will fridge work

[Rob_374420349]

Hi All

My family and I are sailing down to Bilbao and them driving up into France and staying at a place called Biscarrosse,so we have approx 35hrs on the ferry.My question is, if I leave my Fridge on while the car and caravan are in the hold of the ship on battery will it keep working for the full 35hrs and keep the items in the fridge cold or cool ish ? would it flatten the battery completely ? or will it be ok ? Dare I risk bacon/sausage ?.Hope someone can help

ok thanks Rob

 

[stu658]

Rob if your battery is in good condition it should be ok, if a little flat when you come to get off the ferry. remember that even if you were to turn it off, it should keep cool for a long time if unopened. the way to find out is to see how much juice your fridge drags in amps per hour, and then relate that to your battery.thinking about it if you have a 110 a/hr battery and fridge drags 5 a/hr you will only get 22hrs. so i don't think you will make it on one battery. i would be tempted to leave it on for 12 hrs and then just *** down and turn it off, to save the battery going totally flat. the fridge will keep cool especially right at sea level in a ferry hull it won't be that hot. Hope you have a great trip anyway, and work out your amps per hour for the fridge to see how long you can safely do.

 

[David_374242465]

Almost all caravans / towcars these days are wired such that no power is fed to your fridge, when the vehicle ignition is switched off and engine not running.

Even if this is not the case with your 'van, I would strongly advise that you do not run the fridge from your vehicle battery for anything more than an hour or so, or you will certainly flatten it.

If you have a separate battery, or you can draw power from the 'van battery (some older units allow this) then a well charged battery will probably run the fridge for possibly 8 to 10 hrs, dependant on AHr capacity, before going flat.

 

[Bryan_374461364]

Rob if your battery is in good condition it should be ok, if a little flat when you come to get off the ferry. remember that even if you were to turn it off, it should keep cool for a long time if unopened. the way to find out is to see how much juice your fridge drags in amps per hour, and then relate that to your battery.thinking about it if you have a 110 a/hr battery and fridge drags 5 a/hr you will only get 22hrs. so i don't think you will make it on one battery. i would be tempted to leave it on for 12 hrs and then just *** down and turn it off, to save the battery going totally flat. the fridge will keep cool especially right at sea level in a ferry hull it won't be that hot. Hope you have a great trip anyway, and work out your amps per hour for the fridge to see how long you can safely do.

Stuart

I don,t think you can just '*** down' to the vehicle deck to switch the fridge off. I understand the access is locked on sailing and only unlocked on arrival.

Fridge will be fine for the duration of the sailing if resonable full and down to temp before switching off.

Good luck with the trip. Its the journey we are hoping to do next year.

Bryan

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Rob,

For the reasons given above, normally you can only run your fridge on 12v when the engine is running.

The fridge will draw between 8 and 10A on 12V so if it were connected to a battery it might manage 8 to 12 hours from a fully charge 110Ah battery - less for an older or partly discharged battery - not a good idea to try it with the car battery, as the chances are the battery will only be about 60Ah, and if it is drained to less than 75% it might not have the power to start the car when trying to leave the ferry.

Other possible solutions -

Avoid carrying any frozen or chilled items, buy them locally when you get there. (less weight to tow as well!)

Or at home, freeze some plastic bottles of water or semi skimmed milk and also any other items you want to take that can be frozen but do not matter if they defrost over the journey,

Make sure the caravan fridge is chilled right down before the journey. Just before setting out, put the frozen bottles in the top of the fridge and close the door. Do not take any items that you want to remain frozen. Avoid opening the fridge until the journey is complete.