Quote:
Originally Posted by Shane826
Ha! I didn’t even think about “going down the road” as in the jostling and bouncing of towing. I was referring to tow vehicle keeping the batteries alive while the fridge was running while towing. My Notcold doesn’t like 12VDC mode, it always seems to blow the 30A fuse at the battery.
Also did you do anything different at the vents on the side of the TM? Cover them up? Or just leave them be?
Now I need to go downstairs to the basement and see what size the inverter is that I have.
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The Norcold draws 300W (about 25A). I could see that blowing a 30A fuse if there is any surge for some reason. This mini-fridge draws 37W and runs off of the inverter with a 20A circuit through the converter. so I don't think that a blown fuse/breaker will be an issue. Besides, my solar should keep the batteries up during the day (if there is Sun).
At the moment, my Norcold is serving as dry storage in it's place in the TM. The mini-fridge is sitting next to it, on the floor until I am satisfied that all is well. However, I plan to leave the exterior vents in place. I'll put some sheets of carbon air filters on the inside of the exterior vents (to help keep rain out) and I will leave the current exhaust fan in place.
This fridge only requires a 500W (or less) pure sine wave inverter. The most wattage that I've seen at start-up was about 240W for about 1 second. Technically, a 150/300W inverter would do it but that's a bit iffy in my book. Don't even think about using a modified sine wave. The compressor won't like it. My bet is that the 12V/110V fridge that costs over $1K is simply a 110V fridge. I'll bet that they have a 12G, 12V input and an internal 250W (or so) inverter.
I built a 12V fridge/freezer on my yacht years ago. I put the compressor unit in the engine room and ran the refrigerant lines into the galley. I built the actual, heavily insulated fridge/freezer cabinets into the counters. I was even thinking about doing that in the TM because I could give my wife a 2 cu ft freezer and 4 cu ft fridge in the space between the galley sink counter and the place where the inner part of the slide out comes. I'm just getting too old for a massive project like that....... maybe....... nah...... well, maybe.
If you do need a new inverter, do a search for "Newpowa inverter". I would give you a link but the last time that I posted a link to them, they spammed this website. Their products are top notch but I'm a little disappointed in their marketing techniques. Their 500W pure sine wave inverter is only $65. I have their 2000w with remote control panel ($320).