Dometic or ARB fridge?

[TennesseePA]

After 24 hours I have used 63 Ah of juice. Cooling the small side and freezing the water bottles took a whole lot of power. When I checked it this morning I had used 52 Ah in the first 12 hours and only 11 since. I was just sitting in the garage planning my install for 20 minutes and the compressor didn’t turn on at all. Like a regular refrigerator in cycles on and off. While running it pulls 5.5-6 amps but it only runs 10-15 minutes per hour.

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[steffen707]

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

#teamalu-cabFTW

 

[TennesseePA]

this is my current consumption at 39 hours on the batteries. Our weather was in mid 60s overnight and expected mid 80s today but it only used 7Ah overnight. The compressor was running when I took this picture so so you can see how much it draws while running.

 

[TennesseePA]

49 hour check in and still golden. Only 13 Ah used in the past 24 hours. Temps in the mid 80s this afternoon.

 

[steffen707]

49 hour check in and still golden. Only 13 Ah used in the past 24 hours. Temps in the mid 80s this afternoon.

Sso did one fridge use 124AH in 49 hours?

 

[TennesseePA]

No there are 124Ah left in the batteries. The compressor ran all night and most of the next day to cool down and then settled into a very low power consumption pattern. So if I had followed Dometic’s advice and let the cooler get down to temp on AC power i would have to a of power left. I have borrowed a camper that my son and I plan to use next weekend so I’ll be testing it in the bed of the truck rather than the garage next weekend. I have all of my electrical equipment and my toolbox that I’m going to mount it in so I’ll be working on getting my system completed this week. Only thing I am missing is the cooling fans and some miscellaneous supplies like clamps and grommets.

 

[smlobx]

No there are 124Ah left in the batteries. The compressor ran all night and most of the next day to cool down and then settled into a very low power consumption pattern. So if I had followed Dometic’s advice and let the cooler get down to temp on AC power i would have to a of power left. I have borrowed a camper that my son and I plan to use next weekend so I’ll be testing it in the bed of the truck rather than the garage next weekend. I have all of my electrical equipment and my toolbox that I’m going to mount it in so I’ll be working on getting my system completed this week. Only thing I am missing is the cooling fans and some miscellaneous supplies like clamps and grommets.

Please post some pictures of your set up.

 

[TennesseePA]

I will post some pics as soon as I start to assemble it. I have been in the proliferation phase for the past few weeks and now that O have everything I just need to wire it up and install.

 

[TennesseePA]

Three days in and still not even at 50%. I’ll check the level in the morning and then I have to take my rigged system apart so I can mount it in the box and in the bed of the truck.

 

[steffen707]

Three days in and still not even at 50%. I’ll check the level in the morning and then I have to take my rigged system apart so I can mount it in the box and in the bed of the truck.

and that's with using 52AH of the batteries to do the initial cool down!

 

[TennesseePA]

Yes. I’d bet my house that 2 two of these batteries would power a pre-cooled cooler for over a week.

 

[steffen707]

Yes. I’d bet my house that 2 two of these batteries would power a pre-cooled cooler for over a week.

And that's with NO solar or Alternator charging....Awesome!

I know you can do math and figure out theoretically how many hours the cooler will last but nothing compares to a couple of real world tests.

few sites say 1.2AH / Hour, So that's 166 hours on a 200AH battery pack, but i don't know if that means an average of 1.2AH/H that its on, or if its 1.2AH/H average that its just ACTIVELY COOLING with the compressor on..... Your test will figure that out.

 

[TennesseePA]

You can see in one of the pictures above when the compressor is on it draws about 6 amps so the 1.(whatever) is an average consumption.

 

[steffen707]

You can see in one of the pictures above when the compressor is on it draws about 6 amps so the 1.(whatever) is an average consumption.

That would make sense, with 166 hours is 6.9167 days out of a 200AH battery pack. Very close to your assumptions/findings.

 

[TennesseePA]

Ok I had to terminate the test for a couple reasons. First I have to start installing the equipment and second it has cooled off again to highs in the low 70s. I ran the test for 97.58 hours and used a total of 108 Ah of power from the batteries. That includes the first night of cooling down and freezing the water bottles. The average consumption was 1.1 Ah. Two batteries will easily power my Dometic CFX95DZW for a week. Final results are attached.

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