Fridges

[loriusgarrulus]

Just bought this. £40 off at the moment.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BP7G2ML2/ ... TGPR3?th=1

Mains and 12V, so great if you are on an electric hook up or powerbank. All sorts of settings, even freezer to -20°C. Its a compressor fridge too.

Its something I thought I wouldn't need to get as I already had a 12V Mobicool.
I dragged it out of the back of the spare bedroom and dusted it off. It hasn't been used for many years as the caravan has a built in 3 way fridge. The Mobicool came in with a frame tent we bought many years ago along with a load of other camping kit and worked fine then.
After plugging it in to a 12V converter I left it with a thermometer inside to see how it went.
Its basic. No power adjustment. If it got too cold you just turned it off for a bit. No mains option either.
A few hours later it was down at 5°C. I went to unplug it all and burnt my fingers on the 12V plug. 🥺
Good job I didn't go out and leave it running.

Its been a good time of year to buy camping gear as loads of end of season sales on.
I think thats pretty much most of the expensive items got. The rest of the stuff will come out of the caravan to kit out the Camper before the caravan is sold.

[loriusgarrulus]

The Alpicool arrived today. I unpacked it and RTFM. I then left it on the side to get over its journey. Its supposed to be journey proof, but it is a compressor fridge.
This evening I plugged it into the mains and set it to 6°C to give it a test run. Just to give it a helping hand I dropped a bag of plastic icecubes in it out of the kitchen freezer. I set a cooking clock going to see how it got on.
In the meantime I decided to change the bed. Blue the ragdoll cat was on the bed.
I gradually stripped the bed, Blue managing to stay on the bed as the quilt and bottom sheet slid out from under him.
Fetched the clean sheets. I couldn't see Blue so assumed he was in the windowsill behind the curtains. Put the covers on the quilt and pillows and set to tuck the bottom sheet round the edges. Finished tucking in then realised there was a Blue sized lump under the bottom sheet underneath the bed table. Untucked near that edge and extracted Blue from under the sheet.
Finished making the bed, so decided to check the Alpicool.
It was reading 2°C only 20 mins later. I think the icecubes where too much of a helping hand. I removed the ice cubes and left it to carry on.

[loriusgarrulus]

At the 1 hour running time it was now reading 8°C. I decided to put the fridge thermometer in it to see how the digital readout on the Alpicool compared to the analogue fridge thermometer.

[loriusgarrulus]

At the 1hr 40 mins the Alpicool readout was 7°C and the fridge thermometer inside read 6°C.
Decided to turn it down to -20°C and see how well it freezes. The ambient room temperature is 20°C at the moment.

[loriusgarrulus]

At the 2hrs 15 mark I went to check the Alpicool. It was reading -20°C. The fridge thermometer read the same. There was ice on the inside in the top part.

Switched it all off for now. I will try it on 12V another day.

[loriusgarrulus]

https://biteable.com/tools/image-resizer/
I found this to resize photos so they would go on the site. I reduced the photos to 500x500.

Set the fridge to cool on mains first thing and let it get down to 7°C.
(In practice I would then swap to the car battery while travelling and swap to the Jackery onsite.)
Running on the fully charged Jackery 500.
At the 3hr mark the Alpicool had used 10% of the Jackery's power. Assuming the fridge will use the power evenly the Jackery should power the fridge for around 30hrs even without the solar panel. In practice the Alpicool was running empty. In use it will be full at the beggining of a camping trip, so should use less power when full.