Fridge

[Keith_374225094]

Hi - apologies if this has been asked before but we have just purchased our caravan. The fridge runs on 12 volt and gas and I know this means I should only use 12 volt whilst towing and then switch to gas on site or the car battery will go flat.

We also have mains and a distribution unit/charger, does this mean when on site and hooked up I can run the fridge on 12 volt as the mains will charge the caravan battery or will the fridge drain the caravan battery in spite of the mains connection.

Thanks in advance.....Keith

 

[MikeP]

If your car is wired correctly, then a trigger device will ensure that the fridge is powered from the car only when the engine is running. When using a mains hookup you cannot use 12v, as the fridge is not connected to the caravan 12v system. Just switch the fridge to mains.

Remember that camping fridges generally keep cold things cold - especially in hot climates. They are pretty poor at cooling stuff from ambient - especially big bottles of fizzy drink or loads of cans of beer. If it's really hot then we buy our meat fresh every day - better to be safe than ill.

 

[Keith_374225094]

Thanks Mike,

Unfortunately the fridge is quite old and doesn't run on mains only 12 volt and gas.

I was wondering about running on 12 volt whilst the caravan battery was connected to a hook up on site. I didn't realise the fridge wasn't connected to the caravan 12 volt system !! I've learnt something already...LOL

So the 12 volt only works from the car not the caravan, and I therefore have no choice but to use gas on site unless I have a new 3 way fridge fitted - Is that correct Mike

Cheers.....Keith

 

[MikeP]

I suppose it's possible to wire it in to the caravan 12v and run it from the charger, as long as the wires are 10A, but preferably 17A. However, wait for a post from someone else to confirm this ..... John L is good at this sort of thing I think. I'm not sure that the charger would stand up to that level of prolonged heavy use.

I always use gas. The only appliance in use would be the fridge, and it would be a ripoff for me to pay _3 - _5 per night for this, when gas cost about 50p per 24 hours.

 

[rob_jax]

Hi,

Since you don't state the model of fridge in your van - we'll use a generic modern fridge as an example - this won't be that wrong.

Modern caravan fridges have a 12 Volt, 100 to 120 Watt electrical heater element - which will draw a continuous 10 Amps when powered from a 12 volt source.

This means that you should use 20A or 30A rated wiring to avoid voltage drop and overheating of the cable.

Also that a "standard" 60 AH battery will be totally flattened in 6 hours - actually it will be much worse than this - leisure batteries won't like supplying 10 Amps for hours at a time - and the battery is effectively flat after supplying 75% of it's charge.

Use gas when on-site - unless you can find a 230 volt to 12 volt power supply that will happily supply 15 Amps (10 Amps plus 5 Amps headroom) just for the fridge.

Running costs will be between 5p and 10p per hour based on the consumption figures on http://www.eriba-amiga.co.uk/otr_gas.html

Robert

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Keith,

Its nice to be recommended - thanks Mike P.

Keith with your present fridge, it can be used on 12V only when the car engine is running. Your car should havs a 'split charge relay' that only provides 12V power to the fridgce circuit when the alternator is charging. this prevents the fridge or any other load in the caravan from discharging the car battery.

Based on the your statement that your fridge only has 12Vdc and gas power options, I assume you have quite an old caravan. This will probably mean you have a mains battery charger rather than a 12Vdc power supply fitted. Most of the battery chargers (as different to power supplies) do not have the conversion capacity to run the fridge on its 12V circuit.

More recent caravans have 12V power supplies, which might have enough capacity, but it would limit thier ability to keep the battery fully charged and run the other electric only appliances.

To summarise, I would recommend that when towing use the 12Vdc option, but when on site only consider gas. Or chage your fridge, but you can buy a lot of gas for the cost of a new fridge.

 

[Val & Frank]

Hi All

Read this thread with interest, our Fridge is a Thetford, and on the LED it shows symbols for Battery, Mains or Gas.

If I understood correctly this means Battery from the Car when the engine is running???

Mains when on site hook up ???

Or Gas when the bottle is open and it can sense gas pressure ??

So it is never running on the Vans Battery is that correct ??

Val & Frank

 

[Keith_374225094]

Hi All,

I'd like to say a big thank you for all your replies which have been very helpful and yes I will be using gas on site and not buying a new fridge...LOL

Could I ask for some advice about gas.

The caravan has come with an empty shell gas bottle so I need to get some gas.

The caravan will be used for weekends away and half terms in this country and hopefully 2 weeks in France next year.

Could I ask for your opinions on:-

1) Calor Gas

2) Camping Gas

3) BP Light (there are stockists near my home)

Obviously Camping Gaz would be dearest but would this be the best option if I intend going abroad for 2 weeks or would a couple of Calor or BP bottles last me a fortnight in France (cooking and fridge use).

Finally, if I took Calor or BP abroad and ran out could I simply pop into a French dealer and buy a Camping Gaz bottle (and connector ?) and use that.

Apologies for asking so much.

Cheers.....Keith

 

[Damian]

frank, the choices you have, 12v, 240v and gas are as follows;

12v if selected will only work when connected to the car and the engine is running, and is meant to keep the fridge cool while travelling.

240v, for use on electric hook up, on site or home.

Gas,alternative to 240 on site, or for use on non electric hook up.

Just because the gas is on at the bottle,the fridge will not automatically select between gas or 240volt, you have to do that.

Having said that, some of the newer model Dometic fridges do have an automatic source facility which wil select the most appropriate fuel use.

 

[Val & Frank]

Thanks Damian,

appreciated.

Val & Frank

 

[Icemaker]

Frank i should check your fridge, we have a 4 week old coachman vip 530 which has the dometic fridge fitted with the lcd display, on reading the instruction i thought that our fridge had to be manually changed from 12 v to 240 v and gas however we left our van one afternoon with the fridge on 240 volt and returned to find thet one of our neighbours from the tent field had removed our hook up and plugged his tent in, after a heated discussion where i pointed out the pitch number on our hook up and that he had switched off our fridge we returned to the van to find that the fridge had in fact switched itself to gas and when i put the hook up back in it went back to 240 volt. according to the coachman brochure i should not have this facility but it does work, might be worht checking yours.