Fridges & Cold Beer -- How I Done It --

Looks like SEAFLO-UK

has popped up with a range of 35, 45, 55 ltr compressor fridges.

they come with a 12v power lead and a direct PSU too.

35L



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45L



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55L



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12V/24V/220V (2020 MODEL) PORTABLE FRIDGE/FREEZER WITH INTERNAL BASKET
This Portable Fridge is Perfect for Use in Caravans/Cars. This Particular Portable Fridge can be Powered using the Cigarette Port 12v/24v in the Vehicle or be used at home with the Power Adapter 220v. This Portable Fridge can be set to the Temperature that you Require Ranging from -20°C to +10°C. This Particular Model Comes with an Internal Basket to Store Food and Drinks
The Inside of the Portable Fridge includes a layer of Fluorine-Free Environmental Protection Insulation whilst the Outside of the Product is Made from High Quality Plastic.
THE NEW MODEL DESIGNED FOR 2020 SEASON HAS ADDED FEATURES AS FOLLOWS:
UNIQUE 2 WAY DOOR DESIGN - door can be opened from either left or right hand side or can be removed completely for easy access
2 USB PORTS FOR CHARGING PHONES/LAPTOPS etc
2 CUP/BOTTLE HOLDERS ON TOP OF LID
LED LIGHTING WHEN DOOR IS OPENED
SUPPLIED WITH INTERNAL STORAGE BASKET
FOLDING HANDLES


Power: 60W




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Well done Lee. Great to consolidate the threads together. My Polarbox is great, no problems so far and 51L is ample for our needs.
In the future I might look for a smaller model and a allpowers battery for use on the beach for drinks etc :thumbsup:
 
Fridge Beer Monitoring . . . - How I Done It -


This time lets look at fridge temps . . .


At T6F summer camp i had one of these little Bluetooth temp monitors inside my Lifpo4 Battery Box . . .

this was to keep an eye on the internal box temp to make sure it was kept below 30degc due to being lithium etc . .

i also had sun shield that i used as a solar blanket . . .

all that can be seen here :





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The Box temps were logged and gave live data . .

so here in doors right now . . . 23.13degC

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and history logging . . .


like here that shows the T6F summer weekend and the last week with the box being at home . . .

you can see the internal box temp reached 39.7degC on that sunny saturday (the solar blanket had been left off leaving the box in the sun)

and the 14.5degc were the drops in temp at night time . . .

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This is the unit . . .

The APP is free and comes with a battery included (CR coin cell)



for a Tenner you cant go wrong . . . .


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So where am i going with this . . . . . . .?

well this is the second monitor i got . . .


this one has a screen on it . . . .

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.....


This second one is for the Beer Fridge =]


this is the unit . .

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and info for the free APP . . .



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size wise its dinky . . . .

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I added the second device to the APP on my phone, and named the new one Beer Fridge =]

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then dropped it into the new fridge and sat back with a beer.

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..

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Its been in the fridge for a while now . . . .

we can now use the logging function and see who we our fridge has done . . . .

This is the log for the last 4hours - well just under . . .

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and the Humidity . . .


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The slight bumps in the graph are where I've opened to the fridge to play with it.

These are awesome little gadgets . . .

being Bluetooth and battery powered you can place them anywhere. . . .

keep an eye on the vans internal temp?
beer or food fridge in the van?
conservatory temps?
POP Top temps?
at home, in the van, at work.
etc etc etc

you get the idea.



Talking of Tent Temps . . . .

i got one of these too . . .

for inside the tent at T6F summer camp.

Last year (2019) i had my NOCO GB150 swell and break apart because i kept it in the tent (too hot) . . . . . just showing you how hot tents and vans can get in the summer . . .

Luckily the NOCO pack was replaced by NOCO at cost (it was 2years old at that point)







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so wanna do this yourself . . . . ?


have a look at the units:











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Time to play with Beer Fridges . . .

This is the 40L frisge that i got (its listed above)

Testing beer capacity, i found that if you lie the beers down . . .

you get . 8 x 5 high and 6 in the fridge section = 46

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If you stand them up . . .

then you get 19 x 2 high + 6in the fridge = 44

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so for more beers lie them down . . . . . =]

Yes i have removed the white cage thing that comes with the fridge.


OK, what next . . . .

lets look at power usage . . .

The Fridge is rated at 60W . . . . . but I've noticed some interesting things . . .


like this, when plugged into mains . . . . ie 240vac . . .

look 90w, even upto 100W . . . . =]




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drawing around 7.7A @ 13.04V from the battery Box vis a Bestek inverter . . .


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.

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this was confirmed by plugging into the wall and getting the same reading . . .

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which is interesting . . . . . but it cools the beers down very quick . . .


once down to the set temp the compressor throttles back and the fridge just ticks over . . . .

here you can see it has dropped back down to 11w and only drawing 0.86A or 860mA . . . which is nice . . .

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with the temp logger above we can see the fridge working here , , ,

Dropping a full fridge pack of Beers (at room temp 24degC)

down to the 2degc setpoint - fridge internal temp is more like 4degc - which is perfect for a cool tastey beverage . . . ABOUT 3.5HRS

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what about ECO . . . . .

well switching on ECO mode changed a few things . . .

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First of all the power draw dropped from around 90w (full load)

to below 60W (full load) and seemed to cycle less often . . .

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I think whats happening here is the fridge is seeing above 14v and assumes its on EHU or the car engine is running and has unlimited power reserve so just runs 100% to get those beers cold asap.

as soon as the voltage drops below the 14v mark it start to reduce power and starts throttling . . .

...



what about direct 12v?

well with the fridge 12v lead directlu plugged into the battery box we had 13.2v of DC power. . . . (remember the EHU power pack is 14.5v dc)


The fridge lit up and started to cool . . .

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but seemed to hover around the 60W mark max . . . .

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.

switching it ECO done the same thing . . . reduced the power draw and extended the compressor duty cycle . .


you can see the power draw here . . . . 13.1v @ around 3.4A to 5.5A

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thats why it didnt run on the ALLPOWERS 375 regulated OP on RHS as they are 5A max !!

But would run on the unregulated OP on the LHS (10A max)

....


So whats my conclusion . . .?

well once again it seems that thing are more efficient running on 240v via an inverter off your 12v battery . . . . .

why?

well even with the efficiency losses going through the inverter 12-240-14.5v etc . .

it seem that the fridges are much happier when the see a good health voltage of 13.8v or above, (14.5v in the case of this power brick)

this power draw can be seen via the Victron Smart Shunt. drawing 100W @ 7.62A (full load)

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But when moving over to the 12v battery direct you already start with a much lower voltage . . . .

in this case 13.1v on the lifpoe4 battery box. . . .

as soon as the compressor startup and drawing more power you get more volt drop causing the battery voltage to sag more . . .

which causes the low-volt alarm on the fridge, or the light inside starts to dim when the compressor kicks in . . . .

all signs of volt drop and power issues . . . .

plus when the voltage drops the current increases causing more of an issue with the plus and wires starting to heat . . . .


so if you are going to run these from a 12v battery . . . .

dont bother with a cheap SLA battery. . . . has low static voltage and suffers from bad volt drop under load

get a decent AGM battery as a minimum.

try it out with a small inverter and see the irreverence for yourself . . .

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This is the 300w inverter i used in the above test (my previous MSW inverter)
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This is the previous 200W MSW inverter i used with my cooler boxes (almost silent) (also got one in grey i keep on the van)

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if you want to do direct . . . these are best out there. . . . fat beefy cable etc . . . good clamps (I've got about 5)

but not its not fused so add one or be careful and know what your doing . .



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Sorry if this is a bit of a threadjack, but I'm not that well versed in the world of inverters...

I've got a Royal 3-Way Absorption fridge that runs at 90w and consumes 7.5A off 12v and 0.39A off 240v. For that reason, I only run the fridge off 12v when we're actually driving and rely on EHU when we've got where we're going. Other power requirements off the 12v system are low - LED roof lights, plus a couple of USB chargers. I've got a 110AH AGM leisure battery, powered by a Victon DC-DC charger, but no solar at the moment.

The question is: If I use an inverter, will the fridge run for longer off the leisure battery than it otherwise would if I plug it directly into the 12v system?

In my head, with about 50AH of usable capacity, the fridge would run for about 7 hours directly off the lesiure battery, but would run for 120 hours+ with an inverter. Does this sound about right?
 
From your figures, it consumes about 90w however you power it, so the battery life will be the same roughly. Inefficiencies in the inverter may make it worse using that.

Pete
 
Yes. You are never going to keep up with an absorption fridge unless you have loads of solar. A compressor fridge is much more efficient, but expensive.

Pete
 
following on from the above . . . Fridge test.

its now been 2days . . .

the beers are still ice cold - and the battery voltage hasnt dropped a bit . . .

lets have a look. . . . . .

we started with this late monday evening . .

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by tuesday we had moved over to the 12v DC lead plugged into the 12v battery box. (Lifepo4)

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..

by wednesday the stats were . .

battery voltage = 13.3v
battery SOC = 78%
temp = ~5C

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moving into thursday the stats were . .

battery voltage = 12.9v
battery SOC = 65%
temp = ~5C

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moving into friday the stats were . .

battery voltage = 12.9v
battery SOC = 59%
temp = ~5c
ambient = #25c

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overall we started on 38ah (battery consumed Ah)

and at this point at 58ah (battery consumed Ah)

so weve used 20Ah so far . . . . in almost 3days !!

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you can see how this works here . . . . . .

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initially the fridge will go into turbo mode and 100% to cool the box down to the rerquired set temp.

this was using 5-10Amps at the start . . . (loud compressor noise)

once the fridge got down to temp, you can see the cycling started . . . .

as an average it will wait for 15-60mins and cycle the compressor on for a few mins. not full blast but speed controlled. (quite compressor noise)

this brings the box back down to temp and the cycle starts again. . . .

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during this wait time the fridge consumes 0w !!! as seen here:

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opening the lid will turn on the interior LED, this draws 0.11A or 110mA. as seen here:

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temp wise, with a panel setting of +2c

we were seeing main compartment temps of around 5dec

and upper compartment @ +14deg c

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hit pic limit for this post . . . . . . .


so you can see how efficient these compressor fridges are . . . .


things that effect these results . . .

opening and closing fridge . . .

though being a top loader you dont loose much temp anyway.

drinking cold beers and having to add more warm ones . . . . ie - re-filling the fridge - this will make the fridge turn on again, but thats what it designed for right!

external ambient temps - the fridge uses a heat exchanger radiator and fan to expell unwanted heat - make sure the air vents are free flowing

higher external temps make it harder to drop the internal temps.

adding extra thermal insulation greatly helps with the cooling and efficiency. . . .

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wanna see more . . . . .?

Lets look at the Thermals . . . . Its Flir time !

this is the box - currenly inside @ 26c ambient.

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with Alien vision it looks like this . . . Infra Red, we cant see it but we can feel it. ie hot/cold.

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inside it looks like this . . .


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here you can see the heat being generated by the compressor and exchanger . . .


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look at the effect of having the extra insulation / carry bag / cover . . . .

outside the cover is 28c . . . but look at the dark bit behind the cover . .

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..

behind the insulation its a whole 10degc cooler. . . .

keeping the heat out, cold in, and improving the efficiency and power usage


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wanna see more cold beer . . . . . .

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Dell,

Those little mini Bluetooth temp/humidity devices are brilliant aren’t they.
The history stuff is excellent, and all for £11 each.

Pete
 
yes, they are excellent . . .

and I've just discovered that the one with the screen on has a alarm sounder on it.

so you set a safe range . . . anything outside that range . . .

ie - to HOT or COLD the sensor starts beeping . . . great =]


its a shame the APP doesn't also alarm . .


testing it right now.


look at this . . .

i set a high alarm of 20C . . .

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then took it out the fridge . . . . temp raised above 20c.

screen temp went red and sensor starting beeing at me !!!


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i put it back in fridge ,. . . .


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it cooled down and stopped beeping, the app temp went green.



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brilliant !!!!



I've ordered another two of the screened versions . . .




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im going to swapp out the battery box one for a screen one,

that way it will start beeping if it get too hot . . . . . =]

happy dayz.
 
Look what just turned up . . .

Love Amazon Prime . . . . =)

..
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Thats better
.
All 4 added and running.


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Great little devices, does the monitor beep a warning or your phone ?
Unfortunately not.

But the screen device has a sounder in it that beeps.... you can hear it easy enough.
 
Fridge insulated carry bag hack . . . . . .

i couldnt find a 40L bag for my new compressor fridge for love nor money . . .

but i did get this cheap 30ltr bag . . . .


so i bought a second one _ (just in case it all went pear-shaped)


i basically just cut the bottom out.



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you can see the three layers its made out of . . .

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next step was to cut out the bottom with scissors , ,

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and slip over the top ...

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... now the lid and handles line up . . .


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not bad, lets see how practical it is . . . .
 
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