operating refrigerator on gas--HELP

Originally posted by Harry Another related questIon:  a month ago we got caught in PEI in our R-pod when Hurricane Arthur hit.  The campground lost power for over a full day.  When it happened,  I immediately switched the fridge to propane.  But, the battery eventually lost power and the fridge shut off and I couldn't relight it.  I assume that 12 volts must be present for the propane function to work... correct?  I also,suspect that my battery is not holding a charge properly, so that's another issue I will have to sort out. Thanks for any comments.

It's unfortunate that modern RV refrigerators pull any electricity when running as it's quite unnecessary. The typical draw on one is about 1-1.5 amps. Given that you have about 1 amp of draw coming from other sources uncontrollably like the propane detector, this means a single, new, typical (~75 amp hour) marine battery would last for about 30-36 hours if you used nothing else (lights, water pump, fan, etc.).

If your battery is old (>5 years) and/or hasn't been on a good battery maintainer, it's capacity may be significantly reduced from this. Batteries must not be left in a less-than-fully charged state for long at all, and keeping a battery maintainer connected to it all the time (when you're not camping) is best. Both Battery Tender (http://smile.amazon.com/Battery-Tender-021-0123-Junior-Charger/dp/B000CITK8S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406651804&sr=8-1&keywords=battery+tender) and Battery Minder (http://smile.amazon.com/BatteryMINDer-Charger-Maintainer-Desulfator-System/dp/B00D7HZ6FC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406651876&sr=8-1&keywords=battery+minder) are some of the best brands of maintainers. I believe that the Battery Minder linked above is one of the best you'll find for its size, though it's a bit pricier than a similar Battery Tender.

You're experience is not unique. Everyone who dry camps at all deals with this issue. This is why so many Podders carry at least two batteries (preferably golf cart batteries; they're more durable and higher capacity usually) and/or get solar panel setups (though they might not have been helpful in your situation; they don't work when it's not sunny ) or generators to help recharge their batteries. An overlooked method that will work perfectly fine also is to get at least an 800 watt inverter, connect this with alligator clamps directly to your tow vehicle's battery, connect a 30 amp smart charger to the inverter, and then run your car (be sure to run your car while doing this or you'll drain your car battery). This will replenish most of a single battery's power in a couple of hours at most.

Another related questIon:  a month ago we got caught in PEI in our R-pod when Hurricane Arthur hit.  The campground lost power for over a full day.  When it happened,  I immediately switched the fridge to propane.  But, the battery eventually lost power and the fridge shut off and I couldn't relight it.  I assume that 12 volts must be present for the propane function to work... correct?  I also,suspect that my battery is not holding a charge properly, so that's another issue I will have to sort out.

Agree on the wiring issues with many factory setups, propane is just more reliable and is the "easy answer" w/o going into the elecrical technical stuff that many don't want to deal with.

Running the fridge on 12v is very dependent on wiring sizes in the tow vehicle and the rv plus the connector contact condition .
Bottom line, many tow vehicles simply do not supply adequate current to keep the battery in the rv fully charged up while the fridge is running on 12v.

If yours does and you want to run on 12v then do so.


Personally after having owned many RVs over the last 40 years I've never been real happy with 12V operation, but others have.  YMMV and all that

It's like CharlieM said, turn on the gas at the propane tank very slowly then lite your cooktop ( it may take a while because you have to bleed the air out of the line) now select your propane setting on the fridge, it should lite fairly quick. If you want to switch to 12 volt or 110 power select the setting on the fridge, your gas to the fridge will be automatically shut of, but only to the fridge.