Single AGM, Fridge, and battery protection

So I just recently upgraded to a single X2 Power 27f AGM to help power a newly purchased fridge. (Old pic, connected positive cable from fuse block to 100A fuse on battery)


Fridge: Iceco VL60 Dual zone


According to the manual setting the battery protection to the highest mode will shut off the fridge when it drains down to 11.1V.


According the AGM voltage charts found online, that's pretty much discharging the battery to dead. Am I missing something? Is battery protection pretty much useless for my single battery AGM? The type of trips I do are usually moving spots everyday so I don't plan on staying stationary for days.

 

Notes:
-Fridge will be run in ECO mode at all times
-I have a portable jump starter

 

That is pretty low. On my dometic high is 11.8.

if you are moving every day, you shouldn’t have an issue unless your fridge draws a ton more power than mine.

 

You've got a good battery with I think 90-100 AH if I remember correctly. Depending on how many amps the fridge draws will determine how long it lasts. You should be fine w/ protection mode on as my monitor always shows the voltage which coincides w/ my fridge. I have the same (ish) setup as you. Only difference is I run a 100W solar panel as well so that's a huge help. You can always get a portable solar panel and run that while parked for insurance.

 

Comsumption says 60-65W

 

Also, look into getting a circuit breaker for that fuse block you've got.

 

I was looking at solar panel options but it seems like that mainly for those that have solar generators or dual battery setups. How does one hook up a solar panel to a single battery? Solar panel with solar controller directly to battery via alligator clamps?

 

That's 5.5 AMPs, you'll be good for a while. Do the math.

I have the panel on my roof wired to the solar controller. Controller is wired to battery. It's a super simple setup and will charge battery until it's full when the alternator isn't running. Useful for dual battery too when you don't want your alternator to charge both batteries at the same time and overheat.

 

Yeah man. I'm sure from my use I'll be fine. When I was deciding between single or dual battery I decided to go dual battery because I had some piece of mind that the fridge had protection built in as a backup but it seems like that's not really the case for me.

What kind of connection do you have going to the battery from the solar controller?

 

Here's what I've got. There's why cheaper options though.

https://www.zampsolar.com/obsidian

https://www.zampsolar.com/store/15-amp-obsidian-integration-kit

Wires run down the back of my cab, along frame rail, up through the floor of the driver's seat and then I mounted the controller on the center console. Wires run from panel to the controller and plug in. 2 other wires run from the controller to the battery and screw on there. There's a single fuse from the controller to the battery. After that, you set the controller to AGM and it's done.

On my fuse block I've got a 100W breaker between the block and my battery to shut everything down if there's some major failure.

 

Any consideration to use a portable power station? Simpler to use, you can drain it no problem, and can be moved from car to car.

 

Maybe you would be better off with a Power Station, it works great for me and I don't have to worry about draining my truck battery. I have a Goal Zero Yeti 200x Power Station and a Nomad 50watt Solar Panel and use it to power a small 12v Alpicool 20 liter portable refrigerator. On battery power only I get between 5 and 6 hours max, depending on the ambient temperature. The 200x can be solar charging and run the fridge at the same time, which is great for daytime hours, and as the sun sets, it kicks back into battery only mode. I would have liked to have had the 500x model to have more battery life, however, it was cost prohibitive for me, perhaps in the future. For now, if needed, I also have a 12v cigarette lighter connection to my truck and I will run the fridge off of it for the few hours in the evening, then put it on the 200x for overnight. If I set the temp on the fridge to eco mode at 32 degrees it will run off of the Power Station battery for about 7 hours during the night. The other thing about this setup it that it is very portable, not small or light enough for backpacking, but certainly doable for shorter hikes into a primitive camping spot for a weekend.

Overall I am very impressed with the build quality and the usability of such a small system. Total investment was $238 for the Power Station and $187 for the 50watt Solar Panel. The 12v Cigarette lighter connection was $10 on Amazon. There are cheaper options out there, but I felt that the build quality of the Goal Zero products was better, and it comes with a legit 2 year warranty, plus I purchased it at REI, where there is a 180 day return policy.

 

Thanks man. I'll check it out.

 

I looked hard at the goal zero and the bluetti ac200 but I see that more as a backup plan in case this single battery setup doesn't work.

 

I second this. I had issues with my Dometic 75 draining my Odyssey AGM overnight. Granted my Odyssey only has 68 ah to your 27f which has close to 100 ah if I'm not mistaken. However, if I ran my smaller side on freezer I couldn't last through the night. I opted for a Dometic PLB40 and have been very happy with it.

 

It is good to have a jump starter. But it is not great to jump your battery all the time. jumping the battery all the time is not. Kills your battery life. I am sure you are aware of this.

 

^^^This^^^ Killing your battery and having the alternator charge it is a good way to kill an alternator. The alternator's job is to "maintain" the charge in the battery, not charge the battery. There's a reason that every alternator you buy says "warranty void if battery not charged at install"...

YMMV RON

 

Keep in mind the fridge will also see lower voltage than what’s actually in the battery so that 11.1V may be closer to 11.5 or something (would have to calculate the drop).

 

100% agree. i meant that comment about having a portable jumper as that I’m prepared in case something goes wrong and won’t get stranded somewhere.

 

So testing so far:
6:45pm: I plugged the fridge into the truck with fridge full and at temp before connecting to truck
8:15am aprox 13.5 hours later here are the readings:

• At the Fridge with compressor not running--12.7V
• At the bluesea panel in the bed of the truck--12.65V
• At the battery with everything fridge unplugged to make sure no load reading from a multimeter--12.63

According to state of charge chart, battery is aprox at 85% state of charge. Not too bad.