum for propane refrigerator -not much and I had the feeling that it's not considered to be a good idea.
My reason is savings on the electric bill.
What are the pros/cons of having a propane refrigerator?
What is a good model/brand?
Thank you in advance.

[Bullwinkle]

I have a propane fridge at my "other place" (chapter one of the "watchers" by Koontz for a description)

"Danby" a Brazilian company seems to be the last manufacturer of full sized units and sells under many name brands. Norcold is a good brand if you are looking for a smaller (rv) unit

Propane is:

quiet - silent in fact
thrifty - mine burns a little less than a gallon a week
long lasting - expect at least 30 years out of your fridge
pricier - expect to pay in excess of 1k$ plus shipping
slower - A little slower to cool down than electrics

don't overlook propane chest freezer and a small in kitchen (norcold) fridge its a really good low energy impact option

hope this helps

[StillHope]

Thank you,Bullwinkle!
That was really helpful.
I am still on the mainland,have 4-5 months before relocating.Will be looking for sales,may be get lucky.

[StillHope]

It's weird ,though I might have the idea why - here in SD no major appliance stores sell propane refrigerators.The only one listed on the Danby website is "retired" though all over some unknown .coms.
I think because it'd mostly RV or off grid thing.
And the price is very high.
Anyway,I just started looking.May be will find more info..

[Kelena]

http://www.appliancebestbuys.com/index.a...n=VIEWPROD&ProdID=75509

[Bullwinkle]

also check "consul" another one of the "Brazilian" brands

[StillHope]

Thanks,Glen.
I forgot to mention that store,but
actually,that is the model which the manufacturer discontinued ("retired"-the word used on the website).Must be for a reason.And somehow it's the only one available.

Bullwinkle,thank you for your responce.I'll check it out.

[ericlp]

My take?

Propane in Hawaii costs is around 4.00 + per gallon depending where you are going to get it... Say you burn 4 gallons a month, you can get a large 9 gallon tank but they are heavy and require more then one person, well, if you got good back and in half way decent shape you could probably manage it, but, then you you got to swap out tanks, most likely you'll have the 3 gallon bb-q tanks, easy to carry but, got to swap them out faster...

IMO it's just not worth it.... Sorry, I think anyone who is running a refer on propane is people that want to live off grid. With rising propane and wasting gas to go get it not to mention your time and lugging it back and forth is a pain... Not to mention swapping tanks all the time. Should be called "PROPAIN!"

A better option run down to sears and get the best efficient refer you can buy ... like this model...

Frigidaire FRT17HB3J* Top Freezer Automatic No No 16.5 18.86 368 461 20% Yes 5/15/2008

basically it's 368 KiloWatts per year is 18.86 CuFeet. Pretty big with auto defrost.


GE GTH16BBX Top Freezer Automatic No No 15.54 18.12 363 454 20% Yes 5/12/2008

bigger and only 363 KiloWatts per year...


Anyway... Point is, even at 33 cents a kilowatt that would be around 120 a year or 10 bucks a month, and that to me would be cheaper then going with propane.

Now here is where it get's good, you buy one of those for say 600 bucks, probably can get it cheaper then pour the money into a few 80 watt or 170 Watt Panels and with a few batteries and an inverter it could keep your unit running all year long for the next 30 years (properly maintained)...

That is the max savings you can get... Or just plug it in and save! One thing that will save power is take out that STUPID 60 Watt Bulb that heats up to 200+ digress ... And REPLACE it with a 5Watt LED Bulb. The LED bulb will not only save in power for the light itself but is emits almost no heat so your unit doesn't work over time trying to cool it down. You know your not suppose to put warm food in your refer so why put a super hot light bulb in it every time you open the door? Makes no sense.

Tho if you really want to invest your money, (to get the best bang for your dollar) swap out your hot water heater for passive solar one!


Good Luck!

Edit, oh yeah, and if your away on vacation or just doing something where ever and your tank happens to be empty and runs out fuel.. Well, let's just hope you don't have too much food in the fridge that will go to waste, unless you buy those fancy switch overs that will automatically switch when one tank gets empty.

[StillHope]

Thank you so much,Eric!
You are always so helpful!
But I didn't understand the part with inverter.
I am total "0" in that field.
Did you mean some king of small generator ?
And what do you mean by passive solar?

[ericlp]

passive solar is for hot water only... Passive means that you don't buy expensive Photoelectric solar panels you just run the water through a box of copper tubing and the sun heats it up and cycles the water back to the hot water heater.

Passive means There is No electrical conversion from sun to electric. No Wire, No Batteries, No inverter, No nothing. The sun does all the work ... And here is the statistics on hot water!

The average household in the USA spends 30% of it's electric bill on heating of water alone! So, if you did get rid of your Hot Water heater then you'd be saving a lot of electricity! The next biggest appliance that sucks up electricity? It's your refrigerator so.. If you eliminated both those items you'd probably save 40-50% off your power bill.

An Inverter changes 12Volts DC(direct current) from the battery to 120Volt AC(alternating current)Household current AC to run a 120Volt Refrigerator altho, you can buy ones that do run off of 12-24Volt then you don't need an inverter ... This is only required if you want to go solar. Inverters can be as cheap as a few hundred bucks.

Here read up on this... http://www.partsonsale.com/sundanzer.html

Just remember they are comparing this to a 600 Watt refer but you can buy a conventional one from sears in the low 350-400 Watt flavors.

These refrigerators are DC and don't need an inverter. They are stretching that you would need 10 85 panels as you'd would only need a 2 or 3 at the most for a 360 watt fridge. I'm just saying solar is an option. If you do it ... It's completely up to you.