Compressor Fridge for long trips

[bucski]

Hi,
I am planning on installing a fridge in my van. I often go on three week trips to France without visiting campsites, so no mains hookup.

If I had a compressor fridge would this recharge when travelling between places or would I need to recharge batteries via mains for this? Hence a three way fridge would be better.

Thanks

 

[robjmckinney]

A compressor fridge works off electricity, 12 or 240, or just 240v working off a inverter. So while you are stationary that electricity has to be got from batteries or generators. Simply find out the watts, divide by the voltage to give the current, then you can decide the power supply options. If it is a low wattage system you may even find solar panels will do but in general gas is first choice despite the logistics of fitting because of high energy needs of the fridge!

 

[bucski]

Cheers for the reply, still not sure though, lets say van is parked up for a couple of days and I flatten the leisure battery, will a say 10 mile drive after charge it back up again?

 

[AndyC]

Cheers for the reply, still not sure though, lets say van is parked up for a couple of days and I flatten the leisure battery, will a say 10 mile drive after charge it back up again?

No - a 10 mile drive will put very little charge back into a battery.

We have a large Waeco compressor fridge and I reckon it uses about 40Ah per day.

For people who want to stay for a few days in one place I would suggest that a gas fridge would be a better bet than a compressor one, unless you have big battery bank and/or plenty of solar panels.

AndyC

 

[Chrissy]

Gas is best

No - a 10 mile drive will put very little charge back into a battery.

We have a large Waeco compressor fridge and I reckon it uses about 40Ah per day.

For people who want to stay for a few days in one place I would suggest that a gas fridge would be a better bet than a compressor one, unless you have big battery bank and/or plenty of solar panels.

AndyC

Hi, hope this helps , we have a three way, but mainly use as a gas fridge when parked up and the bottle currently in use, 7kg has lasted us, so far, for six weekends and absolutely no fear of draining the battery. When travelling, simply turn off the gas and plug in to ciggie lighter socket and use that to keep your fridge cold. Personally would go this route just for peace of mind. All we really use from our leisure battery then is lighting and water pump so and we have back up lights any way.
Chrissy

 

[mikejay]

We have a waeco fridge and have been 2 france for 3 weeks for the last 3 yrs we never camp on sites but have 2x 110amp batterys and can normally stop in 1 place for 3 or 4 days then we normally drive on to another spot about 100miles we have been ok so far now got a sterling baterry to battery charger fitted which seems to be working a treat so should be able to last longer than 3 days and charge quicker.

Mike