Goal Zero ~ Yetti 400 vs ARB 50qt fridge

R

rob mellor

Observer
As far as building my chaining cable it was simple. I used 24" of this zip wire it's almost like a twizzlers pull and peel. https://powerwerx.com/red-black-bonded-zip-cord Looks like the minimum that you can buy in 10ga is 25' for $35. I just used the extra from when I made the plug for my fridge. I ran 20' of it from the truck battery (fused with 15 amp fuse) to one of these mounted in the back of the rover.https://powerwerx.com/powerpole-connector-chassis-mount-8 Then on the ends of the cable you'll need https://powerwerx.com/anderson-powerpole-connectors-45amp-bonded These are the bonded ones where the red/black are stuck together, they also offer ones that aren't bonded.


Since you're already paying shipping I'd order some of these https://powerwerx.com/anderson-1331-powerpole-contact-pp30 for 12-14 ga wire and some of these https://powerwerx.com/anderson-1332-powerpole-contact-pp15 for 16-18 ga wire. With these contacts and Anderson plugs you have an easy way of connecting any wire from 18-10ga. The beauty of the Anderson plugs is the red/black housings are the same size and connect together, you just change the size of the contact based on what gauge wire you're using.

 
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Victorian

Victorian

Approved Vendor : Total Composites
This is great info! Thank you.
I'm trying to set up something so I can run the ARB fridge for 4 days while at the Overland Expo. I know that our Jeep Liberty can feed the fridge for three days, but haven't had a chance to do so on the Suby Outback.
My idea was to run a 10 ga "extension" cord from the battery (15amp fuse between) directly to the fridge. In theory that should work for at least 2 days. If I run down the battery there will be plenty of others that could give me a boost. But I'm still trying to keep the juice toped up with solarpanel. With all the tradeshow and baby stuff we need to bring, there wont be a lot of space to drag around a big one. What size do you think is the minimum I need to keep everyhing toped up? I looked at some briefly and it looks like they charge the battery through the cigarette lighter... Is that correct?
Cheers
 
I

itsmejme2016

New member
Just wanted to give everyone an update that have showed interest in this thread. I have received my new Yeti 400 from GZ and still have the same issue. This battery will NOT power my fridge, through the normal cig plug. It will, power it through the Anderson cable (just like the original 400 i bought)
As others have posed in this thread, this is not the ideal way to have it plugged in. It will bypass the "low voltage" protection and you also can not see the wattage your pulling form the battery.
It makes no sense to me how others have had success and i can't get this set-up to work for me...pretty bummed after spending good money into a system that was suppose to work as GZ said it would.
Thanks everyone for the input.
 
R

rob mellor

Observer
Victorian said:
This is great info! Thank you.
I'm trying to set up something so I can run the ARB fridge for 4 days while at the Overland Expo. I know that our Jeep Liberty can feed the fridge for three days, but haven't had a chance to do so on the Suby Outback.
My idea was to run a 10 ga "extension" cord from the battery (15amp fuse between) directly to the fridge. In theory that should work for at least 2 days. If I run down the battery there will be plenty of others that could give me a boost. But I'm still trying to keep the juice toped up with solarpanel. With all the tradeshow and baby stuff we need to bring, there wont be a lot of space to drag around a big one. What size do you think is the minimum I need to keep everyhing toped up? I looked at some briefly and it looks like they charge the battery through the cigarette lighter... Is that correct?
Cheers
Click to expand...

That's a good idea on the extension cord. One of those little solar powered battery maintainers that plugs into the cig lighter probably won't be enough to charge up the battery with how quickly a fridge depletes it. I'm guessing that you've been looking at things similar to this http://www.goalzero.com/p/250/maintainer-10-trickle-charger Those are designed more for keeping a full battery topped off during the off season, the one linked only has 10 watts. You'd need something more like this http://www.goalzero.com/p/340/guardian-12v-plus-charge-controller A charge controller and then some sort of panel to supply the charge controller. To run an ARB 50 continuously and be able to put in more charge then the fridge is drawing I'd recommend a minimum of a 60 watt panel. I think even that would be cutting it close and barely be enough under ideal conditions, i.e. not cloudy. I think with 100 watts it would be easy to stay ahead of the fridges demand.
 
kramme

kramme

Observer
I have the same issue with my ARB and Yeti - as mentioned above I plug my ARB into the AC and no issues. I am thinking it works the same as if it was plugged into the DC. Bummer however it does not work with the DC like you said.
 
kramme

kramme

Observer
Thanks Rob for the changing info and simple instructions and the links. I have turned it over to my the husband to help out his camping geek. This is a much better solution then the Goal Zero Version which I could not sue since they were to stiff and short.:)
 
F

Finatic Angler

Adventurer
I have a yeti 400 and a arb 37 quart fridge. As soon as I received my new yeti I tried to plug it in to the cig outlet. The male cig lighter would not make connection inside the female on the yeti. Upon further inspection the cig lighter from the fridge is too big at the tip. If you look inside the yeti cig lighter you can see an insulator.

A quick call to GZ and they are sending me an cig lighter adapter for the Anderson connection. Free too!

I did run the yeti for a day to see how it the yeti would hold up. I ran it off the inverter section. This cost we roughly 7 watts to ruthe inverter. I did get a full 24 hours out of the yeti itself. With 40% left on the yeti after checking it in the morning. I don't think that I could run the fridge full time on my setup though. I have 2 Boulder 30's on the roof of my wrangler. I normally see an input charge of 38 watts or so.

Hope this helps.
 
D

Doc Foster

Adventurer
I use a GZ Yeti 400 to power my ARB 50 quart successfully.
Now I don't run it 24/7. When driving I plug the fridge into my 12V socket in the console of my 2014 Toyota Tundra.
I only plug it into the 400 when I am out hiking for the day or overnight. I recharge the 400 when driving or in campgrounds when I have 110V.
 
M

mr_ash

New member
I recently bought both the ARB 50 fridge and Goal Zero Yeti 400 and ran into the same issue as the OP...the ARB 12V cigarette plug does not make contact in the Yeti 400 12V socket and thus the fridge will not receive power.

I bought a fused 12V cigarette plug (male) at the local hardware store and cut off the ARB plug, then soldered the ARB cable to the new 12V cigarette plug. Plugged it into the Yeti 400 and now my ARB fridge runs perfectly.

Note, while it is possible to use the A/C to power the fridge (this is what I had been doing until the above fix), it consumes far more power than 12V DC. In my testing, with fridge set to (and at) 37F, without the fridge compressor running, the Yeti 400 showed that I was consuming 9 watts using the A/C. After switching to 12V DC, it was just 1 watt!

So, do yourself a favor and put on a new (fused 15A) 12V cigarette plug.
 
kramme

kramme

Observer
mr_ash said:
I recently bought both the ARB 50 fridge and Goal Zero Yeti 400 and ran into the same issue as the OP...the ARB 12V cigarette plug does not make contact in the Yeti 400 12V socket and thus the fridge will not receive power.

I bought a fused 12V cigarette plug (male) at the local hardware store and cut off the ARB plug, then soldered the ARB cable to the new 12V cigarette plug. Plugged it into the Yeti 400 and now my ARB fridge runs perfectly.

Note, while it is possible to use the A/C to power the fridge (this is what I had been doing until the above fix), it consumes far more power than 12V DC. In my testing, with fridge set to (and at) 37F, without the fridge compressor running, the Yeti 400 showed that I was consuming 9 watts using the A/C. After switching to 12V DC, it was just 1 watt!

So, do yourself a favor and put on a new (fused 15A) 12V cigarette plug.
Click to expand...

Hi there - we just ordered a cigarette plug - is yours still working fine for you, Also I am writing to ARB and let them know about this thread and the issue we all have with hopes they could offer a option to get a solution like yours for us Yeti owners that one can order directly premade.
 
offroadkid

offroadkid

Member
Did you press the 12v power button?!! I didn't!!

I've been reading this thread since before I ordered my Yeti 400 and Dometic CFX15-US and sure enough when I plugged the fridge into the Yeti nothing happened, neither unit powered up. I tried several different ways last night to no avail. Like others, I contacted GZ this morning and they instantly offered to send me a replacement.

I asked him if we shouldn't try to diagnose it first and he agreed! He took a moment and asked if I pressed the 12V power button above the 12V socket? I laughed and told him I didn't know it was a button, I thought it was just a led indicator that lights up when it's charging something!

Sure enough, I pressed the small button and the display lit up and also the fridge powered up!

I wanted to share incase others found this thread and were having the same issue. HTH!!
 
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