I dunno. Have you had a look on amazon lately? I don't see that much of a price difference between a dorm fridge and a small 12v compressor fridge. A little, but not that much.
Total Noob wants to run a mini fridge
- Thread starter DIY_And_Artsy_Guy
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Rednecktek
Solar Wizard
Yup, the cheapest DC fridhe is 23qt (0.78cu ft) for more than double what I spent last week on a 1.7 cu ft fridge...
CaliSunHarvester
Solar Enthusiast
I bought one of these for about $30, I use it in my ummm... special apartment which is DC wired. It runs on 12V and really works. Takes a few hours but cans of coke will be really cold. IIRC it took 2 hours to drop the temperature inside the unit by 25F (room temperature: 65F, inside fridge: 40F).
It pulls 40W.
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Rednecktek
Solar Wizard
Too bad it's only 0.2 cu ft. Still not bad for $30. The 1.7 cu ft I bought thursday was only $70. Add in $60 for a 300w Giandel pure sine and still much cheaper.
CaliSunHarvester
Solar Enthusiast
I bought it to store medicine. Not for food.
Maybe so, but you can most likely make up the small difference by simply buying a cheap power station (~$100) and 100 watt panel (~$60). Then you avoid the hassle of cobbling together an inverter, charge controller, battery, and ac charger and sourcing a box to mount it all in neatly. Any difference in price is lost in the convenience gained. It's really not worth niggling with on such a small problem.
Rednecktek
Solar Wizard
Aaahhh, yeah that makes a difference.
Doggydogworld
Solar Enthusiast
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That one probably uses Peltier cooling instead of a compressor. They're very cheap, but inefficient. Efficiency matters less with such a tiny cooler, though. Especially these days with cheap/free panels.
CaliSunHarvester
Solar Enthusiast
Yes Peltier, as with the flip of a switch, it goes from cooling to heating.
My 2 cents. I was running a 10 yr old mini fridge in our cabin last summer off an ecoflow river 2 and it used a lot of power, 8-900wh daily. Once we got a more permanent system up, we bought a basic 18 cu ft top freezer fridge from the big box store. It barely uses more electricity than that tiny fridge that was nearly useless as a fridge anyway. Skip the toys, it costs very little more to run a full size fridge, although admittedly it cost a bit more than 30 bucks.
S Davis
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I have run a ARB 50qt for three years in my work truck, it has worked well but I am tired of it taking up floor space so decided to replace it. I found two 12-24volt compressor refrigerators for less than the cost of one. I don’t have them het so we will see how it goes, I have trade assurance on the order.
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I recently moved 4 refrigerators I've owned from family to family like musical chairs. I now use a mini fridge bought 10 years ago which I will give to another family without one when I leave in 3 weeks. It's connected to the Kill-A-Watt since getting it, because why not? It now reads 7.33 KwH over 327 hours for an average 22w per hour, about 530 watts per day. Not great, but not bad and compared to the exorbitant pricing of a 12v of the same size, 3.5 Cu.Ft. it is a decent choice.
That said, a new mini fridge I used when I bought a Delta 2 showed 66w when running and pass through of 77w. So 600w daily with inverter loss.
I been looking all over….. in canadian dollar, a cheap 12v compressor fridges 1.7cu cant be found for less then 500$. That is about as cheap as it gets. I m not sure how good that cheap 500@ fridge is. I live right on the border and checked the us market and it s the same ballpark.
The same 1.7cu fridge in 120v can be had for 30-40$ used or 99$ new and you get a top of the line Victron phoenix 500w (200$) inverter and you got yourself a set up for half of the cost of 12v.
120V plus quality inverter is the cheapest option. It will burn a few more watts but the difference is very small. And if something goes wrong..you just get another cheap fridge. At 40$… it s disposable.
Doggydogworld
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This Recpro is $209 US. I think some others cost less, but not going to look.
RV Refrigerator 1.7 Cubic Feet 12V Stainless Steel
Upgrade your RV or camper with the RecPro 12V refrigerator. With a spacious 1.7 Cu. ft capacity, adjustable temperature control, and a stainless steel finish that adds a sleek look.
www.recpro.com
That is amazing! I look everywhere in canada and there is nothing that come close to this. That said, this one as no review and i cant find any online review of people using those. But yep….. at that price, if it work reliably, it s a simple solution!This Recpro is $209 US. I think some others cost less, but not going to look.
RV Refrigerator 1.7 Cubic Feet 12V Stainless Steel
Upgrade your RV or camper with the RecPro 12V refrigerator. With a spacious 1.7 Cu. ft capacity, adjustable temperature control, and a stainless steel finish that adds a sleek look.
Sparks-n-Splinters
Solar Enthusiast
I chose this fridge 12v compressor fridge 64qt. I operate it on a 100ah lifepo4. Spent 3 weeks wandering the mountains with this left at our base camp and only pulled out my solar after about 9 days. it's been a phenomenal buy. I plugged it into the wall at home to pre- cool it, then plugged it into the truck while driving 1,000 miles.
Dagoth Ur Does Solar
Solar Enthusiast
That's a pretty cool unit. I know Vevor is just a Chinese rebrand company that rebrands basically anything they can get their hands on, but some of the stuff they rebrand has been pretty good from what I've seen (some of it is garbage). Gonna keep my eye on that one.
Sparks-n-Splinters
Solar Enthusiast
I couldn't agree more. It gets mind numbing trying to sort out good products! The only downside I found with this unit is the temp reading on the fridge. I set it to 40 and it warms to 44 then cools down to 36 according to its temp reading. A fridge thermometer placed inside reads nearly steady 41. It has been well worth the money.
I have the Whynter FM-901DZ Zone Portable Fridge 90 qt for our off grid cabin and it been good. I bought it years ago man the prices on them went up alot. Glad I bought it when I did.
ericfx1984
Solar Enthusiast
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Well I would suggest getting a high quality unit preferably something that has an inverter driven compressor
To give you an idea my RVs fridge is effectively a 12 volt mini fridge when it's not running on propane it's a peltier
That thing will suck anywhere from 400 to 600 Watts and never really shuts down
However I have a full size Samsung inverter fridge with a freezer on the bottom... It's double door and I've never seen it suck more than 220 watts and oftentimes it idles way down... All in all it sucks about 2.2 kW hours a day
To give you an idea my RVs fridge is effectively a 12 volt mini fridge when it's not running on propane it's a peltier
That thing will suck anywhere from 400 to 600 Watts and never really shuts down
However I have a full size Samsung inverter fridge with a freezer on the bottom... It's double door and I've never seen it suck more than 220 watts and oftentimes it idles way down... All in all it sucks about 2.2 kW hours a day
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