I am leaving on a trip in less than 2 weeks. I just received a new Dometic (same as Waeco) CF50 to use on the 10 day trip. I have never owned a 12v fridge so I am not sure how they should act.
It arrived with no evidence of damage. All the packaging looked great. I plugged it in to 110v first and set the temperature on 35*. The inside of the unit was about 75*F when I unpackaged it. Within 30 minutes of plugging it in, the temp inside was down to 31*. I left it plugged in over night and the next day and the temp evened out at a steady 35* like I had set it. All is well so far.
Sunday morning, I placed it in the rear of my 2001 LC. Years ago I did the jumper wire trick where all of my power outlets are constant on. I plugged it in to the rear outlet on the drivers side. I am pretty sure I had power because the temperature LED light lit up. When I placed it in the rear of the truck, the temp of the fridge was 35*. A few hours later it was 44*. This doesn't seem right.
I have read and understand about adding a dedicated plug back there for it and running larger wire to that location. I am not asking about that here. That is a future project. According to the manufacturer, the draw is 45w and the outlet says on it that it is rated for 120w. Surely it can run the fridge temporarily while I check out that it is actually functioning on 12v.
I am just wondering if this is normal behavior for this unit? I thought it would be better to cool it down using 110v, then thought it should easily maintain the temp with 12v. Is there any tests I can run to make sure it is actually working on the 12v system?
Any insight would be great.
It arrived with no evidence of damage. All the packaging looked great. I plugged it in to 110v first and set the temperature on 35*. The inside of the unit was about 75*F when I unpackaged it. Within 30 minutes of plugging it in, the temp inside was down to 31*. I left it plugged in over night and the next day and the temp evened out at a steady 35* like I had set it. All is well so far.
Sunday morning, I placed it in the rear of my 2001 LC. Years ago I did the jumper wire trick where all of my power outlets are constant on. I plugged it in to the rear outlet on the drivers side. I am pretty sure I had power because the temperature LED light lit up. When I placed it in the rear of the truck, the temp of the fridge was 35*. A few hours later it was 44*. This doesn't seem right.
I have read and understand about adding a dedicated plug back there for it and running larger wire to that location. I am not asking about that here. That is a future project. According to the manufacturer, the draw is 45w and the outlet says on it that it is rated for 120w. Surely it can run the fridge temporarily while I check out that it is actually functioning on 12v.
I am just wondering if this is normal behavior for this unit? I thought it would be better to cool it down using 110v, then thought it should easily maintain the temp with 12v. Is there any tests I can run to make sure it is actually working on the 12v system?
Any insight would be great.
