Compressor Fridge (2 Viewers)

Snowbird

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Having spent an arm and a leg on trying to get my elderly Electrolux fridge working to my satisfaction and finishing up almost were I started but the thick end of £200 lighter. I have decided to cut my losses and invest in a new fridge.
Have found a cheap supplier but have noticed the compressor fridges have come down in price to what they used to be. There is little difference in the price of them compared with a condenser fridge now, so was thinking that maybe I should go for a compressor type and do away with the gas. Has anyone any thoughts on these or better still someone that's using one.
 

dave newell

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Hi Dave, we have a 100 litre compressor fridge in our camper and it is excellent. You obviously need a stable supply of 12 v power but I believe you have solar panels so you should be ok. Compressor fridges are generally considered to be more efficient than absorption units although they are slightly noisier, we don't find ours excessive though.

D.
 
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Snowbird

Snowbird

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Hi Dave, I have 330 amps of batteries and 150 watts of solar panels. Am thinking that should be enough to run the compressor. I had a small one in the truck and that was left on all the time and never flattened the battery. The compressor fridges are less prone to breakdown due to being slightly off level than the condenser type so am told so that's a bonus. Also I can take advantage of free refrigeration via the solar panels. The fridge am taking out is an Elderly Electrolux RM 4365 which is coming up to 20 years old now,and this model was one of the ones that will only tolerate 3% of tilt. Have had it out and done the upside down trick but to little avail so its coming out permanently now.
According to the spec sheet on the compressor type it draws about 2 amps whilst running so am hoping I can cover that.

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Wildman

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To be honest Dave you will struggle in the UK and I know you have the wind turbine as well. On a dull winters day you will be lucky to generate 1 amp per hour for 8 hours a day, fridge will need 48 amp/hrs on your figures. I know JJ runs a compressor fridge but has 5 solar panels and 3 batteries to do so if I remember correctly. in the summer, mostly no problem even in the UK. spring and autumn you will struggle. I suppose it really depends on how many amp/hrs of battery it really needs to run 24hours a day. On solar alone you would need 8 hours at 6amps to cover your use all day. UK in winter just not going to happen. For the occasional weekend in winter probablly ok.
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thats quite a small one and uses 3.75 amps per hour (average)
 
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I have a large compressor fridge in my self build. I bought this with the intention of touring Europe and it would be fine over there. However over here not so much. I will be looking again at this next year with a view to moving over to a 3 way fridge. I have 3 x 80 watt solar and 500 AH of batteries.
I can go a week before the batteries expire...
 
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To be honest Dave you will struggle in the UK and I know you have the wind turbine as well. On a dull winters day you will be lucky to generate 1 amp per hour for 8 hours a day, fridge will need 48 amp/hrs on your figures. I know JJ runs a compressor fridge but has 5 solar panels and 3 batteries to do so if I remember correctly. in the summer, mostly no problem even in the UK. spring and autumn you will struggle. I suppose it really depends on how many amp/hrs of battery it really needs to run 24hours a day. On solar alone you would need 8 hours at 6amps to cover your use all day. UK in winter just not going to happen. For the occasional weekend in winter probablly ok.
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thats quite a small one and uses 3.75 amps per hour (average)

You wont need 48amp hours a day because the fridge doesn't run continuously, especially in the winter.:thumb:

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Wildman

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You wont need 48amp hours a day because the fridge doesn't run continuously, especially in the winter.:thumb:
untill someone comes up with a 24hr figure that is all we have to go on. and if the small fridge I listed uses 3.75 then 2 amps could well be quoted as an average. Again JJ is the man with the answers when he surfaces again. as he has used one both in the UK and in Portugal.
 

pappajohn

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To be honest Dave you will struggle in the UK and I know you have the wind turbine as well. On a dull winters day you will be lucky to generate 1 amp per hour for 8 hours a day, fridge will need 48 amp/hrs on your figures. I know JJ runs a compressor fridge but has 5 solar panels and 3 batteries to do so if I remember correctly. in the summer, mostly no problem even in the UK. spring and autumn you will struggle. I suppose it really depends on how many amp/hrs of battery it really needs to run 24hours a day. On solar alone you would need 8 hours at 6amps to cover your use all day. UK in winter just not going to happen. For the occasional weekend in winter probablly ok.
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thats quite a small one and uses 3.75 amps per hour (average)
compressor fridge motor only runs around 20 to 30% of each hour Roger so the daily amp/hour figure will be much lower. :thumb:
 

Wildman

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compressor fridge motor only runs around 20 to 30% of each hour Roger so the daily amp/hour figure will be much lower. :thumb:
Fair enough but that then makes the requirement 16 amp hours a day, and 160W will not produce that most winter days either.
more like 8 amp hours a day if you are lucky.

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jonandshell

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You could just go for a drive and charge your batteries!::bigsmile:

It dispenses with the maths and you'll probably see some nice scenery!::bigsmile:
 
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Snowbird

Snowbird

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I have a large compressor fridge in my self build. I bought this with the intention of touring Europe and it would be fine over there. However over here not so much. I will be looking again at this next year with a view to moving over to a 3 way fridge. I have 3 x 80 watt solar and 500 AH of batteries.
I can go a week before the batteries expire...

Hi Gromet, What type of fridge are you running.

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Snowbird

Snowbird

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Hi Dave, we have a 100 litre compressor fridge in our camper and it is excellent. You obviously need a stable supply of 12 v power but I believe you have solar panels so you should be ok. Compressor fridges are generally considered to be more efficient than absorption units although they are slightly noisier, we don't find ours excessive though.

D.

Hi Dave, What type of fridge are you running.
 
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Not quite in the same league as everybody else but I'll throw my example in. Apologies in advance if I get my maths/electrical assumptions wrong:

Waeco RPD40 compressor - manual says average power consumption = 40W
...which would be 3.3A. But I've seen newer Waecos with this consumption figure (40W) and another figure saying this corresponds to about 1.5Ah @ 25 degrees ambient temperature.

Battery is 85Ah, so that should mean flat in about a day @ 3.3A
...but 2/3 days @ 1.5A?

No solar panels.

In my case, with the battery new I could never do 2 days without driving around a bit.....which kind of ties in with Grommet's figures.

Kept trying though, and ended up flattening the thing at several meets (and elsewhere) over the last year, which explains why it's now a knackered 85Ah battery and I've ordered that desulfator to try and revive it while looking around to buy a new one :Doh:

No problem keeping things cold in the Waeco (too cold sometimes)....provided I have power :RollEyes:

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Feb 27, 2011
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Sorry meant to give some figures. At my mothers I had hookup during the day until around 7pm and was able to reconnect sometime around midday.

The battery dropped by around 35-40Ah between those times. The vast majority if not all of it was the fridge.

Solar provides minimal input here as I am surrounded on 3 sides by trees and houses and don't see direct sunlight.

With the laptop going at night and a little heating I can use 120AH over 2 days easily. I never let it go below 150AH though.

It is an excellent and large fridge though:ROFLMAO:
 
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Snowbird

Snowbird

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Many thanks for the input, Am beginning to think its best to go down the 3 way route again. I just thought that a compressor would have been more reliable, but if am going to give myself battery issues its best forgotten. I suppose if anyone is using campsites a lot the compressor makes sense but as I rarely if ever have hookup its not for me.

By the way Niel, hope you go on OK with your desulfator.:thumb:
 

Welsh girl

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Dont know about all the maths but we have a waeco compresser fridge/freezer under the dining table as well as the factory fitted fridge /freezer and we have to empty it and switch it off if we are to last on batteries at a show or rally as it empties the batteries in a day.
We are nearly always on hook up though but if we were to survive on batteries alone 9 we have 2x110 amp batteries and a 80watt solar panel I would have to switch the freezer off permanently.:Smile:

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dave newell

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Hi Dave, ours is an IndelB cruise v100

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It draws about 5 amps when running but even in summer, 25 deg ambient, it only runs for about 20 mins in the hour so 1.6Amp hours per hour or 38.4 AH in 24 hours. My 155 watt solar panel keeps the 330AH battery bank topped up with no problems even at this time of year.

D.
 
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Snowbird

Snowbird

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Reliability vs Flexibility.

Always compromises in these vehicles.

That was the reasoning behind me going for the compressor Brian. They recommend them for boats because of the constant pitching and tossing, so I thought they would be better for a MH replacement. Have never had much luck with condenser fridges as most people have some problem or other with them sooner or later. The original condenser fridge manual says that it should not be run if the vehicle is more than 3% off level and to be honest in my opinion that's not fit for use. How many times do we travel up and down hills of more than 3%???. 12 volt compressor fridges used to be very expensive for a decent size but have now come down to the same price as 3 way so I thought of replacing mine with one now its gone kaput.

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