Refrigerator Question?
- Thread starter Sportsman Matt
- Start date
No soggy bread!!!
The fridges are really best used with an aux battery, not your starting battery. Though you can use starting battery, a fridge will ruin the starting battery if used multiple times when parked. If you going to spend big bucks on dc fridge then include price of an aux battery, and think about getting solar too - otherwise maybe the ice route is best for you. Ice melts eventually and this is when the dc fridge shines. If your camping is limited to a few days then you really do not need an electric fridge do you?
Buying ice is a big pain for a week or weeks long trip, and you will end up miscalculating how much the melting ice will last for, or get somewhere where you do not have anywhere to buy new ice, and your expensive steak and food will be ruined, or there will be so much water that it ruins everything in the cooler.
I agree, I do not get the people who use a dc fridge on starting battery only. seems risky.
IdaSHO
IDACAMPER
We have been running a Dometic/Waeco DC fridge for 10 years now.
Its a small one, 65L as I recall.... its been a LONG time
As mentioned earlier, need for ice and more space because of no ice.
Two big reasons we went with DC vs LP gas...
*no exterior vent needed. So one less potential leak
*Simple single fuel, that runs while in motion. LP tank valve must be closed when in motion.
And when combined with a proper solar array and battery bank, it will run indefinitely.
On long trips (multi-week or multi-month) we often supplement the fridge with a rotomold cooler.
On those trips we will freeze ice packs as needed with the fridge, and cycle them into the cooler.
Cooler included, still no ice. All on "free" energy that we never need to stop to refuel for.
All in all, its been an game changer when compared to the traditional RV fridge.
Its a small one, 65L as I recall.... its been a LONG time
As mentioned earlier, need for ice and more space because of no ice.
Two big reasons we went with DC vs LP gas...
*no exterior vent needed. So one less potential leak
*Simple single fuel, that runs while in motion. LP tank valve must be closed when in motion.
And when combined with a proper solar array and battery bank, it will run indefinitely.
On long trips (multi-week or multi-month) we often supplement the fridge with a rotomold cooler.
On those trips we will freeze ice packs as needed with the fridge, and cycle them into the cooler.
Cooler included, still no ice. All on "free" energy that we never need to stop to refuel for.
All in all, its been an game changer when compared to the traditional RV fridge.
I've had no problems using a Deep Cycle marine lead-acid battery as a starting battery. With gear reduction starters today, starting current has decreased. The deep-cycle battery also has threaded studs for easier connections. It helps to measure starting current.
My Edgestar fridge has low voltage beeping and cutoff to prevent draining the battery. The deep cycle battery has always started the vehicle after the fridge automatically disconnected. Before installing an extra lifepo4 house battery, I used a small 10ah AGM battery to power the fridge if awakened at night.
One of these is handy if you need low voltage protection. A lithium jump start pack is also nice.
My Edgestar fridge has low voltage beeping and cutoff to prevent draining the battery. The deep cycle battery has always started the vehicle after the fridge automatically disconnected. Before installing an extra lifepo4 house battery, I used a small 10ah AGM battery to power the fridge if awakened at night.
One of these is handy if you need low voltage protection. A lithium jump start pack is also nice.
86scotty
Cynic
And now we're up to 13.5 years!
It appears this thread was resurrected by the bot "diwit". This text was copied from this post in another forum: https://www.thenewx.org/threads/12v-fridge-why-or-why-not.46852/
If you look back at it's other posts it is clear this is not a real person. I have reported the post but others may wish to do the same.
is either not a real person or not a real camper, as is not a good question (politically correct way to say this)... You sure this is not a real non-camping person who thinks asking same question on many topics will net him anything?
If you take a look at all of the posts it is clear this is not a real person. There are a large number of posts that are directly copied from other sites. Some are not even relevant to anything discussed on this portal. Have a look at the post history...60+ posts of reposted content from other sites and what really looks to be AI generated generic responses. https://expeditionportal.com/forum/search/5710166/
As to why, this could be someone testing out a forum bot to refine it for future use. Most bots are easy to spot (posting spam links on the first post, etc). It managed to get 60 posts so far which would make it look much more "authoritative" if/when it decides to start dropping links to products, etc.
I’ve noticed a few posts from various people? Lately that seem rather bot-like. Similar pattern, re-stating a question while providing no specific answer but lots of words. I initially chalked it up to cultural differences, but more and more I also suspect that we have bots racking up post counts and reviving long-dead threads.
Yeah, this one has revived quite a few dead threads. Grabbing posts from another site is pretty interesting as it mixes in actual human generated text (even if it is not always relevant). It seems the only thing we can really do is use the "report" feature, currently.
I can only imagine what this problem is going to be like in the next few years (and not just for forums). Hang on to your hats.
I can only imagine what this problem is going to be like in the next few years (and not just for forums). Hang on to your hats.
joeblack5
Active member
We use a danfoss 35bd compressor fridge. The nice thing with these fridges is that the condenser is a small radiator in the back..
With that ...it is easy to add a small fan to keep more air flowing and increase the cooling efficiency because of lower delta T.
Second because of the separate condenser you can add additional insulation to the outside of the fridge.. this again results in lower heat transfer and less compressor run time..
In both our busses we added 1.5" on sides, back bottom and top. The fridge runs very little
Johan
With that ...it is easy to add a small fan to keep more air flowing and increase the cooling efficiency because of lower delta T.
Second because of the separate condenser you can add additional insulation to the outside of the fridge.. this again results in lower heat transfer and less compressor run time..
In both our busses we added 1.5" on sides, back bottom and top. The fridge runs very little
Johan