New to Inverter/Residential Refrigerator

[RVWeasel]

Getting ready for 1st trip with our new RDOK and have some questions about Inverter and residential fridge. Dealer sent me along with single battery and 1 200w solar panel saying it was plenty of power for pre-trip cooling so we could load fridge a couple hours before trips… Once on site, we would be on shore power. Questions…

1. Is this enough power to run an ever chill residential on inverter for 3 or 4 hours before we get on the road? (Renogy 12v 100Ah battery)
2. Do I need to shut off inverter before plugging into shore power? I assume not and manual does not mention anything but the ant to make sure.

Appreciate any guidance/suggestions.

[Sevins]

I have a 2022 335RDOK and the dealer told me I needed 2 batteries because of the electric jacks. I am surprised you only have 1 battery. My 2 batteries runs my residential fridge 4 to 6 hours. I can’t speak to the 200W solar keeping the battery charged enough to run it longer. I don’t have solar, yet.

[Nevr2late]

100ah Li will give about 80 ah of usable power. My camper (w/ Whirlpool fridge) draws about 8-10 amps of power when the fridge is at temp and a bit more while it is chilling according to the BMPro solar screen. If the solar is adding 10 amps (decent sun in the summer time) that is fine, but if it is overcast or at night forget it. To me the issue is running the batteries down while you are driving depending on the sun exposure and the trip duration. The truck only pushes a few amps through the umbilical.

The inverter should go into pass through mode when it detects shore power so you don’t need to touch it. Ours also starts back up when it detects the power disconnect and autostarts, but I think that is user settable.

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by RVWeasel

Dealer sent me along with single battery and 1 200w solar panel saying it was plenty of power for pre-trip cooling so we could load fridge a couple hours before trips… Once on site, we would be on shore power. Questions…

Because he's cheap. If the rig is set up for 2 he should have included 2.

[Jacjayco]

X2 what Grumpy said. You might want to take a look at your sales agreement. It will list the equipment that you paid for.

[Nevr2late]

It was a single li battery. I’d take that over two lead acid batteries (which I got). The usable ah ratings are better.

[Kevin Cooper]

Originally Posted by RVWeasel

Getting ready for 1st trip with our new RDOK and have some questions about Inverter and residential fridge. Dealer sent me along with single battery and 1 200w solar panel saying it was plenty of power for pre-trip cooling so we could load fridge a couple hours before trips… Once on site, we would be on shore power. Questions…

1. Is this enough power to run an ever chill residential on inverter for 3 or 4 hours before we get on the road? (Renogy 12v 100Ah battery)
2. Do I need to shut off inverter before plugging into shore power? I assume not and manual does not mention anything but the ant to make sure.

Appreciate any guidance/suggestions.

I looked up those refrigerators. They are made by Lippert and are 12VDC refrigerators. Not residential 120 volt AC. Nothing to do with an inverter.
They suggest (2) deep cycle 27 group LA Batteries, just to run the refrigerator drawing 160 watts, which is 13.3 amperes. That is 6 hours of refrigerator run time. Remember they cycle.
See bottom of this from Lippert
https://lci-support-doc.s3.amazonaws...cd-0007526.pdf

[Edutron]

You will find that a single battery regardless of lead acid, agm, or lithium will not fullfill your needs. Its Ok to get you out of the gate. The residential fridge (at least ours) only pulls 126 watts (very efficient) thru our 1200 watt inverter from the battery (Four 6 volt AGM's (250 amp hr each) in series parrallel. Soon you will want to add batteries. We got rid of the cheap batteries (two) received at the dealer and went with VMAXTANKS AGM batteries. You may want Lithium but you will need to get educated with lithium and your inverter. You will also want a good battery monitor. For now, I would put boondocking on the backburner unless you also have a small generator (ex - Honda 2000) for additional charging - backup otherwise your on board generator will be running constant.

[Nevr2late]

The OP already has a 100ah Li battery. I will argue that 100ah Li has more amp hours to give than twin 64ah flooded.

[Learjet]

Originally Posted by Edutron

You will find that a single battery regardless of lead acid, agm, or lithium will not fullfill your needs..

you can't say that about a single lithium any longer...they make some big singles for example this one is 460Ah:

https://youtu.be/e2fWHmXrV-Q?si=gQ0AcSvnbxcvaj3V

[Nevr2late]

X2. I just ordered a single 300ah Li which will have the same usable amp hours as about 7 of the 64ah flooded batteries and weighs (58 lbs) a little bit more than one of them (41 lbs). Since I have a newer Jayco the convertor is LI/LA selectable. Bonus

[Learjet]

Originally Posted by Nevr2late

X2. I just ordered a single 300ah Li which will have the same usable amp hours as about 7 of the 64ah flooded batteries and weighs (58 lbs) a little bit more than one of them (41 lbs). Since I have a newer Jayco the convertor is LI/LA selectable. Bonus

yep, that is my plan soon when my 4 x 6 volts get a little older...or I get bored first

[Nevr2late]

Ours crapped out on an overnight trip back from Florida and the invertor threw a low voltage error code and shut down. When I saw that we had a switchable convertor and the one battery weighed less than my two Interstate LAs, it was a done deal. They are a bit on the expensive side though.

[RVWeasel]

Thanks for all the reply’s. I am buying a second Renogy battery to put in parallel. The old one is only a month old so will be fine once they are both topped off.

Bu can anyone confirm my other question. I assume I can just leave inverter on once I arrive and hook into shore power or do I need to turn off inverter. I did absolutely confirm my ever chill is AC powered. Seems bit more rare than the DC versions but even confirmed by turning on inverter and seeing fridge come on. Just need to know if I need to shutdown inverter before I plug in. Thx

[Learjet]

you don't have to shut down the inverter, you can leave it on.

[F350guy]

A little off topic from the op but I finally completed my lithium conversion Saturday. I bought the single Renogy 200ah battery. I also opted to go with a new PowerMax converter/charger. My PD converter that the Pinnacle came with has a lithium setting but not the current 2 stage charging that Renogy prefers for their batteries. I also have a Victron dc to dc charger which I won't connect until I can test it with the truck hooked up. I did some clean up of the cables with a set of bus bars and added a battery cut off switch. Everything is working and the charger is keeping the battery at 13.6 volts which is a 100% charge for the Renogy. Leaving for a 4 day trip with the grandkids in the morning so will get it's first test.

[Nevr2late]

Originally Posted by Nevr2late

The inverter should go into pass through mode when it detects shore power so you don’t need to touch it. Ours also starts back up when it detects the power disconnect and autostarts, but I think that is user settable.

Answered that earlier.

[Kevin Cooper]

The refrigerator he has is 12VDC. Inverter is not connected to it. Batteries and converter.

[Nevr2late]

Very true but not totally related to his question if he has to shut the inverter down when he plugs into shore power, which is no.

[Kevin Cooper]

Originally Posted by Nevr2late

Very true but not totally related to his question if he has to shut the inverter down when he plugs into shore power, which is no.

Sorry, I went back and read his questions. You are correct!