Greetings,
I just added a Everchill 12 v DC refrigerator. The fit was perfect. Amp draw on startup is 5.5 amps. I had to close off the vent on top from inside. I used 3 pieces of 1" foam board. I will also need to cover and insulate the side cover. A 3/8 flare tubing plug was needed to cap the propane line. I used the number 14 wire that was there and it seems adequate. My plan was to upgrade but the running voltage is fine. Our first trip is coming up so I'll know soon how it performs. Lots of extra room and better temp control.
Here is where I purchased mine.
https://www.wayinterglobal.com/collections/everchill
Best of luck,
Gordy

We run a 12-volt only Isotherm refrigerator/freezer and love it. It only uses 5 amp hours when it’s compressor running. Also check out Indel Webasto products and snoop around boating websites and/or blogs and see what boaters are using because many long range cruisers are solar dependent for their power needs.

We are very stingy with our electrical use as we mostly boondock, but we’re not stingy with our camping lifestyle. I suspect most of our community’s challenges with power usage comes from an unrealistic expectation that our RVs be “just like home”, power hungry appliance and all. With a little bit of knowledge and a rig that is energy efficient, it’s fairly easy to unplug or at the very least, use a lot less power.

We have an older 45 quart Engel, and it draws about 7 amps when running. It is super reliable and has been in intermittent use since 2005 ! Their newer models are no doubt more efficient, and more varied in the design. I highly recommend the brand, especially after observing many off-brand reviews on YouTube !

Which one did you get Gordy? The 17 cubic ft. or the 11? We went to camping world and seen the 10 cubic ft. unit but it was a Norcold 12 volt. We found the unique 13 cubic ft. unit at Home depot. Never would have expected them to have a 12 volt unit.

I am interested in hearing more about your switch. We currently have a 12c/f Norcold LP/Electric fridge that we run on electric through our inverter most of the time. It uses a lot of electricity about 450 watts with the heating element on. Much more than a standard residential fridge which I measured at roughly 150 watts. It sounds like your everchill is roughly 70 watts? What size did you remove to replace it? I wonder if it would fit into the same space as our 12c/f Norcold.

Most days we are fine leaving the fridge on electric but we do need to switch it to gas sometimes and would prefer something more efficient.

Thanks!

I have added some pictures of our install. We bought the
Everchill 11 cubic foot model. I pasted a link in my first post. I also added pics from our Norcold we replaced.

Thanks for the info!

Nice install, looks as good as the factory.

Hows the defrost on these new 12V fridges. That's one thing I hate about our old Dometic 2 Way, get a lot of frost build-up quickly on the wet coast.

Yea, unfortunately there manual.

Hows yours been so far Gordy?

I updated our 2002 Norcold 8cuft with the Jc Refrigeration/ DutchAire Hvac upgrade. This involves removing the old absorption system and replace with either a 120 volt or 12 volt compressor system. It uses about 100 watts when running and there is little or no changes needed to cabinets. It is Amish company and they do good work and have excellent customer service. I had an issue with first compressor producing a thumping noise and after troubleshooting - they ended up sending me a new replacement unit at no charge and did not have to send back original loud unit.

Greetings,
We have been using this for about two weeks. I would do this conversion again. We love the extra space. The refrigerator is quite, easy on battery power and cools really well. We have only had two nights so far off shore power. No problems with battery power. We have two 3 year old golf cart batteries with no monitoring. I am installing a battery monitor and two lion energy batterys soon and will update on power use. When we were shopping for ours we went to larger rv dealers and told them we were just wanting to look at dc refrigerators. They were happy to let us wander around. So many new trailers come with dc now. We reviewed Everchill, Furrion, Dometic, Norcold.
More later if anyone is interested.
Gordy

The two differences in the upgrade and the ready built Everchill are cost and size. Our fridge maintained the original look and size with much quicker cooling at a little over $800 with 3 year warranty - compared to $1300 to $1400 and an extra 2.7 cuft for Everchill. The upgrade does require more user involvement or payed labor to install. We are not full timers and typically stay for a week at a time in a site before returning home - so the 8 cuft capacity has been all we need.

We found a Canadian company Unique and they have a 13 cubic ft. 12 volt DC unit. Not available for another month so we are looking for a tech hopefully coming by The Tetons this summer and get ours swapped out. Ought to work well with our new Lithium batteries.

I find discussions like this - to switch from absorption to 12V refrigeration - fascinating, since I've found it a real joy to have switched from 12V to absorption. We lived aboard and cruised out last two sailboats about 30,000 miles, all of it with 12V refrigeration. We enjoyed the added benefit of installing a fresh water cooling circuit in both systems (Novacool and Isotherm, the latter with a holding plate), improving efficiency. After the last boat was sold in Australia, we migrated a few years later to a trailer with a typical 7+ ft3 Dometic absorption system. On the boats we had 3 ways to keep the house bank charged but the tyranny of always feeding the bank, due to refrigeration more than any other system, never left. So far, performance with the Dometic unit is at least comparable to the two 12V systems but without that headache. One caution I'd offer: About the first thing cruising sailors did when prepping a boat for true liveaboard cruising was beef up their electrical systems. This was pre-Lithium days so that usually meant adding more golf cart batteries. However, the two are essentially the same: one is trying to add 12V capacity. Subsequent cruising always introduced the same dilemma: When you're off the grid, the challenge is never about how much capacity you start with, it's about getting sufficient amps back into the bank. The RV experience - for those seeking 12V refrigeration - probably differs in two main respects: Folks want a larger frig and freezer, and they spend less time off grid before plugging back in. Shoot, on occasion it took us 3 weeks just to get across a big chunk of ocean, only to then put down the hook with many more weeks off grid to follow.

Jack