Fridge Nerds - help me answer a few basic questions :)

[Carolinapanic]

I'm starting to build out my LC200 and just ordered an ICECO and an Ecoflow Delta battery pack. I don't know a ton about electrical and was surprised to find I can't actually use the 120V/100W outlet in the back to keep the ecoflow topped off while it's passing through power to the ICECO fridge.

I had assumed I could go in the app and lower the charging speed/draw to the 100W labeled on the outlet, but the minimum allowed in the app is 200. Because of this, the battery pack just clicks and never starts charging.

While I know I could use the 12V cig outlet in the second row, I don't wanna run a wire across the vehicle and I couldn't if I wanted too because it a proprietary cable and it's not long enough.

Im assuming my options are:

Option a:
Buy some sort of DC converter to plug into the AC outlet in the back. This setup would be AC outlet > converter > battery pack > fridge

Option b:
See if there's another battery pack (Anker?) that can pull power from the outlet. Maybe this works and I'm assuming someone on Mud has already figured this out?

Option A is kinda janky, as it just creates more cables than should be necessary

Would love to see what solutions you guys use.

Thanks!

 

[WreckDiver1321]

It wouldn't be difficult to add an outlet for the fridge/battery bank, honestly, depending on which side you're putting the fridge. You can get a two-wire 10AWG wire, some ring terminals to connect to the battery, and a surface mount cig outlet/Anderson plug/ARB fridge plug wherever you want it. Pulling the trim to hide the wire is really simple.

 

[Sandroad]

Can you use the outlet to run the fridge directly? I can with my Dometic fridge. Also, with my Ecoflow, the DC input cord is not proprietary, it’s just a short version of a type otherwise available longer. You still won’t get much power from a DC outlet to both charge an Ecoflow and run a fridge. And that includes your idea of running a converter off the rear outlet. Best to get a dedicated power outlet back there with the watts you need. See @WreckDiver1321 post.

 

[Carolinapanic]

Can you use the outlet to run the fridge directly? I can with my Dometic fridge. Also, with my Ecoflow, the DC input cord is not proprietary, it’s just a short version of a type otherwise available longer. You still won’t get much power from a DC outlet to both charge an Ecoflow and run a fridge. And that includes your idea of running a converter off the rear outlet. Best to get a dedicated power outlet back there with the watts you need. See @WreckDiver1321 post.

Fridge can run directly off the outlet no problem. But then you'd be unplugging from the outlet and plugging into the battery every time you pull into camp and shut the vehicle off. Was assuming with the right configuration/ cables, when the car shuts off, the battery takes over, and I never have to manually manage where power is coming from.

 

[bloc]

I’d suggest doing some research on the underlying science of voltage and current, and their relationship to wattage.

Technically a 12v plug to the center row will charge the EcoFlow but it will do so very slowly.. basically it’ll be useless.

You need a scenario where the battery has enough time to charge at a given wattage to replenish itself for whatever time the fridge spends plugged in to it drawing it down. Some people spend a lot of time at camp with the vehicle not running, so solar is a good option. Others (like me) tend to spend a lot of their day driving so charging off the vehicle is enough to keep the battery full enough.

And keep in mind a 15A fused circuit can’t be run constantly at 15A.. that’s why the EcoFlow will only draw 9A off those cigarette lighter plugs.

All of this is why most people trying to properly set this stuff up run a comparatively expensive DC/DC charger on dedicated wiring or get the EcoFlow alternator charger. Wanting to keep accessories outside the vehicle compartment due to how I pack things for travel, the latter is what I opted for.

As for why the 100w AC outlet in back was useless… if you saw how small the (12v!) wiring going to it was, you’d understand. That thing is intended for charging cell phones, not 30# battery banks.

 

[kcjaz]

I run an EcoFlow Delta 2 and an EcoFlow Glacier fridge. I use the alt charger to charge the Delta 2 and find that 250w input to the Delta 2 works great to keep the fridge running and its battery topped off as well as recharging the Delta as long as I drive a couple hours each day. The other reason I run the charger at 250w is that it’s about 20 amps and that shouldn’t burden the alternator too much. (The alt charger is capable of 800w but that’s too much (IMO) to ask of the stock alternator for extended periods.

I also know that I can camp pretty much indefinitely with my 200w solar panel. I never get 200w of course but sometimes may be 150w. The fridge draws about 100w max when the compressor is running but that’s only a fraction of the time depending on ambient temp.

My point in all of this you need about 100w to run a fridge (at least my fridge) and keep the Delta 2 charged enough to run it over night.

I also run an EcoFlow River to power Starlink and I charge the River with the cigarette lighter charger. The max input I get is about 80w. That’s ok for the Starlink but would be pretty marginal for the fridge.

IMO, a dc/dc charger is really the only good way to go.

 

[Julian73]

You are best to run a dedicated 10 AWG positive ware back to the lkoaction of your fridge and run a a 10AWG ground to a chassis point near.

While the fridge will run on 120VAC it is very very inefficient as first you must convert 12VDC to 120VAC with about an 85% efficiency rate, then the fridge take the 120 and converts it back to 12 VDC again with an efficiency loss of x . even if the efficiency =is 90% you are now looking at a 76% rate overall so 8,9 amps required is drawing 11.6 from your battery.

View attachment 4150694

 

[Carolinapanic]

You are best to run a dedicated 10 AWG positive ware back to the lkoaction of your fridge and run a a 10AWG ground to a chassis point near.

While the fridge will run on 120VAC it is very very inefficient as first you must convert 12VDC to 120VAC with about an 85% efficiency rate, then the fridge take the 120 and converts it back to 12 VDC again with an efficiency loss of x . even if the efficiency =is 90% you are now looking at a 76% rate overall so 8,9 amps required is drawing 11.6 from your battery.

Fascinating - thanks for the schooling

 

[kcjaz]

You are best to run a dedicated 10 AWG positive ware back to the lkoaction of your fridge and run a a 10AWG ground to a chassis point near.

While the fridge will run on 120VAC it is very very inefficient as first you must convert 12VDC to 120VAC with about an 85% efficiency rate, then the fridge take the 120 and converts it back to 12 VDC again with an efficiency loss of x . even if the efficiency =is 90% you are now looking at a 76% rate overall so 8,9 amps required is drawing 11.6 from your battery.

View attachment 4150694

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Where did you get that flexible cable track thingy? I suspend my heavy charger cable from the alt charger to my EcoFlow battery with a bungee cord. Works but a bit lame.

 

[kcjaz]

Not sure what thread to post this, but it is related to my EcoFlow fridge. I run the fridge from my EcoFlow delta 2 battery via the cigarette barrel plug to the X60 plug on the fridge. I also charge a small EcoFlow river battery the same way from the rear seat cigarette lighter plug.

Both chords seem to be getting hot. The one I use to charge the river is worse.

I have noticed at times I can hear barrel plugs sizzle when they’re not seated. I really hate those things. I wish these batteries would come with the marine style ones that lock in. I am a bit surprised that the X 60 plugs show signs of heat stress as they are supposed to be rated for something like 500 watts. They apparently use something cheaper in the cable that’s used with the barrel plugs is that’s typically just 100

in the short term. I’m replacing these cables but ultimately I need to find a better way the new Delta 3 max plus has a 30 amp DC output Anderson connectors. I think I’m gonna upgrade to that and use some kind of DC distribution box and avoid these barrel connectors altogether.

 

[CharlieS]

Run dedicated power lines from your battery (properly fused or a circuit breaker), and feed the fridge 12v. It isn't hard to do.

I have two Bluesea panels in my cargo area, each circuit individually fused through a Bluesea six fuse box, and a circuit breaker on the positive wire from the battery. I have a mix of cigar plug, powerlet, and usb plugs. I grounded to the chassis ground in the D pillar.

I have a National Luna fridge with a powerlet plug and makes a secure connection with no arcing or other issues.

 

[clrussell]

Recently just bought an eco flow river to power a small fridge and starlink mini.

Interesting to know it won’t charge off the 100w inverter in the rear of the 200. I have had my jackery like this for year with zero issue. In fact it handles my fridge perfectly for whatever I want as long as I run the vehicle enough or set out solar.

I guess I’ll have to plug it ( the eco flow) in and see what happens.

 

[steelsparky]

Recently just bought an eco flow river to power a small fridge and starlink mini.

Interesting to know it won’t charge off the 100w inverter in the rear of the 200. I have had my jackery like this for year with zero issue. In fact it handles my fridge perfectly for whatever I want as long as I run the vehicle enough or set out solar.

I guess I’ll have to plug it ( the eco flow) in and see what happens.

If it’s like my Bluetti (straight 120V plug, no power brick), it won’t charge from the 100W rear inverter in the 200. The AC charger wants around 400W from a wall outlet, so the factory inverter doesn’t have enough headroom and will just trip.

I use a 10-ft XT60 extension + cigarette adapter from the front socket instead and get about 95W DC into the Bluetti. That’s plenty for the fridge plus a few accessories as I try to maintain 100% until I get to where I'm going. I do plug the Starlink Mini into the rear 100W outlet, it only draws 50-60W so it runs fine.

 

[Dozer18]

Run dedicated power lines from your battery (properly fused or a circuit breaker), and feed the fridge 12v. It isn't hard to do.

I have two Bluesea panels in my cargo area, each circuit individually fused through a Bluesea six fuse box, and a circuit breaker on the positive wire from the battery. I have a mix of cigar plug, powerlet, and usb plugs. I grounded to the chassis ground in the D pillar.

I have a National Luna fridge with a powerlet plug and makes a secure connection with no arcing or other issues.

This is the way.

In both my 60 and 100 I ran an older ARB fridge hard-wired to the battery. It's not difficult at all to cleanly run a wire directly from the battery to the fridge power point (the ARB had a power point that you would wire to, then plug the fridge into the power point). Yes, in this setup you're drawing power directly from the starting battery even when stationary, but the fridges these days are hella efficient and you won't kill your battery over a weekend. That said, I would recommend a more robust battery like an Odyssey.

As someone else mentioned you can supplement this with solar (there are adapters that will keep your sole battery topped up using a small solar panel - again, plenty for a weekend) but I never felt I really needed it.

In my 100 I ended up building out a second battery system where I had an Odyssey house battery running through a Blue Sea breaker and distribution system that ultimately fed the fridge, an inverter, and other components, but it was overkill. I've got a thread on that system in here somewhere.

 

[TeCKis300]

Not sure what thread to post this, but it is related to my EcoFlow fridge. I run the fridge from my EcoFlow delta 2 battery via the cigarette barrel plug to the X60 plug on the fridge. I also charge a small EcoFlow river battery the same way from the rear seat cigarette lighter plug.

Both chords seem to be getting hot. The one I use to charge the river is worse.
View attachment 4199943

I have noticed at times I can hear barrel plugs sizzle when they’re not seated. I really hate those things. I wish these batteries would come with the marine style ones that lock in. I am a bit surprised that the X 60 plugs show signs of heat stress as they are supposed to be rated for something like 500 watts. They apparently use something cheaper in the cable that’s used with the barrel plugs is that’s typically just 100

in the short term. I’m replacing these cables but ultimately I need to find a better way the new Delta 3 max plus has a 30 amp DC output Anderson connectors. I think I’m gonna upgrade to that and use some kind of DC distribution box and avoid these barrel connectors altogether.

Off-road, to your point, non-locking plugs are really problematic as they work their way lose and create lots of resistance. That's partially your challenge - resistance creates voltage drop, which causes much more current draw that overheats plugs and wires.

I would try to solve that first, removing barrel plugs and cigarette lighters where possible. So much of my stuff is converted to Andersons as they have more positive engagement.

I'm not as familiar with EcoFlows but you may want to look into whether the input keys off of the 3rd pin of the XT60I cable. Depending on your setup, it may be telling the EcoFlow to draw 15A. Try a XT60 cable (without the "I", 3rd pin), which typically has the batteries fall back to a safer 8A draw.

 

[Dozer18]

Off-road, to your point, non-locking plugs are really problematic as they work their way lose and create lots of resistance. That's partially your challenge - resistance creates voltage drop, which causes much more current draw that overheats plugs and wires.

I would try to solve that first, removing barrel plugs and cigarette lighters where possible. So much of my stuff is converted to Andersons as they have more positive engagement.

I'm not as familiar with EcoFlows but you may want to look into whether the input keys off of the 3rd pin of the XT60I cable. Depending on your setup, it may be telling the EcoFlow to draw 15A. Try a XT60 cable (without the "I", 3rd pin), which typically has the batteries fall back to a safer 8A draw.

Anderson plugs are awesome - that's what I used in my 100. Odyssey house battery -> Blue Sea circuit breaker/kill switch -> Blue Sea distribution panel -> Anderson female -> to ARB fridge via Anderson male.

 

[sdnative]

I picked up one of the Anker C100X DC at Costco last year when they were on sale. I use a cig plug / XT60 (not XT60i) cable from Amazon to charge it from my vehicle and plug the fridge into the cig plug on the Anker. Works great to keep the fridge running. Not a lot of capacity (288Wh), but it will keep my ARB fridge running for at least a night, possibly two depending on conditions. It then recharges in a couple hours while driving (charges at around 94Wh, fridge uses around 10-20Wh depending on conditions).

Obviously, this wont work if you are staying at the same place for several days (unless you have solar), but it is great if you are moving day to day.

Bonus it can charge phones and other devices and can be completely removed after the trip.

It also fits perfectly and is retained by laying on its back on the 2nd row step between the seat and the door.

 

[kcjaz]

I'm not as familiar with EcoFlows but you may want to look into whether the input keys off of the 3rd pin of the XT60I cable. Depending on your setup, it may be telling the EcoFlow to draw 15A. Try a XT60 cable (without the "I", 3rd pin), which typically has the batteries fall back to a safer 8A draw.

I did notice that the Exoflow cables use XT60i plugs with the metal pin in the middle. That 3rd pin tells the battery to accept higher voltage, normally from a solar panel. So maybe that could cause higher current draw too at times, though the fridge never draws more than 103w and the River runs at about 85w off the cigarette lighter plug. That should ok amp wise. The replacement plug I bought is just X60 so we will see if that lasts longer. I’m pretty sure my issue is plugs just vibrating loose. I can eliminate the cigarette plugs but the only way to charge/power the fridge is through an XT60 plug.

 

[TeCKis300]

I did notice that the Exoflow cables use XT60i plugs with the metal pin in the middle. That 3rd pin tells the battery to accept higher voltage, normally from a solar panel. So maybe that could cause higher current draw too at times, though the fridge never draws more than 103w and the River runs at about 85w off the cigarette lighter plug. That should ok amp wise. The replacement plug I bought is just X60 so we will see if that lasts longer. I’m pretty sure my issue is plugs just vibrating loose. I can eliminate the cigarette plugs but the only way to charge/power the fridge is through an XT60 plug.

Yeah agreed. It's probably the cigarette plug that's causing the issue. XT60/XT60i plugs should be solid as they are used in high vibration environments with R/C cars. Just make sure there's not too long of a wire section/weight pulling on the plug.

 

[lembowski]

Where did you get that flexible cable track thingy? I suspend my heavy charger cable from the alt charger to my EcoFlow battery with a bungee cord. Works but a bit lame.

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