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Old 02-15-2021, 08:20 AM   #1
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About to buy a 2108DS

Hello,
We full timed in a Journey 36G for three years and did a bit of boondocking. Our Norcold (with Amish rebuild) fridge was great because we could run it on propane.
This TT thing is new for us.
Now, with battery/solar improvements, I am considering going with the 12v fridge in the 2108 with solar and lithium battery. I would also carry a Honda 2000w generator for backup. Power supply is not my strong point, so would appreciate your thoughts. I did see one post that was adamant about absolutely needing an absorption fridge if boondocking much.
Thank you
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Old 02-15-2021, 09:02 AM   #2
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Our MM came standard with 12v compressor fridge. We learned quickly that the fridge wii perform more efficiently if pre-chilled on shore power, and carrying a bag of ice in the freezer. It would not be easy to boondock with this fridge if we hadn’t decided on major electrical upgrades. AND we really like the extra size of the 12v and it’s ability to keep everything as cold as you want. The cost of replacing our fridge with an absorption fridge would have been more than half the cost of our upgrades which include 170ah LiFePo4, and 2,000w inverter/Charger. Install not finished yet, but, With our new setup, we expect to be able to boondock for 3 days before recharging battery. Bottom line is, you don’t absolutely have to have an absorption fridge to boondock. But if you don’t want to spend on an electrical upgrade, or at least a couple of 6v AGMs, and generator, absorption is the way to go.
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Old 02-16-2021, 06:05 AM   #3
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Jim is spot on about pre-chilling. Keeping it full will will reduce energy consumption. Absorption is a nice option to have, much like a having a dual fuel generator.

I just posted about portable 12V fridge/freezers which may offer additional options for extending boondocking options.

https://www.winnieowners.com/forums/...ml#post3887688
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Old 02-16-2021, 06:55 AM   #4
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Absolutely agree with Rock about portable 12v fridge. We’ve had one for 5 years. When traveling, we keep it in the back seat holding sandwiches, drinks, and whatever we might stop and pick up along the way. We made boneheaded mistake or piling stuff on top of it in the truck, and the top cover melted, but it still works. Worth every penny because you can use it at home as your outdoor bar fridge to chill beer, wine and soft drinks. One of our top 10 buys.
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Old 02-19-2021, 08:34 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Marine359 View Post
Our MM came standard with 12v compressor fridge. We learned quickly that the fridge wii perform more efficiently if pre-chilled on shore power, and carrying a bag of ice in the freezer.
Jim, have you measured the power draw while the fridge is running normally? I'm curious as I really like the idea of a bigger and safer (in my opinion) fridge if it doesn't eat my batteries down too much. When my absorption fridge is running on LPG it seems to consume about 0.8A continuously. Sometime this spring and maybe later when it's hot in Jul/Aug I'll try to do a better measurement. I know the fridge has a fan and I could believe it has this kind of draw (computer case fans typically draw 0.2A or so). I've also read comments about a heating strip around the door, but not sure if mine has that or not.

My furnace (and probably yours, too) draws about 4A while running. I'm thinking the 12v compressor fridge might be in this ballpark. But I wonder how often it runs. I assume it isn't running continuous, so it may net out better than I'd maybe expect.

Measuring might be tricky. I need to look if my fridge shares a circuit with something. I think it maybe does, but it's too dang cold outside to go look!
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Old 02-19-2021, 08:45 AM   #6
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I have a clamp multimeter, so I’ve been meaning to measure all loads. I’ll get that done sometime next month when we get our MM back from the shop. I gotta say getting measurements for the fridge will be difficult though. Thats because the compressor doesn’t come on very often, and when it does, it doesn’t stay on very long. If I remove the outside fridge panel, it’ll be like trying to rush to answer the phone when you’re on the throne. I’ll give it a shot next month, but I’m prepared for failure. When it’s on I’m pretty sure it’s 4amps, but it probably is only running 10 minutes of every hour. Never had a 12v only before. I’ve had 5 absorption fridges, and I can say they all ran much more than this 12v. I’ll get numbers for you.
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Old 02-19-2021, 08:49 AM   #7
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Aw shucks, I forgot. My 2108 will come back from the shop with a negative shunt Bluetooth monitor. It will be simple for me to shut off loads at the breaker panel and measure each load individually. I may be dumb, but I ain’t stupid.
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Old 02-19-2021, 09:30 AM   #8
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Aw shucks, I forgot. My 2108 will come back from the shop with a negative shunt Bluetooth monitor. It will be simple for me to shut off loads at the breaker panel and measure each load individually. I may be dumb, but I ain’t stupid.
Ha! That's sort of what I've done to date, but I also have a cheapo bayite shunt meter that I was thinking I might jig into the circuit somehow. What I really need is some connector that could replace a fuse as a tap. I could add an inline fuse holder for a place to put the original fuse. Would be clunky, but then I could measure a circuit pretty trivially over a period of time. The bayite won't handle two-way power movement (i.e. charging as well as discharging), but it this case only one way is needed.

Now I wonder if fuse tap thingies are available. I was thinking they make sneaky devices like that to add a circuit to a panel, don't they? Maybe I can mod one of those. Anyway, I don't mean to take this thread so far off course, but would be nice to know these things for the buying decision process.
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Old 02-19-2021, 10:06 AM   #9
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You can obviously measure the voltage drop across each fuse in the panel. There are tables available online that give current as a function of mV across each standard fuse. I spent a few minutes playing with this back in October. This is a real "ball-park" type measurement, but it is easy. It seemed to agree well with the stated amp-draw of my MaxxFan Deluxe for the various speeds (only real independent reference).
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