Engel fridge to engel battery box

gazolene · Newbie

Engel fridge to engel battery box

03_troopy · Guru

Best bet would be to fit a dual battery system to you Prado, if it has room. I have dual batteries fitted to my Troopy and get at least 2 days plus from a Century Marine Pro 720 deep cycle battery, using a 35L Engel at 0deg and roughly 3/4 full (cans). And 3 days in cooler weather. Battery tray @ $150.00, Redarc smart battery Isolator @ $120.00, Battery @ $220.00. Prices are rough and you could get cheaper if you looked around. Usually the fridge is operating 7 days a week and I travel 1hr per day, each way, to and from work. weekends will be sporadic travel and I have never come close to having it cut out from low voltage.
Hope this helps.

moblet · Senior Member

Can you give us a link to the battery box, or give us specs?

To simply run the fridge your battery will, when adequately charged, need to be able to maintain sufficient voltage while supplying the current that the fridge draws. This will not require a massive battery, e.g. a 36Ah lead-acid battery will do it easily.

The next questions are for how long you need the fridge to run between charges, whether you're running the fridge as a fridge or freezer, and what you're using to charge the battery. These parameters may or may not mean that you require a larger battery in practice.

To run the fridge indefinitely, whatever you're using to charge the battery must, over time, at least match the consumption of the fridge. The required battery capacity will depend on the frequency and variability of the supply of charge to the battery.

If I was running this fridge as a fridge, indefinitely, able to fully recharge the battery most days (e.g. solar or charging from a vehicle), and not needing to power anything else of significance, I wouldn't attempt it with less than 40Ah if lead-acid, or half that if LiFePO4, and would ideally have 50% more capacity than that. I currently run a 31L Waeco CF35 on a solar-charged 80Ah lead-acid battery, which has excess capacity that provides for things like my laptop.

If I was only doing runs of a few days and could get a bit of charge in along the way, I'd be happy with 40Ah or less, especially as I could basically turn the fridge off, or safely increase its thermostat temperature, a day or two before heading home.

The above also applies to a dual battery setup.

gazolene · Newbie

This is the site for the battery box

http://www.engelaustralia.com.au/products_details.asp?pid=16&productid=21563

moblet · Senior Member

Thanks @gazolene, that's an empty battery box. It doesn't have a battery in it, you have to buy that separately. It does have a built-in 12V-12V charger, which you may or may not need depending on how you use your fridge.

We can't really help you decide what you need until you give us a better idea of how you intend to use the fridge.

gazolene · Newbie

we are planning to travel to Western Australia via Darwin and intend using the engel to carry our daily needs so that we can supplement the caravan fridge, especially as we freecamp . WE will install a 100ah deep cycle battery in the battery box

moblet · Senior Member

How will you be charging the battery? From the car while driving, from solar panels, with a generator? Depending on how you're charging the battery the built-in features of the box may be the wrong spec or unnecessary.

Are you interested in less expensive options that aren't as tidily self-contained and fancy-looking, or do you like having expensive toys?

And to try to estimate how much charging will be required, will you be using it as a fridge or a freezer?