12v Fridge First Timer - What do I need to know about Powering it?

Wasn't sure which forum I should post in, mods please move if necessary.

I've been wanting a portable fridge for years and we made the last minute decision to buy one for our upcoming week-long camping trip (leaving 6/30). Normally I like to research/prepare more but I dropped the ball on that, lol. I ordered an Iceco 45VLProS, cover and slide and I think this unit should do well for us.

But now I'm turning my attention to how to power the thing. It's gonna be HOT (likely mid 80's but possibly high 90's) so I'm worried I may need additional power. I don't really need a long term solution right this second and wondering if I can make due just powering it with the truck and then build a better setup in the future. OR, is that foolish and gonna leave me in a lurch? Do I need to prioritize getting something setup ASAP?

- Fridge will be in truck bed, under a softopper for the whole trip - it gets hot in there unless parked in the shade

- I'll likely be driving every day of the trip, but not long distances, maybe 1-2hrs/ day with the truck on and that may be multiple short trips rather than longer runs, but it'll vary day to day.

Any help, advice and personal experiences appreciated

 

I run my dometic cfx35w plugged into a goal zero yeti 500x powered via the 12v adapter. super easy to setup when I need to use the fridge and has plenty of power to run for 24-48 hours depending on the temperature. I also have a 135w solar panel I can plug in if im going to be parked for an extended period of time.

you are going to want some way to power it when the truck is off whether thats a battery pack or wiring it to the truck battery. you can power it via the truck battery but if you are only running 1-2 hours per day, thats probably not enough run time to get it charged back up with those hot temperatures.

 

Thanks for the quick response!

When you say you can run yours for 24-48hrs does that mean you can run it that long without tapping into the truck battery?

At minimum I would definitely wire it to the truck so it can run off the truck battery when the truck is off, sorry if I didn't make that clear. So just wasn't sure if that was going to be enough or not. I do have a nice, upsized, Northstar AGM but I realize I'm still quite limited in how much I can draw before there's no more juice left to start the engine.

 

yeah thats how long I can run off just the goal zero.

the fridge should have a low voltage cutoff so you won't get stranded. you would just lose all the food in your fridge lol

 

Yeah, if I don't get a battery/power station I'll need to keep an eye on it. The auto shut off is great, but definitely don't want the food to go bad, lol.

By the sounds of it, we could probably get away with a smaller power station - in the 300-500Wh range - but it's so easy to upsell myself, lol. Especially since it may be nice to have a bigger one around the house in case of emergencies.

 

I run my portable cooler with an Anker 535 power bank, when I'm out in the field all day I keep it topped off with a cheap 800 watt inverter generator that I found on clearance at Tractor Supply.

 

My experience is you can get about 24-36 hours of use on a healthy truck battery size 27 or 31 before it gets low enough that the fridge cuts off due to low voltage.

Also agreed, 1-2 hours running the engine might not be enough to fully recharge the battery, but should still get it up to 80-90%.

Lots of people (myself included) use solar panel(s) to keep the battery up when parked. You'll probably want 200W of solar if you're mounting the panels directly on the vehicle. If you use portable panels, 100W can work since you can then move them around and aim them directly at the sun (plus they also allow you to keep the truck itself parked in any available shade).

Big thing with fridges is your wiring... DO NOT CHEAP OUT ON THIS!! If you do, the fridge will cut off long before your battery is drained to any level of concern (if it even runs at all w/engine off).
With it in the truck bed, I suggest #10 wiring and use the frame for ground. Also don't use anything other than the cigarette-lighter cord that comes with the fridge... Many (most?) other cig-plugs have the current go through the fuse spring, which has VERY high resistance and will not work well. Better still, use something other than a cig-lighter plug period.

I also have a voltmeter to help keep tabs on the battery charge level. There are ones that offer a battery level bar graph, but one that simply reads what the voltage is is fine too if you know what the voltage range for the battery is supposed to be (12.75V = full charge (engine off), 12.1V = about 20-30% charge remaining, 11.9V = start the engine sooner than later). The simplest of meters simply plug into a 12V socket (like a USB adapter), but I prefer one that has it's own wire straight to the battery.

 

When you say inverter generator, are you talking about a standard gas generator?

Thanks for this insight. Kind of a bummer I don't have time to test or trial run any of this before the trip. But because of that I'm gonna err on the side of caution. Shopping power stations now and likely gonna buy a Jackery 1000 v2 or Anker C1000. I probably don't need that much power but both are priced very well at the moment and power stations with half the capacity aren't much cheaper. Plus, it would be nice to have around in case we had a power outage. Not sure how long it'd run our home fridge but it'd at least help I supposee.

I'm not going solar - yet. I love the idea but it's just more than I want to add to this whole expense and ordeal at the moment. Plus, I have no idea whether we'd prefer truck mounted or free standing, not sure how big...etc.

As for voltage, I've got one built into my Scan Gauge. And, I've also got a mod that bumps the charging voltage up a tiny bit to better match my battery type.

 

Gasoline powered inverter generator.

It's an older version of this, I got it for less than $200 on clearance.
It's just a cheap china unit but it's been good so far for powering small loads.

https://www.sportsmangenerators.com/gen1000i.html

 

Take your battery jumper cables along too, for insurance.

I use my refrigerator every day, it is always running, powered by 2-3 batteries in the engine compartment. Started using one in Europa where ice is not as easily found and expensive. Hell, ice is expensive here in the US now; when I left you could find it for 0.99 a bag at the front of any Walmart or grocery store, now it is 2.99.

A refrigerator is just good for everyday shopping, picking up the groceries anytime and anywhere during the day.

Personally, I would just use the unit as it is and take my licking and learn just what the power requirements of your refrigerator are. You don't have much time to work out a permanent solution before your trip. My truck only uses .25 gal/hour idling, small price to pay. Yes, with the refrigerator load gas use would be higher. Block your wheels, put the parking brake on and the trans in Neutral and the truck will not shut off after ~30 minutes.

 

Gotcha. Yeah, we may get a gas generator someday for emergencies but definitely not something we want to bring camping.

I planned on bringing my battery jump pack, maybe a couple of them actually. We won't be too remote but hopefully most of the time we won't be very close to anyone with a vehicle who could jump us.

Went around in circles for the past 24hrs but settled on an Anker Solix C1000 as there was a good deal on it. Seems like a quality unit and my only concern is that it might be louder than we'd like. I guess we'll find out next week when it arrives.

 

Here is my set up. A bit long, but with good details https://ylemwind.wordpress.com/solar-powered-fridge-2/