AC THERMOSTAT MY PETS DIED - Event Date: 08 Jun 2012 - 08 Jun 2013

Originally posted by techntrek Originally posted by furpod The 'fridge can work in 12v mode only, but not for long, even with dual batteries, 10 hours or so is the longest I would let ours run in 12v.   I wouldn't go more than 30 minutes in DC mode for the fridge.  That heating element uses about 120 watts, or about 10 amps @ 12 volts.  That is an extremely large load for one battery.  Since you shouldn't go below 50% depth-of-discharge, for your typical 100-110 amp deep cycle battery that is only about 4 hours to hit that mark (not 5-6 as you might think, look up "Peukert Effect" for more info... bottom line the larger the load, you get fewer total amps from the battery).  You definitely won't get to 10 hours without ruining the battery permanently.   Sorry, off-topic, but wanted to clarify that.

While true, 4 hours worth of drain is probably the max you should go, I will point out, that the battery doesn't drain constantly running the fridge. UNLESS you are cooling a warm, empty fridge from the get go.. No one does that I hope.

Last fall, I let ours run after coming home, just sitting in the driveway, full of groceries and frozen goods.. well not full, we had just been out camping, but there was still a fair amount of stuff in there. (I always over pack socks and food)

After about 12 hours, in 75-80 degree heat, no A/C, my batteries where still at 70% or so, 12.32v. This is with dual, group 24 batteries.

OMG...so sorry that happened...we just bought a 177 R-pod and also want to take our golden doodle...can someone please tell us what happened.

We nevewr heard from this poster again, so anything I say is just a guess.  The psoter said she was running the air then set the fan to High.  Air and Fan are controlled by one thermostat, and my guess is that changing the fan speed moved the unit to fan and turned off the air.  The closed up pod and Texas summer heat resulted in a sad outcome.

I have left our dogs in our RV for many hours. We leave windows open as well as AC going,,,just to be on safe side. Better to have chilly dogs than hot dogs...especially pugs. If going to be gone for the day, I have someone check on them. It isn't an option for us to leave them home.

We got our pod in the middle of August four days after this was post, so in order to ensure our guys would be safe I did some tinkering with the thermostat and have found that my unit has to have the fan set to auto for the A/C or furnace. When ever it is set to high or low only the fan is working.