Rainstorm knocked out frig! HELP!

[Lily&Me]

It was weird and unsettling, I have to say.

However, 6+ years and 134,000 miles and this is the first time it has hapened.

We do like having the frig run off propane when we are dry camping. How well do they do off the battery?


Maggie

[joemikeb]

How well do they do off the battery?

Great up to a point. Mine got so cold the first time out that a carbonated beverage can froze and exploded. Perhaps I had the temp set just a tad too low?

Of course you do have to watch the charge on the house battery, the solar panel doesn't deliver that much power.

[Lily&Me]

Hmmmmm. Ours has no thermostat, just on and off.

It runs plenty cold, better on propane than electricity, actually.




Maggie

[Pahaska]

Originally Posted by doug&maggie

It runs plenty cold, better on propane than electricity, actually.
Maggie

Propane, if properly adjusted and with a clean flue, puts more BTUs into the system than the electric element.

[Pahaska]

My trailer is sitting in front of the house,and the box is running on propane right now. It is 105 degrees outside and my electronic thermometer is reading 34 degrees inside the box. I can't fault that. I do have a Snyder fan running.

I just now carried a tub of ice cubes out to the trailer to help keep it cool since it is loaded for departure tomorrow morning.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by joemikeb

Great up to a point. Mine got so cold the first time out that a carbonated beverage can froze and exploded. Perhaps I had the temp set just a tad too low?

Of course you do have to watch the charge on the house battery, the solar panel doesn't deliver that much power.

Of course yours, like mine, doesn't run off propane at all. The Nova Kool all-electric refrigerators that use R-134a refrigerant are more efficient than the ammonia-cycle Dometic propane/electric models by virtue of simple chemistry. That doesn't make them better; as pointed out, if you're boondocking, you can generally run a less-efficient refrigerator a lot longer on propane than you can a more efficient one on electricity.

[Lily&Me]

Originally Posted by doug&maggie

It was weird and unsettling, I have to say.

However, 6+ years and 134,000 miles and this is the first time it has hapened.


Maggie

We drove in a downpour again yesterday, but no winds to speak of.

Frig was still on when we got to Duluth. .


Maggie

[joemikeb]

We drove in a downpour again yesterday, but no winds to speak of.

What is this "downpour" you speak of? I'm from northern Texas and we never have the occasion to use words like that. Winds — yes, downpour — no.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by joemikeb

What is this "downpour" you speak of? I'm from northern Texas and we never have the occasion to use words like that. Winds — yes, downpour — no.

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! And it's WET! That's a downpour.

We have them in southeastern Louisiana. People in Louisiana don't tan; we rust!

[Lily&Me]

Yep, we have been in Louisian downpours.....where rain comes down so hard you can barely see, and the streets fill with water.....quickly.

A downpour to us is very heavy rain. We are currently in MN, the one that took out the frig was in SD. That one had very high winds, and the worst one e have ever driven in in the Interstate, as far as we can recall.

We live in Central Illinois, and have them there, too. These are the very dark green areas that show up on your weather radar.



Maggie

[cwf]

Downpour:

Pouring water out of a boot which has instructions on how to do it written on the sole.

That is a cliche back home around Morgan City.

[Pahaska]

Originally Posted by joemikeb

What is this "downpour" you speak of? I'm from northern Texas and we never have the occasion to use words like that. Winds — yes, downpour — no.

You must not have been around yesterday, then! We were in the Abilene area and we had a real frog strangler that followed a couple of hours of strong winds.

[RRR]

Originally Posted by Skater

A compressor fridge is what you have in your house at home - it uses a compressor to move the refrigerant around, making it far more effective. This is usually what you hear running in your fridge at home.

An absorption fridge, what they usually use in campers, has no moving parts - the fluid moves via convection and gravity alone and can use any heat source (hence how they can run on 120 volt, propane, or even 12 volt if you have a lot of patience). The advantages are they use very little energy and can use different sources, and they're usually silent or close to it; the disadvantages are that they're not as amenable to being opened and closed all day and are usually slower to cool down initially - although, I have to say, the Norcold in our trailer is much better about both of those things than the fridge in the B190 was.

Newer absorption fridges have a 12 volt control board in them so they always require 12 volt power while operating, even if you're using propane (the one in my old B190 didn't have a board and so could run without any electricity at all). There's good and bad in that; it's usually not a problem though since almost everything else needs 12 volts too, and they don't draw much power.

The frig in my 2012 Avenue is 12V compressor style.

[RRR]

Originally Posted by RRR

The frig in my 2012 Avenue is 12V compressor style.

Sorry, I meant absorption. Had compression on my mind and it fell out in my first reply

[cwf]

Originally Posted by RRR

Sorry, I meant absorption. Had compression on my mind and it fell out in my first reply

Got squeezed? Too much pressure? Sorry I'll let pressure off.

Peace!!! Channing.