David, on European westies the nominal power of the fridge (both on 220V and on 12V) is 60W. At 12V this works out at 5A - roughly the same as one halogen headlight. With a largish 72Ah battery you would have a theoretical battery life of 14 hours. In practice you will exhaust your battery in about 7 hours. A deep cycle battery will survive this treatment longer than an ordinary starter battery, but not that much longer. Running an absorber fridge on 12V without a charge on the battery is not a good idea - that is why they added the cutout circuity and all the propane stuff. Either switch to a compressor fridge (which uses electricity much more efficiently than an absorber) or overhaul/clean/repair your propane mechanism. Good luck, Robin 88 Westfalia Joker TD 02 BMW 320d touring 03 BMW R 1150 GS Citeren David Johnson <davidj@ELPASOTEL.NET>: > I have been searching for a while now, and haven't found a definite > answer. Does anyone know the real amp draw of an RM 182 fridge in a > Westy when it is running on 12 volt power? I am considering adding a > deep cycle battery to my '80 Westy, and I am wondering if it is worth > the trouble to try and get enough amp hours for limited fridge run > time, too. I saw in the 182B manual there is a 10 amp fuse, but that > just means the draw is somewhat less than 10 amps. Any input would > be appreciated, esp. on the math of the amp draw on the fridge. > > Thanks. > David. > |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.