Dry ice in rv fridge

[Kathy22]

We have camped a lot, but this will be our first attempt at camping with no-shore power, and generators aren't allowed at the campsite we have booked. We have a 200 watt suitcase solar panel, but need to make sure our fridge and freezer stay cold for 3 days. We also have a 1000 watt inverter and 2 6 Volt golf cart batteries.

Any experienced boondocker advice on using dry ice or other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Kathy
2020 Rockwood 2612WS with residential fridge

[Pariah]

How much power does your fridge use? Once you have that number some math will tell you how long it will run with the power you are able to supply it.
Me? I'd use an ice cooler for the important stuff and fill the fridge up with the stuff that has lots of thermal mass.

[Thomas ho]

12v fridge? you dont say. if propane and 115 electric, the solar and 2 batteries should do great. i do a 100 watt Monocrystaline panel ,1 battery, on propane fridge .dry ice has to breath if on a tight contsiner it will explode , and a big chunk "say med fry pan size"will freeze a area 6/ inches from it.

[D W]

We have used dry ice in 4"x4"x1" blocks. Works great in the freezer, but not so good in refrigerator portion. In a matter of 2 hours it will start to freeze contents you don't want frozen. Additionally, if you're in a high humidity area the dry ice will off-gas tremendously when you open the freezer door, filling you rig with a fog. Almost like the fog you see floating around in a horror movie.

It will however keep ice cream frozen as hard as a rock.

[robo44]

We spent a week at a time with our 12V / Propane Fridge (not sure what type you have)

Things we did, befoe we left home we made sure to
Pack about 3 - four of the blue ice blocks into the fridge and food.
Buy a battery oprated refrigerator fan
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0829DTFB8...v_ov_lig_dp_it
Run it on Propane (and the 12V)

Kept everything cold.... no need for dry ice or anything else

If you are referring to a residential refrigerator, that is another animal all together
-

[tomkatb]

Load the rv fridge up and cool all items 24 hours.

We always take three gallon jugs of frozen water. 12 cu. ft. Gas electric fridge. Two to the freezer, one to the fridge. Full fridges do better! More is better.

As they melt they are our primary drinking water. The fridge is thus “more, an ice box!”.

A battery monitor might be a good idea.

I do not think you have enough battery! Will depend on the weather. And you. No lookey-loos looking in the fridge.

[dbarr]

You might want to google dry ice deaths first.
I would not use it in a confined space.

[5picker]

Lots of suggestions but the important information is what type refrigerator.

You say residential so we assume 120v only.
All the mentions of run it on propane are useless.

It's imperative to list the make/model of the appliance you are asking questions about or you'll get a bunch of irrelevant replies.

Because not every R/V has the same style refrigerator, what you'll need to do (or not have to do at all) with them when you have no power is different.

[D W]

Originally Posted by dbarr

You might want to google dry ice deaths first.
I would not use it in a confined space.

X2! The CO2 gas disperses oxygen in the air. It normally settles around the floor. You don't want to breathe it for very long. Once it off-gasses you'll want to open a door right away. The CO2 gas will then dissipate rapidly.

[Chris Pastuzyn]

Absolutely agree [emoji817]with dbarr!
I wouldn't use it.

[Kathy22]

Thanks all,
The fridge is residential, aka 120V AC. Fridge label says 1.4 amp per hour rated. We haven't measured yet, but my hubby is planning on doing some driveway testing this week.

I did read quite a bit online about dry ice in camper and there are a lot of differing opinions...some do, some say no way. I was a little leary myself about the CO2 emissions, so thought I would ask.

Totally appreciate all the ideas. I like the freezing water jugs idea as we always take water jugs for our coffee water, so that will work great.

Thanks everyone!
Kathy22

[Wilco]

Take a spare cooler. Place your frozen foods (and frozen water jugs if there is room) with the dry ice in the cooler outside of your trailer. Keeping it in the shade and covering it will extend the life of the dry ice. Place your frozen foods in the refrigerator 12 hrs before use to thaw and keep your perishables cold. Augment the cooling in the refrigerator with the frozen water jugs.

[Tom48]

Originally Posted by Kathy22

We have camped a lot, but this will be our first attempt at camping with no-shore power, and generators aren't allowed at the campsite we have booked. We have a 200 watt suitcase solar panel, but need to make sure our fridge and freezer stay cold for 3 days. We also have a 1000 watt inverter and 2 6 Volt golf cart batteries.

Any experienced boondocker advice on using dry ice or other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Kathy
2020 Rockwood 2612WS with residential fridge

Big questions there Kathy. I have little Residential Refrigerator experience but a ton of experience with solar and batteries. Depending on where you're located that solar May generate as little as 25 or 30 amps in a day or as much as 50 or 60.

1.4 amps of refrigerator draw is going to translate to about 14 or 15 amps on the battery. 1.4 amps of draw suggest to me the type of refrigerator that runs at a very low level almost continuously. Without putting a wattmeter on the fridge for add a to know exactly how much electricity it consumes everything is just speculation. A friend runs a 17 cubic foot Samsung that pulls 9 amps almost continuously. If you suppose 14 amps continuously you're going to go through about 330 amps a day. Best case scenario your golf cart batteries give you about a hundred and ten amps usable without depleting them below 50% and the solar at 50 amps per day only gives you about a hundred and sixty to work with so I would say if that refrigerator Cycles on less than 50% of the time you've got enough electricity to carry for 24 hours but your recharge rate with 200 watts of solar won't be fast enough to do you the good that you need.

So my gut says you're not going to make it.

On the subject of dry ice I found that 30 lb of dry ice in a tightly fitted Yeti knockoff ice chest allowed me to put five pounds a day between our 12 cu ft freezer and frig. When the gas had failed and I didn't always have 110 voltage to run it during the seven months it took to get a new refrigerator from norcold, dry ice worked but at best I could make 30 lbs last three days as even in a good chest it disapates fast.

Without some time to experiment on electrical consumption that that refrigerator actually requires I would say plan to be working out of ice chests in the worst-case scenario so have enough ice chest to put everything essential in ice and plan to run back and forth to the store if you're going to be there more than a couple of days.

By the way a 12 cubic foot Norcold gas electric refrigerator running on the inverter uses about 41 amps an hour. With 600 amps to lithium batteries and 600 watts of solar on a perfectly sunny day I barely barely get by for 24 hours, but then need supplemental charging to catch up.. Think of it this way you're only going to consume a 3rd or 4th that much.

Good luck

[Thomas ho]

ice chest and BEARS are a sure disaster. Raccoons.kids wanting a beer .

[tomkatb]

If the fridge is rated at 1.4 amps, that is ac.

Thus dc amps is roughly 14. Then the inverter power device will consume more than 20% more energy in the conversion. The fridge will use 17 dc amps per hour of run time. So with 110 ah of battery power and the solar panel 50 ah max on its best day, likely the fridge will quit after 24 hours. Depends on weather.

On your travel day the tv will not be able to keep, up with the fridge as you drive. The batteries will be down at bedtime. Near dead at 8 am the next morning.

The 50 ah per day from the solar panel will not do well. The fridge uses more than the solar panel can produce most of the day.

I like the dry ice idea. Just be careful with it. Not a toy.

Get enough dry ice and regular ice and you will get thru the weekend. Load her up before you leave.

The presumption of the rv industry is that most folks plug in every night. Thus, the residential fridge works. Ladies love them and they are fast coolers. And, they are less expensive! My 12 cu.ft. Gas electric was three times the cost of a residential model. $2400. Cheaper to install as well.

[PenJoe]

Most of our camping days have been boondocking. When preparing for trips, DW cooked meals at home, then froze them, thawing meals as days past. We usually had an ice chest as-well-as the frig. Frozen items to be used later in the trip were kept in the cooler. Shorter term in the frig. Milk and water can also be frozen and used when thawed. So, frozen foodstuffs serve two purposes and saves space. Then there is powdered milk that can be mixed with water. We never had need for dry ice for camping.

[Tom48]

Originally Posted by tomkatb

If the fridge is rated at 1.4 amps, that is ac.

Thus dc amps is roughly 14. Then the inverter power device will consume more than 20% more energy in the conversion. The fridge will use 17 dc amps per hour of run time. So with 110 ah of battery power and the solar panel 50 ah max on its best day, likely the fridge will quit after 24 hours. Depends on weather.

On your travel day the tv will not be able to keep, up with the fridge as you drive. The batteries will be down at bedtime. Near dead at 8 am the next morning.

The 50 ah per day from the solar panel will not do well. The fridge uses more than the solar panel can produce most of the day.

I like the dry ice idea. Just be careful with it. Not a toy.

Get enough dry ice and regular ice and you will get thru the weekend. Load her up before you leave.

The presumption of the rv industry is that most folks plug in every night. Thus, the residential fridge works. Ladies love them and they are fast coolers. And, they are less expensive! My 12 cu.ft. Gas electric was three times the cost of a residential model. $2400. Cheaper to install as well.

Almost $7,000.00 by the time we got our NEW Norcold 1210 12cuft unit shipped, delivered and rv shop installed. We could have converted to new residential for a third of that but even with 600 amps Lifepo and 600 solar, we said no way.

Factory does it because its CHEAPER and evidently supply of gas units is tight.

One of our camping partners gets by a week at a time with a Whirlpool residential built into their motorhome, six golf cart batteries, and 800 watts of solar. Not sure how badly they drain those batteries at night but in SoCal sun they recover daily with that much solar

[GrumpyOldGoat]

Chest cooler:

a couple lbs of dry ice in one end with a 6-10 lb bag of water ice piled on it and shoved to that end.

Place the frozen foods close o the ice with refrigerated foods at the far end.

put it in a shady place and cover with a tarp.

The tarp prevent airflow around the cooler and extends the life of the ice.

12 days at Lake Powell over the 4th of July with 110° before the ice melted.

[Kathy22]

Tom48..and TomKatb, Wow, that was a lot of detail!! I will let my husband absorb this..lol. Knowing what a techy geek he is, he will appreciate all rhis detail!

We will let everyone know what we do and how it all works out! Heading to Yellowstone in Aug for 11 days (3 of which are no power and no generators allowed).

[Sarahcat]

Aside from its very cold temperature, when ‘dry ice’ melts, it adds CO2 to the local airspace. Enough concentration will suffocate. I would not use it in an enclosed space. I don’t think I would dry camp if that was my option. We tripled our solar and replaced our batteries with LiFePO4, plus we have a 3-way fridge that is primarily propane powered. We still haven’t tried it out without shore power, but we’ve been working on this for over 18 months. I think we’ll be fine for four or so days.