12 volt Refrigerators

[jeeperman]

Have any thoughts on the new 12 volt Refrigerators?
So far I am impressed with the 10 Q ft.
Not much of a amp draw

[Kach]

Our new trailer came with a Norcold 12v 8 cu ft fridge. Seems pretty nice for an entry-level trailer like ours. I’m running 2- 6v interstates with about 100 and change usable aH.

It is definitely a big draw on the system. I find we’re bumping on the lower end of power in the morning, but I usually can’t shut everything down to get an accurate reading. We made it in the mountains for 3 nights with the fridge and furnace going. The fridge has a night mode that makes a big difference (I forget to switch it on about 1/3 of the time). We definitely need to run the generator daily to make it winter camping.

If I had room I’d add another pair of batteries. I’ll be getting some solar this summer, bu here in the PNW we can sometimes be in the trees so we need a backup plan. When we ski there is only a few hours of direct sun (on sunny days) but it would still probably help. Also skiing, we tend to run the generator a lot anyways watching movies etc.

[rbpru]

I have a 12v/gas/120v unit in my pop-up and a gas/120v in my TT. Both units work as anticipated.

I have no desire to shake, rattle and roll a household compressor down the road, nor do I want to be dependent on 120 volt availability.

Other, however find this perfectly fine for the style of camping they prefer.

[Boon_Docker]

StirCrazy wrote:

Boon Docker wrote:
At 1.1 amp your fridge uses about 105-110 ah per 24 hour period. I wouldn't call that real good for boondocking.

at 1.1 amps that should bc 26.4 ah in a 24 hour period.not 105-110

Steve

Yes, 26.4 amp at 120VAC, but we are talking about 12VDC while boondocking.

1.1 amp at 120VAC = 11 amp at 12VDC
A would love to have a residential fridge that draws 1.1 amp at 12VDC.

[Reisender]

ajriding wrote:

Reisender wrote:

ajriding wrote:
The

Never use a household refrigerator unless u plan to park permanently.

Why not.

The Danfoss compressors are just more efficient, and also they do not need a spike of electricity to start up, they have a slow-start process. It can be difficult for battery to provide enough surge of amps to the electric powered devices to get the compressor to moving.

These DC fridges are made specifically for the needs and to be used by DC power supply as on Jeeps or RVs. I think they first got popular in the off-road vehicle camping market (jeeps and other 4x4 trucks), but the RV market quickly jumped in too.

The DC fridges seem to have more adjustments aimed at conserving battery than a house fridge would.

Maybe there are some household fridges that are more efficient than other house fridges, but I doubt they beat the DC ones, and I would not be so fast to believe they are as good as the DC ones designed to conserve as much battery power as possible while camping. Also, with a house fridge you will have to use an inverter, which itself is not efficient in that it consumes power/ waste some power to do its thing, so you are wasting amps that could be better used.

In the end the DC fridge might be a little more expensive than that $100 walmark one,but so are your batteries. Running batteries low is what kills them, the less power you need the longer a life the battery will have.

My personal fridge is a 2-zone one. I can control the temp individually and even turn one side off. So, when boondocking and I use up all the frozen good I just turn off the higher-amp-draw freezer and run only one side as a fridge. This saves a lot of power compared to always running both fridge and freezer side. Some trips I do not even need the freezer so just use the one side.
If I do plug into shore then the fridge automatically switches over to the shoreline power instead of battery, so that is nicer than having to go turn off the inverter and switch some old house fridge over all the time.
IF i run Air Cond at night then I will not let the fridge use AC power so this saves gas as gen only holds enough gas to make it through the night (10-11 hours) just for AC, Fridge load would shorten this.

Also, if I would have pointed this out 12 months ago you would think Im kooky, but if SHTF then this DC powered fridge might make life a little easier than a household fridge... AND S did HTF in some places already, the World did not end, but S was flinging around the room for a time period.

All good points, but 21 cubic foot models Dan Foss models don’t seem to exist yet. That would be an obstacle for the big pusher crowd.

Cheers.

[ajriding]

Reisender wrote:

ajriding wrote:
The

Never use a household refrigerator unless u plan to park permanently.

Why not.

The Danfoss compressors are just more efficient, and also they do not need a spike of electricity to start up, they have a slow-start process. It can be difficult for battery to provide enough surge of amps to the electric powered devices to get the compressor to moving.

These DC fridges are made specifically for the needs and to be used by DC power supply as on Jeeps or RVs. I think they first got popular in the off-road vehicle camping market (jeeps and other 4x4 trucks), but the RV market quickly jumped in too.

The DC fridges seem to have more adjustments aimed at conserving battery than a house fridge would.

Maybe there are some household fridges that are more efficient than other house fridges, but I doubt they beat the DC ones, and I would not be so fast to believe they are as good as the DC ones designed to conserve as much battery power as possible while camping. Also, with a house fridge you will have to use an inverter, which itself is not efficient in that it consumes power/ waste some power to do its thing, so you are wasting amps that could be better used.

In the end the DC fridge might be a little more expensive than that $100 walmark one,but so are your batteries. Running batteries low is what kills them, the less power you need the longer a life the battery will have.

My personal fridge is a 2-zone one. I can control the temp individually and even turn one side off. So, when boondocking and I use up all the frozen good I just turn off the higher-amp-draw freezer and run only one side as a fridge. This saves a lot of power compared to always running both fridge and freezer side. Some trips I do not even need the freezer so just use the one side.
If I do plug into shore then the fridge automatically switches over to the shoreline power instead of battery, so that is nicer than having to go turn off the inverter and switch some old house fridge over all the time.
IF i run Air Cond at night then I will not let the fridge use AC power so this saves gas as gen only holds enough gas to make it through the night (10-11 hours) just for AC, Fridge load would shorten this.

Also, if I would have pointed this out 12 months ago you would think Im kooky, but if SHTF then this DC powered fridge might make life a little easier than a household fridge... AND S did HTF in some places already, the World did not end, but S was flinging around the room for a time period.

[JRscooby]

MFL wrote:
bob_nestor wrote:

(There were absorption type refrigerators made for household use years ago. As a kid it used to be my task to refill the kerosene tank on ours monthly.)

Good post earlier in it's entirety, but above has me thinking Bob was born around 1921-2??? 🙂

Jerry

wanderingbob wrote:
We had " absorption type refrig in the 50s . One ran on propane and the other ran on kerosene . As I remember the kerosene had a wick that my mom had to 'trim ', what ever that meant to a five year old .

Dad bought a used absorption fridge the summer before I was born, '49. In '58 bought new house and first electric fridge. Re-jetted it to burn natural gas, put it in basement for beer. Sometime when I was across the water in green clothes it was converted back to propane, and moved to a cabin that was past the end of wire. Sometime in the late '70s/ early '80s They got power to the cabin. In the late '90s I saw that fridge on the porch of the cabin. (the BB mark started a story) "Does that still work?" Yes, use for drinks. And if we leave food here when go home we put it in there incase power goes out.

BTW, before electricity was domesticated well off people had a icebox in the house. Ice was delivered door to door. (Many early trucking companies had names like JOHN DOE and Sons, ice and coal Use same truck depend on season) The plants that made that ice worked on absorption.

[wanderingbob]

We had " absorption type refrig in the 50s . One ran on propane and the other ran on kerosene . As I remember the kerosene had a wick that my mom had to 'trim ', what ever that meant to a five year old .

[MFL]

bob_nestor wrote:

(There were absorption type refrigerators made for household use years ago. As a kid it used to be my task to refill the kerosene tank on ours monthly.)

Good post earlier in it's entirety, but above has me thinking Bob was born around 1921-2??? 🙂

Jerry

[StirCrazy]

Boon Docker wrote:
At 1.1 amp your fridge uses about 105-110 ah per 24 hour period. I wouldn't call that real good for boondocking.

at 1.1 amps that should bc 26.4 ah in a 24 hour period.not 105-110

Steve

[Boon_Docker]

And a lot of people don't like using generators when boondocking to run their residential fridge when it is cloudy.... just saying. 😉

[Reisender]

Meh. We have a 21 cubic foot whirlpool that has been running reliably for 9 years and half of the 155000 kilometers on our coach. We boondock. Solar is cheap.

[Boon_Docker]

Deleted - double post

[Boon_Docker]

At 1.1 amp your fridge uses about 105-110 ah per 24 hour period. I wouldn't call that real good for boondocking.

[Gdetrailer]

Reisender wrote:

ajriding wrote:
The "new" electric fridges, I assume you refer to the Danfoss compressor-style ones? They are wonderful. You posted un-necessarily as there are quite a few post on here talking about them. Try a search next time to see if there are not already 300 post on this exact same subject.

They run on 12 or 24 volts, or when plugged into household current will run on 24 volts converted from the 120v alternating current.

Never use a household refrigerator unless u plan to park permanently.

Why not.

Some folks just believe (mistakenly so) that residential 120V compressors are "energy hogs" and they are fragile and will not survive being jostled on the road..

They are dead wrong on both aspects.

There are some residential fridges that may be less efficient due to the design/layout or use of higher wattage defrost heater and electric door heaters but it is easy to find those just be looking at the name plate max current draw.. Often those will have a 6.5A at 120V rating, but if you search carefully you can find plenty of very low current draw fridges..

Often 10 cu ft "apartment size" are good choice because they typically have the lowest draw and best insulation.. The one I have has a name plate draw of 1.1A for the compressor and 1.6A defrost draw.

I measured mine at 90W for the compressor and the defrost only runs 10 minutes for every TEN hrs of COMPRESSOR RUN TIME.

Compressor runs about 22 minutes per hr..

"Danfoss" compressors typically use 2.5A-3.5A (30W-40W) at 12V so sure they are a little bit more "energy efficient than a direct 120V compressor but in the bigger pix, not all that much. Danfoss compressors also come with a HEFTY price tag and they drag along considerably more expensive, complex and fragile variable speed driver board which adds something else to break down..

Interesting enough, Dometic has brought out a 10 cu ft Danfoss fridge that seems to have a much higher current draw rating than what it should at 15A (180W) at 12V!!! Found that HERE which pretty much makes the argument for Danfoss being more energy efficient null and void..

But hey, some folks just can't part from anything the is marketed for the "RV" market..

The price of that Dometic leaves me cold at $1250! Found that HERE

You can buy a lot of solar and batteries for that crazy price.. Heck my 10cu ft residential fridge cost $300, I can buy 300W of solar plus en extra pair of GC2s and still have money in my pocket..

But, hey, at least it is built buy a "quality" RV manufacturer, right? :R

[Reisender]

ajriding wrote:
The "new" electric fridges, I assume you refer to the Danfoss compressor-style ones? They are wonderful. You posted un-necessarily as there are quite a few post on here talking about them. Try a search next time to see if there are not already 300 post on this exact same subject.

They run on 12 or 24 volts, or when plugged into household current will run on 24 volts converted from the 120v alternating current.

Never use a household refrigerator unless u plan to park permanently.

Why not.