I think I'm really going to show my ignorance here.......
We are Campervan Newbies (well we aren't even newbies yet as we haven't got a campervan, so I guess we're actually 'pre-newbies'), but looking to move on from tent camping we are coming across some new expressions that in the past we have allowed to pass us by but now need to know more about. Two of these expressions are 3 Way Fridge and Leisure Battery.
3 Way Fridge: I understand enough to know this works off gas, mains electric, battery - but that is about the limit of my knowledge. How efficient are these and what is the best way to run them? I guess if mains is available that is best, otherwise is it better to use gas or battery, and what about when driving? Will I use up all my gas just on the fridge?
Leisure Battery: This is really for use when no mains electricity available? How do you charge it up - by mains or does it charge as you drive like a car battery? What sort of appliances can you run from this and for how long?
Also what do I need to know about these (and Electrics in general) if travelling in Europe (France, Switzerland, Italy)?
As a newbie any advice will be much appreciated no matter how basic.
Can't speak from the caravan/RV viewpoint but we did have the same learning curve with our FC. As you've surmised, the "3 way" relates to the 3 options you have for powering the fridge. In practice, 12V is only useable via the car doing the towing, if it has a grey "accessory" connector.
On site you'd use the mains option if you had an EHU pitch, or gas if not. I can't say whether one power option is more efficient than another. I seem to recollect that full thermostatic operation only worked on mains, but could be wrong.
A leisure battery is designed to supply a relatively low output over a longer period of time than does, say, a car battery - where one of the main tasks is delivering high output over a short period. They're good for 12V lighting and water pumps and depending on use, a fully charged leisure battery of reasonable capacity might give a few days power. In the unit (caravan/RV/FC etc) they are often fitted with a charger and if EHU is used, will be re-charged by it. I can't remember if they re-charge whilst being towed too.
European voltage is the same effectively and modern sites will use the same connections we do. I believe some older French sites need an adaptor and can sometimes have reversed positive/negative outputs. The Camping Abroad section would be helpful here.
Good luck :-)
------------- Mike
My advice is worth no more than the price paid for it
3 Way Fridge: I understand enough to know this works off gas, mains electric, battery - but that is about the limit of my knowledge. How efficient are these and what is the best way to run them?
"proper" 3 way fridges are pretty good. Not quite as good as the compressor fridge you have at home, but once they've cooled down you'd be hard pressed to find a practical difference.
Best run from the mains, gas is a second best and never run them from a leisure battery or you'll kill the battery in a day or less. The 12V option is just to keep things cool while driving.
Quote: Leisure Battery: This is really for use when no mains electricity available? How do you charge it up - by mains or does it charge as you drive like a car battery?
In a campervan you can arrange things so the leisure battery charges from the engine but really you charge them from the mains.
Quote: What sort of appliances can you run from this and for how long?
12V lighting in the camper for many days, perhaps even weeks. The water pumps in the camper for about the same time.
Batteries don't actually hold all that much power - or, if you think of it a different way, people generally considerably underestimate just how much power we all get from the mains all the time.
A fully charged leisure battery will run a TV for a day or so (of course if you're careful and use it for a couple of hours a night, that could be a fortnight), or a computer for about the same time. As I wrote above, a fridge will kill one faster.
If you're intending to be away from the mains for a while, you need to be finding things that run from gas. A small gas bottle contains about the same energy as 40 leisure batteries.
This is a good question that I myself wanted to ask. I wanted to know how long my Royal 3 way fridge could run off a leisure battery and what size leisure battery would be best for 'off grid' (no elec').We use hook up if we are going for a week but if we do a long weekend we don't.The panel on the back of the fridge gives the spec' of wattage for 240v and 12v and ampage and also ampage for Kw/24hr. Would a solar panel and current regulator suit our needs? Hope mike and angie m don't mind me adding my question to their post....JG.
Quote: Originally posted by JohnGreenwood on 16/6/2011
This is a good question that I myself wanted to ask. I wanted to know how long my Royal 3 way fridge could run off a leisure battery and what size leisure battery would be best for 'off grid' (no elec').We use hook up if we are going for a week but if we do a long weekend we don't.The panel on the back of the fridge gives the spec' of wattage for 240v and 12v and ampage and also ampage for Kw/24hr. Would a solar panel and current regulator suit our needs? Hope mike and angie m don't mind me adding my question to their post....JG.
ok when off grid the best to use gas for the fridge and when on 12v it takes a lot of current which a 110ah battery would be flat with in 12 hrs.i ran off grid with fridge on gas heating water by gas and cooking every nite a 6kg bottle almost lasted 2weeks and that was with the heating on 4 times for bout 1hr each time. the 110ah battery was powering a 2.5ah 12v tv led lights charging laptops and phones but being charged by a 80w solar panel we never had the battery down lower than 79% discharge in fact by the time it was 9am in the morning the battery was 100% chargred hope this helps dont think we will use ehu much from now on as we can get a caravan club cl site with no ehu for about 3-4 quid a nite means we can go for a weekend (2 nites sometimes 3) for the same price as a site with ehu for 1 nite its win win really panel cost £169
Mikegalagher & PaulDG - Thanks for the information, I already know more than I did half an hour ago
In all honesty any fridge is a luxury for us, have spent years camping with nothing more than an electric cool box connected up for a couple of hours a days, or using ice packs if the site has freezer facility - Although we did stay at a fantastic site in North Wales (Penrallt) where you could hire a fridge in one of their outbuildings for 50p/day.
JohnGreenwood, no problems adding to the question, can't tell you much about solar panels, like the idea of them but can imagine you would need a fair number to produce enough power for a fridge - although there is a certain irony in using the heat of the sun to keep food cold.
Quote: Originally posted by pants12 on 16/6/2011
ok when off grid the best to use gas for the fridge and when on 12v it takes a lot of current which a 110ah battery would be flat with in 12 hrs.i ran off grid with fridge on gas heating water by gas and cooking every nite a 6kg bottle almost lasted 2weeks and that was with the heating on 4 times for bout 1hr each time. the 110ah battery was powering a 2.5ah 12v tv led lights charging laptops and phones but being charged by a 80w solar panel we never had the battery down lower than 79% discharge in fact by the time it was 9am in the morning the battery was 100% chargred hope this helps dont think we will use ehu much from now on as we can get a caravan club cl site with no ehu for about 3-4 quid a nite means we can go for a weekend (2 nites sometimes 3) for the same price as a site with ehu for 1 nite its win win really panel cost £169
O.K.
So that's blown my theory out of the water then.
Will now add solar panels to my list of things to research!!
We run our 3-way fridge on 12v on the journey to the campsite only. We've used it on EHU & gas and find that it gets much cooler on gas. It has two gas settings - make sure you put it on the lowest one, otherwise you'll only have frozen milk for your cereal in the morning - as we found out the first time we used ours! It makes ice cubes on EHU & on gas. I can't say exactly how much gas it uses, but it's fairly economical.
One thing you should be aware of is that a 3-way fridge needs to be level. We check ours with a tiny spirit level & use offcut wood blocks to level it.
It does switch between the power sources, I run 12v (car battery) when travelling down to the campsite, I then use either gas or 240v (EHU) when I get there without having to move any switches etc (you have to light the gas like you do on a cooker via a spark). You will need a spirit level to ensure the fridge is flat. (Some fridges have these built in - my one is a Royal 3 In 1 and it has a spirit level built in).
They are good bits of kit and a worth while purchase.
Quote: Originally posted by mikeandangiem on 17/6/2011
Thanks JK98
Do these fridges automatically switch from one power source to another or do I have do remember to do that? Probably expecting too much from it.
Interesting comments about keeping it level, I guess with a campervan I will need to make sure the whole van is on the level
There are two cables attached to the back of our fridge, one with a 12v connection & the other with a mains plug, so you just unplug one cable & plug in the other when you get there. When we want to use it on gas, we have to attach the gas pipe, then turn a knob to 'gas setting', then press an ignition button to start it up on gas.
Leisure batteries are probably not worth what we pay for them. Sterling, who make various power controllers, are pretty upfront on this point. Chas, Sterling recommends heavy duty lorry batteries as being just as good as most of the leisure batteries in particular Varta because of their construction. The only people who benefit form Gel type batteries are deep water Yotties and expeditions going beyond the Black Stump
Recharging a "leisure" battery should be done by fitting a split charging unit. Then once the vehicle battery has topped up from restarting your vehicle, the charge is diverted to the Leisure battery
Change your light bulbs to LEDs that's the only way to get a decent amount of life out of a battery. If you are hoping to run things like TVs, recharge laptops, camera batteries etc then you will need to push the current through an inverter
For a TV, bite the bullet and go and buy a 12v model, there;s lots on the market now at sensible money.
The only time that I've experienced a problem with 3 way fridges is when the weather was terribly hot and then the heat exchanger coils were not able to disapate heat from the fridge properly. The other thing being to run on Propane gas rather than Butane because if it gets cold then Butane will not come out of the cylinder
Quote: Originally posted by happybonzo on 18/6/2011
Change your light bulbs to LEDs that's the only way to get a decent amount of life out of a battery. If you are hoping to run things like TVs, recharge laptops, camera batteries etc then you will need to push the current through an inverter
Thanks for the information, especiall about changing bulbs to LED
Quote: Originally posted by mikeandangiem on 19/6/2011
Quote: Originally posted by happybonzo on 18/6/2011
Thanks for the information, especiall about changing bulbs to LED
An inverter - yet another new word.
What's one of these?
it takes 12v dc and turns it in to 240v ac but will use more amps then say and a 12v dc adaptor that turns it in to 15v dc or 19v dc for my and g/friend laptop which means battery will last longer when not on ehu
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Topic: 3 Way Fridges & Leisure Batteries?
