# compressor fridges



## peaky (Jul 15, 2009)

hi everyone, i have a two fold question; we are thinking of a van conversion as our next motorhome, many of the ones i have been looking at have compressor fridges, am i right in thinking they only run on electric, so that would mean we would be restricted when wild camping as to how long the leisure battery would last ???
my next question, does anyone have a suggestion other than the auto cruise accent that does a rear lounge, oven and a 3rd seat for the dog ?? (yorkie but has her own car seat so she can look out of the window, currently fixed in the car )replies gratefully recieved !!


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## jocie (Dec 24, 2006)

Yes a compressor fridge's disadvantage is that it does not run on gas, and is often chosen by converters as it does not require an outlet for the gas combustion through the van wall, making installation easier. I for one would not consider a compressor fridge. Some folk will tell you that you can run them off a 12 volt battery, but this means you really need two large capacity leisure batteries, and probably a large solar panel to charge them. Perhaps if your normal location is the Canary Islands you would get sufficient solar charge to make this feasible however. I cannot advise on the other question, other than to suggest that a proper 3rd human sized seat may not be required for your yorkie, as perhaps a custom built dog sling/hammock/basket could be made to suit your pet, and give her a view out. :roll:


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## Mike48 (May 1, 2005)

I have a compressor only fridge in my van conversion and I'm not a fan mainly because of the noise. Unfortuneately I can't comment on electric usage because I have two 110amp leisure batteries and a 90 watt solar panel which enables me to run the fridge and TV for as long as I need. However, the longest I wildcamp or stay on Aires is only around 4 days at a time as I mostly use sites.


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## madontour (May 19, 2008)

Yes, you are correct most compressor fridges run off 12 volts only. However, because the compressor doesn't run all the time (like your fridge at home) you can get quite long run times. A solar panel would make a huge difference to your time off-grid. 

The advantage is they can be fitted anywhere as they don't need an outside vent for the fumes.


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## grizzlyj (Oct 14, 2008)

peaky said:


> so that would mean we would be restricted when wild camping as to how long the leisure battery would last ???


Hiya

We have a compressor fridge and think it is 100% absolutely smashing. There is a noise when it runs, but I don't consider it noisy. If everything outside is dead still you can hear it. At the moment we are on a site with people cooking lunch, pots clanking, kids laughing, people and bikes pootling past and I can't hear it. I do sleep well anywhere but I think I could happily sleep with my head next to it. My wife doesn't sleep as soundly, the fridge is about 3m away and its never bothered her.

You could insulate around it to make it quieter still but ours isn't. The highest temperature we've had inside the camper that I know of was 43degC, and it still was working fine. Venting the heat it produces to outside the camper would help it, and your interior temperature. Ours is not vented externally, yet!

It draws a couple of amps per hour. We do have a big pair of batteries and a pair of solar panels. The previous owners travelled for 5 years continuously, we have lived in it since Nov 2008, so its definitely been running all the time for just about 8 years solid. Having got batteries and solar, that means it has cost nothing to run.

In our view, gas limits our camping adventures. The one 13kg bottle we have lasts between 4 and 6 months as its only used for cooking. If your fridge and heating ran off gas you would need to look for bottles more often than I would like. So wildcamping in a Scottish winter as we have done would become a hunt for Calor dealers every other week perhaps? That level of usage while swapping from Spain to France to Germany may also mean swapping bottles, and where do you leave the old ones? More money lost, new deposits/regulators/fittings required?

So maybe it depends on what you want from your camper? A week without moving and you would need more battery capacity from something. Up North in winter solar won't help much! (so for an upcoming trip we've bought a small genny) On the Med in summer our solar keeps our batteries totally full. A month without hook up touring Europe may make minimising your gas usage a good plan?

(Compressor fridges in themselves are also quite pricey to buy in the first place though)

Happy travels

Jason


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## peaky (Jul 15, 2009)

hi grizzlyj
thankyou for that post interesting, we had a solar panel on our last van which ran the tv im caught wheather to buy a van in uk and keep it over there or bring it to the canaries where solar would be a must as there are no campsites on the island so def wild camp !!! by the way how big was your sola and batteries and could i fit them in a panel van conversion ???


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## sundazzler (Jan 4, 2007)

An advantage of compressor fridges over gas is that they can be used at up to 30 degree inclines which in my case is brilliant because my drive is quite steep so I can stock up the fridge the night before travelling.

The fridge is situated next to the battery compartment so I have rewired it
in thicker cable direct from the leisure batteries and this has improved the
length of use.

Mike


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## grizzlyj (Oct 14, 2008)

Hi

We used to have a 24 volt microwave, but decided it was a waste of camper space so no longer do. The batteries were sized on using that, and purchased when the camper was in the USA, 255Ah each and to put it mildly are really heavy! It is a 24v system, with two 12v droppers for lights, radio and sockets. The Eberspacher water heater and water pump are 24v, the Vitrifrigo fridge can be either but runs at 24v. It draws 3 amps when running, and it runs about a third of the time, I'm no expert but at 12v it would draw twice that, or a little more? Roughly 2Ah?

The panels are about 100W each. I don't see why those batteries and panels wouldn't fit into anything you felt like, if you wanted them and could do without the space for other stuff? "Next time" perhaps I would try for four batteries of a similar size to perhaps a 4x4 starter battery, so I could easily replace them if needed and they wouldn't weigh quite as much if I needed to move them! But thats not normal for a UK camper from what I've read.

They are bigger than needed in reality, but having searched for what makes a deep cycle battery last a long time it seems just skimming off the top of the available capacity is ideal. Certainly not less than half discharge. So I do like having lots of usually unused capacity in the hope this means they'll last ages, and in the knowledge that I have lots spare if I want to use it, rather than being forced into finding hook up somewhere.

Unless you have removable panels you do have to park in the sun though!


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## grizzlyj (Oct 14, 2008)

sundazzler said:


> An advantage of compressor fridges over gas is that they can be used at up to 30 degree inclines which in my case is brilliant because my drive is quite steep so I can stock up the fridge the night before travelling.
> 
> The fridge is situated next to the battery compartment so I have rewired it
> in thicker cable direct from the leisure batteries and this has improved the
> ...


Yes indeed, bigger than normal wiring, and possibly a little computer fan to assist in heat removal are both supposed to make a big difference.

Another possible advantage is long ferry crossings, a gas fridge perhaps would have to be turned off???


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## grizzlyj (Oct 14, 2008)

You could just carry more gas!

You could probably buy a few years supply for the equivalent money for solar, big batteries etc. I was thinking this morning just how much gas that would work out to!!

Depends if you can buy the bottles you want where you're going, or can fill a refillable system that many have.


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## teemyob (Nov 22, 2005)

*Noise*



gelathae said:


> I have a compressor only fridge in my van conversion and I'm not a fan mainly because of the noise. Unfortuneately I can't comment on electric usage because I have two 110amp leisure batteries and a 90 watt solar panel which enables me to run the fridge and TV for as long as I need. However, the longest I wildcamp or stay on Aires is only around 4 days at a time as I mostly use sites.


What kind of noise is it?

Is it the motor noise or a gurgling and farting noise?.

If the latter, you can easily modify the capillary to reduce the level of noise.

We ran a 240v compressor fridge/freezer from 2 x 110a batteries and 2 x solar panels without any issue.

This is what we had We had it in the Garage to back up our tiny gas fridge in our Eura Mobil.

TM


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## teemyob (Nov 22, 2005)

*Fridge*

This is a good buy

Here


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## Mike48 (May 1, 2005)

*Re: Noise*



teemyob said:


> gelathae said:
> 
> 
> > I have a compressor only fridge in my van conversion and I'm not a fan mainly because of the noise. Unfortuneately I can't comment on electric usage because I have two 110amp leisure batteries and a 90 watt solar panel which enables me to run the fridge and TV for as long as I need. However, the longest I wildcamp or stay on Aires is only around 4 days at a time as I mostly use sites.
> ...


Its the noise of the motor. Its so loud I have to turn it down - and sometimes off - at night. I mentioned it to the dealer thinking the noise was abnormal (and bearing in mind the vehicle is new and under warranty) but was told the noise levels were normal for a Waeco compressor fridge. I should also mention that the thermostat works as the fridge does turn on and off.


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## sallytrafic (Jan 17, 2006)

Running an adsorption fridge 24/7 is a huge gas user.

Running a 12V compressor is not a huge 12V user. I managed for 4 years with a single 110Ahr battery and no solar. My compressor fridge was a chest one though which are even more efficient as you don't lose cold air opening it. The motor draws about 4A only when running.

A solar panel is a good idea though as its increased power when sunny nicely compensates for the increase in Ahr used by the fridge having to work harder to keep stuff cool. 

In winter my fridge ran for about 5 mins every hour (less at night), in full summer about 10 mins per hour. 

That works out as between 8Ahr (winter) to 16Ahr (summer) in each day (24hr period) plus a bit more for the onboard electronics (and less a bit because I've just looked it up the motor only actually drew 3.6A) 

In practice it was even more frugal in winter and running for as much as 10 minutes in the hour was a rare high summer event.


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## teemyob (Nov 22, 2005)

*Locker Fridge*

I am in the process of turning this into a fridge.


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## oldun (Nov 10, 2005)

jocie said:


> Yes a compressor fridge's disadvantage is that it does not run on gas, and is often chosen by converters as it does not require an outlet for the gas combustion through the van wall, making installation easier. I for one would not consider a compressor fridge. Some folk will tell you that you can run them off a 12 volt battery, but this means you really need two large capacity leisure batteries, and probably a large solar panel to charge them. :roll:


The two main advantages of a compressor fridge are:

1. It DOES NOT run on gas and so there is no large heat input inside the van, or any gas products to be got rid of. This means that your gas bottle lasts much longer. The compressor fridge is vastly superior to most 3 way fridges running on 12V whilst traveling. When on 12V many 3 way fridges are not thermostatically controlled so the contents either get too hot or too cold after a few hours.

2. It IS be run on 12V which means that the fridge works a maximum efficiency all the time, even when on a boat journey or on the road. The internal size is also much larger than an 3 way fridge with the same outside dimensions.

The downsides are:

1. There is some low level noise which we soon got use to.

2. The battery alone will not last too long without reasonably long journeys or the use of an EHU. So we have fitted a second battery and a solar panel and now we can go days without long journeys or an EHU.


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## peaky (Jul 15, 2009)

thankyou to everyone for their imput, as with most things there is a plus and minus side, ita not the end of the world then just need to get another battery and a solar panel to add to the list if we go down that route.


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