12V Fridge doesn't stay cold on DC

[Derekm]

We have a 2022 22MLE with a 12V Furrion fridge. We have been having some very warm weather and 2 weeks ago we were boondocking and despite very light use of anything but the fridge the battery eventually got so low that the fridge would not run. I put it in storage for about 2 weeks and the factory installed solar panel (160Watt) seemed to recharge the battery, at least the indicator claimed it was fully charged. It is hot again so I decided to test it and sitting unused with only the fridge on it would freeze water and kept it frozen for 2 days. The battery indicator was at 3/4 however if I turned on the ceiling lights battery indicator would drop to 1/2. I decided to put a charger on the battery and it indicated that the battery was low. I have now been charging it for about 10 hours and it is still at only 70%.

I have a few questions:
- I never put a battery charged on it after I bought it new, it has been plugged in multiple times and also sits unused for long stretches where the solar panel will be working. Should I have put a charger on it after I bought the new 6V batteries or should plugging it in plus the solar have topped it up?
- Should a 160W solar panel plus 2 X 6V keep a 12V Furrion fridge cool indefinitely or will it eventually kill the battery in hot weather?
- Are these new 12V fridges junk?

Thanks

Derek

[stroguy]

From what I have seen the DC fridges run best when supplied voltage is 10.5 or greater. Have you slipped below this threshold?

[Second Chance]

If you have the flooded lead-acid battery that originally came with the trailer, that's probably your issue. You can only get about 50% of the rated amp hours out of a lead-acid battery. If you draw it much lower than 50%, the battery will often have to be replaced. (You can have the battery load tested at an auto parts store.) Connecting two 6VDC deep cycle batteries in series doubles the voltage (6 to 12VDC), but does not double the amp house - they remain the same as the rating of one of the batteries. The better approach would be to have two 12VDC batteries in parallel - and the best would be if they were LiFePO4 batteries.

Rob

[SolarPoweredRV]

We have a 2022 22MLE with a 12V Furrion fridge. We have been having some very warm weather and 2 weeks ago we were boondocking and despite very light use of anything but the fridge the battery eventually got so low that the fridge would not run. I put it in storage for about 2 weeks and the factory installed solar panel (160Watt) seemed to recharge the battery, at least the indicator claimed it was fully charged. It is hot again so I decided to test it and sitting unused with only the fridge on it would freeze water and kept it frozen for 2 days. The battery indicator was at 3/4 however if I turned on the ceiling lights battery indicator would drop to 1/2. I decided to put a charger on the battery and it indicated that the battery was low. I have now been charging it for about 10 hours and it is still at only 70%.

I have a few questions:
- I never put a battery charged on it after I bought it new, it has been plugged in multiple times and also sits unused for long stretches where the solar panel will be working. Should I have put a charger on it after I bought the new 6V batteries or should plugging it in plus the solar have topped it up?
- Should a 160W solar panel plus 2 X 6V keep a 12V Furrion fridge cool indefinitely or will it eventually kill the battery in hot weather?
- Are these new 12V fridges junk?

Thanks

Derek

Before your questions can be answered, you need more information than you have. You need to be able to check the actual voltage of your battery bank, the LED lights supplied by Grand Design, just can't give you enough information to make any decisions.

While you don't have to install the highly recommended Victron BMV 712 (with/without BlueTooth) Battery monitor, you do need at least a voltage meter that you will let you monitor your battery voltage on a regular basis. For the record, I recommend installing the Victron monitor with BlueTooth.

Having a battery monitor will let you accurately access the performance of your system and make informed decisions about your 12v refrigerator.

On a theoretical basis, your Solar system should be able to provide enough energy to power your fridge during daylight hours, run all the lights, run the water pump and all other 12v devices inside your coach. In addition to all that, it needs to provide enough energy to recharge the battery bank to 100% before the Sun sets and the batteries have to start powering all those devices overnight.

On a practical basis, that is a lot to ask of a 165 Watt Solar system.

Based on what you have said, your batteries and Solar system are able to supply about 50% of the energy you need to only run your refrigerator (in two days your batteries were dead). Your batteries are probably rated at around 220 amp hours and with only 50% of Lead Acid batteries being usable (LA batteries are at 50% when they reach 11 volts) you have about 110 amp hours of usable energy storage (50% of 220ah).

Note: there is a chance that you damaged your batteries when they were drained previously and your "fridge only" experiment was performed with damaged batteries. I would recommend getting them tested to ensure they can deliver their rated amp hours.

The next question is; how do you fix this problem?

First, I recommend determining the number of days you want to boondock. Once you determine the number of boondocking days you wish to have between "shore power" connections, then I would recommend switching to Lithium batteries with enough energy storage to make that number of days happen. You can also carry a small generator with you to extend the number of boondocking days.

Here are a few rough numbers to consider...

You used about 100ah of stored energy over two days (plus whatever energy the Solar system generated). Let's shorten that to 100ah per day of energy storage used, per day, considering that you will need to run some additional 12v devices while you are camping. Now multiply 100ah by the number of days you want to boondock and that becomes the minimum Lithium battery bank size you will need.

For information on reasonably priced Lithium batteries, read the post "Cheap Batteries are Coming..."

Link: https://www.mygrandrv.com/forum/show...322#post341322

Once you upgrade to Lithium batteries, you will need to upgrade your Converter to a Lithium Capable Converter and switch your Solar Charge Controller to it's Lithium setting.

Alternatively; you could increase the size of your Solar system to provide enough energy to keep your batteries charged and your fridge running. You can also switch to Lithium batteries AND increase the size of your Solar system to give you enough energy to successfully boondock for as many days as you like.

Note: when I mention Lithium Batteries, I am referring to Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries (LiFePo4).

Good Luck and let us know which steps you decide to take.

[Derekm]

From what I have seen the DC fridges run best when supplied voltage is 10.5 or greater. Have you slipped below this threshold?

Hi there, I suspect it probably did because the fridge was not running (light was on but it was not cooling). I guess what I am trying to figure out is if it is "working as designed" that the solar will not keep up with the fridge on hot days and if that is the case what my options are for boondocking? It would seem that the only option would be to add more solar to the roof?

Derek

[NB Canada]

Hi there, I suspect it probably did because the fridge was not running (light was on but it was not cooling). I guess what I am trying to figure out is if it is "working as designed" that the solar will not keep up with the fridge on hot days and if that is the case what my options are for boondocking? It would seem that the only option would be to add more solar to the roof?

Derek

@SolarPoweredRV explained it in detail above

[goducks14]

I don't have a Furrion 12V fridge but I do have a GE 12V fridge 9.8 cu.ft. I have 4 6V GC batteries and 400W of solar. With just the fridge running and other parasitic draws the batts drop to 12.4+/- at night and fully charge by noon to 2:00 depending on how sunny. Even on cloudy days I can go for days on end without hitting the 50% discharge rate.
You should check the water level in the batts 1st and take them to a auto parts store and have them do a draw down test. They could be toast or maybe they just need to get a good charge and go from their. With the 160W panel and sunny days I think you should be able to keep the batts charged up. The Furrion fridge draws 1.08kw a day according to their web site specs. Thats 90 ah a day. So theoretically on optimum solar days everything should work.

And no they're not junk. They're way less complicated than the typical absorption type but not nearly as convenient. Not to say you won't get a junker but I've had mine for 3 seasons and it's ran flawless. By flawless I mean zero issues but it is quirky. I have two remote sensors and the feezer and fresh temps have wild swing temps. Lots depends on where the sensors are located. Never had food spoil and I gained 2+ cu.ft of space going to the 12V. The bonus is when I'm on 120ac I get more space inside and unlimited run time with no worries about battery draw. We split dry camping and glamping about 60/40 so it works for us.

[Bungy]

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