12v Refidgerators

[KLYoung]

I have been looking at new TTs and have found that quite a few have 12v only refriderators. Has anyone used these while boondocking? How long will they run on solar? I have 400w of solar panels and 2 100a Battleborn batteries.

[TomG2]

I have an Alpincool 12 volt freezer/refrigerator that I have been running for two weeks straight with a single 50 watt panel and a single group 27 deep cycle battery. The compressor types, like the Alpincool are efficient. It is only 20 quart but plenty for me. It actually uses about the same as my larger Dometic on propane, thanks to the control overhead.

[pianotuna]

KLYoung wrote:
I talked to a Forest River Regional Sales Rep. She says this is a Norcold N10DC. Norcold says on it's website that it draws 5.7 amps in Standard mode and 3.7 amps in night mode. So it looks like I could get 36 hours are so from my batteries without a recharge. That's pulling 75% out of my 2 BattleBorns. That's not very long if it's raining for a couple of days.
Thanks for the input, everyone.

KLYoung,

What is the duty cycle?

[2oldman]

valhalla360 wrote:
If it's legitimately a 12v fridge, it's not to save money.

No, not this particular one.

[valhalla360]

2oldman wrote:

All things considered, electric refers aren't the best idea for dry camping, but RV makers do everything possible to save money.

If it's legitimately a 12v fridge, it's not to save money.

[2oldman]

KLYoung wrote:
I talked to a Forest River Regional Sales Rep. She says this is a Norcold N10DC.

Thanks.

I looked that up, darn difficult to find it's 12v, but we did it. It's a compressor.

Whew. What is night mode... it has a clock?

All things considered, electric refers aren't the best idea for dry camping, but RV makers do everything possible to save money.

[KLYoung]

I talked to a Forest River Regional Sales Rep. She says this is a Norcold N10DC. Norcold says on it's website that it draws 5.7 amps in Standard mode and 3.7 amps in night mode. So it looks like I could get 36 hours are so from my batteries without a recharge. That's pulling 75% out of my 2 BattleBorns. That's not very long if it's raining for a couple of days.
Thanks for the input, everyone.

[ford_truck_guy]

2oldman wrote:

KLYoung wrote:
I am looking at is a 2020 Surveyor Luxury 267RBSS.

I looked at the specs for this unit. The 3d viewer shows a Norcold residential refer. Other than that, I don't know exactly what it is, but 'residential' usually means 120v.

That is exactly what they were calling the fridge in My daughters new TT.. a residential fridge.... its a 12V only fridge.. no idea where the residential part comes in???

[2oldman]

KLYoung wrote:
I am looking at is a 2020 Surveyor Luxury 267RBSS.

I looked at the specs for this unit. The 3d viewer shows a Norcold residential refer. Another site says it's 12v. So that's a new one on me. Residential means house, and nobody has a 12v refrigerator in a house.

Odd.

These sites have a text contact. You should do that. I would, but I'm not in the market and don't want a lot of ads coming my way.

[rexlion]

I wonder if these 12V fridges have a Secop (Danfoss) style compressor? If so, boondocking with a couple hundred watts of solar is fairly realistic.

[DownTheAvenue]

The advantage of the electric only refrigerators, be they 12 volt only, 120 volt, or one that works on either voltage, is that they in all probability will not be a gas absorption but rather be a compressor type. Therefore, level operation is not critical, they cool down very quickly, and do not suffer greatly when operating in extreme ambient temperatures.

[KLYoung]

Thanks, valhalla360. I'll do some more research.

[KLYoung]

No it is 12v only. I don't know the make of the refridgerator. I beleive it is 10 cuft. The trailers I am looking at is a 2020 Surveyor Luxury 267RBSS. jorbill2or, I really wish LP was an option. Sometimes you can't count on sun everyday to replenish the batteries and you ina place that doesn't allow generators.

[valhalla360]

If it's actually a 12v fridge (mostly made for marine installations), 400w solar should be able to handle it if you don't have other major draws. Boats generally don't have the option to use propane so they have put a lot of effort into getting these to run efficiently on 12v.

If you really meant 120v (household fridge), it's not so clear cut.

Either way, there should be a rated wattage draw while cooling and then you need to estimate the duty cycle. By multiplying out the wattage times the operating hours, you get an estimate of the watt-hrs used. Figure the 400w panels will put out about 1600 watt-hr per day but that presumes no shadows from trees or overcast. You can convert your battery bank to watt-hr by multiplying the amp-hr by 12v and assume 50% is usable without damaging the batteries.

If it's a household fridge, you can do the same but add another 10-20% because it needs to run thru an inverter to convert to 120v AC power. You could just buy a $20 killavolt meter which includes a kwh option. (It's good to have a voltage meter anyway so you can see at a glance if you have low voltage.

[Lwiddis]

"They will NOT dry camp at any time, so that type of fridge is fine. I am not sure how people who boondock would take to this?"

I'm sorry since they will be unable to camp in SO MANY beautiful spots. I'd never buy an RV that wasn't fully capable of boondocking for a week at least.

[Lwiddis]

"How long will they run on solar?"

That's not the attitude! With an adequate solar system...batteries, panels and controller...every day the sun shines and without any generator use. Do any energy survey to determine what you need.