Official FRIDGE Thread (2 Viewers)

[franklin40]

i’ll have to sort that out yet. i have a 12v outlet dedicated to a fridge/cooler in the back of my truck but will need to make sure thats up to snuff. i also have a small generator i haul to use when not in serviced sites. i do a mix of road trip campground camping all the way to full off grid

 

[Corbet]

i’ll have to sort that out yet. i have a 12v outlet dedicated to a fridge/cooler in the back of my truck but will need to make sure thats up to snuff. i also have a small generator i haul to use when not in serviced sites. i do a mix of road trip campground camping all the way to full off grid

I ended up switching over to Anderson connectors at both ends of my NL fridge. I was having power supply issues with the standard 12v automotive socket thing and the NL was tripping the voltage protection then powering down. The Hella connector sucks in some American auto sockets.

 

[joltman]

I'm using the official cord without a power end (only has the proprietary fridge power end) and I out Power poles on it. Been solid and working great! Check out my build thread for photos.

 

[franklin40]

i’ll have the standard 12v power outlet to start with. i’ll see how it does. if it has troubles then i’ll look at the anderson style plugs. they seem to be popular for fridges form the reading i’ve done so far

 

[GeoRoss]

I have the ARB 47qt and love it. I had some second battery charging issues on a recent trip to SW Colorado. Over that week it took to get sorted it used about 50Ah over 7 full days set to 42ºF. Day time temps were cool except for the three days in Durango.

 

[mtnbiker4evr13]

I'm still rocking an 08' era 43qt Edgestar 43qt. Gets tossed between vehicles and rattled all over the east coast.

 

[franklin40]

picked up the national luna 90 on route for a three week road trip. it worked awesome for 9 days then the compressor died. that made me sad as i had to go back to using ice to keep things cool. touched base with the distributor and after him contacting south africa then gave me a whole new unit on my way back through towards home. really great customer support. he said in all his years of selling them he’s had two go bad including mine. im still super happy with it. the 90 has way more capacity then i actually expected when i first saw it. it doesn’t look that big but holds quite a lot of stuff!! it cools well and is super quiet. i’m still happy i bought it. now i have to figure out an off grid power source that’s not a noisy generator (ie solar!). for now it ran just fine of the standard 12v plug so i’ll leave that for now and focus on a battery system for it

 

[joltman]

picked up the national luna 90 on route for a three week road trip. it worked awesome for 9 days then the compressor died. that made me sad as i had to go back to using ice to keep things cool. touched base with the distributor and after him contacting south africa then gave me a whole new unit on my way back through towards home. really great customer support. he said in all his years of selling them he’s had two go bad including mine. is still super happy with it. the 90 has way more capacity then i actually expected when i first saw it. it doesn’t look that big but holds quite a lot of stuff!! it cools well and is super quiet. i’m still happy i bought it. now i have to figure out an off grid power source that’s not a noisy generator (ie solar!). for now it ran just fine of the standard 12v plug so i’ll leave that for now and focus on a battery system for it

It sounds like your experience with the fridge is an outlier. I know this doesn't help, but I've had mine living in my truck full time powered for just over a year and it's been flawless.

As to your power solution, I've been very happy with my 100Ah LiFePO4 battery setup. Only wish I could fit a larger capacity battery in there! Running two CPAPs overnight and the fridge would drain the battery for sure. Oh, and I would have liked the internal room to fit a 400W portable solar panel. I could only fit the 220W Renogy.

 

[franklin40]

in my short researching i saw the renogy panels. have you liked it (other than not being as big as you’d like?). i have a lot of leaning to do about what ill want as a power set up. i understand the basics of solar from a permanent set up ive had at a cabin. now i need to now figure out components for the 12v part of it and then decide how i want to proceed as a whole camping system.

 

[Corbet]

I would suggest an EcoFlow power station to power it at a cabin. I use one as an emergency back up at home for my Starlink as we loose power often and we relay on wifi to place phone calls as well as we have no land line. I also run a smaller unit in my LC250 to power my fridge the. Recharge the batter with the stock inverter. Both batteries have worked great.

 

[franklin40]

sorry that might have been confusing. i mean im not totally new to solar as ive used it as an off grid power source along with a generator for power as the cabin/batteries would freeze until we’d warm it up for a weeks use mid winder. unfortunately we lost the cabin in a forest fire this spring so will be re engendering a system that’ll keep the batteries warm all winter so we can still use it. our winter days are quite short though so we may not be enough to charge them effectively so we’ll still have a generator back up.

as for this fridge it’s going to be used as an in vehicle/trailer cooling source exclusively. i don’t need it at the cabin. i just need to figure out what components i need to allow it to charge a battery off my vehicles 12v as well as be solar compatible for when i’m not driving. i have loads to learn about options for that!!

 

[Corbet]

OK, for reference I’ve been good using an 80watt panel on my 80-series and a 200watt panel on my trailer with proper charge controllers all sourced from Renogy. The trailers charge controller his hard wired on the main electronics board. With my 80 I just leave it sitting on the ground between the panel and battery at some point I’ll probably hard wire it into the truck so I can just plug in the panel but for now it’s on alligator clips attached to the battery posts. I’m considering mounting a panel to the top of a new RTT and that would motivate me to complete the wiring on the 80. As that vehicle sits between trips it would make for a great trickle charger as well.

The only thing that will definitely overpower the 80watt panel is bumping the stereo for long periods in camp. The sub is power hungry for sure.

You can see the trailer set up in my trailer link below. I don’t think I posted anything for the smaller panel.

 

[Tennessee Jed]

I have a 45 qt Whynter with a 100ah LiFePO4 battery and 200 watts of solar - pretty standard system that works perfectly. I swapped over to the metal "bullet lead" type connectors which have been perfectly secure. I keep saying when it dies I'll get an Engel, but I can't kill it. It gets used pretty hard. They're among the most economical fridges available, and I got it on a scratch and dent sale for $250. I'm sure it uses more power than an Engel, but so far it's been perfect after 5 years.

 

[joltman]

I built my own "house" electrical system for the truck. I detailed it in my build thread. I used a Blue Sea Safety Hub 150/300A switch/MRBF fuse holders with fuses/12 slot ATO fuse block, Slee Accessory Mount, Victron charging components, and custom length battery cables with copper lugs crimped with hydraulic crimpers , and Anderson connectors. I chose Victron because of their good reputation in the maritime community. I could have used Redarc, but the price difference was negligible and I like separate components versus something integrated. Plus I can mix and match the best components should the need arise.

The system has been rock solid. Everything has stayed tight after over a year of daily driving, road trips, and the occasional camping trip. Highly recommended.