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I've been planning on ordering a CFX50 or CFX3 55IM for my Tacoma. I actually bought a CF50 (I think that was the model) years ago through my work but ended up returning it because I got a used/returned unit somehow that was damaged....That's not a knock on Dometic. It shipped from our warehouse so it was something wrong we did internally. Anyway, I used the funds for more pressing needs and now I'm circling back.
My question is about expected run-time for these bad boys. I only have the main battery in my truck as of now. It's an X2 Power AGM deep cycle with 76ah. I was originally planning to add a second battery to the bed of the truck linked to the main with an automatic charging relay but that's going to be done later.
I live in Alaska so the ambient air temperature usually doesn't exceed 70-80 too often. Most of the time it will be in the 60 - 70 range. Can I expect this fridge to run for a weekend without draining my battery? I usually don't park my truck for more than two nights without driving it. One last thing to mention...I will be using this primarily as a fridge, not a freezer. But for extended trips with other groups of people I might be the dedicated ice cream truck running it as a freezer.
Power consumption numbers for the CFX50 and CFX3 55IM are roughly the same if you set your internal temp to around 40 degrees F. The 55IM is a little more energy efficient given some of the improvements but for comparison purposes they aren't wildly different enough to call out.
The big difference between the two is that the app that goes along with the 55IM will have control, diagnostics, temperature, and energy consumption tracking. Energy consumption depends a lot on the ambient temps the cooler is situated in, what you set the temps inside to be, how often you open it and how long you keep it open, etc. The energy consumption tracking will help you get a much faster understanding of how your use of the cooler and the conditions it's used in will consume energy from your battery.
Both models have battery protection monitoring and you would want to start it with medium. I would recommend that you do some trial runs with how you would operate it out in the field but do it from your driveway so it would be easy to get a jump if needed. Doing this you could test the cooler with your specific wiring, temps you wanted the cooler, etc. for one or more days without the risk of a no start and being stuck.
Based on the cooler models and the battery you have, considering there is no other parasitic energy consumption happening, you should be good at least overnight without starting and recharging. It's just hard to gauge given how the cooler would be wired in, age/health of your battery, temp conditions, etc. to give you an exact number. Given this uncertainty it's usually why a secondary battery is used for coolers and other items. For example, if you had the same new battery you mention dedicated in this way you could expect around 3 days of runtime if it was the only thing using that battery.
I know there's a lot of info to take in and plan but if you were to select either one of these models you should be good to start even with overnight cooler use. Just try it and get a feel of the power consumption, how the battery protection works, how your wiring and battery support the cooler, etc. so that you have confidence in power consumption rates given your use conditions before venturing out into the woods for a long weekend.
Hope this helps a bit.
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