Compressor Fridge Question

[Cary Blackburn]

Hi We are just about to get a 240V/12V compressor fridge for our Beach. Not sure about the size but we're thinking of quite a small one as there are just the 2 of us. Forgive my ignorance but presumably you run them from the 12v socket whilst you are on the move and camping without hookup. My question is on hookup do you transfer the power to the 240V socket or leave it on the 12V. PS I know next to nothing about car or any other sort of electrics/
Thanks

 

[calikev]

transfer it to the 240v you are paying for it so you might as well

 

[WelshGas]

Hi We are just about to get a 240V/12V compressor fridge for our Beach. Not sure about the size but we're thinking of quite a small one as there are just the 2 of us. Forgive my ignorance but presumably you run them from the 12v socket whilst you are on the move and camping without hookup. My question is on hookup do you transfer the power to the 240V socket or leave it on the 12V. PS I know next to nothing about car or any other sort of electrics/
Thanks

I get what you mean. If you are on Mains Hookup, the Beach built in Charger is Charging the Leisure Battery anyway, so why not leave the fridge plugged into the 12v supply.
You can, no problem. However, read the Handbook as sometimes these fridges can be more effective on Mains than 12v.
The Fridge might just have 12v circuitry and compressor and when you plug into 230v supply you have a built in Transformer powered up to provide the 12v.

 

[Kano]

What fridge gave you bought? I just spent a lot on a Webasto tb41 and so far so good. Runs well on both but I agree when on hook up I’ll use 240v.,

 

[flying banana]

I have beach and domestic fridge. I go with hook up asap on site because I worry about my cold beers. if not on hook up I can cope 3 days easy chilling my beers off grid on 12v. I have a domestic 26cfx I think it's called. it's amazing. quiet . power savvy and my beers are cold. as for the butter and the milk I don't worry about such trivial things

 

[Borris]

I just leave ours plugged into the 12v socket when on EHU. I'm afraid to say that it's never occurred to me to do anything else. I save the 240v lead for use in the house.

We have a Waeco Dometic CFX 35 and it is brilliant. Brilliant for camping and brilliant for other occasions both inside the Cali and else where. As our Beach is being used every day during our grand chidrens summer holidays for outings, picnics and going to the beach, we have it running at -20c stuffed full of assorted ice creams. They all stay well and truely frozen. It's an amazing peice of kit that's performing a vital role during this hot summer.

 

[Amarillo]

We have the Waeco CFX 28. It has a capacity for four for four days. It stays on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, plugged into the 12 volt socket with the leisure battery kept topped up by two 100 Watt solar panels on the roof. The thermostat is set at 6C, and frozen foods go in there when returning from the supermarket. If not camping, we keep it stocked with water.

 

[Detritus]

We also have the CFX28 - it’s awesome. When not Camping it’s used as spare freezer, beer cooler for garden parties etc. Has the right amount of room for the 4 of us, fits next to the two seater bench or behind the passenger seat. Have the quick release base which aim making a base for to attach to rails.

 

[GreggB]

We’ve just bought an Indel B TB18, not the biggest but will sit between the front seats. Not fully tested yet, it wasn’t happy initially plugged in a 12v socket so wiring direct to battery may be better but it did keep some ice lollies frozen for a few hours. Only comes with a 12v lead so would need an transformer for 240v use. It was also less than £300 from Amazon.

 

[Detritus]

We also have the CFX28 - it’s awesome. When not Camping it’s used as spare freezer, beer cooler for garden parties etc. Has the right amount of room for the 4 of us, fits next to the two seater bench or behind the passenger seat. Have the quick release base which aim making a base for to attach to rails.

I meant to also say that I have out in a CTEK battery cable direct to the leisure battery (as suggested by the excellent @Max-Felix I believe) so use that when running on battery - gets us about 60- 70 hours continuous just off the 80ah AGM leisure battery with external temperatures of 30 degrees, fridge set to 3 degrees and battery protection set to high. Haven’t tried putting battery protection on medium yet as haven’t needed to go longer than that without either hookup or running the engine for a trip out. Currently very tempted by Roger’s solar panels and wondering how much longer we’d get with a 100w panel topping up the battery?

When on electric hookup I connect the normal three pin plug into the socket behind the passenger seat so that it’s running on 240v. Can’t honestly say if it makes a difference though - it cools perfectly on 12v so how would you judge?