bushmechanic
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2014
- Messages
- 4,820
You would have to have it hooked to a battery still, but a decent size panel would really help your battery life. The key is to keep them out of the sun, just like an ice chest, so they don't constantly run. My Dometic will run for a couple of days without kIlling my battery. The newer fridges also have a voltage monitor so they don't run your battery down too far.
With the transit bag (reflective film in a padded sleeve for the unit) and a good battery, you can run the thing for days sometimes, depending upon use, and still have no worries when it comes to starting an engine on only that one battery.
They don't run constantly, and the maximum draw you'll see on the 45 I run is 2.5 amps, but that will damned near freeze a neutron star. You're going to be seeing less. When it's on, it pulls no less than .7 amps.
It should run for 25.6 hours on maximum blast, constant action, on one of the batteries in the Rover, as an example. Cycling every now and again, however, is vastly different.
A solar panel will certainly offset the load, if you buy a real one.
Also, it's important to remember that it's going to stay just as cold (if not colder) for just as long as one of those fancy coolers if you turn it off and leave something chilled in there.


. I was just shocked that something that doesn't go bang or fix you a sammich costs so much.