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12v fridge and micowave

aquitted

aquitted

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
I gotta freightliner century I need a fridge and microwave I see these ones advertised that will run off of either 12V or A.C. current they also cost alot more than a simple house current fridge or microwave. Im wondering if their worth the extra money and if they break faster than a regular unit
 
paullud

paullud

Veteran Expediter
I use one of the Coleman coolers that plugs into a cigarette lighter. I picked it up from Walmart for around $100, it has paid for itself many times over. Never used a microwave, based on the information I got here I just use a rice cooker that works great.

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pearlpro

pearlpro

Expert Expediter
I would get an Inverter and buy 120v ac Appliances, Ive not had good luck with 12 Volt stuff, although My Coleman Cooler has had three sets of fans its lasted almost 12 years....I think the 12V stuff is designed for Every once in a while use, not full time day after day use.....ya Installing an Inverter is a Pain and wiring and all that you can then use anything that falls within the Current rating of the Inverter @ 20 amps, or more etc....a fridge and Microwave youll need at least a 15 Amp output and really a 20-25 would be better to operate them full time, If you buy an Inverter get one with the Low Battery indicator so you dont drain your batterys while relaxing ....
 
Dynamite 1

Dynamite 1

Moderator
Staff member
Fleet Owner
also check out defenderindustries.com boat supplier out of mass. they have all kinds of stuff.
got my big fridge through them for 300 bucks less than i found it anywhere else.
 
LDB

LDB

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
When a unit says "40amps/24hrs" how much battery drain is that? I get that it's 40 amps but if you have a battery with specs that say 400amps and you aren't supposed to run them below 50% does that mean it will run for 5 days, 200/40?
 
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Dynamite 1

Dynamite 1

Moderator
Staff member
Fleet Owner
i believe it just that, 40 amps from the batteries over a 24 hr period if there is no charge going into the batteries. TURTLE !!!!!!
 
LDB

LDB

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
Yes, just not sure if it's a direct relationship like it would seem or if there's some of that fancy battery science that changes the math.
 
Turtle

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
Yeah, "40amps/24hours" means it'll consume 40 amps every 24 hours. That may or may not mean it'll remove 40 amps from the battery. A large battery bank will result in less than 40 amps removed from the battery, and a smaller bank will have more than 40 amps removed. Temperature is also a factor.

It's basically 1.66 amps hours, but things like fridges may run a few hours at 5 amps and a few at well under 1 amp, but it's 40 over a 24 hour period. They give the 24 hour rating to give you a better idea of total amps drawn between recharging. A Kill-A-Watt Meter is something that will give you the 24 hour consumption for 110 volt appliances. You convert the kilowatts used to amps which gives you how many amps each appliance draws over a given time period (between recharging) which is an important aid in sizing the house bank. Once you know how many amps you'll draw between chargings, you can more or less double that for the bank size.
 
O

OldGuy

Active Expediter
aquitted said:
I gotta freightliner century I need a fridge and microwave I see these ones advertised that will run off of either 12V or A.C. current they also cost alot more than a simple house current fridge or microwave. Im wondering if their worth the extra money and if they break faster than a regular unit
Click to expand...

Depends on what size you want/need.
We just installed a fridge, solar panels and a microwave in our travel trailer. Price was reasonable for what we got.

12 volt cooler
We got the "ENGELUPRIGHT", had it installed in the place of the stocker that was on its last leg.

Just looked for the microwave we bought, but it looks like it's sold out. It's a little jobber but it works and has for a year now without issue. I would say that the versatility of the portable refrigerators levels out the costs, at least in our eyes.
 
CharlesD

CharlesD

Expert Expediter
When I was out in a straight last year I picked up a mini fridge with a freezer at Lowe's and just ran it off an inverter. The thing worked great. I always preferred running things off the inverter to using 12v stuff. I used a 12v cooler up between the seats to keep drinks in that I could access quickly while I was driving and kept everything else in the fridge. We had a Foreman grill, microwave, and a little stove burner that we ran off the inverter and we could cook just about anything in there.
 
westmicher

westmicher

Veteran Expediter
In our experience, a household fridge uses ALOT more electricity than an RV fridge does, probably 3 times as much. We had a cheap household unit in our van for a while but it would kill our batteries in a day or so. Our Waeco RV fridge does not drain the same batteries for 3-4 days. So, if you rely on battery power when you are stopped/waiting, I'd highly recommend spending more for an RV type fridge.
 
CharlesD

CharlesD

Expert Expediter
The fridge I bought at Lowe's didn't seem to draw a lot of power. The inverter has a digital readout to tell you what it's putting out and once I unplugged everything but the fridge and it was drawing less than 100 watts. It's a 2000 watt inverter and I never came close to maxing it out even when I would have the tv and the Blu Ray player going with the fridge plugged in and something cooking on the Foreman.
 
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