Compressor Fridge / 3 way fridge’s

[Nigel L]

Hi all, on the two vehicles that we have owned to date, both have had a 3 way fridge fitted, and to be honest, we find them fantastic.
We are in the process of looking at a new vehicle shortly, and the one that we are thinking about has a compressor fridge.
Now, we very rarely stop on sites, as prefer to find our own, out of the way places, so very rarely use hook up.
My concern is, will this take to much out of the leisure battery. We will have a 100w solar panel topping up the leisure battery, but fear that this will not be enough.
Your thoughts on compressor fridge’s would therefore be much appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[tonyidle]

If you spend time off hook-up you will not keep up unless in a permanently sunny climate and / or have 200ah+ of battery and 250W+ of solar. Search for threads on this topic - there have been a few!

 

[Lenny HB]

Agree 100 watt of solar and one battery would never be enough. as Tony says at least 250 watts of solar but probably twice that for UK use. If you don't want the expense of Li-io batteries Gel's will give a lot more useable power than flooded cells.
Also fit a B2B so you can get the batteries fully charged when driving.

 

[Nigel L]

Agree 100 watt of solar and one battery would never be enough. as Tony says at least 250 watts of solar but probably twice that for UK use. If you don't want the expense of Li-io batteries Gel's will give a lot more useable power than flooded cells.
Also fit a B2B so you can get the batteries fully charged when driving.

Thanks, forgot to say, have never understood anything electrical, so struggle with the terms sometimes!!!
These Li-io batteries Gel’s, what exactly are they? Although more expensive, would they achieve a more realistic set-up? And give us more usage?
Thanks.
PS. They did say that a B2B would be installed to charge whilst driving, but thinking that if we are say 3-4 days in one place without hook up, would a compressor fridge not be a good idea

 

[Lenny HB]

Thanks, forgot to say, have never understood anything electrical, so struggle with the terms sometimes!!!
These Li-io batteries Gel’s, what exactly are they? Although more expensive, would they achieve a more realistic set-up? And give us more usage?
Thanks.

An 80 a/h gel is the same size as a 90 a/h flooded but can discharge to 20% (50% for flooded) so 80a/h gel gives 64a/h of useable power & a flooded 90a/h, 45a/h useable power. Need the correct charger for them.
Li-io 100 a/h cost between £500 to £1000 will give 95a/h of useable power can be charged much faster and about 40-50% of the weight of normal batteries.

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[Blue Knight]

Hi Nigel,

My Globecar PVC has a compressor fridge and after a wee bit of familirsiation with it I concluded that it was the best thing since sliced bread.

It's incredibly efficient, simple to use and very little can go wrong with it when compared to a 3-way system.

That being said, the van was supplied with a single AGM LA95 which IMO is a useless combo for off-grid camping.

I replaced the single AGM with 2 x Yuasa 100Ah L36-EFBs (£120 each) and they are currently supported by 120W of solar which we find to be more than sufficient for off-grid work as long as you drive for a few hours from time to time and you have a reasonable level of sun too. The Yuasa batteries are also capable of charging at 1.5 times that of an AGM @ 14.7v so that makes them quite an efficient unit according to Alan's advice from A&N Caravans (and who am I to argue with such an acclaimed battery expert as he).

I still use the AGM LA95 but that is solely dedicated for supporting the power requirements to the Avtex TV, plus a USB port, a 12v auxiliary socket and a puddle light which I fitted myself on a seperate 'standalone' wiring circuit. This means that I have a 3 x hab battery combo but at least we'll never be without power.

My only outstanding mod is to attach a portable 100W solar panel that I'll affix to the windscreen (directional to the sun) and which will only be used for long stationary periods when I need to harvest more sun energy, albeit I'll not get much at all with only 220W of solar in a Scottish winter.

Top tip ( which I got from Mel Minxy Girl ) is to place freezer packs in the top freezer compartment during the day and then relocate them to the fridge compartment at night while turning the power consumption down on the fridge itself - it works wonders.

That's all from me ;-)

All the best,

Andrew

 

[carolyn]

We were away recently on a group tour and one of the group had a 1 year old Vantage Neo which comes with a compressor fridge. It comes with two 95Ah gel batteries and a single 100w solar panel as standard. They had added a second 100w solar panel. They had managed 5 days off hook up in Greece in April ,the weather hadn't been very good so perhaps more like a bad English summer. We were quite taken with the van. We have an IH630RL so come change time in a year or two we might go for one but would definitely have 2 solar panels but would definitely add a b2b charger.

We would get our extras from eddievanbitz as we'd want their Growler and nonstarter. Who knows we might even be thinking lithium batteries and inverters! We'd discuss our requirements with them though. I have been reading the recent threads and everytime it starts to make sense I read a bit more and I'm all confused again. I'm very good at most science but not this electrickery, it's very confusing. I blame Mr Garvey my Physics teacher, it can't possibly be my fault!

 

[danielf]

I love my compressor fridge. No worries about it working and fridge worries me as I have medicine that must be kept cold. Mine is quite old and I think new ones are less power hungry

Having been let down by every 3 way fridge I've ever owned .....

We just get by for a long weekend off hook up without the engine with a100 watt solar with a ctek dual 250s regulator and a single varta ltd 90 amphour battery.

It is fine as long as sun shines strongly.

Unfortunately I don't have room for more solar and am looking at extra battery capacity

Daniel.

 

[Langtoftlad]

The brighter the sun, the better the solar works, but the warmer it is, the harder the fridge has to work consuming more power...

Inversely
The duller it is, the cooler it is so the fridge doesn't have to work so hard so using less power which is good because the solar won't supply as much.

The magic is to get the correct balance .

 

[SpeedyDux]

Never had a problem with a compressor fridge except this Vitrifrigo one we now have can be noisy at night so it gets switched off. Contents still chilled when we wake up. I am going to try that handy trick with freezer packs!

Our PVC came with 2 leisure batteries as standard. With hindsight I should have ordered the optional solar panel (it is pre-wired for that) to allow more freedom from EHU.

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[chaser]

Although admitadly we do do a bit of touring about, we have two 100 a battery's , a 100 watt solar and a compressor fridge and never came anywhere near running out of battery

 

[Cheshirecat57]

We have Adria Twin with 152 litre tall Thetford compressor fridge
Twin 110 ah batteries with 120w solar

On a dull race weekend (3 days 2 nights) no issues with batteries at all
Never started engine and voltage dropped to 12.5

 

[Minxy]

My only outstanding mod is to attach a portable 100W solar panel that I'll affix to the windscreen (directional to the sun) and which will only be used for long stationary periods when I need to harvest more sun energy, albeit I'll not get much at all with only 220W of solar in a Scottish winter.

I put a ciggy lighter type female connector under the passenger seat and the leads from it (with an in-line fuse in the + wire) go into my solar controller. The solar panel has a male ciggy connector end on it which can be put in/taken out easily and in use the ciggy connector is set-up safely hidden under the seat so that the dogs can't accidentally knock it.

Top tip ( which I got from Mel Minxy Girl ) is to place freezer packs in the top freezer compartment during the day and then relocate them to the fridge compartment at night while turning the power consumption down on the fridge itself - it works wonders.

Are you sure it way my tip? I can't remember giving that one ... I must have been asleep at the time and in 'forum auto reply mode'.

 

[Minxy]

If you end up looking at vehicles with the Thetford T1090 fridge freezer make sure it's the mark 2 version, not the awful inadequate mark 1!

 

[Neckender]

My fridge is the mark 1 and works fine and it also has a bigger freezer compartment than the Mk 2.

John.

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[Cheshirecat57]

This is the ( secret,not on the price list ) optional one for the 19model AdriaTwin