Can you take a regular fridge offroad?

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e9999 said:
I do realize this would likely be utterly impractical, but eh, that never stopped me from trying something out and having fun with it while learning a bit too...
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Well can we all join in on the fun?

After you finish with the functional testing, you need to do some durability testing. Seek out a freebie shaking device... something like those thing-a-ma-jigs that shake up paint at Lowes. Strap your free 110v dorm fridge to that thing, load in a couple of 12 packs of cerveza, drop the temp to 36*, and let it run for a few days and see if everything is still working and the door is still on and no leaks. Then tilt the thing-a-ma-jig 30* or so and shake the free dorm fridge for a few more days. Then tilt it the other way and shake some more.

Please post your results in the form of a poll of some kind. :D

-B-
 
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Beowulf said:
Well can we all join in on the fun?

After you finish with the functional testing, you need to do some durability testing. Seek out a freebie shaking device... something like those thing-a-ma-jigs that shake up paint at Lowes. Strap your free 110v dorm fridge to that thing, load in a couple of 12 packs of cerveza, drop the temp to 36*, and let it run for a few days and see if everything is still working and the door is still on and no leaks. Then tilt the thing-a-ma-jig 30* or so and shake the free dorm fridge for a few more days. Then tilt it the other way and shake some more.

Please post your results in the form of a poll of some kind. :D

-B-
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Friggin Killjoy !!!!!!...........................lol
 
I have a small fridge and actually thought about doing this exact same thing but only on road trips, not offroading. I wouldn't have to worry so much about bouncing around and being at extreme angles.
By your findings, it looks like my 400w inverter would work. :hhmm:
 
I'm pretty sure it should be OK for asphalt and likely graded dirt.

where there could very well be a difference with the purpose-built fridges is in the compressor bushings which may not be forgiving enough in the house stuff, and also perhaps issues of tilting the system (although I'm not sure what that really does).

One thing I'm starting to think is that losing the cold through the door is no biggie temperature wise. The heat capacity of the air inside is so small compared to that of the food that I don't think it makes much difference. When I open and close the door I can't see any big difference in the temp of the water inside. It'll make the fridge run a bit more, though. No biggie when moving, maybe more so with engine off.
 
Beowulf said:
Well can we all join in on the fun?

After you finish with the functional testing, you need to do some durability testing. Seek out a freebie shaking device... something like those thing-a-ma-jigs that shake up paint at Lowes. Strap your free 110v dorm fridge to that thing, load in a couple of 12 packs of cerveza, drop the temp to 36*, and let it run for a few days and see if everything is still working and the door is still on and no leaks. Then tilt the thing-a-ma-jig 30* or so and shake the free dorm fridge for a few more days. Then tilt it the other way and shake some more.

Please post your results in the form of a poll of some kind. :D

-B-
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now, now, Beo, why would I rig up a thing a majig device when I can just take the fridge off a rough trail, eh? What kind of couch tester / wheeler are you? :)
 
You seem to have a handle on it electricly however does it have a start or run capacitor?.......that could take some strain off the batterys.


The same rules apply to a compressor as a motor however the comp. does not have a baffle like a engine. Will it work? Yes it will but the life of the comp. might be short lived. I say run it:D. When you are on the trails.......listen to it.......it will let you know if therer is a strain. You could add a thermister to cut it off in a event the compressor gets to hot.....sorry my spelling is horrible today I am in a rush
 
cruiser88 said:
You seem to have a handle on it electricly however does it have a start or run capacitor?.......that could take some strain off the batterys.


The same rules apply to a compressor as a motor however the comp. does not have a baffle like a engine. Will it work? Yes it will but the life of the comp. might be short lived. I say run it:D. When you are on the trails.......listen to it.......it will let you know if therer is a strain. You could add a thermister to cut it off in a event the compressor gets to hot.....sorry my spelling is horrible today I am in a rush
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not that I understood everything above, but how do I tell if it has this capacitor you mentioned? There is some sort of roundish appendage to the motor connectors that could be that.

There seems to be some sort of device to prevent turning the motor back on right away after it has shut down. Not sure how that's done.

Even inside, when running, that compressor does get hot. Outside surface temps in the (from memory, I'll check) 130 or 150F range? Quite hot to the touch.
 
Well it will get quite hot......it needs too.... but that temp is acceptable. Yes it appears you have a start capacitor :). Even if you had failure you can find a compresser at a salvage yard and install it yourself:grinpimp:
e9999 said:
not that I understood everything above, but how do I tell if it has this capacitor you mentioned? There is some sort of roundish appendage to the motor connectors that could be that.

There seems to be some sort of device to prevent turning the motor back on right away after it has shut down. Not sure how that's done.

Even inside, when running, that compressor does get hot. Outside surface temps in the (from memory, I'll check) 130 or 150F range? Quite hot to the touch.
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that cap is used to cut down the startup spike, I take it?
 
OK, bad news....


After very elaborate thermal tests over several days, I finally did what I should have done right away... :doh: :o

I put it on a converter. It's a 400W load / 800 W peak one. I thought that should be plenty not to mention it's the only one I have.

Well, the converter went crazy immediately, gave me some fault red light and a shrieky alarm and the compressor didn't start. No obvious explanation for the alarm in the manual. Input voltage was fine apparently although the battery was a small one. It may be that the compressor would not start either because the converter shut down due to overload somehow or the compressor motor could not handle the quasi-sine wave. I vaguely remember some stuff about non-resistive loads upon startup and how you have to do some shenanigans to start motors because of that. Maybe the converter just can't take all this.

Anybody?

Bummer.... Unfortunately, I was half expecting something like this with startup load issues. Hate to be half-right this time...
 
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:confused:

"half-right"???
 
e9999 said:
Input voltage was fine apparently although the battery was a small one.
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I had a small DC/AC converter and needed to run a device with a small AC electric motor. Even when the battery was in excellent condition and had a charge, the device would not run unless the engine was running and the alternator was charging the battery.

-B-
 
Beowulf said:
I had a small DC/AC converter and needed to run a device with a small AC electric motor. Even when the battery was in excellent condition and had a charge, the device would not run unless the engine was running and the alternator was charging the battery.

-B-
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unfortunately, that part of my EE classes about motors is one I mentally blocked. I just remember some nightmare about what you have to do to get a motor started, futzing around with reluctance or cascading subloads or other such thing.

I will however try again with a large battery, maybe while being charged.

Any real EE out here?
 
Oh, crud! more bad news. :frown:

So I jacked up the voltage on the little jumper battery I was using by charging it fully. The converter didn't give me the alarm any more but the overload protection on the battery was kicking in.

So, I thought, well if the overload protection shuts down the little battery, I'll just get a big one with no protection to see. Which I did. Now the compressor was trying to engage but not really going and the converter was showing no alarm. Voltage looked good. So I let it crank a bit longer to see what would happen. Nothing much. The compressor would not go, not enough power (or the wrong kind of wave form) coming out of the converter. Then I decided I'd put my wattmeter in series with the converter to see how much I was drawing. Which is when there was a loud pop and big spark in the converter and a rectifier blew up without the fuse going.... So now I'm out the converter until I can fix that. Sheesh.... No idea why this wattmeter (a big affair) caused this. Must have sucked even more power.

And yet more evidence that even a little fridge like that will draw a serious amount of power on startup... And that using a converter like I did is potentially problematic. So don't unless it's a real big one. Dang electric motors...!
 
If you put a capacitor inline this should gather some charge to help compensate for the start up draw. Our heat pump would make the lights flash for close to an hour at times here at our home. When the repair guy came out he put in a "booster" (which was a large capacitor) and now there is no excessive draw during start up.... should be the same with any type of compressor I should think.
 
e9999 said:
Oh, crud! more bad news. :frown:

So I jacked up the voltage on the little jumper battery I was using by charging it fully. The converter didn't give me the alarm any more but the overload protection on the battery was kicking in.

So, I thought, well if the overload protection shuts down the little battery, I'll just get a big one with no protection to see. Which I did. Now the compressor was trying to engage but not really going and the converter was showing no alarm. Voltage looked good. So I let it crank a bit longer to see what would happen. Nothing much. The compressor would not go, not enough power (or the wrong kind of wave form) coming out of the converter. Then I decided I'd put my wattmeter in series with the converter to see how much I was drawing. Which is when there was a loud pop and big spark in the converter and a rectifier blew up without the fuse going.... So now I'm out the converter until I can fix that. Sheesh.... No idea why this wattmeter (a big affair) caused this. Must have sucked even more power.

And yet more evidence that even a little fridge like that will draw a serious amount of power on startup... And that using a converter like I did is potentially problematic. So don't unless it's a real big one. Dang electric motors...!
Click to expand...

You got my curiosity up so I plugged my 400w inverter into the 12v plug in the wife's 80 series. I wired it in last year with a 15amp fuse.

As soon as I plugged the fridge into the inverter, it did a half beep, and blew the 15amp fuse. :doh:

I gave up at that point not wanting to blow up the inverter. :D

At least you now know that since mine did the same thing, it's not problem with your inverter or fridge. :cheers:
 
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