Thinking about a Truck Fridge.

Jfet,

We have a pretty low tech pop-up TC so anyone can duplicate in their own way what we have.Out of the 260 days camping, 3 were with electricity, and the gennie time was close to 2 or 3 hours. Fridge ran 24/7.

Keeping our batteries up has not been a problem.

Have had 3 absorbtion fridges in the past and can,t recall ever having a problem . The electric fridge system is what I planned for and so far has been a breeze.

If you run out of propane, you are dead on the water but I still have an alternator, Honda, and hopefully sun.

Dave

Of course the prefered choice of a residential fridge is a electric compressor fridge...they are 4 or 5 times more efficient than a absorption fridge.

Propane is at least 30 times more efficient energy storage than a AGM battery.

1 gallon of propane weighs about 4 pounds and has 90 Megajoules of energy.

A 100 amp hour AGM has 12x100x3600 = 4.32 Megajoules of energy storage at the very most

So even being 5 times less efficient, the propane fridge beats the snot out of a AGM battery powered fridge if you have no method of recharging the bettery, pound for pound.

Jfet wrote:
Hmmm, well the energy density of propane is about 30 times that of a lead acid battery, so even if the junk gas refrigerators (which by the way have no moving parts and make no noise) are 5 times less efficient than a 12V DC fridge, they will still run 6 times longer than a 12V fridge for the same volume of power source.

Sunshine and solar would make the difference though.

Hard choices...pay $$$ for a efficient 12V electric fridge that makes noise and may fail in a few years or pay $$ for a propane fridge that makes no noise and probably will fail in a few years also.

The preferred choice of residential refrigeration is a compressor unit. Everyone in the last 50 years has one unless you live in a cave. When the misses gets tired of the avocado,which was the time I was wearing bell bottoms, you sell it for $25 and I buy it and put it on my sun deck and fill it full of beer where it will run for a bunch more years. 12 V fridges have similar technology so longevity is not the issue.

RV,s are built so the front of the units are closed off to the out side and outside vents bring air inthe back to cool the coils so if there is a sound, it is quite a bit less than a residential fridge which has exposed vents at the front and the back that resonates the sound of the compressor and you don,t see people lined up complaining about excess noise from a residential fridge.

12V fridges take less energy than similar sized absorbtion units and as long as the juice from the batteries continue to flow, they will run until they quit.

You will eventually have to replace the propane and the 12V going to the control board of an absorbtion fridge too.

2 years and going strong. Looks like I will have to live with black for a long time.

Dave

I have a 12/110 NovaCool marine frig in my Host Everest and love it, never worry about leveling, or long term mtce issues. Has worked great at 100deg+, BUT do have 4 100AH AGMs and 2 190w solar panels to ensure enough juice to run it.

Hmmm, well the energy density of propane is about 30 times that of a lead acid battery, so even if the junk gas refrigerators (which by the way have no moving parts and make no noise) are 5 times less efficient than a 12V DC fridge, they will still run 6 times longer than a 12V fridge for the same volume of power source.

Sunshine and solar would make the difference though.

Hard choices...pay $$$ for a efficient 12V electric fridge that makes noise and may fail in a few years or pay $$ for a propane fridge that makes no noise and probably will fail in a few years also.

~DJ~ wrote:
I found a 4.4 cu ft model real close to the dimensions of my gas fridge.

The specs say 24 watts per hour. That is 2 amps per hour? If so that is right in the ball park with my Engel 45 which used 2.5/hour.

My Engel picked up a bad vibration after 2 seasons. :M Won't go that route again. $$$$$

Really tired of these gas fridges that can't cut hot weather. 60 degree beer in 100 degree weather BLOWS!!!

DJ,

Looked at the specs of the TF 130(4.2cuft) and it looks like 60W input, average hourly usage is 24W. I believe that is based on 33% cycling/hour @70F.

Have checked mine with an ammeter(7.5cuft) and it was 4.7A. At 33% cycle/hour @70F= 1.56A. Different units I know but as mine is almost double the size, just wanted to know if this is correct?

Dave

Jfet wrote:
What do you mean by gas fridges? The engel 45 is electric, correct? Or do you mean you would rather have a thermoelectric fridge?

Sorry I was not very clear on that. My Engel was 12/110 and worked super before the vibration. Still works good just very annoying.

What I meant by gas fridge is the stock propane junkers they put in campers from the factory!!!

I am looking at the Truck Fridge TF 130 12/24 volt.

~DJ~ wrote:
I found a 4.4 cu ft model real close to the dimensions of my gas fridge.

The specs say 24 watts per hour. That is 2 amps per hour? If so that is right in the ball park with my Engel 45 which used 2.5/hour.

My Engel picked up a bad vibration after 2 seasons. :M Won't go that route again. $$$$$

Really tired of these gas fridges that can't cut hot weather. 60 degree beer in 100 degree weather BLOWS!!!

Haven't had a chance to test again in 100 degree weather, though I have tested in upper 90s, and after super insulating the cabinet and adding custom ducting and a large number of specifically placed fans to improve air flow in the back on the fridge, it's stayed pretty much at 28-32 degrees all year round without having to adjust the settings up from 1 (out of 10 on electric) and 2 (out of 10) on gas.

What do you mean by gas fridges? The engel 45 is electric, correct? Or do you mean you would rather have a thermoelectric fridge?