dry camping

[jensenst]

I need to dry camp one night in Jasper Nat Park. Only want to keep the refrigerator running for one day. Will the battery last 18hrs. Need advice

[toedtoes]

bikendan wrote:

toedtoes wrote:
No answer is going to be correct until the OP returns to identify his/her fridge.

His profile shows a 2012 Flagstaff Micro-lite, so it's a 2-way fridge.

Unless it was switched out with a residential at some point.

[bikendan]

toedtoes wrote:
No answer is going to be correct until the OP returns to identify his/her fridge.

His profile shows a 2012 Flagstaff Micro-lite, so it's a 2-way fridge.

[maillemaker]

Not if that fridge's climate control heating element has not been turned off, it won't.

You already mentioned that on page 1, so I didn't feel the need to be pedantic about that.

Steve

[ppine]

Run the refer on propane. It is not that warm in Alberta. Everything will be fine it you do not run your furnace too much.

[toedtoes]

No answer is going to be correct until the OP returns to identify his/her fridge.

[SoundGuy]

I need to dry camp one night in Jasper Nat Park. Only want to keep the refrigerator running for one day. Will the battery last 18hrs. Need advice

maillemaker wrote:
Is your refrigerator running off of propane or 12V? If propane, the system uses only a tiny bit of electricity to keep the gas flowing. It will run for days on battery in that case.

Not if that fridge's climate control heating element has not been turned off, it won't. :R The best "advice", which the OP asked for, is to make sure this element is off whenever running on battery power.

[maillemaker]

I need to dry camp one night in Jasper Nat Park. Only want to keep the refrigerator running for one day. Will the battery last 18hrs. Need advice

Is your refrigerator running off of propane or 12V? If propane, the system uses only a tiny bit of electricity to keep the gas flowing. It will run for days on battery in that case.

[free_radical]

jensenst wrote:
I need to dry camp one night in Jasper Nat Park. Only want to keep the refrigerator running for one day. Will the battery last 18hrs. Need advice

Depends on what kind of fridge and battery..

I have Engel 12V only..killed one starting batt quickly when I forgot to unplug it once or twice...without engine running..

Now my 100 amh deep cycle batt. handles its cooling with ease..

[DrewE]

What kind of fridge? What size battery bank?

An RV absorption fridge on propane will easily get through a night unless your battery is in dire need of replacement (and probably it would even then). Typically you could go a couple days or more, sometimes a good bit more, with a single battery and propane, though RVs do vary in their electric requirements some, and things other than the fridge can eat away at the capacity here (things like the LP and CO detectors).

A residential fridge, as a very very rough rule of thumb, needs to have a couple of batteries per day of dry operation, assuming no recharging from e.g. solar is going on.

[SoundGuy]

jensenst wrote:
I need to dry camp one night in Jasper Nat Park. Only want to keep the refrigerator running for one day. Will the battery last 18hrs. Need advice

You haven't provided any information as to the make / model of fridge you have but if it has a climate control heating element make sure it's turned off. If it's one of the more recent models that doesn't have any way to turn off this element then you should add your own switch, just as many of us have done. Switching off that element will significantly reduce unnecessary draw down on the battery when camping without shore power.

[time2roll]

Don't use the lights too much and you will be fine.

[Bob_Olallawa]

Leave the propane furnace off, that fan motor loves to drain a battery in a night.

[HackerAce]

I have left my rig parked, unplugged, with the refrigerator on for over a week.

[Tiger4x4RV]

Even turned off, if left closed a refrigerator will stay cold for quite a while.