Dump the RM8551 ?

[MyronL]

My fridge is the Dometic RM8551 3-way (installed in 2013) and running it on propane has always been an unhappy thing. But, it runs reliably when on AC or DC. This past week I did some experimenting, running it strictly on DC. Can I ditch using it on propane -- and/or find a fridge I can count on?

EXPERIMENT: Set fridge to battery power, 4 dots. The battery is my 100Watt BattleBorn and my monitor showed 13.21 watts at the start. Trailer also plugged into shore power. Any loss from fridge load should be compensated by the WFCO. The fridge cooled beautifully on 4 dots, battery down to 31°F. and stayed there. After 72 hours the BattleBorn Lithium remained at about 13.17 watts.

Next, I disconnected shore power. At 10 PM dropped fridge to 2 dots on battery. Temp in fridge was 33° F. Temp in trailer 44° and battery 13.01 volts. Then pulled out my portable 100watt solar panel and connected it to the MPPT controller. It was dark all night.

This morning at 8 am we had hazy sun out there when I went out to see if the Battleborn had survived the night alone. BattleBorn was powering the fridge alone for 10 hours - no outside power added. Monitor was showing battery at 13.1 watts. Dometic RM8551 which had been on 2 dots battery all night was, at 8AM, 35° F.

Conclusion: RM8551 works happy on DC with the Battleborn 100 watt battery handling the load. Seems adding a 100watt solar panel will keep it that way. Is this too brief a test? What about in high summer? Seems to me I got here a cost effective solution.

Question is, which flexible 100watt solar panel out there will fit glued down to my trailer roof? Liking that WindyNation 100w at Lowes, $112.44 but it is 42.3 inches and I got 37 inches of flat roof.