Goal Zero Yeti 400 Experiences?

[Bkal]

Goal Zero Yeti instead of 12 V battery?

I don't know anything about my electrical system in my 2014 Four Wheel Camper Eagle shell. I have 1 fantastic fan, heater, and LED lights. The old deep cycle battery that my Dad gave me died and I need to replace it. Can I run my electrical system off a Goal Zero Yeti 400 instead of buying a new battery? Or does that not work?

 

[spikemd]

I use the 50amps Anderson plug to adapt it.the Charing power is 140watts if vehicle is running, and zero if the vehicle is not running.

Holy crap! 140watts in? Never seen that or even knew that could happen. I was told by GZ it capped at 100watts in from solar, but seing as thogh solar is so inefficient, that takes about '200 watts' of panels.

So is that big Andersen direct to ur battery? Fused?

Is that a defender seatbox I see?

 

[snowblind]

Just to contribute to the database here

So I think the yeti has dc-dc charger on-board and also it is sensitive to voltage,meaning it will not draw power of the car is not running. I am not sure what the threshold voltages are

I use the 50amps Anderson plug to adapt it.the Charing power is 140watts if vehicle is running, and zero if the vehicle is not running.

Yeti 400 needs a voltage of 13.5v or higher to charge. Yes there is a DC to DC charge controller in there.

 

[snowblind]

Holy crap! 140watts in? Never seen that or even knew that could happen. I was told by GZ it capped at 100watts in from solar, but seing as thogh solar is so inefficient, that takes about '200 watts' of panels.

So is that big Andersen direct to ur battery? Fused?

Yeti 400 is supposed to be limited to 120W max but the controller seems to allow more from a strong DC source. I saw 138w in my truck with one of the earliest Yeti 400 models.

You will want fuse at the battery for the supply wire. Fuse protects the wire. Yeti 400 is supposed to be limited to 10A max.

 

[martnH]

I use the 50amps Anderson plug to adapt it.the Charing power is 140watts if vehicle is running, and zero if the vehicle is not running.

Holy crap! 140watts in? Never seen that or even knew that could happen. I was told by GZ it capped at 100watts in from solar, but seing as thogh solar is so inefficient, that takes about '200 watts' of panels.

So is that big Andersen direct to ur battery? Fused?

Is that a defender seatbox I see?

Yes fused Anderson
And yes defender box.mine is a puma (ford) so the alternator is pretty strong at 165amps. It always pumps more than 14v.
If battery if full then 14.7

It may be easier to fit another battery down there under the seat. But I like the fancy looking of a yeti.....

The now the only problem is it's only 35ah.maybe I am greedy But I may just chain it up with another 35 AH

Sent from my LG-H870DS using Tapatalk

 

[PeterN]

I recently purchased a Goal Zero Yeti 400 (AGM) and had some success and failure with it on the trail.

I did some tests at home before my trip:

1) Charge the Yeti with the supplied AC transformer to 100% per the instructions.

2) Plug my Engel 45 quart fridge using the 12 volt female cigarette lighter port on the Yeti.

3) Press the 12v output button on the Yeti to activate that port.

4) Remove AC input power to the Yeti.

I did this before I went to bed to simulate what I'll be using it for on my trip....charging it while I'm driving via my vehicle's 12volt system or with the Boulder 100 briefcase at camp sites while the sun is out.

When I woke up the next day the Yeti had turned off the 12volt port for some reason and the fridge was not powered and the battery was at 100% capacity. I pressed the 12volt output button on the Yeti to re-activate it and my fridge compressor started humming. I'd walk away and come back and the output would be off again.

I called Goal Zero support and they asked me to open the case and disconnect the battery leads and reconnect them to basically reset the electronics in the controller. I did this and still experienced the same problem. Goal Zero quickly shipped me another unit, with their 12 volt output to female cigarette lighter adapter (as another way to eliminate the mechanical connection as the source of the problem) and sent me a shipping label to return my original unit.

I had one more night to test after the new Yeti arrived and it powered my fridge all night. I packed the land cruiser so that the Yeti was strapped down so my kids could turn around and make sure the output button stayed green. While we were on the road the output stopped repeatedly requiring vigilance to re-activate it. This pattern continued through the entire trip with all of us having to constantly monitor and press the button while driving, at camp on solar, or at night with just the battery powering the fridge.

After a long call with Goal Zero's excellent support staff today it may be that something about how my fridge draws power is running afoul of the safety logic on the controller. They've never seen this behavior before and were ready to ship me another unit which I didn't feel would solve the problem. Instead, they are going to send me the connectors to connect directly to the battery's power poles and use their female 12volt output adapter. This will bypass all of the logic on the controller and while I won't be able to see the output on the LCD display it will hopefully eliminate the shut-off problem.

I'll report back once I've tested this new setup.

I am very pleased with the Boulder 100 briefcase and Yeti 400 combo in terms of it's ability to keep the battery at 100% during sunlight hours and to run my fridge all night. I'd wake up with an icy fridge and 40%-80% battery charge (when the output worked).

 

[john61ct]

Startup amps required going over the BMS protective setting?

Or even dropping voltage too much?

Should not have a ciggie port anywhere in the mix.

 

[PeterN]

Startup amps required going over the BMS protective setting?

Or even dropping voltage too much?

Should not have a ciggie port anywhere in the mix.

[edit to answer questions] I'm a complete moron when it comes to electrical stuff. I have no idea how my Engel fridge behaves or if it's breaking laws or best practices when it's compressor draws power. I can say that it's incredibly well insulated (I have the jacket for it) and it will stay absolutely icy when full even with no power in hot climates for 10+ hours. When I had a dual battery system in my Land Rover, I had no battery problems with the deep cycle AGM that powered it.

john61ct... you say no ciggie port because it's an inherently insecure connection? (which I agree with) Or for another reason?

 

[john61ct]

Yes, dangerously poor design.

I like Andersons.

Stock blurb:

Standard ciggie sockets are a dangerous abortion, avoid like the plague for anything important, or that you use regularly, or for more than a few minutes. Never more than 5-6A and for short periods, even then they are risky.

Blue Sea has a nice socket design that twist-locks with the matching plug, but will also accept standard ciggie plugs for smaller (
Also the BMW/ Hella/ Merit/ Powerlet "Euro-style DIN" (ISO 4165) style is very robust.

Anderson plugs for high amps.

If you standardize on one of the last two types, there are adapters for guests, temporary use of devices with standard ciggie plugs.

 

[PeterN]

I'm going to convert my 12v Engel power cable to Andersons. Thanks for the tips.

 

[OWL_WOLF]

I recently purchased a Goal Zero Yeti 400 (AGM) and had some success and failure with it on the trail.

I did some tests at home before my trip:

1) Charge the Yeti with the supplied AC transformer to 100% per the instructions.

2) Plug my Engel 45 quart fridge using the 12 volt female cigarette lighter port on the Yeti.

3) Press the 12v output button on the Yeti to activate that port.

4) Remove AC input power to the Yeti.

I did this before I went to bed to simulate what I'll be using it for on my trip....charging it while I'm driving via my vehicle's 12volt system or with the Boulder 100 briefcase at camp sites while the sun is out.

When I woke up the next day the Yeti had turned off the 12volt port for some reason and the fridge was not powered and the battery was at 100% capacity. I pressed the 12volt output button on the Yeti to re-activate it and my fridge compressor started humming. I'd walk away and come back and the output would be off again.

I called Goal Zero support and they asked me to open the case and disconnect the battery leads and reconnect them to basically reset the electronics in the controller. I did this and still experienced the same problem. Goal Zero quickly shipped me another unit, with their 12 volt output to female cigarette lighter adapter (as another way to eliminate the mechanical connection as the source of the problem) and sent me a shipping label to return my original unit.

I had one more night to test after the new Yeti arrived and it powered my fridge all night. I packed the land cruiser so that the Yeti was strapped down so my kids could turn around and make sure the output button stayed green. While we were on the road the output stopped repeatedly requiring vigilance to re-activate it. This pattern continued through the entire trip with all of us having to constantly monitor and press the button while driving, at camp on solar, or at night with just the battery powering the fridge.

After a long call with Goal Zero's excellent support staff today it may be that something about how my fridge draws power is running afoul of the safety logic on the controller. They've never seen this behavior before and were ready to ship me another unit which I didn't feel would solve the problem. Instead, they are going to send me the connectors to connect directly to the battery's power poles and use their female 12volt output adapter. This will bypass all of the logic on the controller and while I won't be able to see the output on the LCD display it will hopefully eliminate the shut-off problem.

I'll report back once I've tested this new setup.

I am very pleased with the Boulder 100 briefcase and Yeti 400 combo in terms of it's ability to keep the battery at 100% during sunlight hours and to run my fridge all night. I'd wake up with an icy fridge and 40%-80% battery charge (when the output worked).

-------------------------

I am having the exact same problem with my Dometic CFX 35 fridge and my yeti 400. PeterN did you ever figure out what was happening?

I will say Goal Zero has excellent customer service. Although they did not know why I was having the same issues with the DC power turning off randomly... they shipped out a refurbished unit to me. I ended up having the same issues with the new unit... the DC power would randomly turn off. This occurred even when the yeti was fully charged with the AC cord attached making sure it was at max charge.

All of the modern fridges spec out and fall into the abilities of the yeti 400 according to paper. Goal Zero is sending a third unit to me... I doubt it will be any different. I just want to solve the issue... might be something with my fridge?

 

[hayhonker]

I'd like to add that I am having the same problem with the Yeti 1400 Lithium. The 12V power turns off no matter how I hook up my ARB 50. The stock 12V cig plug did not work, so I purchased GZs 12V cig to 6mm adapter. That did not work either. I called GZ and they sent a 6mm to Anderson adapter to put between their cig adapter and the 1400. This made a rather silly long connection with all adapters, and still did not work. The 1400 is large enough (with Boulder 100 panel) to run the ARB via AC which is what I'll be doing for now.

 

[OregonJKU]

We had a similar problem with our Dometic CFX 50 and GZ Yeti 1000 Li. In our case we believe we were not getting a good connection between the two using the Dometic 12V cable and the GZ cigarette port. However, when we used a 12V extension cable between the two it worked fine, and continues to. In our trailer we needed the extension cable anyways. Hope this helps with your issues.

 

[john61ct]

With those models whose internal cells are in the nominal 12V ballpark without any conversion needed,

don't they allow for a direct connection to the battery without going through the protective electronics?

Without that it will be pretty hard to troubleshoot the root cause of the problem.

My guess is the startup / surge current required is triggering a "nope too high" reaction from the BMS, should be set to average load demanded over a few seconds rather than reacting instantaneously.

The battery itself on its own obviously can handle 100x these piddly loads.

 

[Loco]

@hayhonker, I just purchasd an ARB 50 and the Goal Zero 1000 Lithium from Costco. My setup works fine with the Goal Zero universal 12 volt cig to 6mm adapter. The problem I’m having is the inverter in the rear of my Toyota FJ Cruiser won’t charge the Goal Zero while driving. The inverter puts out 100 watts while in drive and the Goal Zero is only drawing 59 watts. Works fine in park when the FJ is putting out 400 watts.