How Cold Does Fridge Get? |
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furpod
Moderator Group - pHp Joined: 25 Jul 2011 Location: Central KY Online Status: Offline Posts: 6128 |
Topic: How Cold Does Fridge Get? Posted: 08 Apr 2019 at 4:10pm |
I was going by the fact that the OP stated he had leads and a connector for the battery box...
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furpod
Moderator Group - pHp Joined: 25 Jul 2011 Location: Central KY Online Status: Offline Posts: 6128 |
Posted: 08 Apr 2019 at 4:09pm |
Just as a note.. with dual T-105's installed we routinely went 10 days off grid, no battery switching or worries.The heater fan was the one and only thing that could shorten our stay without a recharge. How long do you hope to stay off grid?
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podwerkz
Senior Member Joined: 11 Mar 2019 Location: Texas Online Status: Offline Posts: 966 |
Posted: 08 Apr 2019 at 1:52pm |
Thanks for the number DavMar. I will call them soon.
One thing I thought of: Inside the lower fridge outside service vent, are the hookups for 12v electronic, and 12v heater. They are clearly marked. I'm now referring to the 12v electronic supply, NOT the 12v heater supply. I measured the 57 ma current at that point. I see there is ample room under there for a small deep cycle sealed lead acid battery. One could wire up a switch or connector to feed the control circuits with that small SLA battery, and install a small solar panel and controller to keep that battery charged. Hmmm....the 'wheels' are turning!
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r・pod 171 gone but not forgotten!
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lostagain
Senior Member Joined: 06 Sep 2016 Location: Quaker Hill, CT Online Status: Offline Posts: 2587 |
Posted: 08 Apr 2019 at 12:51pm |
Good point.
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Never leave footprints behind.
Fred & Maria Kearney Sonoma 167RB Our Pod 172 2019 Ford F-150 4x4 2.7 EcoBoost |
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DavMar
Senior Member Joined: 04 Aug 2017 Location: Lexington, NC Online Status: Offline Posts: 592 |
Posted: 08 Apr 2019 at 12:40pm |
Well that clears up allot podwerkz, it does seem your refrigerator has battery backup for the control board, lucky you! Just call them at: Dometic Retail Customer Service 1-800-544-4881 Opt.2, Opt.2 You can order the battery holder direct and receive any additional instructions you may need. Fred, the reason why you may want to have this battery backup to the control board is really simple. Lets suppose your hooked up to shore power and unbeknown to you the converter is dead. So you go on your happy way camping and the whole time all DC systems, such as the control board for your refrigerator, is slowly drawing down power from your camper battery. Until out of the blue and much to your surprise it drains so much power that the control board dies then guess what? Yep, no refrigerator, the gas will not ignite and all controls to it go dead. Unfortunately for me I found this out the hard way and even more unfortunate I found out that FR put in the bottom line Dometic refrigerator that doesn't even have the option for this control board. Luckily for me when it happened I also carry a dumb 6/12V battery charger so I was able to clip its leads onto the camper battery and all was good so we were able to continue our trip. |
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Dave & Marlene J with Zoey the
wonder dog. 2017 Rpod 180 2016 Toyota Tacoma SR5 4x4 Lexington, NC |
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StephenH
podders Helping podders - pHp Joined: 29 Nov 2015 Location: Wake Forest, NC Online Status: Offline Posts: 6289 |
Posted: 08 Apr 2019 at 12:30pm |
Be careful about using just any battery holder for this. The way the picture is, it is possible that this is only supplying 6V to the refrigerator given that the polarity of the batteries on one side of the case are both positive toward one end and on the other side of the case, they are negative toward the same end. You would really need to verify the voltage before you plug anything in.
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StephenH
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,... ouR escaPOD mods Former RPod 179 Current Cherokee Grey Wolf 24 JS |
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podwerkz
Senior Member Joined: 11 Mar 2019 Location: Texas Online Status: Offline Posts: 966 |
Posted: 08 Apr 2019 at 11:38am |
Here is a link to the pictures of the interior of the dometic fridge 'eyebrow', with the battery compartment and the header that I would assume the battery holder will plug into. Until I dig into it further, I wont know if the pins are marked for polarity. (I dont know if this link will work) Also, I performed a check on the current draw to the electronics of just the fridge when running on propane: 57 milliamps. Pretty low. I would assume that number will be even lower on 8 AA batteries, since the manual says the fridge goes into power saving mode when on these batteries. There is no customer service number on the Dometic webpage that I could find, only an email form. If I get to the point where all my other mods are done and I want to persue this, I will make more efforts in that direction. |
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r・pod 171 gone but not forgotten!
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TheBum
Senior Member Joined: 26 Feb 2016 Location: Texas Online Status: Offline Posts: 1407 |
Posted: 08 Apr 2019 at 11:10am |
The fridge in our 179 gets cold enough that we can run it at a setting of 4 most of the time and keep things plenty cold. It does take a while for room temperature drinks to get cold, so just make sure you keep them well stocked. We don't use the freezer compartment, so we took it out to make more space. We have a countertop icemaker for ice.
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Alan
2022 R-Pod 196 "RaptoRPod" 2022 Ram 1500 Lone Star 4x4 Three cats |
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lostagain
Senior Member Joined: 06 Sep 2016 Location: Quaker Hill, CT Online Status: Offline Posts: 2587 |
Posted: 08 Apr 2019 at 10:34am |
Uhmmm, if you are going to run the fridge on propane with the 12vdc house batteries turned off then aren't you running a gas appliance without the benefit of the gas leak detector? Seems to me that the tiny bit of amps used to power both the fridge board and the leak detector are minimal at worst and not enough to materially deplete your battery for quite some time. All the other stuff, like the stereo, usb plugs, etc. can be switched off, thus drawing no current.
Turning off the gas leak detector is a bad idea if you have the gas to your trailer turned on at the tank. You never know when a leak may develop, which is the reason those leak detectors are required, I suspect. You may head out to do something on a cloudy day and on entering the trailer with cigarette in hand or making a tiny spark with the door latch, you may experience a rather unpleasant hot flash. At least if you hear the alarm screeching away, you will be alerted to turn the gas and battery off before entering. There is a safety reason to have the operation of gas appliances linked with the operation of the leak detector via the house battery. If you are going to bypass that important safety feature, please park your Pod well away from ours. Maybe FR had motivations other than getting the cheapest refrigerator they could find.
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Never leave footprints behind.
Fred & Maria Kearney Sonoma 167RB Our Pod 172 2019 Ford F-150 4x4 2.7 EcoBoost |
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DavMar
Senior Member Joined: 04 Aug 2017 Location: Lexington, NC Online Status: Offline Posts: 592 |
Posted: 08 Apr 2019 at 10:06am |
furpod, may I ask how do you even know IF his refrigerator control board has battery backup? Mine sure doesn't which I confirmed with Dometic and visually by me when I removing the board. This is why I "suggested" he called them with his model and serial number of his refrigerator to confirm if indeed has this back up. If it does then great he can order the part direct from Dometic. Also this board may just run on 5Vdc as allot of control boards do and not 12Vdc. Its best to check out first wouldn't you agree?
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Dave & Marlene J with Zoey the
wonder dog. 2017 Rpod 180 2016 Toyota Tacoma SR5 4x4 Lexington, NC |
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