Fridge Setups .. Batteries and more Q's

[rlynch356]

Thought i would ask the collective....

I have an ARB 50 Fridge incoming and am in possession of the wiring kit already, so hopefully i'm going to wire it up this weekend over the break.

My truck is a Stock (electrical wise anyway) 2015 JKU Sport, So stock battery. My plan is to wire directly to the existing battery, no switch and let the fridge do the work. Basically i was thinking of just running it all the time. I dive once/twice a week so it will get used when not camping but mostly be running with minimal stuff inside load - Temp prob about ~38..

Any issues anyone has faced with this?

How long can i let it run (i do the occasional business trip which i'll turn it off for), stock battery, daily driver with a short commute (~20 min most days)

This will probably lead me into the dual battery part of my "Build" before long but we will see.
....if i'm not careful i am going to have the total Anti-Jeep build with Everything Built out except Any of the off road stuff .

Oh and i'm going to do the same thing in the 90... but it already has a large AGM battery, cut-off and everything but a dual battery system right now.



Thoughts, Pictures, Etc, appreciated

 

[FastGlass]

So, not sure of the amp hour usage of the stock battery, but figure out how many amps it's rated for and devide that by the draw of your fridge....I'd guess between 1 -1.5 amp/hour. If your battery is rated at say, ~45 amp hour (I think it is...someone else chime in, I'm aftermarket so no way to see), you'd theoretically be able to keep that fridge running, without driving the car for between 30 and 45 hours. That's IF the fridge ran full time (they don't). Realistically, you could expect probably 5 days (depending on ambient temp). That being said, All ARB fridges I'm aware of have a low voltage cutoff built in that if it senses your battery drops below a determined voltage, it shuts off the fridge, allowing you to start your Jeep. Still, once ANY major power drawing appliances are added (read:winch etc) you'd really want to start thinking battery upgrades or even a dual batt system.

 

[plh]

I doubt that your stock battery will support the usage you are proposing. Figure at maximum 20 hours to get to 50% discharge for a 65 amp hour battery. You really don't want to go lower discharge than this unless you have a deep cycle or AGM. Plus you won't get charged back full in 20 minutes driving.

ARB fridges have a low voltage cutoff built in that if it senses your battery drops below a determined voltage, it shuts off the fridge - this is true. But then anything you have inside will start to warm up if that matters.

I have an Edgestar 43 qt. Run dual batteries with the "house" charged from the alternator but separated from the starting circuit. Both are deep cycle Odysseys. Group 34 starting and PC1200 house. 50 watts of solar to boost the house, will be adding another 50 watts of solar soon.

 

[unkamonkey]

You may want to check out.

www.batteryfaq.org

You can find more than you want to know

 

[Finatic Angler]

I bought a 37qt ARB last year.

I plugged it into the cigarette lighter in the center console. I did buy the wiring kit but never hooked it up.

I ran the fridge all year until I took it out for hunting season with no issues whatsoever with the stock battery.

 

[Bennyhana]

I have the same set-up. 2013 JKU, stock battery and the ARB 50qt. I don't run my fridge in the jeep non stop but I've left it in the jeep almost all summer. The longest I've gone without starting was 3 days. The fridge did turn itself off and the Jeep started ok. I'd say I'm tempting fate but so far it's held out.

 

[plh]

The newer ARBs with the low voltage shutoff (didn't know older ARBs didn't have this feature) have 3 settings:
Shut off voltages are:
10.1 low
11.4 med
11.8 high

As a percentage of battery discharge, all of these settings are REALLY low to consistently use as a crutch. Even the highest setting is less than the 25% S-O-C rating at 0 degrees F. Sure you will probably start your vehicle, but a non deep cycle battery cannot handle very many charge cycles from this deep of a discharge.

Great info here on batteries in general:

http://www.solar-electric.com/deep-cycle-battery-faq.html

 

[jimi breeze]

I experience about 3 days of use without starting the truck with my ARB 50 (cool weather) before e battery needs a charge (650 CCA).

why would you run the fridge continually? They cool down to temp really quick.

 

[rlynch356]

Thanks for the battery info links - i'll do some reading there.
on the Q as to why run it all the time.. Lunch, diving, grocery, etc - its a daily driver and my main camping truck for the family. I'm planning on keeping the fridge in there all the time.
I'll adjust the battery protection to the highest level 11.8 and see how the science experiment goes.
I am also getting a Antigravity battery jumperstarter to throw in just in case.

 

[Smoothy]

Are AGM batteries good for a 1 battery set up?

I'm thinking of trying the same set up, have you thought of upgrading your stock battery to an AGM of higher capacity ? How big of a solar charger is required to keep things a bit more topped up while camping?

 

[njjeepthing]

I have the Diehard deep cycle battery in my JK with a ARB 37L, get's about 2.5 days before the low voltage fail safe kicks in. I've been using the cigarette lighter but I am going to get a hard wire kit soon.

 

[rlynch356]

I've been running the ARB fridge on hardwire for about a month, continuously. No issues. I do have the Transit bag on it as well. i haven't pushed it past 2 days with out starting the truck. But it has not kicked off the low voltage protection yet either.
The battery is stock - I am going to move to a dual battery system at some point.

 

[rino]

I have used an ARB 50qt fridge on the 24/7-365 plan on my daily driver / camp vehicle. I never had any issues with the stock battery and I recently sold and switched to an Engel MT45 and have had the fridge in since December with no issues (granted it is winter) with the stock battery. I do drive my Jeep almost everyday, but have had it sit for a about a week multiple times with no issue of a dead battery. Hope this helps.

 

[Yarjammer]

My stock battery crapped out after a couple weekends of not starting the Jeep and having the fridge hard wired to the battery. The final weekend was what I would consider extreme duty (97*F day/80*night) and I had to watch my battery like a hawk. I ended up having to run my engine a couple times a day to keep it going because the fridge compressor was operating at a 50-75% duty cycle instead of the usual 10-20% I normally "hear".

I have since upgraded to a DieHard Platinum and haven't had any issues. This summer I'll be procuring a 60W or 90W solar setup for peace of mind. I can't justify a dual battery setup at twice the price and half the flexibility.