Dometic Fridge on 8 AA batteries? |
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podwerkz
Senior Member Joined: 11 Mar 2019 Location: Texas Online Status: Offline Posts: 966 |
Topic: Dometic Fridge on 8 AA batteries? Posted: 15 Mar 2019 at 8:48pm |
The Dometic fridge in my new 171 has a compartment for a battery holder that will hold 8 AA batteries to run the electronics of the fridge.
The manual says the battery holder is optional. What the heck? 50c worth of plastic I'm guessing. It's referred to in the manual as 'Self-contained gas operation and optional battery compartment'. (yes I know there needs to be a gas supply to run the refrigerant unit) But there is no part number and I googled and googled and can't find the part number or even a reference to it on the Dometic website or anywhere else for that matter. Has anyone ordered or obtained one of these? If so, how long did the batteries last? Days? Weeks? More? It might be handy when off-grid. |
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r・pod 171 gone but not forgotten!
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StephenH
podders Helping podders - pHp Joined: 29 Nov 2015 Location: Wake Forest, NC Online Status: Offline Posts: 6326 |
Posted: 15 Mar 2019 at 10:04pm |
Congratulations on your new RPod. I hope you have many fine adventures and make many great memories doing so. Okay, if you have a good battery, it is superfluous. Your 12V battery (or, if you did like I did and install dual 6V batteries wired in series) will provide all the power your refrigerator needs to run for quite a while if you don't need power to run anything else. However, in real life, the refrigerator is not the only draw on power. There are also constant power draws from the LP/CO detector and the thermostat. If you forget to turn the antenna booster off, that also draws power as does the entertainment unit and the USB charging outlets. You won't want to leave your 'Pod disconnected long unless you put in a battery disconnect switch (or just disconnect the negative terminal of the battery). Be careful if you disconnect both battery terminals to note which wire goes to the positive and which to the negative. Connecting them backwards means at a minimum that you blow the two 40A fuses in your power panel that protect your converter from reversed polarity. Could you possibly find a battery box that fits that space? Maybe. Do you NEED to find it? questionable. I don't really think you would want to use the refrigerator in your R-Pod with no lights, furnace (in cool/cold weather) or vent fan ( in warm weather) anyway. You would be better off upgrading your battery to dual 6V (lots of power but relatively heavy but also relatively inexpensive compared to other options) or LiFePo4 (Lithium) batteries (light weight, great capacity, very expensive still and need an adjustment to the converter to properly charge). Ultimately, you could really build a high-capacity power bank with the LiFePo4 batteries that would weigh much less than dual 6V and have more usable capacity.
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StephenH
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,... ouR escaPOD mods Former RPod 179 Current Cherokee Grey Wolf 24 JS |
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podwerkz
Senior Member Joined: 11 Mar 2019 Location: Texas Online Status: Offline Posts: 966 |
Posted: 15 Mar 2019 at 10:22pm |
Oh yeah, sorry, yes I know the 12v battery system will run the fridge electronics.
What I meant to convey is that if I want to flip off the main battery on the tongue to conserve ALL use of power in the camper when parked off-grid, say at night, or on super cloudy days, parked under trees, etc, but then maybe the fridge could keep running on gas and the AA batteries for a day or 3, when or if my solar is not hooked up or is under-producing. The manual states that if the 12v supply is lost, the fridge will switch to the AA batteries for control operation. That seems like a feature I want to have when off-grid. On top of that, the fridge manual states that the fridge goes into power saving mode when on the AA batteries: the display goes dark, only blinking the 'gas' indicator once every 15 seconds so you know it's operating. If you push any button, the temp setting LEDs light up so you can adjust the temp. Just seems like a nice idea...I will call Dometic on Monday and see what they have to say about it.
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r・pod 171 gone but not forgotten!
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offgrid
Senior Member Joined: 23 Jul 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5290 |
Posted: 16 Mar 2019 at 6:27am |
8 AA batteries in series provides 12V, and AA batteries have about 2-3 AH capacity. So, you're talking about 1-2% of your main trailer battery capacity. In comparison, the AA battery capacity you gain is in the noise, even if the fridge used the AA's up in only a day you wouldn't notice any extended camping time on 12V.
I do think its interesting that the manual states the fridge goes into a power saving mode when on the main 12V power is disconnected and its on the AA's. Not sure why Dometic wouldn't put the fridge in that mode whenever its running on propane. That would be helpful, and maybe there's a way to set that up. Good luck in your research, please let us know what you find out.
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1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |
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furpod
Moderator Group - pHp Joined: 25 Jul 2011 Location: Central KY Online Status: Offline Posts: 6128 |
Posted: 16 Mar 2019 at 9:40am |
The AA stuff is only an option in Europe. Don't know why.So far as I know, 1 owner ever went through the trouble to get the part shipped and installed it. They didn't feel it was worth the bother after doing it, and they boondocked a lot.
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StephenH
podders Helping podders - pHp Joined: 29 Nov 2015 Location: Wake Forest, NC Online Status: Offline Posts: 6326 |
Posted: 16 Mar 2019 at 10:14am |
My thinking also is that by the time you pay for the parts, shipping, and installation, you will have paid at least as much, if not more, than the cost of upgrading to dual GC2 6V batteries which will definitely work better in a boondocking situation than a battery pack for the refrigerator and a stock 12V group 24 battery.
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StephenH
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,... ouR escaPOD mods Former RPod 179 Current Cherokee Grey Wolf 24 JS |
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podwerkz
Senior Member Joined: 11 Mar 2019 Location: Texas Online Status: Offline Posts: 966 |
Posted: 16 Mar 2019 at 11:04am |
Well my thinking is that the opportunity to save power will come from turning off the 12v power to the trailer at the main battery, so that several items would then not be drawing ANY power from the main battery: The fridge, the USB ports, the propane detector, the tv pre-amp, standby circuits in the electronic furnace/AC thermostat, etc etc. The fridge will still be happily running on the AA's, (and propane) while ALL other 12v circuits are shut off. This should net a savings of a few amps, one would think. Over the course of a week with cloudy weather, and lower solar input, things like this can add up. We all know that these trailers, like most RVs, draw power from the main battery when un-plugged from shore, even if everything is seemingly turned off, because of all the parasitic drains. In other words, I want to be able to step outside the trailer, flip the battery switch, and kill ALL power to the trailer, and the fridge will still be keeping food cold. I suppose one could find those contacts that engage the battery holder, and run a wire to a seperate 12 SLA battery and power the control circuits that way, but that might void the warranty that the fridge has. Anyway, just a thought at this point. |
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r・pod 171 gone but not forgotten!
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podwerkz
Senior Member Joined: 11 Mar 2019 Location: Texas Online Status: Offline Posts: 966 |
Posted: 16 Mar 2019 at 11:17am |
Thats a possibility of course, the cost for the part might be stupidly high or even made out of un-obtanium. But I think installation should be easy, the little battery drawer slides out from the 'eye-brow' of the fridge. I bought (and briefly used) a Battle Born LiFePo4 100ah battery for one of my other trailers and that thing is just begging to be dropped into the r-pod. I know the factory WFCO converter charger is not rated for lithium 'per-se', but the Battle Borns are designed as a 'drop-in' replacement for lead-acid RV batteries. Let the spending begin! |
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r・pod 171 gone but not forgotten!
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Tars Tarkas
Senior Member Joined: 14 Jan 2013 Location: Near Nashville Online Status: Offline Posts: 1447 |
Posted: 16 Mar 2019 at 11:32am |
As for saving battery power, the AA batteries are going to cost more to use than your 12v Pod battery. I think you might do better thinking of how to keep the 12v battery charged. Solar, generator, etc. In an emergency you can use your TV battery with jumper cables. I think the likelihood of food spoiling in the fridge due to not having AA battery backup ought to be very close to nil. And a discharged Pod battery is something to avoid for more reasons than just the fridge. TT
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2010 176
FJ Cruiser |
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offgrid
Senior Member Joined: 23 Jul 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5290 |
Posted: 16 Mar 2019 at 12:00pm |
I do see what you’re trying to accomplish but I think it might perhaps be better to track down and eliminate the parasitic loads you don’t want, rather than having to buy a bunch of AAs. My parasitic load is around 150-200 milliamps which is about 3-5 amphours a day, or about 2% of battery capacity daily.
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1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold |
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