Fridge power drain

You will never get it right , can't have a best for you as there is lots of well thats wrong from yourself let alone others ! If you invest with little or no buget. educationalists like this site mostly started with gas. Get a second hand gas fridge short term then get more electrical, solar then compessor fridge. Everybody who has a compression fridge has both! both
Keep the lights on first.
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Scrap yards sell batteries for £15 ish take a volt meter. you can sell them back afterwards. For £15 ish get wire while your there to connect yours to scrapy.

It's either ,
Your time = the most expensive , way
Or money . = a bucket with a hole in it.
Education is the cheapest
coprocessor fridges are the second most expensive thing you're put in a van 2020/ 1st is hot water I think?
This is why looking down the 240V can be so cost-effective....
AC Compressor Fridge .... 1/4 the price of 12V Compressor
AC Water Heater ... maybe 1/4 the price of Gas Boiler
AC Hob ... 1/10th the price of a Fitted Gas Hob.

Those savings will more than pay for a good inverter and battery upgrade.
 
Back to 12V Fridges, this youtube geezer is entertaining and the results of his Fridge testing is interesting.

No idea if these units are available in the UK or the price if they are

(the conversion from 60Hz 12V DC to 50Hz 12V DC is astronomical going by the way the prices change as they cross the atlantic :) )
 
You will never get it right , can't have a best for you as there is lots of well thats wrong from yourself let alone others ! If you invest with little or no buget. educationalists like this site mostly started with gas. Get a second hand gas fridge short term then get more electrical, solar then compessor fridge. Everybody who has a compression fridge has both! both
Keep the lights on first.
Forward
Scrap yards sell batteries for £15 ish take a volt meter. you can sell them back afterwards. For £15 ish get wire while your there to connect yours to scrapy.

It's either ,
Your time = the most expensive , way
Or money . = a bucket with a hole in it.
Education is the cheapest
coprocessor fridges are the second most expensive thing you're put in a van 2020/ 1st is hot water I think?
Sorry I'm struggling to make sense of that.
 
Who says it only draws 1 amp? Is that 1 amp when on 230v using the supplied adapter?

Please please verify the amperage at 12v draw before committing.
I'd better check! Never realised there would be a difference
 
So I've now passed it over to my wife-she's the decision maker. Either we get a good coolbox or we go the whole hog and get a compressor fridge WITH a solar system as well. She'll have to pay for it. Thanks again for all the advice
 
I am not sure how much power a small compressor fridge would use, but even if it is let's say, only 36 Watts, than it would take 3 amp from your battery. (If the compressor would be running constantly, which it isn't). So, let's say it is on half the time, and you don't want to drain your battery fully, than you could let it run for about thirty hours without having to charge your battery.
So, in your case I would opt for a (second hand) absorption fridge on gas.
Granted, they are not as efficient, but you don't have to invest in expansive battery banks and solar panels.
 
My husband has an Apicool compressor coolbox and it matches the performance of my Waeco CDF 16litre compressor coolbox, but at half the price. I car camp and at an ambient temperature of about 16° it will run at 2° for 2 days before needing to drive further to recharge the leisure battery.

It can run for as little as 10 minutes every 3-4 hours during the day and on cool nights could run for 6 hours kicking in only once for just 5-10 minutes. I sleep with my head on a cushion on top of it so can monitor this quite closely.
 
I feel for you. We went through this anguish with our Bongo and space constraints.

Settled on a really good quality coolbox, more compact for usable volume than anything with electrics. It was not super small but generally we kept it outside in the shade when pitched. Would last a weekend ok (on freezer packs) and when touring for longer we'd buy ice for it every few days. (It had a convenient drain plug for letting out water!) And it doubled up as a table/seat.

The biggest drawback was when wildcamping if needed to keep it inside the van. Second biggest drawback was at festivals if unseasonably hot and hard to buy ice on the 3rd or 4th day. Still I don't remember having squiffy milk, .... warm beer maybe!
 

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