Refrigerator Woes...Finally Caught Up With Me!

[rickst29]

Originally Posted by ThePair

End of last season I installed a DC to DC boost charger to my battery to take any volts > 10 and boost to the proper (14 ish) for the battery to charge. It's a 3 or 4 stage charger so it adjusts the battery charge as needed properly, bypassing the built in charger when powered up through the 7-way. I haven't tested it yet, hopefully that will be tonite or tomorrow.

If it works, I should arrive at the campsite with a cold fridge (on DC) and a full battery. I'll let you know how it works.

These work great, the only advantage of my 'complex' setup is the greatly reduced current along the TV-Bargman-TM cable path. (2.5x more voltage needs less than 40% as much current to deliver the same power). The Renogy 20A converter (Boost Charger) is the maximum size which should be used on this path - if wire resistance 'voltage drop' pulls the received voltage (from the Bargman) down too far, it can attempt to pull too much current from the TV. In contrast, the 40A model could possibly melt insulation within the Bargman cable, if big batteries are 'thirsty' at the same time the fridge DC heater unit is running more than 14A of current.

Highly recommended and I assume this is the one you got: https://www.renogy.com/12v-dc-to-dc-...ttery-charger/

It does not 'bypass' other on-board chargers, it simply augments them - just like leaving a regular solar charger active at a 'plugged in' campground. Multiple chargers each make their own decisions, slightly confused by output from other chargers - but it's harmless, and they do work OK together.

[ThePair]

I got the 20A Redarc for exactly the reasons you state -- didn't want to melt anything from pulling too much current. I got Redarc over Renolgy because the Redarc is a much smaller unit, and it has substantially less cooling requirements -- engineered to live in an engine compartment vs Renolgy which needed clearance and fan space and airflow.

Still need to test out the circuit to make sure it's working fully as intended.

[AZgang]

How did this turn out? I’m thinking of doing a similar setup.