Should You Buy a 12V DC Refrigerator?
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- Опубликовано: 29 авг 2023
- A sad tale about what the marketing doesn't tell you about actually USING a 12V DC refrigerator, particularly for car camping or other away-from-home activities. Hint: It's not about the fridge, it's about the power.
Links for some items mentioned in the video (that I actually own and use, sorry some have been discontinued):
ICECO 12V refrigerator: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07...
Renogy power station (discontinued): www.amazon.com/Renogy-Phoenix...
Renogy 50W solar panel: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07...
55W USB-C PD car charger: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08...
100W folding solar panel (discontinued):
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09...
Wetown 300Wh portable power station:
www.amazon.com/dp/B0B8YZ8M76
So your problem isn't the refrigerator. And you keep buying junk batteries. And half assing your way through your choice process!
You said it before I did mate
I broke it down in my reply. Expecting 300wHr can handle 2 days of a 65w refrigerator. Solar only being 50w and thinking it bails you out when almost always never 50w possible.
Oh, I brought a 12v ice machine when I went camping last month. Saved weight and used small foam box and insulated bag for my food and beer 🍺.
I came to the comments section to say this.
Guy bought a 30 something AH power station when he should have bought a 100AH battery with a DCDC charger with mppt controller on board.
Second issue seems to be not looking past amazon.
All you need is a 100 ah lifepo4 battery and wire Anderson power pole connections on both battery and fridge done. Never have a problem runs for 4-5 days
Be nice to the old guy, he’s trying to be helpful
I have a Jackery 300, 100 watt solar panel and 55 liter ICECO refrigerator. I think total I paid was about $750. If I saved $2/day by not buying ice, it would take me over a year of camping to pay for itself. It's definitely a luxury of not having to buy ice all the time and getting your food soaked in water though.
I'm okay with a little luxury. 😁 At my age I'm not going to live long enough to see economic payback on my "toys".
A little advice if you don't mind.
Watching RUclips videos of power stations and DC fridges probably would have led you to a suitable power station. I have never heard of most of those power stations and I have plenty. A few 300 to 800w that would run the Iceco no problem.
You did by a decent DC fridge thankfully 👍
@@foodforestretirement2799 No, I'm happy for advice. And RUclips is certainly a good source for that as well. But most RUclipsrs are into reviewing the latest stuff, so you don't find much long term reliability information, especially with new models coming out so often. I put a lot of my research effort into trying to sort out Amazon reviews, although their "rating" system makes it a lot of work to dig out the useful statistics and genuine users. At least with RUclips you know they've actually seen one. 😏
@anoldretiredguy 👍 I started getting into solar and power stations 5 years ago and watching multiple videos of products has never led me astray.
I have been running a bigger Iceco as my drink fridge 24/7 for those 5 years.
It really paid off knowing beforehand what I needed and what was reliable. That information I got from RUclips.
I do many things with solar and power stations including run my 50 inch TV and charge all my tools and ebikes which I have 4. I'm 60 years old for reference.
It was a luxury at first but I think this hobby has started to be close to paying for itself 🤣
@@foodforestretirement2799 Congratulations on that - if I started thinking about getting my hobbies to pay for themselves, I'd probably give them all up. Knowing beforehand what you need is for sure critical - I was a project engineer for 30+ years and setting the requirements up front is the only good way to avoid failure. Fortunately in this case I didn't have a need, only a curiosity, so I could afford to fail. Otherwise I would have done what so many of the comments recommend and been much more conservative. That would not have been nearly as interesting.🥱
I just stayed home! The movies were endless, the beer much colder and I saved a ton of gas!
I bought a Coleman 12v cooler way back when. I used it as my only fridge on a job location the entire summer. It worked like a champ. My suv had a marine deep cycle battery. I only opened the fridge 2x a day and it actually made ice after a few days. I ran my vehicle 20 minutes a day and the windows down, and that was it. Amazing, the plastic cracked after a decade. Add another decade and the foam dissolved.. It is no longer usable but it saved my bacon, quite literally kept those piggy strips frosty in the summer sun.
I researched my purchase for almost 2 years also did the math over and over before I deciding what best suited my needs. I ended up spending about $3,500 for everything. My system has ran continuously and flawless for a few years now. Through many hurricanes and power outages it has saved me. My system has paid for itself by atleast twice what it cost. I have no regrets for getting a Renogy system. I think the trick was buying 2 times the battery and solar capacity recommended. Renogy is a solid company. Sure they have released a few products that perform less than competitors but over all they have some excellent equipment and I would hardly consider them "cheap". Due diligence and research is your own responsibility.
I have a full size DC chester freezer powered by Renogy solar system. I was watching this video because I was interested in getting a portable fridge for tractor (Freightliner).
After watching this video I am having second thoughts. I've been an OTR truck driver for about 10 years and a regular ice chest has served my needs just fine. I'm less than a year from retirement from this line of work. Your video saved me from making a costly impulse buy. Thank you for the video.
I didn't buy a power station but bought 2 100 amp houf LifePo4, that gives me 2560 watt hours. $600 for the two batteries, and they're even less expensive now.
This is the way
I learned early on, there is no perfect solution. Either you are managing power or ice. At least with an Ice Chest I have cubes for my beverages.
Good info and valid points, but for the power stations stick with one of the big three…..EcoFlow, Bluetti, Jackery. I have two videos powering my IceCo Go20. One with a Bluetti and one with an EcoFlow.
I have the go 20 and the JP 40 pro. I run these off a ecoflows, bluetti or pecron when camping. This guy is buying total crap solar generators. My 1st gen river pro ran my JP40 for 3 days no solar and while camping. He should learn not to cheap out on these sogens
Good to have 1000 to 2000 watt hours of battery and 200 to 400 watts of solar
I have a 55 quart Massimo from Costco. My rockpals power station 300 watt runs it for 16 hours. I’ve had no trouble with mine in 3 years that I’ve owned it. I run it off my truck power while driving and household power when plugged into the grid. I don’t even use solar off grid, even though I have portable panels. So if I plan to go off grid I turn it to freezing throw some frozen water bottles in it and the. The food. When the temperature get up to just over freezing I can run it 30 minutes and refreeze the bottles. Frozen stuff on Bottom refrigerated on top. I’ve camped for a week this way and not used up my 300 watts on my power source. One thing that helps is a power station that fast charges. My truck has a 400 watt inverter built in so one hour of idle time could charge my power source.
A little math up front would have saved you some of the issues you had (have). I have an ICECO VL60D refrigerator. Testing and acquiring data at home revealed that it uses (needs) about 350 Watt/hours every day (both sides of this dual zone fridge set at 35°F). Anticipating for cloudy days, I wanted enough battery to operate the fridge two days autonomously. That means I need at least 700 Watt/hours of battery (350 WH x 2 days). I selected a good (name brand) "solar generator" that provided 1000 Wh of battery. I figured I'd be using the extra power for a few other things at the same time (like my CPAP that uses about 100 Watt hours per night). Selecting the proper sized solar panel(s) is a little more ambiguous but I wanted to be able to fully recharge my solar generator with one day's worth of sunlight. Since solar power is basically a bell curve throughout the day from sunrise-noon-sunset, I chose two 100 Watt panels. 200 Watts for 12 hours a day of sunshine is roughly 1600 Watt hours of energy - the fridge using 350 WH and my CPAP uses 100 WH during the same period leaving me with 1150 WH to charge the solar generator battery. In practice, this has worked fairly well and sustainable for months in the Arizona desert. However, I think a third 100 Watt solar panel would alleviate some of those 'close call' days where I almost ran out of power and might even get me through a winter when the solar panels don't work so well.
I have 2 solar generators. A Vtoman and Buetti. Both have 1800 watt inverters. My van has a 200 watt panel on the roof and I have the Iceco DZ 60. Ive had no issues like you describe but also have alot more invested.
OMFG!!! I found myself almost screeming at the laptop while watching this video.... Your using power stations that are way too small for what your trying to use them for, 500wh and less is only any use for charging small electronics etc in most cases for weekend camping trips. To run a compressor fridge reliably you need a considerably bigger capacity. As for solar panels in this application.... you are trolling youtube right??? 50W panel ?? To recharge a power station while still running the compressor fridge your gonna need much more solar than that... 200w of panels possibly would not be enough... certainly not here in the UK.
My personal advice is stick to Eco-Flow / Bluetti or Newer LiFePo4 Jackery power stations
This is one of those "it depends" issues. My new 300 Wh power station operated the fridge as a test for about 24 hours with no recharging, and I used the old 337 Wh one for 24 hours last weekend with only about 7 hours of sun on Saturday and came back with it 75% charged. (My "stationary" folding panel is 100W, but the power station will only accept 50W.) It's like I said in the video, it's all about how you intend to use it - I'm not down in Arizona where it's really hot but we do get lots of sun, my fridge uses only 33W (peak, not average) in eco mode, and I don't intend to be out for more than 2 or 3 days at the most. If I were going to live in the car, that would be an entirely different story.
Thank you so much... I was toying with this and my cooler works easy enough. Maybe in 5 years when the units are more mature.
Thanks for the heads-up brother.👍
I wish I had seen this video before I bought my refrigerator because you just summed up my life with my refrigerator.
Yeah, I wish I had seen it too. It's been an ongoing saga that I would cheerfully have skipped.😏
@@anoldretiredguyit sure seems like there's no issues with the DC fridge, but rather your choices for 12v supplies to run it. I have a Bluetti EB3A to run my Iceco fridge, and its given me zero problems on multiple road trips and running as an AC-DC adapter at my destination. I've used it with DC in from a lighter socket and with the built-in AC charger. I expect it'd run fine from solar if I was camping, assuming sufficient sunlight conditions. If I was really concerned, I'd get more solar panels and a bigger battery unit to ensure multiple days of runtime, or just run the car or a gas generator occasionally to top if off as needed.
@@mlindholm That's pretty much me also. The fridge & my Renogy power station have worked perfectly, charging it from AC, lighter socket, USB-C and solar. Where it went wrong was when I tried to get a much bigger power station without spending a fortune. As it turned out, I'm fine having 2 small ones instead. And my 2 solar panels (one on top of the car, one on a 30 foot extension) are perfect as long as there IS any sun.
Thought about getting one for the work truck to keep drinks cold since my truck runs about 4 hours a day but it seems like I should just stick to the ice chest. All well, not all my ideas are good ones. Thanks for the video.
Clearly not all mine are good ones either. But I do learn more from mistakes than the ones that "just work".
@@anoldretiredguy …. There is a trick I learned ….I place a frozen water bottle in my 12v fridge and when or if power shuts down the frozen water bottle keeps drinks cold …. Everyone likes ice cold water anyway
@@jefftatchio6091 I usually keep several water bottles in mine as well partly for thermal mass. Frozen would be better for that but I don't want the fridge quite cold enough to keep them that way.
@3:38 Battery running down is like the ice melted. At least with solar you have a chance of recharging. 😊 @5:16 EcoFlow Delta’s are good.
This should have been titled "my troubles with Power stations" and not about refrigerators. I have a 12v 50qt iceco frige that I take on long trips into the woods. I also have a small 20 qt Alpincool frige that I take for weekenders. Both are great and work like a champ. I use 2 100ah deep cycle batteries with a 160w panel and a backup 175w flex panel. Power stations that are rated less than 1000w are not enough to run a refrigerator for very long, as you found out. Another lesson that you've learned is that Amazon sells lots of china made junk, buyer beware. One should always research and compare a product for quite a while before buying.
Thank you for the video. In 2018 I converted a Promaster cargo van into a camper van. I have a very good 12-volt fridge system, but it did cost me a lot. In fact I have so much power that I also cook with an induction burner and have a small (600 watt) microwave in the van. My current system has 400 watts of solar on the roof of the van and a 3 KW Pecron solar generator. However, prior to the Pecron I was using a 1.7 KW Bluetti with success. I have seen videos of people using 300 watt hour batteries and 100 watts of roof solar with a fridge, but that (as you have pointed out) would be very tricky. I go away for weeks at a time and my set up is part of my camping hobby, so it wasn't an economic decision. It will cost if you want to have vehicle refrigeration.
Yea, the key is having enough solar and enough battery power. We have 300 amp hours of battery and 400 watts of solar panels. In New Mexico is rare to go more than a day with no sun so that provides plenty of power. That will run a TV, dvd, computers and 2 12v fridges. One for ice, one for food. That said, it sure wasn't cheap but it does work well.
I think lots of solar, generators etc oversell their capabilities so, if you want a system that really works, you have to over do it somewhat and, like you say, it will cost you.
I am a mobile tech, I keep one in my van and love it, stays cold for a wile when off. Seems to get everything back cold an hour or so into my day. Gives me two things cold drinks, and fridge to stop by store and keep something cold till I am back home. But in my case its always plugged in so
First lesson. Watch Hobotech before buying a solar generator. A 1200 watt hour so gen will get you through the weekend if you are not using an electric coffee pot. If you do, then a solar panel is a good idea. You can also get more out of a solar generator if you need to by simply buying a 12v 100ah LiFePO4 battery and a cheap DC Voltage Booster Converter DC 12V Step Up to 24V 3A 72W Power Converter. There are videos on youtube that show you how to do this. My goal is to stop using propane while camping. And yes there is a learn curve to this. Practice and patients. And you get what you pay for applies here Cheers.
What I didn't see was a brand name power station. Like JACKERY! They are flawless.
Not trying to start any arguments here, just noting that for the 4 most popular Jackery power station models on Amazon, almost 7.5% of the actual reviews (not 'ratings', which are meaningless) are 1- or 2-stars. This is excellent for the class of products, but it isn't quite 'flawless'.
Anyway, it's irrelevant in my case because I was not trying for "most reliable" - more aiming at "cheapest that works". I clearly underestimated the needed for my particular goals, but that's largely because there was little or no published data on actual energy consumption of the fridges. (Because it depends on so many variables.) I did try to remedy that lack of data in my two follow-on videos, but the answer is still "it depends on your specific use case".
Brilliant, I love you humour. Thank you.
Utah Jeff …. Here….I realized early on that 2 power stations are essential for a 12v fridge….one being used one being charged during the day. Bought these 2 years ago and recently noticed that the recharge tech has increased to the point that you can get a 1500 WH power station to wall charge in 60 minutes and can take up to 800 watts of solar … if you have enough solar panels ….!however, heat is issue with all power stations so I would be careful fast charging unless necessary
I recommend you need to get at minimum a Bluetti AC180 or better yet, a Bluetti AC200Max with one or two PV200/PV350 solar panels. I have the AC180/PV200 combo and it runs my Iceco JPPro nicely! Buy once, cry once.
Very nice but way overkill for my limited use case, which is one or two nights in the car. Even my 300 Wh unit will do that if the sun shines. (And if it doesn't I tend to go home after the first night anyway - don't like camping in the rain.😒)
@@anoldretiredguy Roger that.
Perfect timing for me, mabey I can invest in a 2 x 400Ah lifepo4 12v plus roof panel plus gas? something to think about, thanks
Nice video keep up the good work fella
You need a much better power generator to run the fridge and you need at least a 100 watt panel. Something like an Ecoflow Delta would do the trick. Take that tiny little generator in your tent and run a light or a fan.
You might be surprised. These 12v fridges are pretty efficient. If yer not a dufus parking yer solar panels in the shade. All this guys issues is being cheap on the brand side.
@@chublezyup. My little EB3A works great for a DC fridge, I just don't plan on it running the fridge all day in 90F ambient conditions from it.
Thank you for your video. You made the same mistake I did years ago in buying a power bank. I bought a Inergy Apex and that was a mistake because it is useless in using it for 12V fridges. Back then, I did not understand about regulated voltage so I don't use it for that purpose. I use it to power garden equipment . I then bought 2 500W Jackeries because they had regulated voltage ports. Fantastic but expensive. The con now is the price and the charging speed but I can power a 45qt 12V fridge for about 43 hours in the Texas heat. Buying a 100W panel will produce more input voltage on the Jackery than actually outputs which varies about 38 watts to 55 watts. Also you need to know that depending on the solar panel brand the efficiency of the panel can actually produce only 80 watts not the full 100 watts. You made errors in not understanding the science of solar energy and in buying cheap batteries. You always spend more money going the cheap route in the long run.
In my area we experience grid power outages all the time. For me 12V fridges are a lifesaver because I can transfer food from my 26 cu.ft. fridge which uses around 135 to 150 watts of a/c power to my 12V fridges which only use about 38 watts to 55 watts for both of my dometics depending on the heat outside. With my Jackeries 500 I run both fridges and one 100W solar panel will charge both units. I just split the time charging both of them between 2 to 3 hours each. If it is a cloudy day I know that it will keep my fridge running for about 43 hours before they need to be charged. The key is to keep them charged as often as you can while using them. I have used then in this manner for 8 days without losing food.
Watching you tube videos should be for entertainment only. Review should never be taken at full value because a lot of these you tubers receive products for free and never really use them in real life scenarios. How many times have you seen one do a long term review to see if it is reliable or check out their customer service. They are no different than prostitutes, but prostitutes have dignity . Not saying you tube is all bad because there are videos I have learned from, but reviews are a different category, the reviews will not bite the hand that feeds them.
Thanks for the comments. There are indeed a lot of misunderstandings about solar panels, and a very common one is that they fail to produce rated output because of efficiency. That is true but only to the extent that their output goes down with temperature, and the ratings are established at a temperature (25C) that is unlikely to be sustained in actual use ('cause they get hot in the sun - surprise.) But they also don't generally produce rated output because there simply isn't enough sun. The ratings are based on a solar irradiance of 1000 W/m2, which is maybe going to happen in the middle of a perfectly clear day in the southwestern U.S. or even further south.
Also even the best PWM controller is not going to be able to extract 100% of the panel's output. So I was more than a little surprised when my 50W Renogy panel actually produced a measured 50W where I live at 43 degrees N latitude - presumably they under-rated it some, which is almost unheard of in the solar business.
solid video sir keep em comin
Solar powered system only make sense if you get the right size and you use it ..not part time full time ...after a period of time they pay for themselves ...then it's gravy From that point on. 10:07
In the future, buy a better, name brand power station with a solid reputation and at least 1000 watt hours of performance. Translation: you may be spending $1000 to $1500 to run your $500 fridge.
I'm nearing 70 years of age and bought the predecessor of the ICECO JP40 back in 2016. It has been a game changer for road trips and camping. I had no difficulty at the time of purchase in adding wiring to my truck in order to install a 20 amp CETEK DC to DC charger, which charges a separate low tech AGM battery. I get at least 48 hours of run time before the AGM battery reaches 12.2 volts.
HOWEVER -- to address your cheapskate concerns, the price of my old tech electrical set up was about the same cost as 250 10lb bags of ice @ $2.00 a bag. That's about $500 in 2016 dollars. Maybe a little more. The old tech investment in electric power has lasted 7 years and the convenience of not dealing with ice has been worth it. The Indel TB41A fridge was a $400 purchase.
Sorry to criticize, but the power stations shown in this video look to be at the low budget, no name, bottom of the barrel garbage end of what is available.
Its important to do the math before hand and properly size your system, I have 400AH of lifepo4 cells or 4.8 kwh of power, and 600 watts of solar, with a 40 amp charge controller 1500 watt inverter. My alpicool 60 quart fridge is on full time 24-7 and I can be in the shade for over a week and not run out of power. the biggest power suck in my camper is the microwave but I only need to run it maybe five minutes day. I have only run the camper batteries down to zero one time, the wife was camping in the shade and running the Nintendo and Tv for ten days straight while camping by herself. We just moved the trailer to a sunny spot and kept on camping.
It was a lot of money to set up but my wife and I spend a lot of time in the trailer and boondocking is our preferred way to camp so being able to have power without plugging in was important to us.
Did try a 12v 30ltr fridge from Amazon for £260 for my van conversion and it didn't work. Ended up getting a Russell Hobbs 42 ltr ac for £90 to run off my Delta Max 2000 and 300w solar. Works great and if I am running low on power I turn it off and it becomes a cool cupboard. Could probably do with a battery extension and another 200w solar for winter, but in winter it is colder too.
my Jinsanity 12 volt fridge has been great. The app was flaky, but their team was very responsive and I got them to fix the app. I run it off one large solar panel and some FLA batteries. I set it to freeze a large block of ice in the bottom, so when the sun goes down it does not need to run much. It has in built low battery cut off. I did make a larger gauge DC cable for it.
Have you heard of RYOBI? It runs on batteries, 12V, or 110V. Mine works perfectly for our camping trips.
I bought my Vevor 12 volt 55 qt refrigerator for off grid cabin where I have 6 solar panels 100 watts each going to 4 100 ah batteries and no other electricity. I have the refrigerator and a 5000 btu air conditioner so the food stays cold and the cabin stays fairly cool. I use it about 6 months year without any problems. and when it is cold there I heat with My Vevor 12 volt diesel fuel heater or wood. big batteries and plenty of solar panels so power is no problem.
I got by for many years in a '98 Econoline van with a factory dual battery setup, a Norcold 3.1 cubic ft refrigerator (ran on 120V to cool down the night before each trip, then on 12V while on the road). I carried a Honda 2,000W generator for the days I didn't want to run the van engine, and to power a coffeemaker & small microwave oven (not at same time). The generator (20 yrs old & still runs) has a fuel vent shut off on the tank lid, which when closed, does not let out even a whiff of gasoline vapor.
The way I see it is, the powerstation I bought is an alternative source of power over night so I don't have to hear a generator. If you get a decent one you can fire up a small generator for 1 hour to charge it inputting 1400W of power. I bought the ecoflow delta. Just over 1000 watt hours of power. Enough to run my fridge/freezer for the 6-8hrs I will sleeping. Aswell as lights. Etc etc.
With respect to solar “generators” you need to assume you are only going to get about 25% of the rated nameplate capacity.
Get a couple AGM 31 batteries, a couple 100w fold up solar panels with controller.
When dealing with 12 vdc there's NO cutting corners
Thank you for the reality check. What are the alternatives for longer-term camping?
I'm probably the wrong person to ask about that - I do my long-term camping in a motorhome with several hundred watts of solar panels and a DC/propane refrigerator. But there are a number of RUclips channels by people who live in their "overland" vehicles full-time or take extended road trips in them. I mostly follow the ones that are basically travel channels, like "Eva zu Beck" and "SUV RVing".
There are many options if you plan correctly. Even some of the cheaper but reliable 12v fridges, such as Bougerv, can come with added battery packs. Some of us who live off grid use 12v appliances, portable power stations and solar panels on a daily basis. I live full time in a yurt in the woods of northern California and have several Goal Zero power stations of various sizes, which are my only source of electricity. I have a 1,000 watt one, two 500x, and one 200x. I use each of these for different needs. They're charged by either a 200 watt panel or a 100 watt panel which are both set up on my deck. I mostly use these power stations to charge electronic devices and power lights and DC fans in the summer (Vornado DC brushless). However, I do have a substantial 12v chest refrigerator made by SunDanzer which is powered by the 1,000 watt unit, but also runs just fine on either of the 500 watt ones. The compressor draws very little power and does not cause the slightest inconvenience. It would take several days to run any of the batteries down if I had no sun, but I would simply rotate the power stations, which takes a little planning. Normally, if I plug the 100 watt panel into the power station during the day while it's running the fridge it will stay 100% charged. No PG&E bill, no power outages, and no more propane fridge either, which is what I used to have!
I think Dometic make some of the most efficient compressor-based fridges e.g. CDF26 but you will need to plan sufficient available electricity even for these. For an RV I would go with Dometic but a cheap option would be to find a small top-loading chest freezer (because they are better insulated than fridges) and substitute the thermostatic control for one that operates around -5C instead of around -15C.
Maybe you just stick to 12 volt, pick up a lithium battery and solar controller?
I have a used 12 volt refrigerator & a used power station & they work great, love them.
If all you want to do is power a 12 volt fridge, an all-in-one solar generator is overkill as they all contain an AC inverter that you don't need. A 12 volt, 100AH, LIFePO battery is about $300. That provides 1280 Watt Hours of energy. A good 20 Amp MPPT solar charge controller is less than $100, and 100 Watt folding solar panels are about $120 each. For about $640, you would have a power solution that would run your fridge at least three days without sun and charge your battery completely with one day of sunshine.
Thank you :)
I switched to a 12 V fridge due to ice availability of finding block ice seems to be harder to find, even near campgrounds. By the way you pay for what you get.
I prefer the ice . I have a yeti 24 roadie . In my suv with tinted windows the ice last 5 days . I’d rather buy a bag of ice than waiting for a solar panel to charge a power station.
I use a Bluetti AC180 with my dometic fridge, works for 4+ days
There is a new power station called yoshino, supposed to be the most powerful one yet. Very pricey but hey reach out to them and see if they would volunteer one for an evaluation with your iceco.
Nonsense! My Iceco 55 runs great 24/7 on my solar system
Thanks
I have a smaller 12v fridge which I use in my car and my travel trailer. The car has an 82kWH battery, so the fridge doesn’t really have any effect. The trailer has a 2kWH lithium battery and then another 2kWH semi portable (60 pounds) battery/inverter on wheels and a little 300w unit (7 pounds) and 360 watts of solar on the roof and 100 watt folding panel.
The old RV fridge gave up the ghost and the little 12v fridge saved the day. I have a bunch of large ice chests, but you really have to keep buying ice, or things warm up. And the temperature fluctuates in the ice chests but is pretty stable in the little 12volt.
Plus the 12v is not as touchy about being level as the RV fridge. I think the replacement RV fridge will be a 12v instead of a 3 way.
I haven’t had any issues with my “solar generators”, but I notice that there is a wide variety of quality things sold online and both of mine are “name brand “ which may or may not be worth anything
Everything you brought up is factual, it is a want, not a need. I have the Iceco APL55 and love it, powered by a Pecron E600LFP, Whilst driving the Pecron is plugged into 12V and the APL55 is plugged into the Pecron. When parked I have a Pecron 200W solar panel that powers the Pecron that powers the APL55. Its a chore to juggle it all I admit but it's handy to have and it's part of my life now. 1500 invested btw
Power stations are a relatively new kind of device and you really need to study and research these things to figure them out. You have to educate yourself. Input power, output power, capacity, battery chemistry, manufacturer, and many other factros. You don't just order any cheap chinese power station. There's a lot of junk out there. But there are good products too. Usually they are used mainly as an AC power source, otherwise you would just use a 12V battery with the appropriate components. A little larger initial investmen in a good, suitable power sation or a 12V battery setup, might save you much of your trouble and frustrations, and might even serve as a backup power for your home at the same time. Thanks for sharing your story.
Almost ALL portable power stations regardless of brand are made in China. Few, if any, are actually manufactured in USA with USA components.
China has good brands, and China has bad brands.
You made me bust out in laughter when you got to the part about; dont get me started about the cables…. True , true , true… ive got about 1200 in my 12v fridge and solar. Lol….
Good video
my recommendation skip all but the biggest and best PowerStation's unless you just have light loads buy the lipo 4 batteries wire cigar socket and a good sign wave inverter i bought 2 renergy 50 watt solid panels and i going to hinge them
add a small solar charger and about $75 bucks i got a 100 watt folding panel weighs about 15 lb and it can stay out in rain and dont fles flexing destroys folding panels sure its not sleek but i have 1000 in 3 batteries 3600+watt hours
Do you mean "Ice-co"? Never heard it called, "Ice-ee-co". ❤
uh... I'd buy an LFP battery... next you'll need those alligator clamps to attach at the terminals... or battery lugs. Basically you can extend the power station's life by triple. Your example of 600Wh power station plus the LFP battery, it looks like a car battery and has 1280Wh. You would trickle charge the power station with the battery and since the compressor cycles on and off it's not drawing power the entire time... could work.
Rough calculation the portable 25qt fridge could run 5 days on ~1900Wh. Uh... I've tried the battery but didn't test how long the fridge will run - try it in the garage before camping.
Pecron e600LFP 1200watts for $300 plus a LiFePO4 battery for $190... well yes, compared to a $25 cooler plus ice is simpler.
It is true that the 12 V DC refrigerators are costly compared to ice. Having said that, I have a Ryobi refrigerator that with two 18v 9amp batteries the refrigerator lives up to its claim that it will last 23 hours. I already had the batteries, eight to be exact, so I'm good for almost 4 days. That is as long as ice and my food stays dry. Bonus, the refrigerator has a light that comes on when you open the door.
I never laughed so hard 😂. I’m old too I love this video
Nailed it. I would rather get a honda eu2200 /1000 and run it off grid.
Would like a 12V fridge in my van, (very expensive) but I wound up using a 117Vac fridge (lots cheaper) with using a DC to AC sine wave inverter. I have 3-100amp hr lithium batt's + 560watts of solar on roof. My setup would last about 5 days or more with fridge on 24hrs a day. Including an induction stove top.
I'm a big fan of "lots cheaper", especially since my interests are broad enough that I can't afford to indulge them all. Your setup is basically a slightly scaled down version of what many high end motorhomes offer now. My (old) motorhome has an AC/propane fridge which I can run indefinitely regardless of the sun, but I would never pay the price for one of those if it hadn't come with the motorhome.
@@anoldretiredguyYes indeed, I did enjoy your video, informative and easy to listen to. Would I like to own all this stuff, yes, do I really, really need it to camp with, no,…thank you for assisting me in my decision .👍🏽
Never coming back, to this guy. This video is so misleading.
I was in the market for a 12v fridge but quickly realized it would cost over a grand easy factoring in all the costs.
That’s a lot of money to spend on something that’ll get used a handful times a year.
I think I’ll stick to my ice chests for the occasional backyard BBQs, beach trips and few day camping trips.
check out borge i had my unit a yr i used both 35 ah sla about 27 hrs and a 100 ah several days ipo4 VATRER POWER with low temp around 300 bucks i use it 2x month and 4 days after ian as freezer i biugh the borge after seeing a camper u t on the az desert it was bouncing around in back of a side by side all dirty and ran fine
Get a power station and a separate lifepo4 battery for DC charging of the power station. Costs are much less than buying a big power station.
Idk what he thought 50 watts of solar was supposed to do 😂
The fact is you get what you pay for. Ive used a Eco Flow delta mini for over a year now and it runs my fridge on 12v or 240v here in UK for days. 200watt solar on my vans roof.
Rule of thumb:
Expect to get 1/2 the power from a solar panel than what they claim.
Expect to get 1/3rd or so our of a power station.
Any TEC refrigerator will only cool down about 20-25 degrees lower than ambient temperature.
Probably one the better choices might be a log cabin refrigerator that uses propane.
You can get a far better refrigerator that way.
I need a portable freezer for medical reasons. I can't go a full day or an overnight without it. I bought a 12v freezer off Amazon and a cheap portable power station, pre-cooled the little freezer and loaded it up with ice just to help as much as I could, and took off for my first full day trip. The poor little freezer chugged it's little heart out the entire time and the power station did its job without wavering, but the freezer never got below refrigerator temps. After 8 hours, everything I needed frozen was now just cold and ruined. Honestly, I've had good ice chests that did better.
I thought about keeping it as a portable fridge, but it really did use *all* my power and I don't need a fridge that large. I had to accept that this thing will never meet my needs and now I'm back to the drawing board. So far, I'm not finding a solution that doesn't cost a mint. My choice is to spend more than $1000 that I don't have or resign myself to never, ever going on a little trip again. Guess I'm saving the money until it's possible because I can't imagine being trapped for life.
You might consider using dry ice for an overnight. We used it for a bit when our RV fridge died a year ago, and it's certainly capable of keeping things frozen for a day or two. It just doesn't last very long, and you have to be careful not to get things TOO cold - many years ago I turned a cooler full of food into inedibles by using too much and not keeping food out of direct contact with it. (Powdered hardboiled eggs - ugh.) My strategy is to put an insulating layer of some sort on top and put regular ice on top of that to provide some thermal mass. But my ICECO fridge will certainly freeze stuff (in the bottom) if I turn it down a few degrees below freezing (maybe 26 to 28) - I have frozen multiple water bottles in it.
@@anoldretiredguy That is a fantastic idea! I never considered dry ice. My husband has a high end soft cooler that would work perfectly and be able to be stored in smaller spaces. Thank you so much! I dearly appreciate it.
I'm running mine with a 230ah lithium battery, problem solved. Can run over a week on that battery.
Solar and DC based "house hold" appliances can be tricky to get a good value for dollar. It's still very much a luxury/niche item. I was going to buy a 12v standard fridge for the RV I live in, but the cost is just insane. It was cheaper to just increase the size of my battery bank to offset the small power conversion inefficiency.
I have a ICECO JP50 it uses to much power in my opinion and i have a terrible time keeping it at a constant temp. and i use a solar generator to power it.
I hear a lot of "should be" and I don't hear any math regarding wattage and watt-hours. Also, why a power station and not a 12v battery which is way cheaper per watt-hour?
There are lot's of 'why's in my case that may or may not apply to someone else: I need to use it in multiple vehicles (and other camping activities), and a power station provides built in charging from AC, my car, solar panels etc. without a mishmash of components and wiring. Also it includes USB charging and power for whatever (including 120V AC if needed) as part of the package. If it was a permanent installation, the story would probably be different - the 'portable' part happens to matter in my case.
If you want numbers, you obviously haven't seen the follow-up videos to this one, where I lost most of my viewers with more graphs and test data than they wanted to see.😳 Try one of these:
ruclips.net/video/vxZeL8qf4yw/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/7HNsdEqf2vs/видео.html
I have a 45liter setpower and a 600wat power bank with lifpo batteries. My power bank is really 250wh. It runs my fridge 3to 4 days. I don’t understand how yours is using so much power. I don’t have a solar panel yet.
My fridge is for my van I’m building. I plan on getting a big battery eventually I think that’s better then buying everything separately. I personally want my van to be off grid for 4-5 days. But I also have a gas generator if things go south (should we say).
Power consumption for a 12V fridge varies with ambient temperature and how low you set the thermostat, among other things. (Mine uses about 45W in "eco" mode while running, but it runs a variable fraction of the time depending on those settings.) That probably accounts for much of the wide variance of opinions on how much battery storage is needed for one, in addition to how long you want it to operate, how often you open it, how confident you want to be in it and maybe the phase of the moon. 🤥
@@anoldretiredguy I’m going through this with my dads fridge. He needs one for his medication and drinks. He’s a diabetic so he need food an sugar. Anyway he has a iceco 25liter. He’s had it for 4years. We just got him a battery. It’s the same size as mine but the fridge only lasts 2 days. My next step is to try my battery on his and his on mine. Then we can see what the problem is. I’m wondering if set power is just more efficient it’s very well insulated. That might be the big difference. Of course iceco has a better warranty 5 years setpower 3 years. Then again I’m a diesel mechanic what do I know!
"Overlanding".. ugh hate that term lol
See you when I return to Arkansas
It's the low amperage of the power station not the voltage
You are the problem.
You thought that a 300whr unit handles a 65 w refrigerator for 2 days. You expect solar to bail you out when 50w of solar CAN NOT produce 50w every day. You never heard of redundancy or you would have planned for excess capacity, if you erred and you did error.
You bought a big refrigerator, but not a big solar generator. It can provide a kw of power and take 500w of solar. You can cook with electricity or at least boil water for coffee ☕ in the morning also.
I just went camping 🏕️ in September. I have a 12v frig and left it home when I was gone 2 nights. I have a kw, 600w, and 250w solar generators. I brought my 12v ice machine. I used a small insulated bag and small styrofoam box. One held my food and the other my beer. No solar was produced. Made coffee, used electric griddle one time, charged my lights and phone, and of course made ice. I brought a small blue ice bag too. I never ran out of power. I operated a propane stove only to make scrapple 2 times. I had excess power available.
I planned ahead. I forgot my charcoal and wood pellets for my backpacking stove, so I used electricity and propane. No crisis!
Ice melts... No more fridge. 😂
Mines been running 24/7 for months ...none stop. .read my comments to understand why
You vastly under specified the battery / power pack and the solar panels on this project every time you bought new hardware. That and the hardware you bought I’ve have never heard of which is a yellow light to start. You tube is a great resource for inspiration and know how on this sort of thing. Id suggest you do a lot more research before starting your next project . And remember “Google is your friend”
Yeah, that's pretty much the standard advice - buy the (expensive) known brands and buy big. I chose not to do that (knowing the risks), for a number of reasons, and I'm not particularly sorry I did it. The end result was good enough for my purposes - the fridge was an extravagance, not a necessity, and I'm not at all sure I'm going to bother with it for more than a 1- night excursion anyway. I ended up with two working (small, easy to carry) power stations that are plenty large enough for camping without the fridge. The video was just me whining, and it gave me the incentive to do a lot of testing, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
And by the way, I don't find Google (RUclips in particular) terribly useful for evaluating new products, because the initial information is typically either sponsored (if not outright fanboy stuff) or once-over-lightly rehashes of the manufacturer's literature. By the time some new Chinese-made anything has enough in-depth reviews to be meaningful, it has probably been replaced by a new and different model. But you are absolutely correct in that IF your first concern is reliability, it only makes sense to buy established brands that have a known track record. If I were buying something I wanted to last (and work) for years, that is most certainly the way I would go at it. This just wasn't one of those things. 🤔
@@anoldretiredguy that’s fair enough. Everyone’s different
@@anoldretiredguyYou're just cheap and wasting money on junk
Looks like you did a great job on researching the refrigerator but not such a great job on researching how to power it. Until you understand dc power, the relationship between volts, amps and watts and amp hours you do not have the tools to select a practical power source for your refrigerator. A good place to start is Will Prowse’s RUclips channel, DIY Solar Power with Will Prowse. Start with ‘HOW TO SIZE YOUR SOLAR SYSTEM”.
When in camp I plug my 12V IGLOO cooler into BLUETTI AC200 MAX "solar" battery (which is kept charged by a 220 watt Off Grid TREK solar blanket cable locke to my SUV roof rack). It keeps my food cool all day. after sunsetI unplug form the BLUETTI Li Fe Po4 battery. JUST BUY A GOOD FRIKKIN' LI FE PO4 BATTERY LIKE BLUETTI AC200 MAX. Don't be so cheap.
Forgot to mention a microwave oven too in my van!
best thing buy a 100 ah lipro4 battery around 300 bucks add a cigarette lighter socket. the fridge you bought is not small its medium as for your old power station that quit put 12 volts and reset the bms i had to do it with one of my batteries and some need a jump. i have bourge 23 qt. over a year 35 ah sla runs it a day and half my 100 ah lithium will run it for days
i use it 2x a month it best to plug in to ac and get your things cold . i also saved all my box frozen goods for 4 days during ian hurricane next time do some homework i have not bought a PowerStation i have 3 100 ah lipo4 batteries a good inverter
. about 1k in batteries about 150 for inverter
Weird coincidence? One sunday night i was entering the bed for the night but decided to chk AMAZON and there it was! 2 hour FLASH SALE with 35 mins left! Icceeco 40qt, $150 off regular price!!! The REST IS HISTORY 🤞👍🤞😅
The trick is a large enough system to never need to charge it ...much it needs to stay charged to 80% all the time 😅
Get an ecoflow river pro. Buy Once, Cry Once.
Nope both of them won't keep your fridge going for more then about 6 hours max...
A) Plan for not only a larger storage bank, but larger solar panel as well. The more available watts you have= The faster you can charge = The less Sun required to top off. So instead of a 300Wh solar power station and a 50w panel, do at minimum a 700-1000Wh and a 200-300 watt panel. What you mentioned at 8:30 is the wrong strategy. You actually want a LARGE solar panel to compensate for the number of hours required to top the battery off. Better to only need 2 hours of Sun to top off a battery than 5-6.
B) Stop buying useless Chinese junk
C) Prepare for alternative power source, for example a clean propane generator to recharge your solar generator via AC on days its cloudy.
D) At the end of the day, 12V fridges weigh 50 pounds with everything in them, so they only make sense when supplemented on a rig with a proper power solution. Depending on what "rig" you have, can make a huge difference in the effectiveness of being able to run a 12V fridge 24/7. Just to give you an idea, my IceCO APL55 dual zone will use a 500Wh in a 24 hour period, which means I need MINIMUM 1000WH solar generator and minimum 200-250 watts to charge it effectively in a day or two.
E) I agree with what you said about "WHY DO YOU NEED A FRIDGE?" For full time RVers/Nomaders its not even a question. For those weekend getaways, the most logical choice is just a regular cooler (i.e. Yeti).
For someone who needs their fridge to work "for sure" and continuously, I agree with most of your views. But that simply wasn't my use case - I only wanted it to work for 1 to 2 days, and I didn't care if my power station was completely discharged at that point. So having enough solar and battery capacity to keep it going was never my intention, which is the point most commenters have overlooked. Admittedly that is NOT what most users want, although I did try to make that clear. And I pretty much concluded that just using a regular cooler would indeed make more sense for someone like me. (However, since I already own the fridge and the power stations I may as well use them.🥴)
@@anoldretiredguy To be honest, the fault wasn't the 12V fridge at all, it was entirely the fault of the power station. On top of that you kept buying MORE Chinese power stations which are generally just the same crap rebranded under a different name, but use the same underlying technology. The biggest gripe I've always had with sus Chinese products is lack of transparency when it comes to reliable information or review. Almost every single highly-reviewed Chinese product you see on Amazon is basically buzz words. Not to mention marketing artifically inflates their reviews to the top. You pretty much hit the nail on the coffin when you made that comment about the 12V power ratings at 6:10 of your video. And also a great point about how would a non-technical user be expected to know that? Essentially you are advertising something as 12V but its operating voltage is 11.1 under load? Deceptive. It all traces back to DONT BUY UNTRUSTED Chinese crap. None of what you were talking about was a defect of the fridge itself. If someone bought a legitimate power station (Ecoflow/Goal Zero/Bluetti/etc) and a name brand 12V fridge (Iceco/Ecoflow/Dometic) they are engineered to support these fridges properly. TLDR - Get a real power station.
A strategy to mitigate the inconsistent voltage/load of the Chinese solar generator is to simply buy a portable battery bank optimized for the fridge and use it, then have the chinese power station POWER the bank. This way you are getting consistent voltage from the power bank, and the chinese power station continually will keep the portable power bank charged. Iceco for example sells a portable 250Wr battery that has a 12V plug. Now your power is coming reliably from the portable battery, instead of the Chinese power station. Or just buy a real power station. A little benefit is you also have a fault tolerant system. Should that cheap power station crap out (one of yours actually did), you can swap it for a backup unit should you have one. Granted 250Wr will probably only get you through half a day on a hot summer day, but 12 hours is enough time to realize something is wrong and mitigate it.
@@Steve-du1ic You make some very good points, but... Of course I would rather buy only name-brand products with a good (known) reputation. But this was basically an experiment in trying to do this cheaply, which obviously carried a higher risk of failure - which I was willing to accept. The project simply wasn't critical/important enough to justify spending a LOT more money for something that was basically a 'toy' (i.e. non-essential).
I do wish people would quit lecturing me about "Chinese crap/junk" versus "legitimate/name brand" power stations. Jackery and Bluetti are both made in China, and it's entirely possible for other Chinese manufacturers to make products that are as well built and reliable. It will probably happen (if it hasn't already), but then they won't be cheap any more either. I don't really subscribe to the idea that only the best or most reliable (and typically most expensive) product is worth having. (There was a time when I did feel that way, but my outlook has changed with age. Everybody's entitled to their own opinion.🤔)
Its almost as if you get what you pay for. Get a decent battery and guit trying to save a buck.
Sorry, "quit trying to save a buck" is not in my DNA, especially when it's something totally non-critical.
I looked at 12v fridges and came to the same conclusion you did. Ice is easier.
Mine has easily paid for itself in ice savings 😂. Not sure where yer getting cheap ice, or maybe you only camp 3 nights a year...
Seems most people just buy into the total hype aka BS they see on RUclips and hear on commercials... They don't spend two seconds to learn the basic understanding needed to determine how something works and will it work with the claimed nonsense they heard. Well 99.9999% of the time it won't. To run a 12 volt DC fridge a good one. I've had mine for almost three years now, it runs 24/7 in my custom Explorer Camper van. I have it tied to 200 amp hours worth ( 2 - 100 amp hour batteries ) AGM Deep Cycles... I have 200 watts ( 2 - 100 watt ) solar panels... 30 amp PWM charger I can run my fridge continuously provided it gets at least 6 or so hours of charge time at around 19 watts or so .. every day to every two days go much longer without a good half day of sun and you'll run your batteries down as well as end up damaging them if you run them on their low end of charge state ...anything under a 60% charge state is low. My point is to run a system with out fear you need at least 400 amp hours of battery power and 300 watta of solar panels minimum...
Your video makes some excellent points, but some of your downsides might be addressed by research beforehand (but yes, that assumes one realizes this isn't a simple grab-and-go purchase). To your viewers interested in the items you discussed, I highly recommend www.youtube.com/@Jasonoid for reviews on all of them; compressor-coolers, power stations, and solar panels. He also has a web site, where he makes available a grading sheet that compares the many models he has tested.
The short answer for me is that 12V compressor-coolers are a fantastic idea. I first bought a couple when our main refrigerator opted for early retirement and needed something quickly; I also knew I'd take one camping. They remain a viable backup for long-term power outages. That could be REALLY important if you have medication (e.g. insulin) that must be kept cool. I have two that I still run 24/7. One is kept around 15F and is used for freezer overflow and a place to put bags of flour before storage, in order to kill any bugs or eggs in them. The other is kept at 50F and is where I store a lot of nuts to keep them from going rancid, and a small supply of my own medication, They are a lot cheaper to run than a household refrigerator. I have a third, smaller one that I take on trips; a mere 200WH power station will run it all day long.
Thanks for the input, you make some good points. One of the good/bad things about RUclips is that there are so many videos on popular subjects that it's hard to find the best ones, and I didn't find any up front that addressed the actual efficiency very well. But in any event my fridge works great and it IS efficient - it was the reliability problems with the power stations that tripped me up. By the time there is any online reliability info on things like that, they're typically superceded by new ones.
Also you have some excellent (probably non-typical) use cases that change the pro/con arguments for a fridge completely. In my case our power is super-reliable, and I have a motorhome fridge to fall back on. So for me it was mostly an interesting experiment as part of fitting out an SUV for overnight camping.
@@anoldretiredguy Makes sense. We have a little camper with an A/C-only cube fridge in it that isn't much.
I did get a couple of "bad" power stations along the way, but fortunately I'm geeky enough to have quickly decided on certain qualities that have prevented further problems. I also found Jason's channel, which has great information.
@@OnusBones You're right, his channel has a lot of good reviews, thanks for the link. I enjoy that sort of thing but I leave it to the big guys, buying stuff to review it is beyond my scope (and budget and time and energy level at 80).
I bought a Dometic CFX3-35 for a road trip. My pickup truck has outlets that will run it. No solar panels. I used an Ecoflow River 2 Max as well and recharged it daily from utility power. Only drinks were in the unit. I have since purchased an Ecoflow Delta 2 which should run for several days. We stayed in hotels, so there was no campsite. It was definitely a convenience purchase and Dometic is pricey compared to ICECO.
Yeah, car 12V outlets should have no problem powering a fridge as long as you're driving much of the day. I made a 3000 mile road trip with mine when I first got it and didn't even have to take it inside the motel at night - I kept it plugged into my small power station, charged the PS with the car and ran the fridge off it at night.