Our experiment with a compressor refrigerator is not going well. Testing at home, I was able to run it for at least three days before needing to recharge the batteries. Parked at the rally and here in the Smokies, we can't even run it a day with out needing to recharge the batteries. The battery level is usually in a nearly discharged state by morning and we run Speedy's engine for a couple of hours in the morning and again in the afternoon, much to Ellen's dismay.
I think it is a combination of things. We probably have more loads than we considered and the batteries are getting old. I noticed that they would only charge to "Good" on our meter during the last couple of outings, where they used to stay topped up as "Charged" in the past. I'm not quite ready to give up though. The next step is new batteries, a good usage meter and replacing all the lighting with LEDs—followed by a lot of testing. If that doesn't work, solar panels are the following addition.
The is at least the consolation that if after all the changes, the new refrigerator can't go at least four full days between charges and we decide to go bake to propane, it won't be wasted effort as the changes will make us pretty much electrically self-sufficient.
I also need to find which is more efficient for battery charging, engine idling or using the generator. It would seem that the engine would put out the most DC amps with the alternator, but I don't know how much the batteries can absorb and at what level the engine output is at idle. The generator outputs AC which is then converted to DC via a converter charger built into Speedy. I don't know how much the charger section puts out, but I expect it is less than the alternator. The only things in Speedy that actually need AC are the microwave and the back air conditioner, neither of which we use often.
If the generator is the preferred option then it needs to come out to get its internal muffler replaced or patched since it seems to be rusting through.
There are a couple of other problems with the new refrigerator, frost and ice cream. The freezer section, which is where the cooling coils are, is generating a lot of frost. It started making frost almost immediately and it got so bad that at one point we couldn't get the freezer door open as it was blocked by the accumulated frost. I'm not sure the cause, but there are a couple of possibilities that might be fixed.
A couple of days into the trip, we noticed that the door wasn't closing at the bottom corner. It turned out that there was a bracket that the door was hanging up on. The bracket was used to allow the door to be set up to open in either direction. I removed the bracket and the door now closes. I could have been allowing the cold air to flow out and warm humid air in. Another possibility is that the battery problems, which are allowing the fridge to heat up a bit overnight, is causing the frost to accumulate at an increased rate. After that I'm stumped. Another thing to test at home.
The ice cream problem is related to temperature. When the old refrigerator was working, the temperature differential between the freezer and refrigeration sections was quite large. The freezer temperature would go into the single digits before the main section would even start to cool. It has gone as low as -11F. Ice cream stayed quite solid. In the new refrigerator the difference is much less. The freezer temperature is only in the mid-teens at best when the main compartment is in the low-40s and sometime rises to the 20s. This makes for soupy ice cream. I'm not sure how to fix that one.
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