12 volt or mains power fridge?

[lmantuano]

Hi Old Fella,

I'm also very interested in a solution base on "inverter fridge" technology...
Reading your post with interest but I would like you to complete your sentence... "There power use claims are BS, they would suck about XXX amp hours each per day"

.. and please, how do you power the 350L LG inverter fridge? I assume by a 110VAC inverter, but what size (watts),and brand?

And do you have an estimate of the Amp/Hours used over 24 hours?

Thanx
lm

[mikedefieslife]

Originally Posted by Thumbs Up

Front opening frosts up a lot more.

Fridge frosting up? A freezer maybe, but a fridge no.

My 12v freezer frosts up on occasion. My 230v 50l front opening fridge has never in its life frosted up.

Originally Posted by Icarus

Inverters will drain your batteries very quickly...

No they don't.

A Victron Phoenix 1200w inverter (more than capable of running a decent sized fridge even with the inrush current), has an energy consumption of 1w in standby. Also programable to turn off at certain battery voltages.

[Thumbs Up]

Isotherm 12v with small freezer box inside. Every time you open door the air gets replaced with hot warm air laden with moisture. Maybe yours is a frost free model.

[Old fella]

Originally Posted by lmantuano

Hi Old Fella,

I'm also very interested in a solution base on "inverter fridge" technology...
Reading your post with interest but I would like you to complete your sentence... "There power use claims are BS, they would suck about XXX amp hours each per day"

.. and please, how do you power the 350L LG inverter fridge? I assume by a 110VAC inverter, but what size (watts),and brand?

And do you have an estimate of the Amp/Hours used over 24 hours?

Thanx
lm

Hi bud, sorry, I missed out the amount of amp hours, that was supposed to read 100 amps each per day. I’m a kiwi so a 240v inverter, (2500w), as far as a estimate of amp hours used for the inverter fridge goes, sorry, I don’t know, I just know what my volt meter and battery bank told me. Others here, seem to quote all these fancy numbers, but you will find they haven’t tried both systems. Believe me, if you have room for an inverter fridge, DO IT you will love it. Oh, and by the way, my brother in-law had a 450 Ltr one on his boat with the same results, we often talked about how these things seemed to run on nothing, again, go for it, you will thank me, cheers Brian .

[lmantuano]

Hi Old Fella,

thanks very much for the clarification. I've been looking at inverter fridges for a while now but I can only afford the space of a 100-150L unit. I'll go back and see what the various domestic brands have to offer.


regards,
Luigi

[Halloween]

Something to bare in mind, if one is travelling far, is the frequency of the mains supply when using mains powered appliances connected to the local supply. Depending on the technology used, single phase compressors generally will not respond well to the incorrect input frequency.

[Chotu]

Aside from this post being correct, there is another human factor that comes into play with the old “pit in the galley counter “ marine 12v systems.

When you have to take the entire contents out of the pit to find something, they absorb plenty of heat sitting out on the counter while you’re digging.

Front opening reduces this loss.

Originally Posted by Strolls

and:



Sorry, pet peeve of mine - air spilling out makes no difference, as it's literally 1/1000 the weight of (for example) water.

Let's say you open the door to your fridge and 10 litres of cold air spills out - when you close the door you now have to waste electricity cooling the warm air back down to the same level as the other contents of the fridge.

That air weighs 12.5g, or about 1/25 of the weight of a can of soda. I.e. it takes the same energy to cool all the air in a fridge of that size as it would to cool 2.5 teaspoonfuls of cold water. For most of us this is negligible.

(This comment assumes that it takes the same energy to cool 1kg of air as it takes to cool 1kg of water - this is not true, but it's close enough for a simple explanation.)

This PDF is excellent: http://www.swingcat.co.uk/what/fridg...lculations.pdf

[Old fella]

Originally Posted by lmantuano

Hi Old Fella,

thanks very much for the clarification. I've been looking at inverter fridges for a while now but I can only afford the space of a 100-150L unit. I'll go back and see what the various domestic brands have to offer.


regards,
Luigi

Good as gold bud, something else I did was run a dedicated lead from my inverter to the fridge, so when I did go into a marina, and I hooked up shore power, the fridge wasn’t being turned off and on, they don’t seem to like that, but that’s just my way of thinking though. I don’t think they make inverter fridges as small as 150 litres, i might be wrong, the smallest I have seem, I think was 255 litre, but things could have changed in the last 3 or 4 years, all the best in your search, Brian.

[onestepcsy37]

Originally Posted by Macsea

Hi cruisers, I need to replace my fridge, (aprox 100 litre capacity)
"Marine" 12 volt units are expensive and there are few brands to choose from, compact mains power units are made in lots of different brands and are cheap

it's a great idea. i purchased and installed an adler barbour 12v marine fridge some years ago and had zero problems with it for the ten years i owned it. but it cost ten times or more as a 'dorm' fridge with the same or more capacity.


if i were on a budget i would buy a dorm fridge and a small inverter and be done with it. i don't know if sailorchic34 is still on the board but she is the oracle on living aboard on a small budget and she did that.

[chrisr]

as i may have posted earlier here (or perhaps it was on another thread), there are some great 12v caravan fridges around...much cheaper than the 'marine' versions.

might only last half the life, but at quarter the cost = better value

cheers,