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Old 06-23-2016, 08:14 AM   #1
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Running Refrigerator Overnight on LP and 12v

Long story short, heading out next weekend but want to let our refrigerator run overnight to cool off. I may not be able to get it home to plug in the 110 shore power due to city street parking. Was thinking about letting the frig run on LP overnight before I pick it up. I have read several threads about 2-way and 3-way frigs. I believe ours is 2-way, 110 and LP, but when on LP it still needs power which comes from the 12v battery. Should I have any concerns with running the frig on LP with a full 30# tank and fully charged battery for about 15+hours?
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Old 06-23-2016, 08:39 AM   #2
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You'll need to make sure your battery is in good shape and you're not running much of anything else or you may find a dead battery when you come back. What type of battery and how many batteries do you have?
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Old 06-23-2016, 08:44 AM   #3
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You will have no problem running the refrigerator overnight. The power it uses is nothing and it hardly uses any propane because the door is always closed. Have a good trip.
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Old 06-23-2016, 09:08 AM   #4
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Old 06-23-2016, 09:11 AM   #5
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You will have no problem running the refrigerator overnight. The power it uses is nothing and it hardly uses any propane because the door is always closed. Have a good trip.
X2, I use to do this all the time, I boondock for 3-4 days on a single battery with no issues, so overnight with a strong battery will not be an issue.

Might want to check with your storage lot's rules/regulation.

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Old 06-23-2016, 09:13 AM   #6
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The battery is needed to run the fridge's electronics and the igniter, and neither of these use a lot of power. The fridge will go through 30 pounds of propane in about a month. So if your battery is fully charged, it will handle overnight like it's nothing.
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Old 06-23-2016, 11:01 AM   #7
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In May this year this was reported on POPUPPORTAL about running their trailer on PROPANE overnight..

Guess there is always something that happens...

Camper explosion

Roy Ken
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Old 06-23-2016, 11:09 AM   #8
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I run mine when we boondock (which is 90% of our camping) for days on LP and have never had any issues with it draining my batteries. We run the fridge, lights, awning LED's and have gone 3-4 days no problem. We didn't even go through an entire 30lb LP tank all season last year.

Do not travel with the fridge turned on. Get it cold before your trip, load it with cold food, and turn it off while you travel. It will keep things cool for a day of travel no problem.
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Old 06-23-2016, 11:55 AM   #9
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In May this year this was reported on POPUPPORTAL about running their trailer on PROPANE overnight..

Guess there is always something that happens...

Camper explosion

Roy Ken
Wow, not sure what to say.
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Old 06-23-2016, 01:13 PM   #10
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Regarding that PUP explosion, something else had to be going on there. The propane side of the fridge vent to the outside, is thermocouple protected to shut off the gas. From reading it sounds as though the owner lit the fridge with the PUP in the stored position, but not sure. My money is on a stove burner that was not turned off filling the PUP with propane, rather than the fridge being the culprit.


Propane fridges have been used for decades and you rarely hear of an incident. I use mine on propane for months at a time and it's never been an issue with my batteries. You should be able to run it for weeks without a significant drain on the battery.
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Old 06-23-2016, 01:22 PM   #11
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Wow, not sure what to say.
I read the whole thread over there. I agree with 1 of the conclusions expressed: It was probably not a propane explosion. No resulting fire.

Going out on a limb here.... If that PUP was not leveled it might have boiled too much water out of the ammonia/water mixture and the camper was damaged by a steam explosion.

I'm rather paranoid about operating the fridge only when the TT is level. I've read you can crystalize the salts in the refrigerant mix (ruining the fridge) if the it is operated out-of-level for too long.
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Old 06-23-2016, 01:37 PM   #12
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In May this year this was reported on POPUPPORTAL about running their trailer on PROPANE overnight..

Guess there is always something that happens...

Camper explosion

Roy Ken
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Originally Posted by mike837go View Post
I read the whole thread over there. I agree with 1 of the conclusions expressed: It was probably not a propane explosion. No resulting fire.

Going out on a limb here.... If that PUP was not leveled it might have boiled too much water out of the ammonia/water mixture and the camper was damaged by a steam explosion.

I'm rather paranoid about operating the fridge only when the TT is level. I've read you can crystalize the salts in the refrigerant mix (ruining the fridge) if the it is operated out-of-level for too long.
Thank you for info on it being level, never thought of it.
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Old 06-23-2016, 04:12 PM   #13
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We have been boondocking for 3 days on 2 batteries that died this morning which is the 4th day. If we were there all day I would of charged them each night but we have been gone from 7 A.M til 8 PM every day so basically only ran led lights for an hour or two each night, h20 pump for toilet and washing hands and that's it. Should batteries have lasted longer or does fridge use enough to drain them like that?

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Old 06-23-2016, 04:34 PM   #14
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Should be able to run the fridge on propane for a night with no problems. Yes, the fridge could explode, the trailer could catch on fire, or a meteor could fall from the sky and land on the propane tank, causing it to explode, which starts a chain reaction among other nearby trailers, that causes a huge fireball that engulfs a nearby nuclear power plant that causes a meltdown that brings about the next ice age.

Seriously, as long as your stuff is in good working order, I'd turn the fridge on and not worry about it. There are lots of things that could happen. That's why we have insurance....right?
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Old 06-23-2016, 04:37 PM   #15
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We have been boondocking for 3 days on 2 batteries that died this morning which is the 4th day. If we were there all day I would of charged them each night but we have been gone from 7 A.M til 8 PM every day so basically only ran led lights for an hour or two each night, h20 pump for toilet and washing hands and that's it. Should batteries have lasted longer or does fridge use enough to drain them like that?

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Fridge draws hardly any power when on gas. My guess is the LED lights and water pump were the main culprits....or whatever else was plugged in.

Recommend you invest in at least a 100w solar panel and a good charge controller. You don't have to be there for the solar panel to charge the batteries.
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Old 06-23-2016, 05:22 PM   #16
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We have been boondocking for 3 days on 2 batteries that died this morning which is the 4th day. If we were there all day I would of charged them each night but we have been gone from 7 A.M til 8 PM every day so basically only ran led lights for an hour or two each night, h20 pump for toilet and washing hands and that's it. Should batteries have lasted longer or does fridge use enough to drain them like that?

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Seems a bit quick to me based on my experiences thus far with twin 6V batteries. I do not have LED lights inside the trailer, only the regular bulbs which I know draw more juice. I've gone just as long running the same kind of loads. Are you batteries getting tired?
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Old 06-23-2016, 05:31 PM   #17
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Seems a bit quick to me based on my experiences thus far with twin 6V batteries. I do not have LED lights inside the trailer, only the regular bulbs which I know draw more juice. I've gone just as long running the same kind of loads. Are you batteries getting tired?
I didn't think so. They had full charge last time we were out and keep them on a trickle charger.

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Old 06-23-2016, 06:08 PM   #18
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We do this before every single trip we make - we live in a townhouse and can't plug in overnight before a trip. I level it side-to-side with blocks on the street (leave it hooked to the truck) and run on propane all night before a trip to cool the fridge for loading. We also run it all the time while driving...
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Old 06-23-2016, 07:43 PM   #19
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We have been boondocking for 3 days on 2 batteries that died this morning which is the 4th day. If we were there all day I would of charged them each night but we have been gone from 7 A.M til 8 PM every day so basically only ran led lights for an hour or two each night, h20 pump for toilet and washing hands and that's it. Should batteries have lasted longer or does fridge use enough to drain them like that?

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How old are your batteries? What is the total Amp Hour (Ah) ratings for your 2 batteries? How many times did you drain your batteries to where they were not producing enough power that was needed? Do you know what the voltage was on the batteries when they died? If they have been discharged a number of times (your dead battery status), the available Ah of the batteries drop, especially if the voltage hits 10.5VDC, which is a DEAD 12Volt battery (or 2 6 volt batteries in series). If you have an 85Ah battery, 2 batteries = 170 Ah of which you can only use 85Ah (12.1VDC voltage level), which is not that much over 3 or 4 days.

Example: My (2) 12 Volt Interstate 84Ah batteries that were on my TT before I added SOLAR and went to (2) 6volt batteries (T-145 260Ah), are now putting out 41Ah with a full charge. They show 13.2 Volts while in FLOAT mode and stay at 12.8 for months, so the voltage check, they look fine... but they have lost 60% of their Ah capacity. (Test Results Post # 1)
These batteries never were discharged below 12VDC, and always had some form of charging. They are 4 years old this month. Age also plays a part on the lowering of a batteries Ah capacity.

What I am saying is, if you let the batteries go under 12VDC voltage level, the Ah of your battery(s) is becoming less and less.

Do you have a Digital Voltage Display so you can monitor the battery voltage? Just hooking your TT to the TV and running it for 20 minutes before you leave for the day may help. I would recommend SOLAR, but that is another thing you need to think about. If you do, I would not recommend anything less than 200 Watts (16 Amps). Covers you on cloudy/rainy/shady days. Or if you have 84Ah batteries, you may just want to buy100Ah batteries, but that still may not be enough.

Don
Get one of these if you do not already have one, and keep a close eye on it.. batteries can get expensive if you keep having to replace them.
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Old 06-23-2016, 07:57 PM   #20
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you can check the draw on the battery with each thing running and also with nothing on with a multimeter set to check amps and test across negative post to negative wire disconnected from post. mine throws a pretty good spark when I connect the battery so I have to assume there is some current draw with nothing but the radio light and co detector on inside
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