RE: Overnight - Frig on Batteries

[Webefine]

Originally Posted by rockfordroo

Not true on my 2009 Silverado, either. I installed my own relay so I could turn it on/off myself. I strongly suspect my 2016 Silverado is the same, but since I didn't use the switch much in the 2009, I didn't even bother to check it on the 2016.



The only way to KNOW for sure is to check YOUR tow vehicle.

I stand corrected, I have been towing almost as long as I have been driving (40 years)and I have never had a tow vehicle with a constant hot at the hitch. It all ways made sense to me that your trailer shouldn’t be able to drain your to vehicle batteries so I assumed this is how all vehicles were wired.
I know never “assume”

[tomkatb]

Interesting.

The poster with the everchill refrigerator. It is a 10 cu ft unit I think. A 12 volt compressor unit. Half as big as a residental fridge. Or less.

Weather that weekend was modest here. 60 at night 80+ during the day.

If it was very full it would remain that way pretty well. Low usage. A full fridge does better than a half empty one. More likely full than a larger one.

Poster reported the truck recharged it in the drive home to 90%. Does not state if he waited several hours before reading the percentage. Voltmeter read really high until hours later. Surface charge.

I use a recording voltmeter transmitted to my cell phone so I can see this. I have a chart. I can assure you my charge from the truck to the rv is less than 13 volts. That is a trickle charge.

This fridge I assume uses 11 amps per hour. In hot weather it would be hard on a single battery.

I do not doubt what he reported is true, but compared to a 21 cu ft residential fridge in South Texas in the summer. Got to use a bit of Kentucky windage on the data.

Every situation is different. There are a lot of folks who wake up in the middle of the night with a dead battery.

Got to figure out what you have and what it can do.

I have a gas fridge and 460 amps of golf cart batteries. We never run out. Plus my voltmeter has alarms. The Honda 2200 is the final solution for us. Never have needed it.

[Maggot]

Originally Posted by tomkatb

Interesting.

The poster with the everchill refrigerator. It is a 10 cu ft unit I think. A 12 volt compressor unit. Half as big as a residental fridge. Or less.

Weather that weekend was modest here. 60 at night 80+ during the day.

If it was very full it would remain that way pretty well. Low usage. A full fridge does better than a half empty one. More likely full than a larger one.

Poster reported the truck recharged it in the drive home to 90%. Does not state if he waited several hours before reading the percentage. Voltmeter read really high until hours later. Surface charge.

I use a recording voltmeter transmitted to my cell phone so I can see this. I have a chart. I can assure you my charge from the truck to the rv is less than 13 volts. That is a trickle charge.

This fridge I assume uses 11 amps per hour. In hot weather it would be hard on a single battery.

I do not doubt what he reported is true, but compared to a 21 cu ft residential fridge in South Texas in the summer. Got to use a bit of Kentucky windage on the data.

Every situation is different. There are a lot of folks who wake up in the middle of the night with a dead battery.

Got to figure out what you have and what it can do.

I have a gas fridge and 460 amps of golf cart batteries. We never run out. Plus my voltmeter has alarms. The Honda 2200 is the final solution for us. Never have needed it.

Yes it is the 11cf unit not the full size ones. Just sharing an experience that is all. No lies no bs just a personal experience.



No i didn't wait hours to test and I am using the factory panel. I checked it then plugged up and fired the AC on. None of the fancy stuff for me, so yes Kentucky windage, but I am a Kentuckian.


Also I guess I was confused since my salesman kept saying mine is a residential fridge since it was not a propane system? So my apple to somebody's oranges.


Maggot
02 Chevy half ton
20 Puma 257RESS

[dalford]

Originally Posted by Maggot

Yes it is the 11cf unit not the full size ones. Just sharing an experience that is all. No lies no bs just a personal experience.



No i didn't wait hours to test and I am using the factory panel. I checked it then plugged up and fired the AC on. None of the fancy stuff for me, so yes Kentucky windage, but I am a Kentuckian.


Also I guess I was confused since my salesman kept saying mine is a residential fridge since it was not a propane system? So my apple to somebody's oranges.


Maggot
02 Chevy half ton
20 Puma 257RESS

Read post 46 of this thread. I have the same experience as you with a whirlpool residential fridge. I made my measurements with a Victron battery monitor.

My battery was charged 10% after 4 hOurs of driving with fridge on. Not the most efficient but it was charging while under tow.

[Maggot]

Originally Posted by dalford

Read post 46 of this thread. I have the same experience as you with a whirlpool residential fridge. I made my measurements with a Victron battery monitor.

My battery was charged 10% after 4 hOurs of driving with fridge on. Not the most efficient but it was charging while under tow.

I did read through all the posts and saw your report. That looks like a nice tool for in depth monitoring.

[Jimer]

Does anyone know what a fridge on propane will draw. We need to leave fifth wheel unplugged from AC over night before we leave for trip next day. We would like to run just propane fridge, so we can load it the day before. Thanks

[rockfordroo]

Originally Posted by Jimer

Does anyone know what a fridge on propane will draw. We need to leave fifth wheel unplugged from AC over night before we leave for trip next day. We would like to run just propane fridge, so we can load it the day before. Thanks

Shouldn't be a problem. Most of us start the fridge the night before on propane, with the battery supplying the "brains" with power. If you have a door heater, that pulls about 0.5 amps. The "brains" are considerably less.

[tomkatb]

I have the four door 13 cu ft gas electric fridge.

As I rember running continuously the fridge uses up to 50 amps per day. Auxiliary cooling fans in the case. A 21 cu ft residential is about 5x or 6x that.

Depends a lot on outside air temps. Whether it is full or not. Lots of variables.

[5picker]

We have a 4 door Dometic that I added fans in the back to help cool.

Over this past weekend (while boondocking) with the fans on constant, running on battery only in the propane mode, (I didn't unplug the door heater either) we went from 12:00 noon until 9:00 AM the next day and only used 30% of our group 27 battery. The furnace also ran once during the night as well as the water pump a few times.

[Paulie1138]

Take current readings several times during run time. Initial start up of the fridge usually has the highest current draw, so use that as a bit of a baseline. With a residential unit with a compressor, after running several minutes, the current will roll down some. After the fridge cools, your unit will cycle less often. Then, using math, you can get an idea how long your battery will last.

Fridge that runs on propane will draw significantly less current, as there is only the controller board and a small solenoid that runs. Uses propane to run the cooling cycle.

Some units use a 12 volt heater to run the cooling. These can draw a lot and kill the battery. Probably best to use while underway and connected.

There are many threads to determine if your tow vehicle battery remains connected with your key off. A quick check at your connector with your volt meter with key-on, key-off will let you know.

[Chuck_S]

My new rig with Everchill fridge and new deep cell Interstate on a test was ran on batt from 1600 Thur until 1000 Fri, my batt was down just a tad above half. Hooked up drove 2 hours and batt was 90% when I arrived.

Oh how I wish it worked this way. It doesn't. Ain't your fault, it's just how it is.

That percent charged "meter" in your trailer is just a volt meter with a different scale on the front and battery voltage is NOT an indicator of battery charge unless the battery has been at rest for 12 hours.

The 50% charge level was was observed right after a significant amperage draw and the 90% was right after a significant amperage charge. I'll bet if you repeat the first half of the experiment, disconnect the battery, and come back 12 hours later your battery will have magically received a significant charge just sitting there. Both voltages are simply the surface charge of the battery and not indicative of true battery condition.

It is very true that the battery voltage after 2 hours of light charging can show 12.5vDC which is 90% charged -- but only if the battery has been at rest. This voltage is nothing more than the surface charge (the surface of the porous lead plates in the battery) and the deeper areas are still not charged.

I don't know your battery but pretend it's 200 amp hour capacity. Half charged means it's down to 100 and needs 80 aH put back in the battery to get it to 180amp hours or 90%. This would require a 40 amp charge for at least 2 hours (in a perfect world), something your tow vehicle isn't capable of producing, nor will the truck/trailer wiring support it.

-- Chuck

[Maggot]

Originally Posted by Chuck_S

Oh how I wish it worked this way. It doesn't. Ain't your fault, it's just how it is.

That percent charged "meter" in your trailer is just a volt meter with a different scale on the front and battery voltage is NOT an indicator of battery charge unless the battery has been at rest for 12 hours.

The 50% charge level was was observed right after a significant amperage draw and the 90% was right after a significant amperage charge. I'll bet if you repeat the first half of the experiment, disconnect the battery, and come back 12 hours later your battery will have magically received a significant charge just sitting there. Both voltages are simply the surface charge of the battery and not indicative of true battery condition.

It is very true that the battery voltage after 2 hours of light charging can show 12.5vDC which is 90% charged -- but only if the battery has been at rest. This voltage is nothing more than the surface charge (the surface of the porous lead plates in the battery) and the deeper areas are still not charged.

I don't know your battery but pretend it's 200 amp hour capacity. Half charged means it's down to 100 and needs 80 aH put back in the battery to get it to 180amp hours or 90%. This would require a 40 amp charge for at least 2 hours (in a perfect world), something your tow vehicle isn't capable of producing, nor will the truck/trailer wiring support it.

-- Chuck

My beer stayed cold.

[Rosebud54]

We have the same frig, residential. We were in a State park a couple weeks ago. Ran generator early evening and in the AM the light was out in the frig, freezer was still fine and food was ok too. I don't think it ran out of juice to fast. We learnt that when you have generator time prior to end of day run it just to double sure everything is charged to the fullest before calling it a day.

[Ladycel]

I did a test with Insignia NS-RFD21SS7 refrigerator. Disconnected shore power and after 2 1/2 hrs batteries (2 8d 12 volts) we’re discharged 70%. Nothing else running. I decided to turn off fridge and try again. Nothing in manual to turn off fridge except to pull plug. Can’t get to plug in Silverback.Emailed Insignia. The reply was, why do you want to turn it off. Guessing I could turn off breaker but.Lights still come on in fridge. Could turn off inverter, but that kills power to most everything else. Since dealer ran batteries to dead twice I am guessing my inverter doesn't have a safety shutoff. Wondering if I need new batteries now. Thought I could spend a night in a Wally parking lot once in awhile if I could shut fridge off. Am I dreaming?

[Reverse_snowbird]

Originally Posted by Ladycel

I did a test with Insignia NS-RFD21SS7 refrigerator. Thought I could spend a night in a Wally parking lot once in awhile if I could shut fridge off. Am I dreaming?

I looked up your refrigerator online and found this manual https://files.bbystatic.com/5%2FLvAP...N_Final_lr.pdf
On page 18 it says you can turn off the refrigerator "To turn off the refrigerator compartment, press and hold the ENERGY
SAVING button for three seconds. The refrigerator compartment icon
turns off and the OFF icon turns on. The refrigerator temperature display
read shows “--”. "
Unfortunately, you can't turn off the freezer. So the question is.... how long will you be spending in the Wally parking lot? Most refrigerators will keep food for several hours. You can always use freezer packs to keep things cold longer and keep a cooler for food that you're going to use at night so that you don't have to open the refrigerator/freezer doors. As long as you keep the doors closed, you're going to minimize the time that the freezer will turn on. Good luck.

[tomkatb]

The fridge uses about 300 watts every hour it operates(2.7 amps at 110 volts). A marine battery holds about 600 watts of energy. Round numbers. Inverters loose 10-20% in the conversion.

The fridge was designed to work in a 75 degree room. Not South Texas in the summer.

Running the batteries way down does minor damage every time you do it.

Thus you need battery capacity based on outside temp and other factors.

Two batteries will be an issue overnight in hot weather. Especially if the fridge is not full!

Carrying 50# of ice would help. We freeze water for drinking at home. Pre chilling the fridge helps.

Four six volt batteries might be a good idea for traveling. Several solar collectors would help some.

I assume the dealer told you this.

We paid an extra bunch for money for a 13 cu ft gas electric fridge. It struggles with ice cream in hot weather! Makes ice for cocktails though!

As stated it takes hours to charge a battery to 90%. 12 or more hours to get a wet cell battery to 100%

[Ladycel]

When we have lost power in the house our refrigerator stayed cold and held the food for two days so I have no doubt that if I could turn this refrigerator off for six or eight hours the food would be fine. Thank you for all your ideas they certainly will help. I too saw that you cannot turn off the freezer. Here is a query. If I turn up the temperature on the freezer I am assuming it will not cycle on. Am I correct? Or, can I turn off the circuit breaker to the fridge . When refrigerators are on display in Home Depot and the like the lights go on when you open the doors which tells you they are plugged in but they are obviously not running. I wonder how they are achieving that.

[JayArras]

Originally Posted by OregonForester

Your fridge does not run on propane?

Originally Posted by KEN9XL

No, unfortunately. Only AC or DC w/inverter

I wonder what brilliant mind thought that residential RV fridges don't need to have a propane option?

[cfo111]

Originally Posted by JayArras

I wonder what brilliant mind thought that residential RV fridges don't need to have a propane option?

they are residential not RV fridges. Just house hold ones put in because some people wanted them and company's put them in for that reason.

[JayArras]

Okay, so then I guess the people that wanted them and want to boondock haven't thought this through either.