Help choosing new 12 volt fridge

[Esus]

Well, the Truck Fridge is definitely more suited to my price range. The Isotherm looks really nice, especially with the ASU feature, but the ~$1000 price tag is a bit more than I'm willing to shell out.

I too have been told the Danfoss compressor is the best. I suspect the power consumption will be similar in any unit, by any manufacturer if it's running that compressor and designed with efficiency in mind.

[SCBrian]

I have a 43 qt Edgestar. I know you said no top loaders but take a look. Like Eric I was originally running through the inverter and with my battery setup I only got about 29 hours run time. The Edgestar is ac/dc so I unplugged the 110 and added a 12v socket near the fridge. So now I'm only plugged into 12v. On our last trip (first trip out with 12v) we were unplugged for four days. I knew we were not going to be able to plug in for several days at a time. Hope this helps.

[stanw909]

Adventerrv.net has very competitive pricing on Norcold and Dometic but the pricing on the TF products are amazing.

[E350]

I have an Engel MT60 Combi Fridge Freezer. It uses 4 amps. The duty cycle is 100% when the weather is hot, so give up on that 50% duty cycle nonsense. It was an expensive unit to buy. I have really no complaints about it other than the power usage (which is a bitch I have with the "no free lunch" aspect of physics, not with the unit) and the price.

So, BCBrian thank you for posting the info on Edgestar I will look into them.

[E350]

Originally Posted by BroncoHauler

Off the top of my head, I think most 12V fridges average about 3.5A. So with a 50% duty cycle, many will draw 7A when running, averaging 3.5A over the full cycle.

Is this what 50% duty cycle means? I (probably naively) thought that meant that the frig runs 30 minutes of each hour and (in my Engel's case according specs.) uses only 4 amps when running.

BTW, when my Engel frig/freezer is running my BMV 600 displays a rate of discharge of -3.5 to -4 amps.

And, again, when it is 90+F inside the van, it runs continuously..........

And only cycles on and off when the van interior is say 55F degrees when camping at the ski resort in the Winter.

[I would love to have a slide out just for the Engel in the Winter, just so I could get it outside where it is cold and not be in the catch 22 of using the Webasto furnace to warm the van interior and then turning up the power on the Engel to compensate.]

Edit: What does the attached pdf performance criteria mean?

I do in fact set my power knob at 5 when it is hot in the van. So at 45C which is 113F my % Running Time is 100% and my Amperage Draw is 3.6Ah/Hr which is about what I have actually experienced. In fact, my experience is that my 100% Running Time starts by 90F.

[jony101]

for a danfoss compressor fridge ( I have the edgestar fp43) . I actually hooked up a wattmeter and measured the amps used over 24 hours.
I keep the fridge in the back of the van running 24/7 and have it set to 39 degrees which is enough to keep a gallon of milk cold for weeks. In colder weather the fridge uses about 25 amps, in july the fridge uses about 29 amps over a 24 hour period. When compressor is running it uses about 4 amps and peaks out at 6 amps. On the 39 degree setting the cycle starts when the fridge temp reaches 41 degrees and shutoff when temp reaches 36 degrees. Over 24 hours at 39 degrees you can average a little over 1 amp. The lower setting you have the more the compressor will run, I settle on 39 degrees to keep power use to the minimum.
I run the fridge only off the solar panel and aux agm battery, no generator or engine battery.
I had a 120 watt solar panel and 75 amp agm battery and that was barely keeping up with the fridge, a couple of cloudy days and the fridge would be blinking low power. At 11.7 volts the fridge stops working. I upgraded to a 240 watt solar panel and 145 amp agm battery and this gives me more peace of mind during cloudy days.
So far with the bigger panel and battery I havent had anymore low power incidents, which was a once a week occurence with the 120 watt panel.

[witoke]

Bit of a threadjack here because I know you don't want a top loader and are looking for a less expensive fridge but just for general info look at this company:

http://www.sundanzer.com

They have been around for ages and make some extremely efficient fridges and freezers, many of which are well suited to RV use.

[stanw909]

The Sundanzers don 't look cheap to me. Did the op buy a fridge?

[Kzinti2]

I installed a 1.8 cu.ft. TruckFridge a couple years ago. Still happy with it. 38.4 Watts/3.2 amps when running. Installation: viewtopic.php?f=40&t=7802