Electric/Compressor Fridges (1 Viewer)

[Blackadder]

Going back to fridges...
Our Burstner has a Thetford fridge with 3-way automatic power selection as suggested by Jongood above. We have no problem with electrical consumption when not hooked up because unless the engine is running it will only run on gas! No it's not a fault - the book says it's supposed to be like this.
The "automatic" function seems to be a largely unecessary gee-gaw. Although it will happily switch from 240V to 12v (if the engine is running) and back again, it will only switch itself to gas if the gas is switched on before the fridge is booted up. Although the dealer assures me the gas will be cut off in case of accident, I feel uncomfortable driving round with the gas on so it means re-booting the fridge whenever we stop. Since this is all new to us, I also wonder, what happens on a long ferry trip (assuming that the gas must be switched off)? Rancid butter?
So far we've been hooked up everywhere so no idea what the gas consumption might be...

 

[Nirvanauk]

With the engine running surely it should automatically be on 12v and when stopped with no EHU it should go to gas. (the gas does need to be on) On a long ferry trip pre load with frozen food and bottles of frozen water.

 

[jongood]

Going back to fridges...
Our Burstner has a Thetford fridge with 3-way automatic power selection as suggested by Jongood above. We have no problem with electrical consumption when not hooked up because unless the engine is running it will only run on gas! No it's not a fault - the book says it's supposed to be like this.
The "automatic" function seems to be a largely unecessary gee-gaw. Although it will happily switch from 240V to 12v (if the engine is running) and back again, it will only switch itself to gas if the gas is switched on before the fridge is booted up. Although the dealer assures me the gas will be cut off in case of accident, I feel uncomfortable driving round with the gas on so it means re-booting the fridge whenever we stop. Since this is all new to us, I also wonder, what happens on a long ferry trip (assuming that the gas must be switched off)? Rancid butter?
So far we've been hooked up everywhere so no idea what the gas consumption might be...

The real benefit of AES is when you have a crash sensor regulator, because you can totally forget about it because there is no necessity to turn the gas off when travelling.

The downside is that the truma cs regulators are not great, we re about to fit our 4th to a 9 year old MH.

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[Tighchris]

Our HymerCar has the Webasto electric fridge. It works well and we have managed two summer days off hook up without the battery appearing too bothered. It rarely pauses in its whirring however as it comes without the economy/night setting. This can be retrofitted for £286 + £90 fitting. Anyone had this done on their fridge? Does it make a difference?

 

[jongood]

Going back to fridges...
Our Burstner has a Thetford fridge with 3-way automatic power selection as suggested by Jongood above. We have no problem with electrical consumption when not hooked up because unless the engine is running it will only run on gas! No it's not a fault - the book says it's supposed to be like this.
The "automatic" function seems to be a largely unecessary gee-gaw. Although it will happily switch from 240V to 12v (if the engine is running) and back again, it will only switch itself to gas if the gas is switched on before the fridge is booted up. Although the dealer assures me the gas will be cut off in case of accident, I feel uncomfortable driving round with the gas on so it means re-booting the fridge whenever we stop. Since this is all new to us, I also wonder, what happens on a long ferry trip (assuming that the gas must be switched off)? Rancid butter?
So far we've been hooked up everywhere so no idea what the gas consumption might be...

The gas will only be totally shutoff in a collision if you have a crash sensing regulator. strictly speaking to comply with insurance requirements you should also have hoses with cutoffs as well or bottles that shut down such as alugas and some others.

 

[Minxy]

Our HymerCar has the Webasto electric fridge. It works well and we have managed two summer days off hook up without the battery appearing too bothered. It rarely pauses in its whirring however as it comes without the economy/night setting. This can be retrofitted for £286 + £90 fitting. Anyone had this done on their fridge? Does it make a difference?

We have the night mode on our Thetford all-electric fridge and it does make a difference to the consumption and noise, on a night it would be too loud to sleep otherwise (well for me anyway as it's right by my head!).

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[Peter JohnsCross MH]

I dont know if this is what you mean

https://www.johnscross.co.uk/products/outwell-deep-cool-28l-electric-coolbox-freezer.html

Outwell Deep Cool 28L Electric Coolbox/Freezer
A fridge and freezer in one!
Get every mealtime covered with the Outwell Deep Cool.
There’s room for all your everyday essentials plus a freezer area for lollies, ice cream and more.
Perfect for sunny days on the campsite!
The rugged plastic casing is strong and durable, and the lid can be fully removed for easy access and cleaning.
Comes with a 2m long 12V cable and 4m long 230V cable.

Features:

• Compressor cooler
• -18 °C to +10 °C
• Noice emission <40dB(A)
• LED display and control
• Removable lid opens left or right
• Rugged plastic casing and lid
• Strong spring-loaded handles
• Can be used with either 12V or 230V
• Supplied with 230V adaptor and cords for EU and UK plugs
• Removable basket
• 200cm 12V cable and 400cm 230V cable
• Undervoltage protection

Specifications:

Size:60 x 36,5 x 37 cm (WxDxH)

Volume:28 L
Power:12V/230V
Weight:13.3 kg
Peter

 

[Grumpybutters]

We have a Waeco CDF-26 21L portable fridge/freezer box which we bought from Amazon Warehouse - it was a return so we got about £80 off it. Best buy ever, again it can be used as a very efficient freezer or fridge or both at the same time. It is so good my OH carts it out of the moho at the end of the season and uses it in the kitchen as a drinks fridge for the kids cans of fizzy. In every day use for about 3 years now and worth ever penny of the £329.04 that we paid for it! .

 

[tony dellar]

What's wrong with a threeway running on gas mine works great ?

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[funflair]

What's wrong with a threeway running on gas mine works great ?

Nothing but the question was about electric compressor fridges which of course don't have a gas option.

Martin

 

[Feltwell]

We have a Waeco CDF-26 21L portable fridge/freezer box which we bought from Amazon Warehouse - it was a return so we got about £80 off it. Best buy ever, again it can be used as a very efficient freezer or fridge or both at the same time. It is so good my OH carts it out of the moho at the end of the season and uses it in the kitchen as a drinks fridge for the kids cans of fizzy. In every day use for about 3 years now and worth ever penny of the £329.04 that we paid for it! .

Snap! I bought one - again Amazon Warehouse return - as the usual 3-way fridge freezer in our van is always full, and it's nice to have cold drinks always available. It works very well but it does gobble up the electric a bit - off hookup, with just a 100W solar panel, we did struggle a bit after a few days last year. But, our leisure batteries were on the way out - new ones in for this year - and I've changed the solar controller to a better one, so I'll see how we go on this year before trying anything else.

 

[MickyP]

@MickyP ... better update your avatar!

Done

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[wfdTamar]

Thought I'd plug on the end of this rather than start a new discussion. The original Dometic AES 3 way 95 litre fridge in my 2002 Hymer motorhome (MH) (which I use in Europe) is well and truly dead (yes, I have looked into repair - it's not viable).

It has 200 watts of solar and a Yuasa EFB-36 100 Ah leisure battery (LB). The solar controller doesn't go via the Electroblock (EBL 99), but direct to the LB. I found the fridge managed ok up to about mid 20's, but struggles above that, particularly this last summer. Might be a little better with fans. They're still finicky, require maintenance and will never perform as well as a compressor fridge. The fridge is at the other end of the MH from the bed so I don't think noise will be an issue, particularly if the rear is sound isolated from the interior.

To fit a new 3 way is about £1000. So, I'm considering either a 12 volt compressor fridge or even a standard household 240 volt fridge run off an inverter.

12 volt compressor one seem to be about the same cost as a 3 way (really not sure why they're so expensive). Cheaper to install, but there's the extra power to supply (more solar). Found a Webasto one that would fit and runs on 22.25 amps per day (I think that's at 25 degrees) which is quite low.

Webasto Freeline 115 (litres) £799

Webasto Freeline Elegance 115L Compressor Caravan Motorhome Fridge

The Webasto Freeline 115 2 way caravan fridge has a capacity of 115L with a 32 litre freezer, giving you versatile cooling capabilities.

www.jacksonsleisure.com

I use the MH for quite a few months at a time over summer, watch a fair bit of TV. At times in dull weather I got the battery down to the 50% point with the existing setup, so adding a fridge will require more power. I have room for an additional 300 watts easily, so thought a separate setup just for the fridge would work well, rather than add onto the existing system which the EBL wouldn't cope with.

So the 300 watts (£240), battery (£110), solar controller (£60), wiring & mounts (£80). All up about £500. Hmm, that's a lot on top of the fridge cost.

Might get away with 200 watts of panels (£160), controller £60. Could find a cheaper controller too. Still is £410.

OK, so how to charge that battery from the alternator and will it cope doing two leisure batteries? More money to do that.

The third option is a household fridge with an inverter. Those fridges are really cheap, so even if they don't last, it's easy to replace one. Not as efficient using an inverter, but if everything is sized accordingly, that may not matter. Not sure what size/kind/cost of inverter to use for that. I have seen there are hybrid charger/inverter/solar controllers which may be the thing to use.

 

[Richard n Ann]

Thought I'd plug on the end of this rather than start a new discussion. The original Dometic AES 3 way 95 litre fridge in my 2002 Hymer motorhome (MH) (which I use in Europe) is well and truly dead (yes, I have looked into repair - it's not viable).

It has 200 watts of solar and a Yuasa EFB-36 100 Ah leisure battery (LB). The solar controller doesn't go via the Electroblock (EBL 99), but direct to the LB. I found the fridge managed ok up to about mid 20's, but struggles above that, particularly this last summer. Might be a little better with fans. They're still finicky, require maintenance and will never perform as well as a compressor fridge. The fridge is at the other end of the MH from the bed so I don't think noise will be an issue, particularly if the rear is sound isolated from the interior.

To fit a new 3 way is about £1000. So, I'm considering either a 12 volt compressor fridge or even a standard household 240 volt fridge run off an inverter.

12 volt compressor one seem to be about the same cost as a 3 way (really not sure why they're so expensive). Cheaper to install, but there's the extra power to supply (more solar). Found a Webasto one that would fit and runs on 22.25 amps per day (I think that's at 25 degrees) which is quite low.

Webasto Freeline 115 (litres) £799

Webasto Freeline Elegance 115L Compressor Caravan Motorhome Fridge

The Webasto Freeline 115 2 way caravan fridge has a capacity of 115L with a 32 litre freezer, giving you versatile cooling capabilities.

www.jacksonsleisure.com

I use the MH for quite a few months at a time over summer, watch a fair bit of TV. At times in dull weather I got the battery down to the 50% point with the existing setup, so adding a fridge will require more power. I have room for an additional 300 watts easily, so thought a separate setup just for the fridge would work well, rather than add onto the existing system which the EBL wouldn't cope with.

So the 300 watts (£240), battery (£110), solar controller (£60), wiring & mounts (£80). All up about £500. Hmm, that's a lot on top of the fridge cost.

Might get away with 200 watts of panels (£160), controller £60. Could find a cheaper controller too. Still is £410.

OK, so how to charge that battery from the alternator and will it cope doing two leisure batteries? More money to do that.

The third option is a household fridge with an inverter. Those fridges are really cheap, so even if they don't last, it's easy to replace one. Not as efficient using an inverter, but if everything is sized accordingly, that may not matter. Not sure what size/kind/cost of inverter to use for that. I have seen there are hybrid charger/inverter/solar controllers which may be the thing to use.

You would need at least a 1000w inverter to cope with the compressor starting current, I'd go for a Chinese pure sine wave one.
One extra problem with the inverter is the standby current when the fridge isn't even running which can quite easily be 24ah/day. To get round this you could rewire the fridges thermostat to switch the inverter directly, or via a 12v contactor.

 

[Minxy]

You haven't said which model you've actually got, is it like this?

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[wfdTamar]

Well, it doesn’t really matter what I have now, except to know the size. it’s the RM6405 (H821xW525xD541). The replacement is RM8505 (821x525x568).