fridge rewire

[Isaac]

I just recently purchased a 1.7cf fridge from Home depot and I was wondering if I could take out the converter from the back of the old dometic 211 to run off 12v and 110 and do away with the propane so that I could wire in the new fridge. How do I figure out the amp output of the converter and the input of the new fridge or am I just crazy for wanting to do this?

[peterh]

am I just crazy for wanting to do this?

Sorry Isaac: Crazy. Those 'fridges draw 150-200 watts once their compressor motor's up and running. That's 14-16 amps . . . It'll run your battery down faster than you can say "Who turned out the ligh . . ."

--Peter

[Brian B-P]

The other problem is that I don't think there's any kind of power converter in a Dometic RM211... these units run on the absorption principle, which is driven by heat. The propane, 12V DC, and 120V AC are all just used to provide heat. In a normal 3-way refrigerator, there is no converter to change one voltage of electricity to the other; instead, there are separate 12V and 120V heating elements.

To make AC power for the Home Depot refrigerator, you need an inverter. Those are cheap and readily available... but the refrigerator's power demand, compounded by inverter inefficiency, cause the problem Peter mentioned when running from a battery. On the other hand, running this type of refrigerator on AC power at a serviced campsite and via an inverter while hitched to a running tow vehicle's 12V power does seem like a practical option.

[Roger H]

Isaac, from a practical standpoint I'd suggest using the AC only refrigerator the way it was designed, and use ice packs to get to and from your electric-supplied camp sites. You won't be able to find a DC source large enough to run your refrigerator on an inverter for any reasonable length of time.

Roger