12 Volt Refridgerator question(s)

[Soundsailor]

I have 280 AH of lithium. I also carry a briefcase solar panel and my Champion 2500. We do not go off grid very often, but can adjust when we do.

We have the Furrion 16 cu ft Side by Side Refrigerator and it does use about 100 to 125 AH of power per day. Smaller refrigerators may use less, but I haven't heard of any that use much less than 100 AH per day. Assuming your suitcase panel is the 200-watt size, you should be able to get about 120 AH (15 Amps x 8 hours) per day assuming plenty of that good AZ sun and no shade trees. So you'd probably have enough solar to keep your batteries from having to make up too much of the difference assuming your other power needs are light. And as you say, you'd always be able to make up the difference with the genny. For (as you say) occasional off-grid use, I think that power consumption shouldn't hold you back from a 12-volt refrigerator purchase.

[goducks14]

I have 280 AH of lithium. I also carry a briefcase solar panel and my Champion 2500. We do not go off grid very often, but can adjust when we do.

I would say your all set.
FWIW we have 500W solar and 225 usable AH of batteries. When sitting at home and only on solar with just the fridge running the batts never drop below 12.4 on mostly sunny days. Even on cloudy days they don't drop below about 12.2. Basically it could run like that 24/7/365 on just solar.
Out camping with other 12V drains I can only get 2 days max. But we use a lot of 12V.
YMMV

[ExNihilo]

I just pulled the Stock absorption refrigerator out of my unit. I went with the Furrion Artic. They have changed the location of the fuse on the new models and revised wiring recommendations. It was actually much easier than I planned. We pulled 10/3 from the fuse box to the refrigerator added some wire coiling devices under the slide and tapped into an open 15 AMP fuse in the box. I did not find the unit noisy I do not know if they did something new.

While some love absorption- I have plenty of battery and solar so for added space alone it was of value for me. No to mention no more frozen eggs, liquid ice cream and sweaty grapes.

It acts like a refrigerator! It’s the damnedest thing.

I am very happy with it.

[Dale G]

Howdy!

The wife and I were talking about the trailer. I made mention to the idea of getting a 12 volt fridge for the trailer. I thought it would a good idea as the campground sometimes looses power due to storms or when we travel. She agreed and likes the idea.

Who has upgraded their fridge from an absorbion style?
Did you do it yourself?
What kind of problems did you run into?
If dealer? What kind of cost did you see? (Time and materials)
What do you think of your upgrade?

That's it for now. Planning stages.

We did the upgrade in our Imagine 2670MK because every time we camped in hot weather the stuff in the freezer would thaw out. We went with the Nova Kool AC/DC dual compressor which upgraded us from 6 cu/ft to 9.1 cu/ft. The refrigerator runs off of AC if it is available and then automatically switches to DC if the AC is removed. The install was fairly simple because all of the wires are already there, you just need to plug the gas line. The Nova Kool is also a couple of inches shorter, so I made a board to cover the gap at the top. I also insulated the cabinet really good while the refrigerator was out. I blocked the front vents on the refrigerator with black cardboard and insulation to make it vent out the back because the dual compressors were dumping way too much heat inside the camper. I installed two fans at the upper vent and hooked them to a snap disc that would come on when the temperature in the cabinet got above 95 degrees to help vent the heat out of the cabinet. I also installed the fans on a switch so I could shut them off when the refrigerator wasn't running. I replaced the group 24 battery with a deep cycle group 29 from Walmart that has 122 A/H to handle the refrigerator when it was on battery. https://www.walmart.com/ip/EverStart...3?athbdg=L1101

It was a fairly simple upgrade, just time consuming. It does take two people to lift the new refrigerator into the camper and remove the old one. I used a dolly that was the same height as the refrigerator opening and just slid the old unit out onto the dolly and did the reverse to put the new one in. There is one thing I would do different; the original refrigerator had the doors hung on the left side, so we did the same with the new one. It would have been better for the doors to be hung on the right so the doors could swing all the way open. Our refrigerator is against the wall and with the doors hung on the left you cannot open the doors enough to easily remove the shelves. Hanging the doors on the right would have been a better idea.

The Nova Kool refrigerators are not cheap but are great refrigerators. https://www.suremarineservice.com/Ga...U9200ACDC.html I bought a new upper shelf to allow milk and other tall bottles since the refrigerator was made for the Canadian bottle and not American bottles. https://www.dyersonline.com/dometic-...ilk-shelf.html

Hope this helps your decision, it really is a great upgrade if you don't mind spending the money. Made my wife very happy because we could now take ice cream with us on a hot summer day.

Dale

[goducks14]

Nova's are nice but having AC isn't necessary with a 12V fridge. When plugged into AC the converter will run the fridge.
I've been doing that for a couple years now.

[Dale G]

Nova's are nice but having AC isn't necessary with a 12V fridge. When plugged into AC the converter will run the fridge.
I've been doing that for a couple years now.

You can save the money and get the DC only refrigerator and not the AC/DC one. What is nice about the AC/DC one is it runs off of the AC circuit that is already behind the current refrigerator and then switches automatically when the AC power is removed. You can also save even more money and get a single compressor unit.

If you go with the DC only and the single compressor it is about half the price as the dual compressor AC/DC unit., which makes it a lot better if you want to save some money but have a nice upgrade to your refrigerator. https://www.suremarineservice.com/Ga...RFU9000DC.html

Dale