mustrmrk
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Posts posted by mustrmrk
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jdemaris,
Unfortunately, the Sundanzer won't fit in our space w/o a major refit. I did find a unit by Nova Kool that will almost be a drop-in replacement, the R5810. We're starting to lean toward buying rather than building. Has anyone had experience w/ Nova Kool? It uses the ubiquitous Danfoss compressor. Backwoodssolar.com says the single door models run at about 35 watts w/ a 30% duty cycle at 70 deg F ambient. This translates to 23.3 amp hours per day by my calculations. Of course, it probably doesn't factor in opening the door and actually using the fridge, but it sounds pretty good. After living w/ a top opening fridge on the boat my wife is ready for the convenience of a front opening fridge.
On a related note, how did you attach solar panels to the top of your Toyota? I'm considering a couple of aluminum brackets the full width of the house w/ feet tabbed on at the end for fastening to the side, rather than going through the roof.
Bob C - do you know how many watts or amps are being drawn by your 12v fridge while it's running? Do you know the duty cycle is - how long the compressor runs to maintain temperature compared to how long it isn't running?
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What are you using for a house bank w/ your Sundanzer?
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That sounds about right based on my experience w/ the Danfoss. Even averaging 2 amps per hour the refrigeration was the biggest electricity consumer on the boat. I've looked at the Sundanzer before and think it's a nice unit. Unfortunately, they don't seem to make one that has both a fridge and a freezer. It's also pretty spendy for my limited budget.
I believe the Frigiboat unit is also variable speed. On a boat it uses a keel cooler to cool the refrigerant - very efficient and quiet. On the RV I'll need to add the optional air cooling unit - basically a fan and a little radiator for the coolant. There's plenty of room where the old Sibir fridge sits to build a Sundanzer-like top opening box, and the evaporator can form a freezer. If I decide to go this route, I'll let you know what sort of performance I see.
Thanks for your input.
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jdemaris,
What kind of 12v compressor do you have that only draws 2 amps when running? My Adler-Barbour draws about 6 amps when it's running. I haven't run the Frigiboat, yet, but it's based on the same Danfoss compressor.
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My apologies in advance if this topic has already been discussed to death
My wife and I have been live-aboard cruisers on our 37' sailboat for the last 8 years. We bought a Toyota motorhome last summer and are doing a few things to make our lives "aboard" easier. We have really liked our 12vdc refrigeration on the boat for many reasons. We're beginning to look at changing from our old and tired propane / AC refrigeration to a 12vdc system.
We'd be interested to hear of any real-world experience any of you might have regarding using 12vdc refrigeration in a Toyota RV.
We already have 2 120w solar panels, a Frigiboat compressor (we'd need to add the fan cooling add-on to the compressor), and a pretty good sized evaporator.
Here are a few of the many thoughts we've been tossing around:
- The boat has a house bank of 6 Trojan T-105 golf cart batteries for a total of 675w of 12vdc power. I won't even consider using this much storage on the RV due to the weight, so I'll need to come up with a reasonable compromise.
- Our most desirable camp sites tend to be in the shade.
- On the boat, we'd often sail for days on a passage and the panels and wind generator would keep the batteries charged (unless we had to run the water maker and the sun wasn't out). This included the additional loads for navigation equipment, radios, and nighttime running lights.
- Our fridge on the boat ran at about a 1/3 duty cycle, drawing about 40 amp hours per day. However, we should be able to build a better insulated efficient top opening fridge than the one on the boat. It will fit in the same or less space than the current 120vac / propane fridge.
- We'll be running the engine in the RV more often than we did on the boat, so the alternator will take care of some or most of the charging load except when we stay in one place for a while.
... and so on.
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Has anyone painted these interior plastic coated 'wood' cabinets with success. I'd love to brighten up our interior but am worried paint will not stick. What prep and paint did you use?
thanks
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DuN,
Thanks for those photos. It certainly looks like an additional 12" would be pushing it, for sure. Not having gotten down to the actual measuring inside the RV yet, I find myself going off the RM760 idea....
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As I was researching this stuff I found this thread about refrigeration on a Sprinter RV forum. It's informative and is 25 pages long. There's plenty of 12v vs. propane vs. ice box reading for everyone <g>. Apologies in advance if someone else has already posted it.
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Thanks for the feedback and for the info re. the rust. I'll check it out. I have measured - it's a bit taller and a bit narrower than the old one. It looks like I'll need to remove the passenger seat to get the old one out the passenger door anyway, and I think the new one would go in the same way. I'll need to modify the cabinetry a bit, but that's no biggie. One other concern is ventilation - I need to take a look at both setups again before I pull the trigger on this.
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Greetings,
I was just offered an opportunity to purchase a Dometic RM 760 three-way two-door fridge / freezer used for $100. Assuming it works, is this a good deal? The owner is willing to guarantee it to cool properly on 120v AC, 12 VDC, and propane. Is anyone familiar with this model? Any thoughts on how efficient these things are?
Thanks.
12Vdc Refrigeration
in Coach ApplianceTech Issues
Posted
After pricing the 12v options / sizes / features / cost / shipping, we've gone haring off in another direction. We're going to try converting a 5.2 cu. ft. 120v chest freezer into a fridge. The research I've done so far shows a lot of people having very good success doing this in off-grid situations, saving power even though it's being powered by an inverter. Not as efficient as a Sundanzer, for sure, but possibly acceptable for our needs / solar array, etc. And 1/10 of the cost of a comparable Sundanzer. I'll post "real life" results when I know more.