Club 80-90 Forums

Trying to find a way of running the fridge on elec when out and about.
I have a leisure battery with a split charger that works fine and have just wired a 19watt solar panel with regulator to help charge the batt when parked up.
Gave it a try, took van to work parked up switched fridge on and left till lunch!
On return flat leisure batt, switched fridge off and by home time batt back in the green.

Is their anyway to run fridge for 4 or 5 hours without killing the batt, on not filling the van with batt's or the roof with solar panels?

pete

The fridge is a three way, but I dont like gas being left on when away from the van for a long time (also dont think it works).

pete

pretty much (as you have already found out) - no. A 3 way fridge is about 100 Watts, which is about 8-10 Amps @ 12 volts. So 5 hours will deplete your leisure battery by about 50 AmpHours. Bearing in mind that you are unlikely to get a 50% charge into your battery while driving you will need a 110AHr battery - and then it will be flat. As you can see, a 19W solar panel is not going to make a great deal of differnce if you have < 100AHr of battery.

If a fridge that can run on gas is installed and maintained properly it will not be a problem. Fridges demand 8 amps so batteries will always have limitations - some kind of timer to switch it on and off will not help cos the the coolant has to be flowing for it to work.
The gas flame is tiny and if it blows out (virtually impossible if installed correctly) then the thermocouple shuts the gas off anyway.
We run on gas for a week if we have to...

And they do work on gas -really well actually - we can make ice if we want. We have a remote sensor thermometer inside the fridge which often shows minus 1 or 2 first thing in the morning after the door hasn't been opened for 8 hours.

Fridges draw a lot of current Pete and theres your major problem. Its been mentioned before this one. Battery is only any good if you're driving and even then its not as good as gas (so I'm told).

Personally (apart from storing beer) I can't see the point in a fridge. Milk you can buy daily - fresh. I have a 2 way and I'm taking that out in favour of a coolbox as it can double up as storage when its not keeping stuff cool.

Try this experiment and see if you get the same result as me, put 4 one litre plastic bottles which have been pre frozen at home, in the door of your fridge, run fridge on 12 volts untill you get to your destination. Turn off the 12volts, come back 4 or 5 hours later and the bottles will still be as frozen as when you left, this is because the door hasn't been opened allowing the cold air to escape and that the insulation on these fridges is a lot better than you think. Pre chill stuff before you put it in and it stays cool for a long time even in this hot weather. Providing you don't keep opening the door.

In effect a cool box then

These days you can buy ice blocks from £1 shops and if well packed, a coolbox can stay cool for at least a day or so. I managed to pick up such a cool box as part of a Type2 westfalia unit.

I'm inclined to think that the small portable fridge units in Walmart type places (around £30 I think) that plug into the cigarette lighter are all one needs to keep milk cool. I think they can hold quite a few cans by the look of it. Combined with ice packs I'm sure its all one needs.

Of those with vans with fridges I've asked so far, all have said they rarely use the fridge and they do take up space in my view.

shows we all have different needs then. We have just spent 3 days at Silverstone with a packed fridge. The local shops are too far to walk to and if we had left our spot we would have had to queue to get back in, and wouldn't have been so near the gate either.

Happy to stand corrected. Ok, what was in this fridge that needed chilling then?

milk, fruit juice and raw meat.

You have me on the raw meat. Most I can deal with camping is bacon and its eaten before it gets cold:)

Babies are a different matter. Important to keep any milk made in advance chilled.

Has anyone tried one of these small £30 12 volt fridges I mention to see how long they last on a battery compared to the larger more conventional ones? They can't draw as much current as the normal ones.

I have a 12v cool box which I used before I got my 3 way boxes I use now. I can confirm it draws no where near the current that a 3 way running on gas does but it is not really a fridge, just a cooler. In hot weather it will not keep milk never mind meat!! It will run for several days without killing a decent battery though.

I now use a portable 3 way. I pop it outside the van and run it on Gas while camped. The whole thing can be prechilled by plugging it in at home or in the office before going away. It's as good if not better than most fitted fridges I have seen. Even if I use it without the awning the gas rarely blows out.

It is each to their own. If going away in right hot weather I would be tempted to take food that didn't need fridged. Get used to long life milk and Frey Bentos pies and who needs a fridge (obviously you require an oven for the pie!!)

CovKid wrote:

Of those with vans with fridges I've asked so far, all have said they rarely use the fridge and they do take up space in my view.

Depends if you eat fresh food or not i'd guess.... my fridge is my food cupboard as well as drinks cooler .
Bacon, Sauseages, Pork pies,steak, salad, cheese,spreads, fish,chicken, eggs
lollies, milk canned drinks - all i can say is anyone who camps for real in these vans cant do it without a means of keeping food fresh unless you want to trek to the shop everyday, which would be a waste of time and fuel i'd say......

I use my van as a race van for moto x. So when I arrive on site, that's it for the weekend. The fridge is used for the important stuff, milk bacon etc. I also use two large cool boxes for beer and cold drinks and fruit and veg. I pre chill everything and put a few 2ltr bottles of water in the freezer to act as freezer packs in addition to the 20 or so freezer packs I also use. This will usually take me through a weekend without problems, but I've struggled a little this year with the excessive heat. Come Sunday afternoon things not in the fridge are starting to get warm. The fridge is a must for me at least.

Well for once in agreement with both camps. probably why there is no such thing as a std camper,

We go off to out of the way places with no shops etc for days on end and never use sites so have to be as self sufficient as possible, so fridge is a must for milk and meat and fish etc, by prefreezing some stuff 5 days is easy to manage.

Same reason we have a built in oven, baked fish and all sorts and not dependant on the weather for bbq's, the other thing about oven is that part baked bread/ciabattas/croissants keep for months and 5 mins in the oven means fresh bread for the bacon and cheese baguettes (sorry veggies)

That said a mate of mine has an insulated cool box and gets dry ice from leeds market and it does ok for a weekend, !

Horza... Can I ask what 3 way do you have. I had the same idea, to use it out side the van. Got my eye on one in Ebay.... Cheers