Residential fridge power needs

[Spletbr]

Picking up a new high country next month with a residential fridge. We always had traditional RV fridges. We don't boondock but may find ourselves overnight with no power hookup (Walmart, park, etc.). How much battery power does the 26 cubic foot fridge use? Wondering if two group 31 AGM batteries would get us through the night if we didn't use heat, coffee maker and hair dryer.

Thanks all!

[roadglide]

Originally Posted by Spletbr

Picking up a new high country next month with a residential fridge. We always had traditional RV fridges. We don't boondock but may find ourselves overnight with no power hookup (Walmart, park, etc.). How much battery power does the 26 cubic foot fridge use? Wondering if two group 31 AGM batteries would get us through the night if we didn't use heat, coffee maker and hair dryer.

Thanks all!

To bad it doesn’t have Solar flex with ion lithium batteries there would be no trouble keeping the refrigerator cold.

[Spletbr]

Originally Posted by roadglide

To bad it doesn’t have Solar flex with ion lithium batteries there would be no trouble keeping the refrigerator cold.

It does have Solar Flex 200 (200 wats, 15 amp controller). Is that good? Would upgrading to lithium work and would it require a new inverter?

[flybouy]

I think you'll be fine for one night in a parking lot. While sleeping the fridge will be closed shouldn't need to run often . I would try it out one night and see how it goes before spending tons of money on lithium. Now if you go into walmart and buy a case of warm bottled water and put that in the fridge then all bets are off.

[JRTJH]

Originally Posted by Spletbr

Picking up a new high country next month with a residential fridge. We always had traditional RV fridges. We don't boondock but may find ourselves overnight with no power hookup (Walmart, park, etc.). How much battery power does the 26 cubic foot fridge use? Wondering if two group 31 AGM batteries would get us through the night if we didn't use heat, coffee maker and hair dryer.

Thanks all!

Two GP 31 AGM batteries should get you through the night on most nights, provided you turn off the ice maker. The ice maker has an electric heating element that melts the ice cubes so they will release from the mold. That "feature" is the biggest power user because the compressor only runs about half the time after the refrigerator is cool. So, keeping the refrigerator closed and not making ice should get you through any "overnight stop"....

BTW, the residential refrigerator is a French door 18 cuft model, not a 26cuft monster. That'll save you a significant amount of battery power too.....

[JDDilly]

I can speak from experience. I have been traveling with the same type of setup in 40 degree temps, running the furnace with the frig will drain the batteries. My solution, I got a Honda 3000 generator to carry in the truck. Even if we stop during the day for lunch and a couple hour break, I will fire up the generator to watch TV and relax.

[RVGator]

I have the same or similar setup in our 2022 Avalanche 378bh with residential fridge, 2 lead acid batteries, and SolarFlex 200. Have had no trouble with overnight stays and keeping the refrigerator going. Driving the next day with the solar and whatever charge it gets from the battery I show up to campgrounds with full batteries again. I have not had to run the heater at all so no experience in how fast that will drain the batteries, but would caution against it or recommend a generator.

This summer we are headed on the road for the summer and I plan on staying at a few Harvest Hosts on our travels with 4 in a row being our max without campground hookups. Will take a long our generator to give us some extra juice if the daily driving and solar doesn’t take care of it during the day. I will look to adding 2 or 3 lithium batteries prior to the trip as well to give it some more depth. I also understand the SolarFlex 200 is expandable to adding an additional solar panel on the roof so might look into that as well.

[beranekdean]

We have a 2022 Sprinter 3590 that came with what I call a hybrid Solarflex 200 with the single 200W Jaboni solar panel, a Victron 75/15 smart controller, two interstate SRM-24 deep cycle batteries, and a CSW 2012 2000 watt inverter to operate a 14.5 cu. ft. residential refrigerator. We went to Oshkosh last year and spent 5 weeks dry camping. I have a 3500 watt generator that I run for an hour or two in the morning and roughly 3 hrs in the evening. I was having cell phone problems so I did not load and run the Victron app which was a mistake for my mental health. I quizzed Future Solutions and was informed that I could add a second panel on the roof and still utilize the 75/15 charge controller but I may not be taking full advantage of all of the power generated by both panels without up-sizing the controller. The Interstate Batteries are only 81AH batteries so I suppose less than 40 of the 81 are actually usable without killing the batteries.

[Skillet173]

Have a Haier residential fridge in my rig with 3 Grp29 FLA batteries. Was going through night no problem with running onboard Genny hour in morning (coffee) and hour or two late afternoon for microwave.
Added 400w of solar this year and so far if Mother Nature gives us sun we can go for days without Genny if not running AC or microwave.