Running a fridge off the leisure - how long will it last?

[bongobikers]

Still very new to Bongoing and tentatively dipping toes in various ponds. Today's pond is electrics while camping.

The whole regular battery / leisure battery is still new to me, so this should be a pretty simple question for the more experienced Bongonaut; how long can I expect to run a fridge and internal lights before draining the the leisure battery / both batteries? I am assuming I can run the fridge indefinitely with the occasional journey to recharge everything and the leisure once drained will shift to the main battery, but can anyone give me an idea roughly how long the batteries will last?

Cheers!

[New Forest Terrier]

I reckon three days without charging up for my Waeco compressor fridge on a 85a leisure battery. Driving around or running it to top up you can run it as long as you keep up the input. With a Willinton kit, once the leisure battery is down that's it till you top it up. No switching to the starter battery.

To get the maximum fridge life I switch off all the door lights in the Bongo and use rechargable worklights from Lidl. This stops accidently leaving a light on and finding all is warming up.

When I used a powered coolbox, about two days drained the leisure battery.

[Iwannabongo]

Good tip someone on here said is to fill up the ice compartment with some ice packs. Certainly seems to last a lot longer.
Also if you have ehu connect it to mains and put everything you need in fridge a couple of hours before you set off.
I get up to 4 days of cold beers on a 100amp LB.

[scanner]

When I used a powered coolbox, about two days drained the leisure battery.

A coolbox will normally easily drain a leisure battery overnight, so you did very well.

[winchman]

One of my mates uses a Dometic DS200 (65w)(supplied by me), he gets 2 days from it then the battery is totally flat,
To be honest fridges should be ran from the mains or gas, everything else is just a compromise.

[dave_aber]

The biggest test I force my leisure battery to endure is at music festivals.

As a guide, a Vitrifrigo C42L full of beer and getting accessed very regularly by 4 of us putting warm beers in and taking cold ones out running from a 115Ah battery, and recharging a HTC phone overnight, the fridge usually dips below the cut off voltage by the 3rd morning. Running the engine for 15 mins at tick-over usually sees it through the 3rd day no probs, and still going by the 4th morning.

So, drive overnight on Thursday, park up in a field by 9am on Friday.
Heavy fridge use Friday and Saturday.
Wake up on Sunday, and it's dipped below the cut off. Beer's still cold though
Run the engine for 10-15 mins, and the fridge keeps on through to the Monday morning.

HTH
Dave

[Metalpetal]

I read this thread with interest, as we're off on our second Bongo trip this weekend and now have a nice shiny new leisure battery installed. The first time we went we had to do without one as the old one was flat, but we coped ok. However, it's nice to know we'll have decent lighting (and music!) this time.

Question though - we haven't got a 'fridge' as such, it's more a coolbox that's powered through the socket (it's part of a partial conversion that was in situ when we bought her). However it does make a bit of a racket! Not mega loud, but loud enough that at night it would probably bug me a little. Does anyone else find this? I'm wondering if we put ice blocks in, and only power it during the day, whether that will be enough to keep the milk cool. I doubt we'll have much else than that in there! Any tips?

Mp

[dave_aber]

Compared to a fridge., a cool box will flatten your battery in no time.

[Iwannabongo]

If you going this weekend, I would leave your milk outside at night, it will be much cooler than a coolbox

[umbongocat]

We ran our fridge (top loader) for 5 days. We switch it off at night time and put it back on mid morning

[Alison01326]

Depends what the power consumption of the fridge is and how big the leisure battery is and, if it is a compressor fridge, what temperature you have it set to and therefore how often the compressor comes on and off.

I reckon we get 3 or 4 days with our Waeco CDF 25 compressor cooler on a 100aH battery but I usually switch it off overnight in anything but the hottest weather because as we aren't opening and closing it, it's going to retain most of its coldness.

A coolbox, on the other hand ........ as above. If you have a mains hookup but only a 12v plug on your coolbox get one of these and plug it into the mains http://www.towsure.com/product/Coolbox_ ... _to_12V_DC

[Velocette]

Depends what the power consumption of the fridge is and how big the leisure battery is and, if it is a compressor fridge, what temperature you have it set to and therefore how often the compressor comes on and off.

I reckon we get 3 or 4 days with our Waeco CDF 25 compressor cooler on a 100aH battery but I usually switch it off overnight in anything but the hottest weather because as we aren't opening and closing it, it's going to retain most of its coldness.

A coolbox, on the other hand ........ as above. If you have a mains hookup but only a 12v plug on your coolbox get one of these and plug it into the mains http://www.towsure.com/product/Coolbox_ ... _to_12V_DC

Now you tell me.

I just threw away a Coolbox because the internal transformer or 240V circuit had failed and it would only work on 12V!

Never mind, I have a good excuse to get a Waeco now

[winchman]

We ran our fridge (top loader) for 5 days. We switch it off at night time and put it back on mid morning

Good idea but keep an eye on the temperature as you dont want the food going off.
We have a small thermometer in ours

[winchman]

However it does make a bit of a racket! Not mega loud, but loud enough that at night it would probably bug me a little. Does anyone else find this?
Mp

Compressor type fridges make a noise, some cool boxes do too.
What you need as an absorbtion fridge like most caravans use as these are totally silent
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_refrigerator

Most Dometics are this type, they tend to use slightly less power than compressor fridges too

[scanner]

However it does make a bit of a racket! Not mega loud, but loud enough that at night it would probably bug me a little. Does anyone else find this?
Mp

Compressor type fridges make a noise, some cool boxes do too.
What you need as an absorbtion fridge like most caravans use as these are totally silent
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_refrigerator

Most Dometics are this type, they tend to use slightly less power than compressor fridges too

Not overall they don't because the heating element is on all the time the motor of a compressor fridge usually only runs for less than 10% of the time (dependent on ambient temperature) and compressor fridges are much more efficient than absorbtion ones as well.