Dometic or ARB fridge?

[steffen707]

I am going to start a thread over in the member marketplace and maybe over in the overland and camping area so more guys can see the batteries. Everyone who has mentioned here that you want one or two of them are at the top of the list when they arrive. I will also keep this thread updated as to when the batteries stop powering the coolers, if they ever do die! It is almost lunch time on Tuesday and I started the test a little before dinner time on Friday. I really wish I had only used one of them for the test but I had no idea that they would last four days. There are drinks in the coolers so they do get opened every once in a while. The only thing that is out of the ordinary is the cooler than normal temperatures that we have been experiencing but my garage stays pretty warm even on the cooler nights.

after your test is done you should do the test again with just your large Dometic fridge. That would be awesome if you got a week out of the 2 batteries. That doesn't even include any charging from when the vehicle is running. You might not need those generators you bought.

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[TennesseePA]

after your test is done you should do the test again with just your large Dometic fridge. That would be awesome if you got a week out of the 2 batteries. That doesn't even include any charging from when the vehicle is running. You might not need those generators you bought.

I have an off shore fishing trip planned with a group of guys from church the first week of June and we will be taking the coolers along to carry food down and fish back. The Dometic will be riding in the back of the truck so it will be a more realistic test. If I run it just with one cooler I will only use one battery and double the results...my ADD will not let me test it for a whole week. I attached a spec sheet for the batteries. If you can read the last few pages you are better than I am.

I have already found a use for my generators when the power went out a couple weeks ago after some storms. I was able to keep all three refrigerators, the freezer, a few lights and my CPAP powered. We didn't lose a bite of food or a wink of sleep so the wife is sold on preparedness now.

 

[TennesseePA]

I think we can consider this test a success. The batteries have been powering both coolers for over 4 days. Since I have to fully discharge them so I can charge them to get an accurate capacity on them so I am going to add some additional loads to deplete the batteries.

 

[TennesseePA]

Ok like I said last night I go tired of waiting so this morning I hooked up my 400W inverter and plugged my wife’s hairdryer into the inverter, converted both coolers to AC power and plugged them into the second inverter port and turned the hairdryer on high without heat. It was drawing about 18 amps when the compressors were not running and 25 amps when both compressors were running. The system ran in this setup for another hour and 55 minutes before the low voltage alarm on the inverter started beeping.
Then I plugged up the charger to see exactly how many Ah it takes to fully charge the batteries.
Attached photos are the load and the charge respectively. The first one shows the bank at 0% even though the batteries still had about 40Ah left in them since I had not calibrated the monitor yet and the second is after about 2-3 minutes of charging.
Once they are fully charged I will pull them out of the boxes and post high quality photos of the batteries themselves. Right now I would have to dismantle the system to get them out of the trolling motor boxes.

 

[TennesseePA]

The skeptic in me wants to think that my test was actually flawed. My only explanation can be the cooler than average temperatures we have been having. All of that changes today with temps running in the mid to upper 80s for the next several days. Once the batteries reach 100% state of charge I will rerun the test with just the Dometic CFX95DZW and see how the batteries perform under closer to normal summertime conditions. As of this morning after about 20 hours on my 10 amp NOCO Genius Charger the battery monitor says they are at 196 Ah of energy. The charger is still indicating that it is in absorption phase so they are not at 100% yet. They should be done when I get home this afternoon and I will restart the test. The attached pic was from about 8:15 this morning at around 19 hours on the charger. It shows 49% capacity because I have the monitor set to 400Ah so it will not reach 100% and stop counting.

 

[steffen707]

The skeptic in me wants to think that my test was actually flawed. My only explanation can be the cooler than average temperatures we have been having. All of that changes today with temps running in the mid to upper 80s for the next several days. Once the batteries reach 100% state of charge I will rerun the test with just the Dometic CFX95DZW and see how the batteries perform under closer to normal summertime conditions. As of this morning after about 20 hours on my 10 amp NOCO Genius Charger the battery monitor says they are at 196 Ah of energy. The charger is still indicating that it is in absorption phase so they are not at 100% yet. They should be done when I get home this afternoon and I will restart the test. The attached pic was from about 8:15 this morning at around 19 hours on the charger. It shows 49% capacity because I have the monitor set to 400Ah so it will not reach 100% and stop counting.

Thank you so much for doing this. It'll be good to know how many AH they take of charge from fully depleated. Many crappy generic Lithium batteries claim 100AH, but then don't actually hold that. These look like they'll hold 100+AH.

 

[steffen707]

The skeptic in me wants to think that my test was actually flawed. My only explanation can be the cooler than average temperatures we have been having. All of that changes today with temps running in the mid to upper 80s for the next several days. Once the batteries reach 100% state of charge I will rerun the test with just the Dometic CFX95DZW and see how the batteries perform under closer to normal summertime conditions. As of this morning after about 20 hours on my 10 amp NOCO Genius Charger the battery monitor says they are at 196 Ah of energy. The charger is still indicating that it is in absorption phase so they are not at 100% yet. They should be done when I get home this afternoon and I will restart the test. The attached pic was from about 8:15 this morning at around 19 hours on the charger. It shows 49% capacity because I have the monitor set to 400Ah so it will not reach 100% and stop counting.

Are you going to start the 2nd test with an already cold fridge? I think either would be acceptable, as I would cool my fridge down from my house 120v then add already cold food to it.

This is what I've done with my 12V Coleman peltier cooled cooler on trips.

 

[TennesseePA]

Are you going to start the 2nd test with an already cold fridge? I think either would be acceptable, as I would cool my fridge down from my house 120v then add already cold food to it.

This is what I've done with my 12V Coleman peltier cooled cooler on trips.

That is how Dometic suggests you do it so that will be my approach.

I will also add that if anyone is close by and if they are serious about wanting one that they can come by and borrow one for a weekend or something. I want to test these things in as many different situations as possible. Who knows, if they turn out to be as good as they seem I may end up in the battery business!

 

[TennesseePA]

I have finished assembling all of my parts for my power system.

I have the two batteries and a NOCO snap top box to keep them in. I have the Redarc BCDC1240 and a 1000 watt pure sine wave inverter. I also have the Renogy 500A battery monitor and a plug outlet with three standard cig plugs and two USB ports and a 12 place fuse block for other accessories as I need to add them. I have another cheap plastic box that I plan to put the inverter and plugs in to keep them out of the weather with two little 12V fans that I may try to rig up to keep air moving around the inverter. I also have the Dometic CFX95DZW with a Dometic slide system.

My working plan is to mount all of the equipment on a 3/4 pice of plywood that I can remove from the back of the truck when not in use. Right now my biggest concern is for the security of all that money in the bed of my truck. I have the Mopar cross bars for the Trail Rail system and a huge aluminum cargo rack that I will install above the equipment and use cable locks to keep it from just being unbolted and lifted off. Hopefully that will slow down any potential wrongdoers, but we all know that if given enough time a thief is going to steal your stuff.

 

[TennesseePA]

Got home from work and the charger had turned off and the meter showed 204Ah. I got excited and set the meter to 200 Ah as a full charge before I took the picture.
For the test I am running the small side of the CFX95DZW at -8 like it would be for a camping trip with frozen food and the big side of the cooler is at 35. There are drinks in there so I open it a few times a day. I didn’t take the time to let it cool to -8 while on AC power but it shouldn’t cost us too much power since that side is smaller. There are about 10 water bottles in there that it will have to cool down and freeze. So basically I went from going too easy on them to maybe a little too hard on them.

 

[steffen707]

looks like dometic has a 10% off sale for memorial day.

 

[smlobx]

Mark- Please put me down for on of the 100 AH batteries as well.

I have 1 Battleborn battery in my truck camper and am very happy with it. Just be careful in low temps.

My thought for the Gladiator build out is similar to yours using a Redarc BCDC that will be hooked to the alternator and also allow me to run a portable solar panel that I have. The only thing it will run is the fridge and possibly a water pump and a hot water heater although I have not made up my mind on the later two.

Speaking of fridges as many probably know there are only 2 or 3 factories making all the fridges we can buy...so I ended Up buying this from Costco which is similar to some of the newer Dometics. I have used it twice so far and have been very happy

https://www.costco.com/blizzard-box-12v/110v-41-quart-portable-cooler.product.100505019.html

 

[TennesseePA]

If buying one of the off brands make sure you get one with the LG compressor. When you visit the manufacturer info sites it will usually state that you can buy with either the LG compressor or a China sources compressor.

 

[TennesseePA]

OK I made a small change to my plan. I have had so much stuff stolen over the years I am nervous about all of that equipment in the back of my truck so I bought this. https://www.deezee.com/product/red-label-portable-utility-chests-black/
I didn’t pay that for it but I couldn’t like to it from Amazon because it always wants to open the app. I also found some 12V waterproof fans and louvre vents to keep things cool. I’ll just use an Anderson Plug and everything can be taken out if I need my whole truck bed for something.

 

[smlobx]

That‘s part of the reason I went with an Alu-Cab canopy. Very secure

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