Dual vs all Electric Frig.

[wnew813]

Its not so much about boondocking to me, it's when your towing your RV or Driving your Rv, the fridge cools better with gas, once you plug it in, then it switches to electric.

[Captain Gene]

Originally Posted by Dsimes

You are partially right. The 12V refrigerators are like a residential refrigerator however the compressor is 12V rather than 120V. They are definitely a power hog though.

Sorry to disagree... 12V refrigerator will draw 11 A @ 12 V for seconds during startup and maybe 3 to 4A running. The duty cycle should be less than 50% except on the hottest days. Estimate 4A for 10 hours for 40 AH. We used compressor refrigerator on boats very successfully.

We have a No Bo 19.5 tobe... The plan... 2 x 100 AH Li batteries, 2000 W Inv/Chgr, 350 W Solar with MPPT charger. And 12V frig.

OBTW... check out the sale @ Renogy!!

Happy Land Cruising
Gene.

[Epictetus]

What I find shocking is that the 2020 Airstream Base Camp a TT clearly meant for boondocking is equipped with electric only fridge!?!?!
( apparently they were having issues with the gas line going to the fridge on earlier models)
What’s with that ?

[Mandog]

Originally Posted by Jc4ut

12v will cool down in less than an hour - manufacturer’s say it will take less than an hour and my real world experience is yes it takes less than an hour.

Pump your brakes man. Why call me out saying I’m wrong? I’ve got an Everchill 12V refrigerator right now. Not my 1st rodeo with RV refrigerators either. I plug my trailer up and power the refrigerator up. Load all the food in the fridge and pack the freezer with meat and different items. Some frozen some not. It takes about 3 hours to start freezing those items.
I don’t wait for the refrigerator to cool down before using in most cases because of the short run time the 12V units need to cool.
Your entitled to your facts of your certain situation and refrigerator. Your not able to provide the facts from my situation and refrigerator. Jeez..... We should be here to help not challenge people on the information they provide from their real world experience and believing a manufacturers claims is not something I do often. That’s why I like this forum. It gives RV users their real world experiences and allows them to decide what may be best for their situation....Just Saying..

[Mandog]

Originally Posted by Epictetus

What I find shocking is that the 2020 Airstream Base Camp a TT clearly meant for boondocking is equipped with electric only fridge!?!?!
( apparently they were having issues with the gas line going to the fridge on earlier models)
What’s with that ?

Yeah I have to agree that is weird. A LP/electric refrigerator would be the unit for that you’d think.

[Jimvin49]

We have a 2018 Coachmen Prism Elite. The refrigerator can automatically switch to whatever source of power is available. It starts with solar, goes to gas, then AC, and finally battery. Great when breaking camp and take down solar, then turn off LP, followed by disconnecting from the electric pedestal and finally getting to battery ALL ON ITS OWN.

[ScottBrownstein]

Jc4ut, Mandog...Reticent as I am to step in to your "discussion" there can be a significant difference between "cool down" and "freeze." In addition some reefers have coils in both the freezer and refrigerator section and some use convection or a fan to cool the refrigerator section from the evaporator in the freezer. My residential has dual evaporator coils and will drop the freezer first before any significant cooling takes place in the 40 degree section. Takes a lot longer to cool the reefer than then freezer sections, but in any case it gets to 0 degrees and 40 degrees in well less than 3 hours...and it is a 27 cu/ft unit.

Either way you are both right as adsorption units take a whole lot longer to cool or freeze, sometimes more than 24 hours!

It's all physics and the amperage and duty cycle has a lot to do with it.

[Stevemal]

My experience on our new FR TT is that the 12V only fridge sucks. Drains the batt in 9 hours. Need to run the generator for 8 hrs. to get thru the nite. It's loud and drips water inside. The freezer is great at -17 deg. to keep the fridge at 43 deg. It runs better than 50% of the time and keeps ya up all night. FR agreed to replace it with an Everchill. Never happened all summer and they still don't know when they will get them as so many have failed. At least mine works somewhat, just have to listen to the generator a lot! I wicked miss the propane option.

[Stevemal]

Originally Posted by Mandog

Pump your brakes man. Why call me out saying I’m wrong? I’ve got an Everchill 12V refrigerator right now. Not my 1st rodeo with RV refrigerators either. I plug my trailer up and power the refrigerator up. Load all the food in the fridge and pack the freezer with meat and different items. Some frozen some not. It takes about 3 hours to start freezing those items.
I don’t wait for the refrigerator to cool down before using in most cases because of the short run time the 12V units need to cool.
Your entitled to your facts of your certain situation and refrigerator. Your not able to provide the facts from my situation and refrigerator. Jeez..... We should be here to help not challenge people on the information they provide from their real world experience and believing a manufacturers claims is not something I do often. That’s why I like this forum. It gives RV users their real world experiences and allows them to decide what may be best for their situation....Just Saying..

The manual that came with my Furrion POS says to run it for 24 hours before adding food. FR said the same. It will kill the factory battery in 9 hours. Down to 11.7 and it's loud!

[ScottBrownstein]

DC refrigeration compressors (with multi phase drive) are well known from being quite noisy. They are trying to do things to reduce that...but the noise remains.

If you have a single battery, no type of conventional refrigeration is going to last more than 8 hours or so.

[StrangeBird22]

Originally Posted by Captain Gene

Sorry to disagree... 12V refrigerator will draw 11 A @ 12 V for seconds during startup and maybe 3 to 4A running. The duty cycle should be less than 50% except on the hottest days. Estimate 4A for 10 hours for 40 AH. We used compressor refrigerator on boats very successfully.


Happy Land Cruising
Gene.

Our Everchill 12v draws 4.5-4.8 amps running. Not sure about start-up but I would guess somewhere around 11-12 amps. BTW we took a 7 hour trip to TN from Ohio and the batteries (2-75ah deep cycle) showed 12.5 volts upon arrival after disconnecting from truck.

[sherman12]

My current rig is my first experience with a residential fridge, a GE 19.5 cube. When you are hooked up to any kind of shore power, there is nothing better. My DW and I both love the amount of room in both the fridge and freezer sections. This has eliminated the need to carry a "beer" cooler with us, and, has eliminated the need to haul around our separate ice maker. Yeah.

However, we do have four six volt golf cart batteries and a 2000W inverter to power the fridge while on the road, a little more both ways than what most TT will carry. Last summer we camped at an NYS Park in the Thousand Islands region of NY. When I made the reservation on Reserve America I thought for sure we had 30A power at our campsite. Whoops, no at any sites at the park we were staying in for four nights. A learning lesson for sure, we were able to run our generator four hours a day, two in the AM, and two in the evening. Being mid-July, day time temps were in the mid-'80s. We never shut down the fridge. Every morning before generator time I would check our Amp gauge and it was usually around 11.8.

Since that time we've learned we don't need the fridge running constantly, we can shut it down for hours at a time and things stay cold with minimal door opening. We'll also conserve power by using propane for the water heater, un-plugging the microwave and being mindful of light usage, and so forth.

So like everything else with RV'ing, there are trade-offs, pluses, and minuses of almost every decision one will make when deciding on their RV of choice and how it is outfitted. Sorta like my DW and I deciding between a DP and Gas, wow, is that a highly contested conversation!

In the end, we are very happy with our residential fridge, more plus than minus.

[DavidWJ]

The option of running a fridge on propane or 12VDC, or 120VAC, is worth it. Mine is propane and 120VAC, so I can run it all the time whether the batteries are charged or not. Then shore power conserves propane and the batteries.
Don't limit yourself to a 12VDC-only fridge.

[Swimmer]

Originally Posted by tomkatb

Batteries are the issue. A 100 watt panel will provide 25 amps on a good day. That will power the fridge for a few hours.
.

No experience with solar, baby steps. Does this mean on a typical sunny day with say 6 hours of good sun, the 100 W panel will produce about 4 amps per hour?

[Captain Gene]

Originally Posted by StrangeBird22

Our Everchill 12v draws 4.5-4.8 amps running. Not sure about start-up but I would guess somewhere around 11-12 amps. BTW we took a 7 hour trip to TN from Ohio and the batteries (2-75ah deep cycle) showed 12.5 volts upon arrival after disconnecting from truck.

Thanks Strange Nice to have some real numbers. It looks like your frig uses about 5 AH for 7 hour trip, 35 AH running full time to pull down the food and beverages in the unit. Your end voltage of 12.5 v seems to confirm that. I do not have discharge info for your batteries. My guess is about a 30 to 50% duty cycle after it is chilled, if you can keep the kids from checking if the light is on.
OBTW... I like Li batteries. your 2 batteries probably weigh 100+# for 75 AH usable, A 100 AH usable Li battery weighs 25#... I just ordered 2 on sale at Renogy.com

Happy Land Cruising

[Captain Gene]

Originally Posted by Swimmer

No experience with solar, baby steps. Does this mean on a typical sunny day with say 6 hours of good sun, the 100 W panel will produce about 4 amps per hour?

Your estimate of 6 hours of prime sun is pretty good, If we take 100 W x 6H = 600 WH and feed it into a high efficiency MPPT charge controller, it will provide almost
600 WH /12 V = 50 AH to your FLA batteries or about 8.3 A for 6 hours.

Quiz: Upgrade to a 375W solar panel and check output.

Happy Land Cruising
Gene

[Bronco Carl]

GET A PROPANE FRIDGE ... 12v fridges are not new, our 1985 Bayliner express cruiser came with one so I went on the Bayliner forum and found out they are battery killers. I ripped it out and got a efficient cooler that holds more and keeps things cold for three days.

[ScottBrownstein]

Originally Posted by Bronco Carl

GET A PROPANE FRIDGE ... 12v fridges are not new, our 1985 Bayliner express cruiser came with one so I went on the Bayliner forum and found out they are battery killers. I ripped it out and got a efficient cooler that holds more and keeps things cold for three days.

12 volt reefers were another thing entirely back in 1985. They are more efficient today. Still, however, they do rely on a good house bank.

[palomini-er]

Never go with a refrigerator that does not have a gas option. All electric is useless for many situations, and only a gas option will allow you to camp as long as you want without relying on a field of solar panels or hooking up to a plug somewhere. Also, the manufacturers love an electric only fridge because it cost them so much less, but they can charge you the same for your trailer like it was built with a gas/ac model.

[PDuB-IA2MI]

Never, huh?

Okay, I'll call my dealer right now and tell them to cancel my order.

Guess I should never consider any kind of modern camper or travel trailer with a 12v refer.

[emoji52]