Outside kitchen refrigerator

[Gulfrunner]

Just wanting to know if anyone has experienced this or had any problems with their refrigerator in the outside kitchen. I did a search on this but came up with nothing. Just coming back in from the weekend and our refrigerator is stocked. We had not used to frig since we have just bought our RV. Was told by someone camping next to us that they remove everything and turn off refrigerator, because they had problems with theirs. I asked why, told me that once the door closes on the outdoor kitchen there is not ventilation and theirs burnt up from over heating and no air circulating. I does stand to reason, that there is not much air circulation, since it is all closed off from the elements. I took their suggestion and unloaded the frig.

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by Gulfrunner

Just wanting to know if anyone has experienced this or had any problems with their refrigerator in the outside kitchen. I did a search on this but came up with nothing. Just coming back in from the weekend and our refrigerator is stocked. We had not used to frig since we have just bought our RV. Was told by someone camping next to us that they remove everything and turn off refrigerator, because they had problems with theirs. I asked why, told me that once the door closes on the outdoor kitchen there is not ventilation and theirs burnt up from over heating and no air circulating. I does stand to reason, that there is not much air circulation, since it is all closed off from the elements. I took their suggestion and unloaded the frig.

I asked the same question to a factory sabre rep and he said there has been no issues.
Going on two years with ours with no problems.


Turbs

[buckeyefan]

Most of the outdoor kitchen refrigerators are the smaller "dorm" style units that need very little airflow. I have one in the outside kitchen and in the summer, I will close the door and leave it running all season. Never had any problem and it has never been hot in the closed in area because of the unit. I also figure that it is the cheaper of the 2 refrigerators to replace verse the one inside the camper.

[jtstromsburg]

On our 34tbok, there is a vent behind the fridge that goes into the bunkhouse cupboards. So some venting there. Should be fine

[Jjs2000z]

does this fridge only run on 110v? can this be hooked up to an inverter?

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by Jjs2000z

does this fridge only run on 110v? can this be hooked up to an inverter?

It is 110v
I imagine you could run it from an inverter.
These dorm fridges are not very efficient tho so you may want to save your money and time.
Just my opinion.


Turbs

[Jjs2000z]

What are the other options if your book dock camping?

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by Jjs2000z

What are the other options if your book dock camping?

When we dry camp which is only a few times a year we don't use it.
We have a gennie but only run it in the evening for a/c.


Turbs

[Jjs2000z]

I dry camp a lot and it would be nice to be able to use this fridge but I guess I'm sol

[ependydad]

There's no reason why you couldn't wire up an inverter, but I think it would use a lotta juice from the battery which could be used for better things. It definitely doesn't come from the factory ready to run on battery, though. These are RV park queens.

[TURBS]

Average dorm sized refrigerator needs 33 watts when active.
Remember cool down time could be 6 hours of constant active time.
And if you put all warm beverages in fridge after cool down it may take another 4-5 hours to recoup.

I bet lou could do the math for us

Turbs

[Herk7769]

33 watts? Are you serious?

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by herk7769

33 watts? Are you serious?

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...WaNnQ58SFqUIxA

Seems odd now that I think about it.
That's like less then a half an amp right?

I confused watts with amps.

[Herk7769]

That post says 33 watts. At 120 volts that means it draws less amps than a 40 watt light bulb when running the compressor.

33 watts at 120 volts is 0.275 amps to run a fridge compressor. Sounds too good to be true. It may be very optimistic.

However,

I found this college level test question:

1. Many college students have a mini fridge in their dorm room. A standard mini fridge costs roughly $100, uses about 100 watts of electricity, and can be expected to last for 5 years. The refrigerator is plugged into an electrical socket 24 hours a day, but is usually running only about 12 hours a day. Assume that electricity costs $0.10/kWh.

(a) Calculate the lifetime monetary cost of owning and operating the refrigerator. (2 points)

[100 watts X $0.10/kWh X 12 hrs/day X 1 kW/1,000W X 365 days/year x 5 years] + $100 initial cost = $319 lifetime cost


So assuming 100 watts to be provided by the battery driving an inverter:

100/12 volts = 8.33 amps of battery power while running for 1/2 the day or 12 hours.

If the only thing running off the battery (no lights, radio, etc) is the fridge and the inverter, then 8.33 (plus some inverter loss) times 12 hours is 100 amp hours.

A typical Marine Group 27 battery can deliver 100 amp hours provided the constant draw is 5 amps. At 8.5 amps, the capacity to deliver amps drops to 85 AH from that same battery.

So in my estimation this scenario would deplete a Group 27 Marine battery in approximately 1 day (less if you used the battery for anything else - more if the fridge is shaded and runs less often). You would need to recharge the battery by some method every day by running off the generator for some significant number of hours each day (while charging - which could take 3-4 hours). You would also need a very good battery monitor system to make sure the battery did not deplete below 50% capacity to avoid plate damage.

So, to sum up. A minimum of 2 100 AH 12 volt batteries (to make sure you never discharged them below 50% each day) and a generator to recharge them for the next day.

[TURBS]

And there u have it.
Thanks lou.
33 watts sounded optimistic to me to.

Sooooooooo tonight I'm going to turn my complete distribution panel down and then fire up the outside fridge and see how many amps it pulls.

To the op.

I'll post my findings later today.

[Dodge Guy]

I have the exact same fridge as the ones they put in the outside kitchens. I can tell you they don`t like heat! mine will cut out with the thermal limiting switch when temps get near 100 deg. hasn`t burned up, but I can see it shutting down till the cooling unit cools off.

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by Dodge Guy

I have the exact same fridge as the ones they put in the outside kitchens. I can tell you they don`t like heat! mine will cut out with the thermal limiting switch when temps get near 100 deg. hasn`t burned up, but I can see it shutting down till the cooling unit cools off.

Mines sits with door to outside kitchen closed for days without overheating.

[Campwell]

Our last trailer had an outside kitchen with a dorm fridge. We used it for holding bottled water, pop, and sometimes beer. Basically we stored anything that would be nice to have cold in it, and treated it like an ice box. I found that if I put the bottles of water in our home freezer just before we left, that they would keep thing cold for quite a few days without power, and definitely on travel days between hookups. We ran that refrigerator for 3 years without any problems and it was in an enclosed space.

Our new rig has the same type of dorm fridge and it is under the inside kitchen counter, so the heat it outputs goes into the rig, but it does have a larger volume of air to interact with (the entire inside volume), so its effect is next to nothing. I have thought about plugging it into the inverter socket that our electric fridge is plugged into. I just want to do a power consumption test (much as Lou is doing) to be sure the faster battery drain is worth the extra storage capacity.

Just for comparison, the electric fridge in our rig uses either 0, 11, 14 or 17 amps of 12v DC and it is a 18 cubic foot Refrigerator/Freezer with an ice maker. The different consumption rates had me puzzled, but it seems change based on the compressor, fan, and I think the ice maker motor/solenoid use. The duty cycle of course depends on how often it gets opened and how much ice is being made.

I have seen people put in a second gas fired fridge if they were primarily dry campers. Some of the bigger houseboats have two 12 cu. ft. gas fired refrigerators for the same reason.

[TURBS]

Outside fridge has been running for 10 minutes at 1 amp.
Just an fyi.

[Jjs2000z]

Since I have the 160 watt solar panel, how would this come into play with charging the batteries?


1 amp = ?? Watts?