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Digital Inverter fridge

Newenough

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Sep 20, 2019
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Ive been using a Dometic RM1350 propane/electric fridge for the last 4 years. Its been a great fridge, but have enough lofepo4 battery in place to upgrade. I'm looking for a inverter type but not even Google can find it apparently. I can read about ALL the great wonders of such an amazing glorious technology but finding one to buy? That's a no... Anyone have any leads? I live between Chatanooga TN and Atlanta GA so either wood work. Id drive even further if required....
 
Interesting. The smallest inverter drive refrigeration I have seen is 9kbtuh minisplit... that’s about 10 times larger than a home fridge... i am sure it would be buildable, I just don’t know any company making them.

Maybe a 3phase fridge someone could put a digital motor controller on? Idk...
 
LG and Samsung are the biggest makers of fridges that use digital inverter based compressors. They have been available in Europe and Canada for years. Problem is they are not big sellers here due to cost, being twice as much or more for similar sized standard fridge. Benefits? No surge during startup. I've seen specs as low as 31w for a 20cf model.
 
A regular old cheap fridge from walmart can be ran on lifepo4 and 100w.
 
A small dorm type 2.5 c.f. fridge? I'd rather have 20 c.f. for a third that and no surge watts. The wife would be very happy. ?
 
Oh, well, get a bigger one. What's the concern about surge watts? They're not causing significant amp consumption. And if you really care you can get an easy start.

 
OT: did you grab the lifepo4's in your area? some places around ATL were selling lots on ebay recently, but don't seem to have any in stock right now.

I live in AL, but figure I have to drive a bit for decent deals on batteries/panels.

look into RV'ers fridge posts. most have figured out that home fridges are much more reliable and efficient than the "nocolds"/dometics.
 
I have been looking at a few fridges that are Energy Star cert, and around 40-49w. Compared to the newest invert ones at 18w. But considering the cost difference and possble difficulty in repair/parts I will probably take the money saved and just get more batteries to cover the wattage difference.

Picked up 40 60ah from an EV car conversion shop in ATL (left over from A project car) another 16 from Lion Energy (lightly used from ebay), and just got in 8 new 75ah from RJ Energy from china. They work well but may stick with the Lion energy units. Price is the same (though they are 50ah) but delivery is fast and they guarantee the units too. A nice touch is the plastic top and bottom tray they come with makes for a pretty compact setup and they come with all the lug screws. The ones from RJ Energy did not come with the lugs. I was able to find them easy enough (Tractor Supply) but they were really small at 4mm x .7. Thought I would break one for sure. Which would have really sucked.
 
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I have a LG 279 litre inverter fridge/freezer and it's great. I got it on special so the price was comparable to a standard fridge. It will start and run at voltages that would have my other fridges stalled and popping the thermal cutout. The last cyclone to sweep through the area caused a HV fault that left my mains voltage low and dancing around but the fridge performed as if everything was normal. I wasn't even aware of the mains voltage problem until a neighbour mentioned they had problems. It also has very gentle compressor start up so there is no big inrush current which makes it perfect for inverters.

I can't say enough about how much better an inverter fridge is, in my experience at least.
 
For what its worth my little 1.7 cu ft cube fridge in my camper right now is using about 7-9w (2 x 5 minute cycles @ 4.27A). I just got a shunt meter and been doing close energy audits for 2 weeks. It might triple that in peak summer without AC based on knowing how many cycles it does an hour.
 
Oh, well, get a bigger one. What's the concern about surge watts? They're not causing significant amp consumption. And if you really care you can get an easy start.


$300?!?!
 
That thing will start a roof air conditioner off 1.5kw
 
My plan is to run the frodge off its own smaller, less power hungry inverter. My expensive 4000/12000 I turn off in the evenings rather than leave it run 24/7.

I finally found a company in Atlanta that sells Beko appliances (pretty new to the US market but common in Europe) that have inverter fridges that use 42w for 13cf. The adaptive (no set schedule, determined by use) defrost cycle only draws 150w at 1.25 amp. With no surge watts I can run it with a small 300w pure sine inverter. $139.00 on Amazon.
 
I kinda agree. 20w hi g her than others ive seen online, but can't buy them (not sold here). But the inverter I'm going to use for it draws 7w, with 95% efficiency. Added together (fridge and inverter) is about the same as just running my current inverter without load which is 52w. So other than a defrost its a wash for me.
 
My little 2cu ft that doesnt defrost with inverter is doing like 18w combined right now. Inverter is 10w. With maybe 24-28w at its peak in summer. Another guy reported his like 10ft did a few watts higher but i cant remember the thread it was in.
 
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Do you know what its power consumption over 24 hours is? I've heard of people modding standard chest freezers (non inverter) and seeing 300 Wh over 24 hours.
 
Who me? 190wh. Inverter 250wh. Its december so ~3x in summer.
 
Do you know what its power consumption over 24 hours is? I've heard of people modding standard chest freezers (non inverter) and seeing 300 Wh over 24 hours.
Not sure as it depends on the number and length of the defrost cycles. As it only my wife and I, we only open the freezer a few times per day. The other thing thats drawing us to this solution is that the compressor will very its load (power draw) based on the demand (level of cooling needed at the moment). Not the normal two modes, being full tilt or off.

I tried the freezer conversion some years ago. It was ok, but far more than 300w. The down side for us, and why we abandoned the idea was it seemed every time we wanted somethin it was ALWAYS at the bottom.....?
 
Oh, well, get a bigger one. What's the concern about surge watts? They're not causing significant amp consumption. And if you really care you can get an easy start.

Never heard of this. Thanks for posting it.
 
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