Question about running the fridge on battery

[bsmoke]

Propane no pro

[Lisa M.]

Still in a Casita, so no solar and smaller fridge. I don’t keep propane on when traveling and I don’t bring ice cream. I keep a couple/few Core brand water bottles filled with tap water in the freezer and move them to the fridge before we leave. There are always a few frozen containers of beans or what-have-you in the fridge or freezer also. Everything stays plenty cold; the fridge functions as an ice chest. When we arrive, I move the still mostly frozen water bottles to the freezer to refreeze. When we move on to our next location, I move the bottles back to the fridge. We keep a separate ice chest for drinks, as my husband likes it kept outside where he can grab a drink without going in the trailer.

[Meandering Minstrel]

We always switch the fridge to battery when we're towing. Never had any problems with the alternator - I watch the voltage guage too. And the beer is cold when we get there!

[civi]

Same here, I only travel for 2 hours at most, before I stop for the night. Plus we have the small 1.90, fridge only. I get my fridge cold before I leave, and every thing in it is cold when it is put in.

[John in Santa Cruz]

I tried the tiny fridge in our Casita 16 on DC when towing, and within 2-3 hours of leaving, the fridge was cold, but the Casita battery was more than half discharged, so I switched to propane. Out west here, our typical travel day is 5-7 hours of driving time to get to a destination.

now, with that Casita 16 and the Tacoma, I investigated things a bit, and found that 50% of the voltage drop was before the 7-blade trailer connector, in the tow vehicle wiring, and the other 50% of the voltage drop was in the trailer wiring from the 7-blade to the battery. If it had just been one or the other, I would have considered running heavier gauge wire, but I didn't want to rewire both, and the Casita would have been pretty ugly, I would have had to pull the A/C mounted in the front below the closet to access the wiring mess, then somehow run the heavier gauge wire around past the bathroom stall, and all the way back to the battery in the rear streetside corner. and there still could have been issues with the ground path

I haven't even tried the fridge on DC with my Escape and F250. I've heard that Ford uses significantly heftier wiring than Toyota but the Escape 21 has a much bigger fridge than the little itty bitty thing in the Casita 16....

[lloydjdorsey@gmail.com]

We couldn't figure why we ruined 2 newish 6-volt batteries running our frig on DC while driving and then on DC while parked w. no shore power. Have a factory installed solar on roof of our 2017 17B. If the frig is made to run on DC while hooked to the tow vehicle under power and then, when parked with average sun during days, the frig runs on DC (from batteries charged by Tow Vehicle and solar) while no other appliances are run, seems the engineers didn't do a very good job putting the package together if the batteries go bad and/or can't handle it. We're disappointed.

[padlin]

did someone tell you that you could run your fridge off the batteries the way you want to?

[John in Santa Cruz]

I only ever run my fridge on propane or AC.

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by civi

Same here, I only travel for 2 hours at most, before I stop for the night. Plus we have the small 1.90, fridge only. I get my fridge cold before I leave, and every thing in it is cold when it is put in.

phew, 2 hours/day, it would have taken us 2 weeks to get to Utah on our recent trip, instead of 2 days.

lets see...

may 23, 218 miles, 5 hours to the strawberry music festival
may 24-26 - 0 miles, at music fest
may 27, 92 miles, 3 hours to sons house in reno
may 28, 330 miles, 6 hours, to middle of nowhere, nevada
may 29, 300 miles, 6 hours, stopped at Rachel, NV (Lil'Ale-Inn), to just outside Bryce Canyon, UT
may 30, 45 miles, sight seeing in Bryce, then driving to Kodachrome Basin SP
may 31, bicycled around KC Basin, rest day
jun 1, 120 miles, 6 hours, explored offroad in Grand Staircase Escalante
jun 2, 150 miles, 5 hours, explored Cottonwood Canyon in Grand Staircase, returned to camp via Kanab (Flying V Cafe for dinner!!!)
jun 3, 240 miles, 9 hours, traveled to Dead Horse Point State Park by way of Capital Reef NP
jun 4, 120 miles, 3 hours, explored Arches NP, stopped in Moab, back to camp
jun 5, 230 miles, 5 hours, explored Canyonlands Needles District, stopped in Moab, back to camp
jun 6, 120 miles, 2.5 hours driving, explored Canyonlands Islands in the Sky, back to camp
jun 7, 400 miles, 7 hours, traveled to Winslow,AZ
jun 8, 350 miles, giant meteor crater, lowell observatory, boondocked in Mojave desert
june 9, 455 miles, 9 hours, tehachapi (Kohnen's Country Bakery for lunch!!) and home to Santa Cruz.



grand total of the trip was 3300 miles in 18 days, and I think we spaced it out nicely, got to see a ton of places we'd never been to before and had an all around awesome time.

[gbaglo]

Originally Posted by lloydjdorsey@gmail.com

We couldn't figure why we ruined 2 newish 6-volt batteries running our frig on DC while driving and then on DC while parked w. no shore power.

Because you should have been running it on propane.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by lloydjdorsey@gmail.com

... If the frig is made to run on DC while hooked to the tow vehicle under power and then, when parked with average sun during days, the frig runs on DC (from batteries charged by Tow Vehicle and solar) while no other appliances are run, seems the engineers didn't do a very good job putting the package together if the batteries go bad and/or can't handle it. We're disappointed.

Running the refrigerator from battery power when not connected to a running tow vehicle is not a requirement or goal of the design of the trailer or any electrical equipment combination offered for it, as stock or optional equipment. The people who put the package together did a good job meeting the actual requirements and goals.

You have unreasonable expectations, so you are disappointed.

By the way, engineers are rare in the RV world; I doubt there are any at Escape.

[cpaharley2008]

Solar is for replenishing your batteries and you have a gauge in your system monitor that will tell you your batteries are getting low. If you were driving and your gas gauge said the same, you would refill or stop driving until you could refill. Same with your solar, if you monitored and saw what was happening you should have turned it off 12v and use one of the other 2 ways of operation, it is a 3 way unit.

[sclifrickson]

Originally Posted by lloydjdorsey@gmail.com

We couldn't figure why we ruined 2 newish 6-volt batteries running our frig on DC while driving and then on DC while parked w. no shore power. Have a factory installed solar on roof of our 2017 17B. If the frig is made to run on DC while hooked to the tow vehicle under power and then, when parked with average sun during days, the frig runs on DC (from batteries charged by Tow Vehicle and solar) while no other appliances are run, seems the engineers didn't do a very good job putting the package together if the batteries go bad and/or can't handle it. We're disappointed.

Your assumptions were false, and you failed to operate your equipment and systems correctly. It is not as simple as “it’s supposed to work this way”. Because it isn’t supposed to work that way. Don’t blame the engineers. You operated the equipment outside of its operational limitations. Operator error. Expensive new batteries. Hopefully you have since learned more about accurately measuring and maintaining battery state of charge since then. If you’re still unsure, this forum has the answers. Sorry to be so blunt, but it’s important to dispel misconceptions so others don’t make similar mistakes.

[cpaharley2008]

Nicely said and to the issue....

[viator36]

In the below ETI orientation video on the fridge Reace said to look at DC option "as an assist", so it shouldn't be used as a main stand alone power source like AC or propane and should be used only for a short period of time. DC option comments begin from 2:05 on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f68DViubzY

[MikeS]

This is why adding the Victron battery monitor is really one of my favorite adds/mods. The ability to really see & understand how different actions (fridge on 12v, inverter, microwave...) impact the batteries allows to better plan and leverage the abilities we have and potentially stop doing an activity that will deplete the batteries.

[civi]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

phew, 2 hours/day, it would have taken us 2 weeks to get to Utah on our recent trip, instead of 2 days.

lets see...

may 23, 218 miles, 5 hours to the strawberry music festival
may 24-26 - 0 miles, at music fest
may 27, 92 miles, 3 hours to sons house in reno
may 28, 330 miles, 6 hours, to middle of nowhere, nevada
may 29, 300 miles, 6 hours, stopped at Rachel, NV (Lil'Ale-Inn), to just outside Bryce Canyon, UT
may 30, 45 miles, sight seeing in Bryce, then driving to Kodachrome Basin SP
may 31, bicycled around KC Basin, rest day
jun 1, 120 miles, 6 hours, explored offroad in Grand Staircase Escalante
jun 2, 150 miles, 5 hours, explored Cottonwood Canyon in Grand Staircase, returned to camp via Kanab (Flying V Cafe for dinner!!!)
jun 3, 240 miles, 9 hours, traveled to Dead Horse Point State Park by way of Capital Reef NP
jun 4, 120 miles, 3 hours, explored Arches NP, stopped in Moab, back to camp
jun 5, 230 miles, 5 hours, explored Canyonlands Needles District, stopped in Moab, back to camp
jun 6, 120 miles, 2.5 hours driving, explored Canyonlands Islands in the Sky, back to camp
jun 7, 400 miles, 7 hours, traveled to Winslow,AZ
jun 8, 350 miles, giant meteor crater, lowell observatory, boondocked in Mojave desert
june 9, 455 miles, 9 hours, tehachapi (Kohnen's Country Bakery for lunch!!) and home to Santa Cruz.



grand total of the trip was 3300 miles in 18 days, and I think we spaced it out nicely, got to see a ton of places we'd never been to before and had an all around awesome time.

Years ago i use to drive 16-18 hours a day, but no more. i do not have to be there. Couple hours a day is fine for me. I like to camp, not drive. Carl

[John in Santa Cruz]

the key there is, we spent 4 nights at Strawberry, 4 nights at Kodachrome Basin, 4 nights at Dead Horse Point.

it took us a half day to get to Strawberry, 3 days (including most of a day exploring Bryce) to get to KC Basin, a day exploring Capital Reef to get to Dead Horse Point, then 3 days (2 nights) to get home, with stops at the Meteor Crater and Lowell Observatory.

the rest of those miles were sightseeing, Grand Staircase Escalante, Arches, Canyonlands.

our 18 day time constraint was driven by my wife's work schedule.

[Lisa M.]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

phew, 2 hours/day, it would have taken us 2 weeks to get to Utah on our recent trip, instead of 2 days.

lets see...

may 23, 218 miles, 5 hours to the strawberry music festival
may 24-26 - 0 miles, at music fest
may 27, 92 miles, 3 hours to sons house in reno
may 28, 330 miles, 6 hours, to middle of nowhere, nevada
may 29, 300 miles, 6 hours, stopped at Rachel, NV (Lil'Ale-Inn), to just outside Bryce Canyon, UT
may 30, 45 miles, sight seeing in Bryce, then driving to Kodachrome Basin SP
may 31, bicycled around KC Basin, rest day
jun 1, 120 miles, 6 hours, explored offroad in Grand Staircase Escalante
jun 2, 150 miles, 5 hours, explored Cottonwood Canyon in Grand Staircase, returned to camp via Kanab (Flying V Cafe for dinner!!!)
jun 3, 240 miles, 9 hours, traveled to Dead Horse Point State Park by way of Capital Reef NP
jun 4, 120 miles, 3 hours, explored Arches NP, stopped in Moab, back to camp
jun 5, 230 miles, 5 hours, explored Canyonlands Needles District, stopped in Moab, back to camp
jun 6, 120 miles, 2.5 hours driving, explored Canyonlands Islands in the Sky, back to camp
jun 7, 400 miles, 7 hours, traveled to Winslow,AZ
jun 8, 350 miles, giant meteor crater, lowell observatory, boondocked in Mojave desert
june 9, 455 miles, 9 hours, tehachapi (Kohnen's Country Bakery for lunch!!) and home to Santa Cruz.



grand total of the trip was 3300 miles in 18 days, and I think we spaced it out nicely, got to see a ton of places we'd never been to before and had an all around awesome time.

If anyone ever goes through Tehachapi you have to stop and eat at Kohnen’s Bakery. Worth the line! Love to get a poor boy sandwich to share, but recently tried the Cuban sandwich and it was delicious! Often we camp out at the airport (hookups) and watch the gliders take of and land (Air Force trains their pilots there) but anyone can take a glider ride-my husband loves them! Sometimes we camp up at Mountain Park. Beautiful and quiet and no hookups. There are two other campgrounds in the area but these two are the best. PM me if you want more info on Tehachapi so I don’t hijack this thread any further. Love the place!

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by Lisa M.

If anyone ever goes through Tehachapi you have to stop and eat at Kohnen’s Bakery. Worth the line! Love to get a poor boy sandwich to share, but recently tried the Cuban sandwich and it was delicious! Often we camp out at the airport (hookups) and watch the gliders take of and land (Air Force trains their pilots there) but anyone can take a glider ride-my husband loves them! Sometimes we camp up at Mountain Park. Beautiful and quiet and no hookups. There are two other campgrounds in the area but these two are the best. PM me if you want more info on Tehachapi so I don’t hijack this thread any further. Love the place!

the roast beef sandwich on one of their crusty multigrain or their sweet rye bread, omg. its a meal for 2 unless you're a very hungry person.

i've been there twice, and each time picked up a loaf of bread and some danish to bring home. their fruit and cheese danish are great, they are light, flakey and NOT gooey sweet. overnight in the (obligatory thread content) RV fridge and they are still great warmed in the toaster oven at home, or the propane oven in the trailer....

we were going home from Utah via I40, and camped at this spot,
https://www.google.com/maps/place/34...4d-115.6520284

and it was a very cool free camp site 3 miles off the interstate, easy in and out for a F250 longbed (62 foot turning circle!) towing a E21. its 170 miles to Tehachapi from there, about 3 hours.