Installing and powering a fridge in vehicle

[mtlangst]

I need help figuring out how to power a 60w draw fridge in my van. I am tired of extended trips with the cooler we havr and everything getting wet etc... all i need is to power the fridge. Would a jackery 300 work plus 200w solar panels to charge the jackery? What is the best way to power the fridge. We would be idle at most 3days before driving. I have a 12v outlet in the van to power the fridge on the road.

 

[El Solis]

Check that the 300W Jackery can take 200W of solar input. If you’re only going to be idle 3 days the larger 1000W until might be better. You can pair that with a 100W panel and be set.

 

[ChadHahn]

I have an older lead acid Goal Zero Yeti 400W. I also have a Renogy 100W solar suitcase. When I'm in the vehicle, I have the fridge (Dometic CF-050 with insulated cover) plugged into the Yeti and that plugged into the cigarette lighter. Once it's cooled the fridge doesn't take much power. I could probably keep it running for at least two days with the battery pack. When I get to the campsite, I pull out the Renogy and place it in the sun. I have a 25 foot long cord running from the controller to the Yeti. The cord ends in 2 Anderson connector that plug into the Goal Zero. The cord is long enough that I can keep the fridge in the shade. Every couple hours I move the solar panels so they are catching the sun. It's worked on long weekends.

I've had the fridge in the back of my Land Cruiser in the summer all day plugged into the Goal Zero and it still had most of the power left. If you felt brave you could probably go three days with just a 300W jackery and no solar.

 

[Alanymarce]

In what climate?

We run the fridge from the main (only) battery and for 2-3 days in cooler climates there's no need for any additional power source. In hotter climates (40C during the day 30C at night) then this is inadequate. We ran an extra battery on a big trip in a hot climate, really needed a top up capability, and would have been better off with solar panels to keep the battery charged. For cooler climates you may not need anything more than the standard battery, as long as your fridge is efficient.

 

[mtlangst]

Any and all climates. Just got done with a 2.5 wk trip throughout SW so high temps then.

 

[Alanymarce]

Any and all climates. Just got done with a 2.5 wk trip throughout SW so high temps then.

So, yes you probably need to supplement the battery .

You could use solar panels, in which case I'd think about whether you can simply use the panels to keep the main (only) battery charged, which would reduce weight and space compared with adding the "jackery".

Having said this we have a "jackery" at home to have emergency power during power outages and we've been considering hauling it with us on some trips. If so we may simply charge it while travelling, and use it to power the fridge when camped for more than a day or two.

So - you could go with the main battery and solar panels, the main battery and a "jackery". or all three. I'd exhaust the first two options before choosing the last.

 

[mtlangst]

I am a little nervous using my main battery.

 

[ChadHahn]

I am a little nervous using my main battery.

Here's a thread from Expedition Portal about making your own dual battery setup. Read through it because the OP makes improvements as the thread goes along. I have most of the stuff to do this but haven't gotten around to it.

 

[Alanymarce]

I am a little nervous using my main battery.

Hi: as long as the fridge has a "cut out" when it's drained the battery/batteries available you won't end up with a dead battery.

We had three batteries on our LC80. We found that we could run the fridge (ARB) for 1 or 2 days (in hot climates) before the cut out kicked in.

We now have only the main battery, and find that we can run the fridge (now a Dometic) for 1 or 2 days (in hot climates) before it cuts out. I believe that the Dometic is more efficient and so we get the same life with only one battery.

 

[mtlangst]

Thinking a jackery 500 and panels to charge it.

 

[mtlangst]

Here's a thread from Expedition Portal about making your own dual battery setup. Read through it because the OP makes improvements as the thread goes along. I have most of the stuff to do this but haven't gotten around to it.

Thanks, i will read through this thread.

 

[Alanymarce]

...and we've spent anything up to 5 days completely remote, with only the single battery, and with no worries about draining the battery.

 

[mtlangst]

...and we've spent anything up to 5 days completely remote, with only the single battery, and with no worries about draining the battery.

Thanks. I can always try it and see how it works for us before complicating things. We typically drive daily on these long trips exploring national parks, etc... so the battery would recharge daily while driving.

 

[Alanymarce]

Thinking a jackery 500 and panels to charge it.

I appreciate your thinking; my point of view is that you then end up with more weight, and need more space.

 

[Alanymarce]

Thanks. I can always try it and see how it works for us before complicating things. We typically drive daily on these long trips exploring national parks, etc... so the battery would recharge daily while driving.

Yes - we're the same. It's very rare that we don't even start the engine for more than a day - either a game drive, a short drive to a canyone we're going to walk, whatever. In these conditions we have no problem keeping the fridge running all of the time with only the one battery. People who set up camp for a few days and don't move from the spot do need more though.

 

[Alanymarce]

We were talking yesterday (again) about this and may end up getting a solar array for the odd occasion when we're camped for more than a couple of days, or we'll take the "jackery" and charge it again once on the road, but the way we travel we don't need all three sources.

 

[DRAX]

I am a little nervous using my main battery.

And with good reasons, don't want to be left stranded, don't want to use your starter battery as a deep cycle and shorten its life, etc.

How many Wh the fridge will use depends on a number of factors; Outside temp, fridge set temp, how full the fridge is, if the fridge is in the shade or direct sunlight, etc. All of those will affect the duty cycle and how much energy will be needed to keep it going.

But, let's say it's operating at a 50% duty cycle. That's 30Wh. A Jackery 300 has a 293Wh battery but you won't get 100% efficiency, so let's say 90% or 263Wh. 263 / 30 = 8.7 hours before the Jackery 300 is dead with no input. A Jackery 1000 at 1002Wh and 90% efficiency would result in 902 / 30 = 30 hours of runtime before it's dead. A 50% duty cycle isn't unheard of in the middle of a hot summer and I'd rather have too much battery than too little.

I have a 120w Bluetti solar panel and even if the shade with little direct sunlight it's still able to put out around 30w. Even that little amount of solar for 8 hours per day would extend the time until dead to 45 hours assuming it never sees direct sunlight. If you can get 90W for 8 hours that's 720Wh and 30W for 24 hours is...720Wh. With the perfect conditions and starting with enough capacity you could run indefinitely with that. 90+W for 8 hours would require babysitting and direct sunlight for the entire time, though. My 120W Bluetti panel puts out just over 100W in direct sunlight.

Once you have an idea of your power consumption over time and how much power can be used to recharge and for how long you'll get a better idea of what you need to reliably supply power over the course of a trip. If you're nearly depleting a battery every day then that battery isn't going to last, either. Battery cycle count is full battery cycles, so partial discharges take multiple to add up to one full cycle, so the less exercise the battery sees the longer it will last.

Hope this helps!

 

[4xRalph]

I just purchased my Dometic CFX3 35. Along these lines I have been reading about not tilting the fridge, keep it level etc if not the compressor will go bad. When we travel and have the fridge plug to the 12V outlet on a road trip, stopping and going (not in traffic) but gas, bathroom breaks etc will turning the engine on and off (cutting power) will ruin the life of the compressor?

 

[MOAK]

To the OP, Mark, I highly recommend a dual battery system. For the price of a Jackery 500 you can get a 65 or 70ah AGM deep cycle battery, all the simplistic wiring and fuses, along with a 120 watt solar panel and cheapo controller. Add a solar set up to the jackery and your topping 700 bucks. A dual battery system is all built in and just as dependable as you are because you installed a manual isolator. We run a 60 +/- qt ARB fridge, an Engle 45 freezer, 200 watts of solar feeding dual batteries and have never come close to draining them. Our ARB has never drawn more than 2/10ths of a volt overnight. The freezer draws roughly 3/10ths volt. Then there are always camera batteries to be charged & water pumps to run which is minimal. I’ve never seen my voltage at less than 12.2 volts next morning and they quickly return to 12.8 or 12.9 with the sun.

 

[MOAK]

I just purchased my Dometic CFX3 35. Along these lines I have been reading about not tilting the fridge, keep it level etc if not the compressor will go bad. When we travel and have the fridge plug to the 12V outlet on a road trip, stopping and going (not in traffic) but gas, bathroom breaks etc will turning the engine on and off (cutting power) will ruin the life of the compressor?

Ouch, our ARB and our ENGLE are just fine at a 30 degree tilt. Dometic says flat and level only? Just my un-informed opinion but the fridge should not be on an ignition circuit for a plethora of reasons.