Will a fridge work for us ..

[ADVrider76]

For you I would recommend the ARB 60 or 80 qt unit for a family that size. My 50qt is just for me and the dog.

 

[mervifwdc]

How long do they run? If they cycle on and off every 30 minutes that might be something of a concern or do they last for a couple hours and kick on for 3 minutes? None should be a continuous draw.

That spends on a load of factors including, Have you just put in 15 warm beers to chill? Is it full with stuff (no air)? What temperature do you you have it trying to achive? What is the ambient temperature.

so, if it's warm out, and you have it set to freeze stuff it will work harder, and cycle on and off more often than if the there is less of a difference between the inside and outside temps.

As a real world example, we use our Engel as a freezer, and keep meat and ice in it. In very warm condititions (T-shirt weather), it will cycle on up to 50% of the time. At night when the differnce is not so much, it might run 10 minutes per hour, and only drawing 2.5 amps during those 10 minutes. These things are pretty efficient.