12v fridge/freezer cutting out on leisure batteries

X

XCALIX

Messages
1
Location
New Zealand
Vehicle
T6 Ocean 199 4 motion
Hi team T6 vw ocean. I’m having a little issue if anyone could help me I’ve got a brass monkey fridge/freezer which I wanted to use at the 12 V in the back tray but I’ve been testing it over the last few days and it keeps coming up with F1 low voltage warning and switching of after it’s got to freezing-10, I’ve tried it on high and medium and low Any tips? This was it this morning after it at -10 last night. I’m just running it on the leisure batteries.
Works perfectly on mains power.

IMG_9698.jpeg
 
The fridge draws power from the leisure battery. So:

- are your leisure batteries fully charged before you plug the fridge?
- what’s the power consumption of your particular model?

You have two 75amp leisure batteries in your Ocean. So 150amp in total when fully charged. But in practice, only half of that is usable as your batteries will get damaged if you get them to less than 50% capacity. So assuming new, fully-charged batteries and nothing else using electricity in the van (I.e. your don’t have the Ocean’s built-in fridge running, or the diesel heater running or anything else plugged in), you have. 75 amps for your fridge-freezer.

The Brass Monkey website doesn’t seem to have any tech specs. But this random website on the internet seems to say that the 15 liter model draws 3.8 amp (I assume per hour): https://www.roadtechmarine.com.au/15l-brass-monkey-portable-fridge-freezer/p/GH1623

So that would in theory give you 19 hours of running your freezer before your leisure batteries get into danger territory.

Now, that’s not necessarily how long you’ll get though.
- if you have a larger model, it’ll draw more current so your batteries will deplete faster
- if your batteries aren’t fully charged (I.e. plugged at the mains for at least 24 hours), you’ll get less
- if your batteries are old, they capacity may be lower
- if anything else is using electricity in the van, you’ll get less runtime

Generally speaking, these things use up a lot of electricity to get to temperature and then use a lot less electricity to maintain the temperature. So it would help to get the freezer to temperature by plugging it to the mains (or having your California plugged to the mains) and then using the leisure batteries to keep it cold.
 
Hi team T6 vw ocean. I’m having a little issue if anyone could help me I’ve got a brass monkey fridge/freezer which I wanted to use at the 12 V in the back tray but I’ve been testing it over the last few days and it keeps coming up with F1 low voltage warning and switching of after it’s got to freezing-10, I’ve tried it on high and medium and low Any tips? This was it this morning after it at -10 last night. I’m just running it on the leisure batteries.
Works perfectly on mains power.

View attachment 131383
Thats the Low Voltage cutout working. You Will have a lower voltage at the Boot 12v socket because of the length of wiring giving a voltage drop thus triggering the Fridge cutout.
1. What voltage does the Camping Control Panel show?
2. If you plug into the kitchen 12v socket might work normally.
3. Wire a separate 12v socket, with in- line 15amp fuse, directly to rear leisure battery with +tve to battery +tve and socket -tve to battery clamp bolt, NOT battery -tve pole.
 

VW California Club

Back
Top