Samsung 17.5 Fridge Data Plate

To allow for some cold weather camping. Since I have the area sealed and insulated, I am going to add these.

Have not been able to run another 8 hour test. We just did a trip to the East side of WA, though. That is over 4 hours just on the alternator. Batts were in great shape when we arrived. Fridge was at 38 and freezer at -2.

All looks good. No other immediate upgrades/changes pending. Think if I see any problems, I might install a victron battery monitor, before anything else. That will help me analyze issues, if they pop up.

Screwed a metal plate in behind the pop out vent, on the outside. Use simple Reflectix between the vent cover and metal plate so we can use it down to the hi 20s at night and warmer during the day. We do not do extreme cold camping.

howardwheeler wrote:
I have put in that exact fridge on my system precisely because it is an inverter compressor and so far uses far less watts than my original residential Amana side by side that came in the fifth wheel. With a wattmeter attached now for around two months, the fridge is averaging 59 watts per hour. This includes defrost cycles. The old Whirlpool ice maker in the Amana I think sucked a lot of juice because it had heaters to release the cubes, plus it’s defrost cycle pulled a lot. It made my 1000 watts of solar panels inadequate for dry camping for any length of time. I have a 2000 watt Xantrex inverter charger and four class 31 lead acid batteries. That setup seems to keep up now with the lessor load whereas before my batteries would dip too low over a 24 hour period. It’s not a well tuned system but it’s working. The Samsung is quiet too and keeps temperatures perfectly: 37 in the fridge part and -2 in the freezer. I’m very happy with it though I gave up a couple of cubic feet of space.

We like the quiet and ours stays at those temps also. That is one of the reasons we wanted this one. We like our ice cream hard. We don't dry camp except as I stated above. So going 24 hours is not important to us. 8-9 hours is our limit. My wiring will not let me go to 2000. A 1512 would be marginal without changing wiring. We can go to the 1250. We would opt to go from 2 105 to 4 6v agm or may switch to 12v agm, before upgrading the inv/charger.

I have put in that exact fridge on my system precisely because it is an inverter compressor and so far uses far less watts than my original residential Amana side by side that came in the fifth wheel. With a wattmeter attached now for around two months, the fridge is averaging 59 watts per hour. This includes defrost cycles. The old Whirlpool ice maker in the Amana I think sucked a lot of juice because it had heaters to release the cubes, plus it’s defrost cycle pulled a lot. It made my 1000 watts of solar panels inadequate for dry camping for any length of time. I have a 2000 watt Xantrex inverter charger and four class 31 lead acid batteries. That setup seems to keep up now with the lessor load whereas before my batteries would dip too low over a 24 hour period. It’s not a well tuned system but it’s working. The Samsung is quiet too and keeps temperatures perfectly: 37 in the fridge part and -2 in the freezer. I’m very happy with it though I gave up a couple of cubic feet of space.

As stated in an earlier post, I am testing my system, including Inverter/charger to determine if I need more umpf at a given point. I have not tested battery recovery yet. I will try this again this weekend. Same test. Wife opened the fridge door once. I will try to keep her out of it during the test.

Use in a dry camp situation would be once a year for 8-9 hours (Walmart, truck stop, rest area, etc) for 3 consecutive nights with 12-13 hours driving and about 30 minutes genny use morning and night. I cannot fully simulate the driving. I will use the charger to simulate. I do not know alternator output for a comparison. I will run off batts for 8 hours again and then 12 hours on shore power with charger.

Weather was mild, 65-70 temp, so not a bad comparison of nights at a stop. Might be hotter on some of the actual trip.

My conclusions, so far. Gurus, Please correct anything I get wrong.
- Batteries are in fair condition. 12.6 start charge is good.
- Quantity of battery capacity is very marginal. 12.1 is 50%. I need to keep an eye on this. If fridge runs a little more during the night, I might cause greater loss to battery capacity. I believe this will probably be the first area we will do an upgrade. If/when we do, I will look at an AGM solution.
- Run times/frequency of the fridge is good. Seems to only run a couple of short times in an 8 hour period.
- Cannot run anything else during this 8 hours or will draw batteries too low, in current capacity.
- Need to post a sign on fridge so wife does not open.

Sarcasm is welcome.

BTW Mex, I thought this might help you.

A battery is an electrical storage device. Batteries do not make electricity, they store it, just as a water tank stores water for future use. As chemicals in the battery change, electrical energy is stored or released. In rechargeable batteries, this process can be repeated many times. Batteries are not 100% efficient - some energy is lost as heat and chemical reactions when charging and discharging. If you use 1000 watts from a battery, it might take 1050 or 1250 watts or more to fully recharge it.

More realistic - chew & spit high frequency inverter rating...

1,000 watt rated
800 watt surge

Yes this is a sarcastic remmark

I did a limited test.
Refrigerator was empty. Nothing else, including lights, was on, except maybe parasitical draws.
Inverter is a Tripplite RV750ULHW.
Batteries are 5-year-old T105 flooded cell. MH is on 30amp/110v all the time, at the house. Water level above plates.
All measurements were done at the battery terminals. Starting, I flipped the CB off and the bats were at 12.6.
1 hr – 12.4
2 hr – 12.2
3 hr – 12.2
4 hr – 12.2
5 hr – 12.2
6 hr – 12.2
7 hr – 12.2
8 hr – 12.1
I turned the CB back on.

I am still on the Tripplite 750. My next test is of the batts and inverter. We will cut 110v in the drive way and watch the power. I can report that back in a about a week.

looks very nice
what inverter did you use ?