Finally joined the fridge/freezer club! Costway 54qt

[PolarExpress]

Fridge is still running great. I noticed that when connected to my Yeti400 the fridge’s low voltage protection kicks on at about 30%. So I switched it from Medium to Low protection. Now it uses up more of the battery if I let it. It will also drain your Jeep battery below starting level if you forget to turn it back to medium before connecting to your Jeep battery. [emoji23] oops.

 

[britz]

Fridge is still running great. I noticed that when connected to my Yeti400 the fridge’s low voltage protection kicks on at about 30%. So I switched it from Medium to Low protection. Now it uses up more of the battery if I let it. It will also drain your Jeep battery below starting level if you forget to turn it back to medium before connecting to your Jeep battery. [emoji23] oops.


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Good to know on the voltage cutoff, I just turned it from high to medium to test it out.I plan on replacing both Jeeps' batteries with Northstars, so I'm secretly trying to kill one off.

 

[Reaper_st84]

Fridge is still running great. I noticed that when connected to my Yeti400 the fridge’s low voltage protection kicks on at about 30%. So I switched it from Medium to Low protection. Now it uses up more of the battery if I let it. It will also drain your Jeep battery below starting level if you forget to turn it back to medium before connecting to your Jeep battery. [emoji23] oops.


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Good to know [emoji109]

Anyone noticed the inside temp is not the same on the screen??,i always need to play with it,if i need 4°C i have to put 5 or 6°C.

 

[Reaper_st84]

Ho and i got a refund of 278 Cad about the damages lol...pretty cool,already fixed.

 

[ErnieC]

Good to know [emoji109]

Anyone noticed the inside temp is not the same on the screen??,i always need to play with it,if i need 4°C i have to put 5 or 6°C.

yes, I'm wondering where their temperature sensor is since I have 3 thermometers inside and none of them are in agreement with what the display setting shows.

I have a wired temperature probe in the middle of the refrigerated compartment along with a wireless one to double check that hardwire sensor as well as an old fashioned thermometer in the non-refrigerated compartment just to see how much warmer it is at various settings.

My standard testing temperature with the display set to 36F shows that the refrigerated compartment is usually around 32.5F.
Taking out a bottle of water from the refrigerated section and measuring the water with a digital thermometer shows that it's just slightly above 32F

 

[Reaper_st84]

yes, I'm wondering where their temperature sensor is since I have 3 thermometers inside and none of them are in agreement with what the display setting shows.

I have a wired temperature probe in the middle of the refrigerated compartment along with a wireless one to double check that hardwire sensor as well as an old fashioned thermometer in the non-refrigerated compartment just to see how much warmer it is at various settings.

My standard testing temperature with the display set to 36F shows that the refrigerated compartment is usually around 32.5F.
Taking out a bottle of water from the refrigerated section and measuring the water with a digital thermometer shows that it's just slightly above 32F

I have a lazer thermometers to help but i dont think is the best thing,good old real thermometers are the best.

 

[Lanlubber In Remembrance]

I just finished using my Costway on a 5 day beach trip to Portsmouth Island. For the cost of the fridge I am extremely happy and not having to worry about ice and soggy food was great. It is wired off the single Jeep battery for this trip. The first two days were spent driving multiple hours during the day and the Jeep started no problem in the morning. Day 3 we parked and didn’t move at all on day 4. I did run the Jeep for 20mins around mid morning and again in the evening just to make sure the battery had enough charge through he night. I used my Procal to idle up some to allow the alternator to get the most voltage output. I am going to look into the travel cover and a Yeti400 to run off of durning the night and recharge during the day using solar to help keep the strain off the starting battery in the Jeep. But again for the price I am happy, should this one fail eventually I may consider going with a more expensive brand but for now this works great.

Out of curiosity why don't you just buy a second deep cycle battery isolated from the jeep battery. I just bought a 12v -135 amp hour battery from Wally world for 79 $ to handle just such a situation. I don't want to worry about dead battery on my transportation even tho I carry a small 900 w generator and charger just in case.

 

[Lanlubber In Remembrance]

Actually it does. I just got one to play with from Amazon and have been tinkering with it for about a week.
If you push and hold the Settings button for 5-6 seconds it will blink and take you to the extended settings.
Push the settings button 2 more times so that E3 is displayed and then hit the up or down temperature buttons to adjust the setting. I think mine was shipped with the E3 register set to 3. (long story on why/how I found all this out) I believe the E3 register tells the brains when to turn the compressor on.

I had to perform a factory reset and see that the new default setting for E3 is now 1. The cooling behavior of the fridge changed from the way it was shipped to me when I ordered it from Amazon. It used to turn on at TargetTemperature+3 degrees. Now it turns on the compressor when it's 1 degree past the TargetTemperature.

The end result is that it runs more frequently but the temperature doesn't fluctuate as much for the cooler.
e.g. as shipped and initially tested the compressor would turn on at TargetTemperature+3 and then turn off at the TargetTemperature, but then the display would drift down to about TargetTemperature-4 and then slowly climb back up until the next activation cycle.

So in the original config it would run the compressor for about 5-6 minutes and then not activate again until 25 minutes later.
In the new setting, it would run the compressor for about 30secs-1.5 minutes and then not activate again until about 6 minutes later, but the temp would always be at TargetTemperature +/- only 1 degree.

Just when I think I know which refer to buy you guys come up with this kind of info and scare the hell out of me. I'm not about to spend 5-600 $ or more for any frig ! I'll buy a wall-mart 100 $ 120v DC unit and an inverter. I think that will do just fine (I hope)..What do you smart people think ? I think that is what a lot of boat people do.

 

[Wdfnds]

Out of curiosity why don't you just buy a second deep cycle battery isolated from the jeep battery. I just bought a 12v -135 amp hour battery from Wally world for 79 $ to handle just such a situation. I don't want to worry about dead battery on my transportation even tho I carry a small 900 w generator and charger just in case.

Just curious, I am looking to replace my deep cycle battery in truck. Which one did you pick up from Wally World?

 

[Lanlubber In Remembrance]

Just curious, I am looking to replace my deep cycle battery in truck. Which one did you pick up from Wally World?

It says on the label 24MS2-1000 Marine cranking amps-135 amp hrs @ A1. It is an Eveready Battery. I'm thinking about going back and buying a second one.
They also had regular car batteries 24F @ $49.00 which I couldn't believe. 27F and larger were only slightly more. I wanted the Marine batter and I was impressed with the 135 amp hr. thing.

 

[Wdfnds]

It says on the label 24MS2-1000 Marine cranking amps-135 amp hrs @ A1. It is an Eveready Battery. I'm thinking about going back and buying a second one.
They also had regular car batteries 24F @ $49.00 which I couldn't believe. 27F and larger were only slightly more. I wanted the Marine batter and I was impressed with the 135 amp hr. thing.

I saw the 24ms-1000 but not the 24ms2-1000. It is showing 135 reserve minutes. It looks like it is about 56 amp hours. I am looking for something larger than mine. Mine is 75 amp hrs.

 

[Lanlubber In Remembrance]

I saw the 24ms-1000 but not the 24ms2-1000. It is showing 135 reserve minutes. It looks like it is about 56 amp hours. I am looking for something larger than mine. Mine is 75 amp hrs.

Mine clearly say's 135 amp hours for the 24ms2

 

[Reaper_st84]

I Iet the fridge run yesterday from 21h40 to 6h10 am this morning on a simple 20 ah/battery(acide) and the fridge was at 4°C,screen on battery box was 12.5 volt.
Don't really need a super big heavy battery to run this fridge.

 

[britz]

I Iet the fridge run yesterday from 21h40 to 6h10 am this morning on a simple 20 ah/battery(acide) and the fridge was at 4°C,screen on battery box was 12.5 volt.
Don't really need a super big heavy battery to run this fridge.

Sweet! I have a little 35ah battery from one of my homebrew solar generators I destroyed (we live offgrid) and was looking to repurpose it!

I've had my fridge for 2 mos now and its been tested daily on some rocky, rutted trails and roads without fail. Im very impressed how the compressor is with off-camber situations and bouncing around all day.

 

[ErnieC]

Sweet! I have a little 35ah battery from one of my homebrew solar generators I destroyed (we live offgrid) and was looking to repurpose it!

I've had my fridge for 2 mos now and its been tested daily on some rocky, rutted trails and roads without fail. Im very impressed how the compressor is with off-camber situations and bouncing around all day.

more than plenty for a weekend. I was testing this with my Yeti 400 which has a 33Ah battery in it.
stats from running it Fri 6PM to Sunday 9:15PM was 30.4Ah
(of course this was just sitting indoors with an ambient temperature of 65F, the display set to 36F and using ECO mode during the test so I'm sure it would probably use up more battery than that if it were actually outdoors in higher temps)

 

[Lanlubber In Remembrance]

I saw the 24ms-1000 but not the 24ms2-1000. It is showing 135 reserve minutes. It looks like it is about 56 amp hours. I am looking for something larger than mine. Mine is 75 amp hrs.

If your looking for the 24MS2 online, you wont find it. It is a story bought item and not sold on internet "me thinks" !

 

[KonzaLander]

I picked up one of these fridges a few weeks ago. First trial was inside and it froze a bottle of water when set at 32°F. I then tossed it in the Jeep to cool a flat of water for a bike race I was helping at.

When I first powered it up via the Jeeps "power outlet" I received an error code for battery protection. The fridge was set to 'medium' protection and would not power on. Power outlet on the Jeep registered 12.7v with the engine off. Switched the fridge protection to 'low' and the fridge fired up and ran all day (Jeep ran most of the day but did have several 2 hr breaks), keeping that water ice cold. I am not sure why it did not like 12.8v, but running on 'low' wont bother me since it will end up in the Land Cruiser hooked to a second battery.

 

[Jenks]

Out of curiosity why don't you just buy a second deep cycle battery isolated from the jeep battery. I just bought a 12v -135 amp hour battery from Wally world for 79 $ to handle just such a situation. I don't want to worry about dead battery on my transportation even tho I carry a small 900 w generator and charger just in case.

Honestly I have thought about it and considered making my own solar generator. The reason for the Yeti would be for the built in outlets and controller. But if I built my own solar generator I could get a larger deep cycle battery. Space is also a concern as a family of 4 I am almost maxed out. I wanted to do a dual battery system possibly but figured with a yeti 400/solar generator I can use it away from the Jeep during power outages in the house.

I really haven’t decided exactly what I want to do lol sorry for the rambling bunch of thoughts!

 

[Lanlubber In Remembrance]

Honestly I have thought about it and considered making my own solar generator. The reason for the Yeti would be for the built in outlets and controller. But if I built my own solar generator I could get a larger deep cycle battery. Space is also a concern as a family of 4 I am almost maxed out. I wanted to do a dual battery system possibly but figured with a yeti 400/solar generator I can use it away from the Jeep during power outages in the house.

I really haven’t decided exactly what I want to do lol sorry for the rambling bunch of thoughts!

Ramble on, that's how we make our best decisions. Talking is good for accomplishments, even when you talk (I should say argue) to yourself like I do.
I like the idea of solar but I'm told you best have at least 200w for extended stays and I cant afford that set up -- which I think would require two more batteries for storage. 100w may be enough if you don't have much load on the battery. I'm thinking about building something for my rear bumper to carry the things that probably should be outside the rig anyway. I don't want it to stick out much past the bumper though. something that would carry a gas can and a couple of batteries as well, narrow and wide kinda. Now whos rambling ?

 

[Reaper_st84]

I picked up one of these fridges a few weeks ago. First trial was inside and it froze a bottle of water when set at 32°F. I then tossed it in the Jeep to cool a flat of water for a bike race I was helping at.

When I first powered it up via the Jeeps "power outlet" I received an error code for battery protection. The fridge was set to 'medium' protection and would not power on. Power outlet on the Jeep registered 12.7v with the engine off. Switched the fridge protection to 'low' and the fridge fired up and ran all day (Jeep ran most of the day but did have several 2 hr breaks), keeping that water ice cold. I am not sure why it did not like 12.8v, but running on 'low' wont bother me since it will end up in the Land Cruiser hooked to a second battery.

I hardwired the 12v plug for the fridge on the back of my jku,i am not using the power outlet from the jeep.