Furrion 10cu DC Refrigerator

[dustinsn3485]

This may be helpful to some. I spent some time weeks ago looking for some data as to what the draw is with the fridge in our camper and didn't find much. So now that I've got it ready for camping I spent a few days running the fridge on solar only with a Renogy 100AH lithium battery that has built in Bluetooth.
My curiosity was how many days with sun, of course, could I realistically stay out on a single 100AH battery if we were extremely careful with other DC components. Lights could be supplemented with AA type and the other main draw is the water pump.

I started at 10am on a sunny day, outside temperatures are around 80 here, with the fridge off and 100% battery. Where it sits, it only gets about 6 hours of full sun.
This fridge has an area on the dial for off-grid, which I found only got down to about 44°. So I ended up with the temperature dial at 12 o clock which is in the center and it got to 38°. It only took about 2 hours to cool to temp. I was trying to get below 40° for safe food storage.


Through the day there was no battery loss. At 8pm it was at 92% and 12 hours later at 8am it was at 72%.
The following day was cool and rainy, there was an hour or two of partial sun during the afternoon hours. At 7pm, 33 hours after turning on the fridge, the battery was at 84%.
On to the following morning, at 7am battery had dropped to 70%. That day was bright sunshine all day and mid 80's for outside temperatures. At 7pm, battery was at 96%, 57 hours after turning on fridge. This was the end of my test.

While nowhere close to scientific, it seemed like during the hottest part of the day the fridge cycles were about 50minutes. 30 minutes off and compressor running for about 20 minutes. The highest amp draw I recorded during the night time was about 6.2amps and on average was 5.6amps.

[Country Campers]

Thanks for the report, this is some helpful information. We did 3 days on 210 AH using lights and furnace before I was down to 23% ( if memory serves). I have not camped with the solar yet so I will try to get some info on that. Of all the things in the RV the furnace is the most power hungry item, if you can get along with out it I think one could stay quite a while on Lithium. I do have a post around here with some of my findings and upgrades including the change to the Furrion 10 cu 12 v dc fridge.

Brian

[AlexPeterson]

dustinsn3485 Dustin - this is really good stuff, thanks. Do you have the (now) standard 165w solar panel? One the first and third day, did you have any windows/vents open or was the temperature inside the RV warmer than outside?

[dustinsn3485]

Country Campers I can see the furnace having a large draw. our plan would avoid using it for sure.
AlexPeterson Correct we have only the factory 165w panel. During the whole time camper was slide in, all blinds closed, all vents and windows closed. I was checking the battery from my phone and once I got the fridge to temp, the camper or fridge wasn't opened and checked again until I turned the fridge off on Day 3. temp was still good.

[skrantzman]

This fridge has an area on the dial for off-grid, which I found only got down to about 44°. So I ended up with the temperature dial at 12 o clock which is in the center and it got to 38°. It only took about 2 hours to cool to temp. I was trying to get below 40° for safe food storage.

When measuring the internal temperature on your refrigerator, where are you placing the thermometer? We have the Furrion 8cuft refrigerator. I noticed on a camping trip this last weekend that with the thermometer near the front (on the top shelf) where I can see it clearly, it was reading 36 degrees, but my water bottles in the very back were literally freezing as ice was forming in the bottles. Had my knob set to around the 12:30 position. So either my thermometer is not accurate (which could be), or there is a significant temperature difference between the front and back of the refrigerator. Wondering if you noticed any temperature differences in your unit?

Regardless, my wife loves the amount of usable space in both the freezer and refrigerator of these 12v units. Much more room than the equivalent size electric/propane units we were used to in the past. Also in those units, we had to keep items away from the cooling fins inside, or they would tend to freeze as well, and the unit would not run efficiently.

Also great info on the run time off the battery.

[dustinsn3485]

skrantzman I had the thermometer located in the very back almost against the back wall on the top shelf. I would like to check in other locations at another time and even considered getting Bluetooth thermometer to keep from opening the door.

I do agree moving from the propane/electric to the DC fridge does free up so much space inside the fridge.