Electricity topics

[zidz]

Hi all,

My friend bought VW GC 600 2022 and has some question regarding to electricity.

1. Fridge
   • There is a classic problem that if fridge is on battery is drained off in max 1 day.
     That is the main problem.
     According to previous owner battery has been replaced and fridge too in terms of warranty so the problem is there from begining.
     
     From the forum I know that battery should cover 3 - 4 days, is it correct?
     My friend supposed that it is power regulation but everytime when he set e.g 2 lights only, closes and reopen fridge again (e.g. after 1 hour), there are all 5 lights on again..
     Is it correct? What purpoise is the button in the fridge with 5 lights for?
2. Battery charging
   • Could I ask you for your experiences regarding to battery charging? How many kilometers / drive time is needed to fully charge the battery (with / without booster)?
3. Battery boost
   • Are there any recommendation regarding to battery booster? Can be used often / anytime without any restriction?
4. Battery change
   • Did anyone change the battery for e.g LIPO? Are there any other changes necessary (e. g. voltage converter, charging system...)?
5. Additional battery
   • Did anyone added another AGM battery? If so where is the best place to place/connect it?

Thank you for your help
With best regards
Zdenek

 

[SpuffingtonMe]

I can't answer your questions specifically as I've got a Knaus BoxDrive 600XL rather than GC 600. However, there are a number of other threads on here which deal with electrics so I would have a good dig around in previous threads which will probably help on the existing setup you have an what people have done to upgrade. @Eber123 has a particularly useful thread which would be of use, I suspect:

Change of battery for GC 600 (LiFeP04)

Hello, Sorry to post the 100th thread about the battery change, but I thought I will tell you my journey of the battery change. Like so many others I learned quickly that the 92Ah AGM battery of the Grand California is not really sufficient. Campers who always stay at the campsite or aires...

vwcaliforniaclub.com

What I can tell you is that I had a LifePo4 (90aH) battery fitted to my Knaus from new and it is super at running all the electricals in high load situations (fridge in height of summer and heating & fridge in winter). It is a little on the small side if you're looking to be static for several days at a time, but I have a 90w solar panel for the summer and the DC-to-DC charger is a super addition for topping up. I can go from empty to fully charged in c. 60mins. But in reality, based on usage to date after 18hrs of being static, I can be full in just 15-20mins of driving. For me, using the van as a point to point rather than days of being idle, it's actually more or less the perfect setup. That's also with using a power-hungry Nespresso machine multiple times a day via. a 2kW pure sine wave inverter.

I am considering a slight uplift in capacity now I have a 480w eMTB which I regularly travel with, but probably wouldn't go any higher than 120-150aH. In reality, if the upgrade were too expensive, I'd stick with just using my portable Anker powerbank.

 

[Jimmylondon07]

Not sure about the fridge specifically (got very young kids so tend to stay on sites with EHU for now) but on the LIPO front quite a few folks have put an Ecoflow in the garage and wired up a changeover switch so they can power the 230V sockets directly from the Ecoflow, that seems to be the simplest approach to adding more off-grid capability generally. Some have gone as far as having an Ecoflow + a spare battery + an alternator charger which should give huge capacity and rechargability while driving. If you join the “VW Grand California UK” facebook group there are plenty of useful files about rigging it all up on there, it’s a really great group.

A full LIPO change appears to be a lot more complex.

 

[Razor Crest]

With the fridge, you set it as he did but when you open the fridge all the lights come on to illuminate it. If you press the button briefly, it should show just the lights for the setting. I.e just 2 lights. This is from the digital manual;

 

[zidz]

With the fridge, you set it as he did but when you open the fridge all the lights come on to illuminate it. If you press the button briefly, it should show just the lights for the setting. I.e just 2 lights. This is from the digital manual;

View attachment 129643

Many thanks - I will forward it to my friend....