Batteries and Fridge Use Bay Star

[sedaliaterry]

I am heading out on our 1st trip, and was wondering if anyone could share their experience with battery use (I have 4 in the string) with the small residential fridge. How long can you typically go when dry camped without having to run the generator?

I realize it can depend on a number of variables (other load use), but just wondering in general what you are seeing.

Thanks

Terry

[twinboat]

The best way to know how long YOUR batteries will last is to do a test.

Get your batteries charged up, pull the plug, turn on the fridge and keep an eye on the voltage and time.

Once your volts drop to about 12.0 volts, you have used up 1/2 of your battery capacity and the point where most recommend recharging them for long life.

Your test and first day battery performance will be better then your following days, because you probably will not run your generator enough to fully recharge them, unless your running the generator for AC anyway.

Getting the batteries back up to 100% takes quite a few hours of charging and very inefficient. Just be sure to charge them well for storage, once you have shore power.

[RJOL]

This is just a suggestion, but the onboard generator is a very inefficient way to try and charge your batteries back up. If you are going to be doing a lot of "dry camping" I'd suggest investing in a small Honda gas generator and some small chargers. They are very quite and can run for hours on a gallon of gas. Your onboard generator will recharge your batteries, but it will take a long time and a lot of fuel...