New member- electric fridge

[Hebegb]

Hi folks, I’m a new owner of a Sunset Trail 212RB. We love the camper, having downsized yet still have lots of room !

only issue I have is with the Norcold 12V fridge. We do a lot of boondocking with solar panels and it does not do well at night. Dead battery by morning (new batteries).
Anyone have any solutions, other than replacing with a gas fridge ?
Thanks
Gary B

 

[Germanrazor]

Welcome aboard!

 

[FL-JOE]

Shouldn't that norcold be electric/propane? I'm just guessing here because it has been years since we had an RV equipped with an RV frig. I'm thinking it should be able to run off a couple 12 volt batteries through the night if for some reason you don't want to have it running on propane.

 

[Hebegb]

It runs only on 110v and 12V……. No propane.

 

[Hebegb]

This is a new breed of RV fridge, it has no propane option, only runs on 110V or 12V power.
Does anyone on this forum have any experience with this type fridge while boondocking ??
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Gary B.

 

[Jackofalltr8des]

Hi folks, I’m a new owner of a Sunset Trail 212RB. We love the camper, having downsized yet still have lots of room !

only issue I have is with the Norcold 12V fridge. We do a lot of boondocking with solar panels and it does not do well at night. Dead battery by morning (new batteries).
Anyone have any solutions, other than replacing with a gas fridge ?
Thanks
Gary B

Increase the battery capacity to get you through the nights. If not enough room to add additional batteries consider Lifep04 battery.

 

[Hebegb]

Increase the battery capacity to get you through the nights. If not enough room to add additional batteries consider Lifep04 battery.

Thanks for your input. I was considering buying one 100 amp hour Lifep04.
would that be enough with a 100w solar panel ?
Thanks

 

[Mike1931]

Are you sure its converting to 12v power?
Mine is 120V or propane, If I don't change it to propane when boon docking it will take down the battery bank over night. We have a bank of 4 deep cycle batteries that run our inverter to 120V. Just saying

 

[Jackofalltr8des]

Thanks for your input. I was considering buying one 100 amp hour Lifep04.
would that be enough with a 100w solar panel ?
Thanks

 

[Hebegb]

Are you sure its converting to 12v power?
Mine is 120V or propane, If I don't change it to propane when boon docking it will take down the battery bank over night. We have a bank of 4 deep cycle batteries that run our inverter to 120V. Just saying

Thanks Mike,
I am sure, yes. This fridge is not powered by propane at all, I wish it were. 120v or
12v only. Has no exterior panel
Hebegb

 

[Jackofalltr8des]

Not sure how much they cost. I personally use these:

BYD LFP 24V 5.63 kwh 220 Ah LiFePO4 Battery | eBay

<p dir="ltr">Up to sell is one pack of BYD 25.6V 220Ah Li-ion battery, tested working. Good for power bank or Solar system use.</p> <p dir="ltr">We do not ship due to each battery is 163Lb but if you really can not come pick up then you can hire trucking company to do LTL pick up in our dock...

www.ebay.com

The cells can be arranged for a 12v pack at 440ah. They're $500 each but well worth it. I'm using 4 for my solar backup. They are used but I'm still getting about 22.5kwh out of them.

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

Thanks for your input. I was considering buying one 100 amp hour Lifep04.
would that be enough with a 100w solar panel ?
Thanks

I don’t think your 100W solar panel will charge a 100 AH battery sufficiently, even on a good day. A generator would be an option, but it can be noisy. You are up against basic electrical theory here and unfortunately the draw is more than the supply. The supply needs to get bigger or the draw needs to get smaller.

TJ

 

[Hebegb]

I don’t think your 100W solar panel will charge a 100 AH battery sufficiently, even on a good day. A generator would be an option, but it can be noisy. You are up against basic electrical theory here and unfortunately the draw is more than the supply. The supply needs to get bigger or the draw needs to get smaller.

TJ

Thanks TJ,
That helps a lot. Based on the replys received here I will likely purchase a good lithium battery and add more solar panels to boost the charging. All else fails, I do have a 2000W Honda generator, but can’t run it at night.
Thanks everyone who replied to my post.
Very helpful forum, glad to be a part of it now.
HebeGB

 

[FL-JOE]

Not sure what CF your Norcold is, but our fiver is equipped with a large residential frig (no propane). When we are not plugged in it draws 12volt power from two deep cycle batteries. It will easily keep that frig running for 8 or 9 hours on the road or overnight. Before spending a ton of money on different type batteries or additional solar I would try a couple marine deep cycle 12 volt batteries.

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

When boondocking, it is pretty common to run a generator in the evening to charge the batteries. That way, they should last the night and you can recharge them again in the morning.

TJ

 

[Mike1931]

Not sure what CF your Norcold is, but our fiver is equipped with a large residential frig (no propane). When we are not plugged in it draws 12volt power from two deep cycle batteries. It will easily keep that frig running for 8 or 9 hours on the road or overnight. Before spending a ton of money on different type batteries or additional solar I would try a couple marine deep cycle 12 volt batteries.

I actually put in four deep cycle 6v golf cart batteries. Wired them to provide 12v to the system. Works great, with our 2000 watt inverter.

 

[Hebegb]

Not sure what CF your Norcold is, but our fiver is equipped with a large residential frig (no propane). When we are not plugged in it draws 12volt power from two deep cycle batteries. It will easily keep that frig running for 8 or 9 hours on the road or overnight. Before spending a ton of money on different type batteries or additional solar I would try a couple marine deep cycle 12 volt batteries.

Thanks Joe,
The fridge model is N10DCSSR
I am currently running off 2 Deka group 24 deep cycle batteries (about 1 year old) which I have load tested to be “good”.
Everything runs fine off solar (3-4 lights on the control panel) until the sun goes down.
Then it drops off overnight and the fridge shuts off below 10.8 volts.

 

[FL-JOE]

About the only thing I actually know about electrical stuff is that you plug it in to make it work. My only guess is that your Norcold draws a ton more amps then an RV/converted residential frig.