Thank you!! I couldn't figure out why my 1.7cu ft igloo dorm fridge would not run with my 500watt inverter. Now I know....need to get a higher watt inverter!
@@LDSreliance Wouldnt surprise me if its drawing over 20 amps of current at 120V. They have more efficient refridgerators now. My 1.7 Cu Ft Haier fridge only draws 45 watts when running.
Hola Luis soy de PR también. Vivo en apto y me gustaría comprar batería, inverter y panel solar pequeños o que sean pocos ya que no permiten aqui pero puedo ponerlo en el patio del apto primer piso. Alguna recomendación para 1 Tv? Tengo nevera side by side asi que supongo que no podré usarla. Alguna recomendación para comprar una nevera que pueda usar? Por ejemplo nevera pequeña de oficina o algo así.
I love your ideas on your channel! I have the exact same interests you do, and this helps me improve my ideas as well! I just wanted to tell you that your intuitive motivation is amazing, and that I love the creativity!
approximately 1.5 amp multiplied by 110 volt= 160 watts multiplied by 24 hours and 20% duty cycle is 800 watt-hour of energy for one day. 2 battery of 100 amp-hour= 200 amp-hour multiplied by 12 volt= 2400 watt-hour inside the battery but we can use only 50% if it is a deep cycle AGM so 2400/2=1200 watt-hour so we have enough energy inside the battery bank to run the fridge for one day. 2 solar panel of 100 watt with sun for 4 hours is 2 x 100 x 4 = 800 watt hour so we will be able to recharge the batteries with 4 hours of sun.
Yes, the math works. That has never been the problem. This video series was trying to demonstrate that math doesn't always translate to the real world. In this case, an inverter with a 600-800W surge capacity should have been able to run this load. However, the internal circuity and surge capacity of inverters is often misreported, outright false, or misleading. You will need at least 4-5x the running watts of the motor for a full 2 seconds to start the compressor motor. Most surge ratings are only for a split second.
Denis Fortier hey i wrote a comment about reducing the amount of times the fridge/freezer will need to start up on his first video of 'mini fridge will it solar'
Supco hard start capacitor. You can add a capacitor to the existing start capacitor on the compressor to send a greater surge of current to the compressor motor at startup. The Supco has an internal relay that dumps the charge when full, after about 10-15 seconds. It is polarity specific, and runs parallel with the existing capacitor.
They are polar specific from what I've read, so make sure to hook them up correctly, or they wont work. I have NOT attempted this, but from other YT videos, it should do the trick on lower amp draw compressor. I also read that you can build a bank of capacitors to increase the surge capacity if 1 isn't enough. www.amazon.com/SPP6-Capacitor-Increase-Starting-Torque/dp/B0002YTLFE
It gets me wondering, instead of building a bank of capacitors dedicated to the fridge compressor, you might be able to extend the inverters' ability by increasing its peak output for any device connected. I could even see it being a stand alone product that plugs inline between inverter and other appliances. That way if you have a camper van with an ac unit and a fridge, each which draw only 3-400w continuous, but surge at 1500w for 1-2 seconds, you could run them off a 1000w inverter, but have a capacitor bank ready to deliver either of them 3-4000w at any given moment. It sees that is a weakness to many inverters. Their surge capabilities are limited to only a few milliseconds, and a compressor requires a surge of 1-2 seconds or more.
I've always brought coolers/ice for camping trips and think its time to upgrade to a portable refrigerator which are very expensive and then I came across your video...mini frig's are way cheaper. Would this work with only one of those batteries?
My portable 500w solar power stations run my 3.1 cubic ft dorm fridge but not my 5 cubic ft manual defrost box freezer. My Bluetti EB70 with 700/800 watt inverter runs the freezer though. These power stations run these about 24 hours depending on ambient temperature. They would likely have a shorter run time after a hurricane when it`s 99 degrees and I tested them at normal room temperature. So I got two power stations for each so I can be charging two as the others run them. I just bought a 300 ah LiFeP04 battery, 2000w inverter, and a charge controller so I can have some power for a tiny window air conditioner, a bit of backup heat in Winter, and to cook or heat/distill water if needed.
from my experience adding a big capacitor before the inverter with a diode on the neg side so the power doesnt feedback into the battery. that should solve the hard start issue. it works with big car audio amps so we tried it on my motorhomes ac, worked like a charm.
Chris is right. RV air conditioner manufacturers sell them as a "hard start" kit. A fairly knowledgeable home owner should be able to install one. I would wonder if it should be *before* the inverter -- I'd put it at the fridge, otherwise the surge of start-up power would have to be handled by the inverter. If the capacitor is at the fridge, the inverter would never "see" the surge (it would, of course, have to provide the power to charge the capacitor but that would be done under conditions of low power load).
Chris Sholtz was going to say a hardstart kit on the mini rf and a 2.1F old fosgate low esr cap across the power input will do wonders for surge power I'm running 4 maxwell super caps 3000F right at my 7000w rms inverter and running li-ion batteries with a short circuit current over 8000Amps on tap (24v system using 10 tesla modules 54kWh and 1.2kwh or solar on 7x16ft cargo conversion also used as home backup power lol)
That wouldn't do a thing. The inverter shuts down because it sees an excessive amount of current drawn into the inverter. Starting a fridge is about a 12A surge at kine voltage, I've measured over 120A into the inverter. You can't get 120A thru the transformers and FET of a 400W inverter. This problem is not the result of battery sag. I run a 2KW inverter on my fridge even though it is only about 100W running.
Great idea! I do want to re-visit this series now that I have better equipment and more knowledge. I have a chest freezer that I would probably start out with but a full size fridge would also be do-able.
Those little fridges are awefully inefficient. They have very poor insulation and for the amount of cooling they produce compared to a camping compressor fridge. Probably 80percent less efficient.
From the first video I figured that was the batteries because it went under voltage . I would have never guessed you needed that big of a inverter to get going but compressors always take a lot amps startup . but you just like me something's bothering you you gotta figure it out. I'm glad you worked it out too bad it can be cheaper to do it
Tom Ziesmer It was a good learning lesson. I fail a lot creating these videos but I am able to convert those failures to knowledge and then hopefully give some of that knowledge to my subscribers. That is the goal. I'm not one of those guys on here that already knows it all and is just teaching or demonstrating because they are an expert. I am far from an expert!
LDSreliance yes sometimes everythings a learning experience but I have a mini fridge that I wanted to run off my solar panels and I got a kilowatt meter hooked up to it for the past week and it has only gone up to 800 watts do you think I would be good with a 800 watt peak 400 what continuous or do you think I need to get a bigger one like you did to take that extra amount of current going through it. Thanks for replying
My suspicion is that you will need a bigger one like mine. I have heard that some inverters are rated for both outlets combined (the 2 AC receptacles on the front) and that you can't run the full wattage through only one of them. I am not sure if that is true or not but it seems plausible based on my testing. There isn't a huge price difference so if you are ordering one for this purpose I would be safe and just get the 1000+ watt continuous one. The one I showed in the video is $74 with free shipping on Amazon (www.amazon.com/Whistler-XP1200i-1200-Watt-Power-Inverter/dp/B00HWL4NDK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435539262&sr=8-1&keywords=whistler+1200+inverter&pebp=1435539263648&perid=1YNXY6K7WVPAA76S5FTZ). I will be doing a review video on it this week.
My full size side x side fridge will run on an 800 watt inverter. You need large inverter cables. But i would advise a 1200 watt sine wave inverter or larger to run coffee pots or a small microwave.
It is all in the quality of the inverter. Most inverters that are around $100 or so and claim 2000+ watts are garbage. They cannot produce enough surge power (even though they claim they can) to power up air conditioners and refrigerators. You could do it if you had a start capacitor wired in to help handle the surge (my capacitor in this video series was a car audio capacitor which was not up to the task or was too small). But the silver bullet solution is to have a really good inverter.
Almost anything will run On modified, puresine is always better though. Some motors compressors may use more power and run warmer but most work fine. Electronics may not work as well like stereo/radio may have static or hum, but works. Etc...
There are too many variables to be very accurate with an estimate. And most likely the 50Ah cannot provide enough surge current to start the compressor motor on a full size fridge (the 20Ah definitely cannot). But if we make some assumptions that the fridge uses 150W when running, it runs 10 minutes every hour, and the 50Ah is a 12V battery, then a 50Ah battery would last about 24 hours with an incredibly efficient inverter.
i done what you got there but 3 days of cloudy weather and i was killing my battery bank.. you dont want your battery to sit at 12 volts or under for to long ive herd they start sulfating on the lead plates ...so a masive battery bank is required to stay over 12.5.. but if you get a hole week of cloud your big bank will suffer to ...my setup fridge only comes on when its sunny only.... to not kill my battery bank..its hard to run an appliance that goes round the clock cause its constantly draining untill the shit hits the fan with constant cloudy days in a row
I use a different brand than the kill a watt, but it will show max watts pulled, though not sure how well it can catch a motor startup spike (it was only $15). For my fridge, the watt meter shows high/peak of 826 and it uses on average 108 watts while running (ranges from 96-170). If your watt meter does show high/low values, then for future tests, you can always reset it, then plug the device into a regular outlet to find out the average and max watts needed before trying it on battery/solar.
I had a 1000w inverter on one battery fully charged and it also would not start a small fridge but the 1000w petrol generator started the fridge no problem at all.
It has to do with the circuitry that provides surge power. Some inverters have it and some don't. I remember reading an article that was very technical about why that is but I forgot and I'm not an electrical engineer :)
@@LDSreliance the minimum is a 3000 watt inverter......you need the juice to startup , then continuous 1500 which is supplied by this inverted keeps it going.
Softstart capacitor was my first thought too. Google it and you will find a lot of info and videos. Once installed, you should be able to run with a smaller inverter since the draw will be greatly reduced on startup. Good luck with your system.
Another note is is ac motors really only work well on true sine wave inverters ac motors lose about 30% of there power when modified wave inverters and use around 40% more power is lost in heat inductance. Also PC compressors surge is on avg 6-8x the running power.
+mikeybdos Yes it can with a big enough battery bank. You will have the same problems I had in this video series where the motor will take a huge current spike to start up. The motors in air conditioners and fridges are basically the same.
mikeybdos It depends on the size of the batteries. They are rated in amp hours. Also it depends on how long you want to run the unit. If you run the unit too long the batteries will run down and you will need to charge them back up.
cool. i'm planning on running the unit for a short time max 2 hrs at a time in a vehicle which did not come with factory ac...i have a dual battery system which i plan on using to connect the second batteries (battery/batteries for ac) to the alternator so they will be charged while the vehicle is in operation (running)...well thats my plan....what are your thoughts?...thanks man
mikeybdos You could pretty easily do 2 hours as long as it isn't drawing 11.9 amps the whole time. I am not sure how they rate those fridges when they say 11.9 amps. If it is like mine and only draws an amp or less while it is in "maintain cool" mode after the compressor has fired up and warmed up then you should be good.
The fridge compressor is either old or just not functioning right. Typically compressors consume between 50 and 70 watts, even for big units. 160 watt draw suggests it might be broken and the surge current could be even more than the typical ratio of 7-10x of running current. Thus, for a modern fridge/freezer compressor you need approx. 500-700 watt surge, 400 or so continuous, and for that particular fridge, perhaps 2000 watt surge if not more.
Awesome! coincidence for me, but I had just purchased that same Whistler 1200watt inverter. I usually mount my inverters on top of my trucks battery. Now my question (for all) is do you really need two batteries? And do they need to be deep cell? Anybody upgrade their truck/car battery for an application like this? I've heard of people using very large deep cell batteries in their cars with no issues. Thanks
You do not need two batteries. I just wanted to have MORE than enough battery power so that I could safely eliminate that as a variable in the semi-scientific experiment I was trying to conduct. I knew that it was overkill. I would not run an inverter off of a normal car battery. It cannot be discharged below 90%. Deep cycle batteries can safely go down to 20% before you do lasting damage. So if you wire that Whistler into a truck, be very careful!
Deep cycle batteries don't do well for starting vehicles. The reason is the way they're designed and built -- deep cycle has many thin plates per cell, that lets the chemicals work on a large surface area and continue to give useful power as the battery discharges. The downside of this is that a large surge of power can damage the thinner plates and when you turn the key to "start" in a vehicle, the starter draws a huge surge of power. If the thin plates are overheated enough to warp them so that even two of them touch, that cell -- and the entire battery -- is shorted out and dead. The thicker plates in a regular starting battery resist the effects of the starter surge much better, but they don't supply the even power when they're run down a bit that deep cycle batteries do. The two batteries are built differently because they have different jobs to do, unfortunately, they don't do each others job very well. A good thing to do is to install a deep cycle as an auxiliary battery through an auxiliary diverter switch. Your alternator will charge the startup battery and use that to start the truck or car and the inverter will also charge the deep cell to power your inverter. Each battery is doing the job it's meant to. I'd be worried about a 1200 watt inverter in a vehicle. At full load, an inverter that big would be pulling about 100 Amps DC off the vehicle (and basically loading the alternator that much). That's a large load, especially when you consider that it's in addition to all the other loads on the vehicle. There's a pretty good chance that it would also send power surges back into the vehicle's electrical system when the inverter turns on and off -- you wouldn't want to burn out the engine's ECM computer. If you install it, be careful about the amount of loads you put on it.
That was one thing I tried changing, including another battery. But the real problem seemed to be the inverter. Some inverters just aren't built with internals to handle big transient, inductive loads like a compressor motor winding up.
Sir, remember that even without the nasty startup power surge your 110 fridge stil puls 1,5 amps when the compressor is working, however this means around 15 amps load at the battery side witch by itself will deplete your battery bank very fast! In general your much better of looking for a 12 volt compressor fridge keyword " danfoss" witch is the brand of dc compressors even used in the ISS space station to conserve pressious solar power, these fridges are not cheap but will paybin itself for saving your batteries.....( Danfoss_BD 35) brands are Engel, weaco, Indell_b and others...hope this helps
+giottodiotto1 Yeah, I have looked into those. They are quite expensive. This was just for testing and I was just curious if I could run it for short periods of time if my grid power went down. For longer term you are right it would be dumb. I have built a peltier fridge that I would use in a longer term scenario.
If you convert a chest freezer to run as a fridge the draw is approx. 10A at 12V. For $150 versus $1000 for half the capacity I say it's a good idea. And if you read how unreliable the Engels etc. are compared to a house 110V unit that typically lasts 20 years then it makes sense NOT to buy a 12V refrigerator.
Just wanted to pass my solar test along to you. I use a 1000w pure sign wave inverter, (4)6v batteries for a total of 12v and 460ah. I just powered for the 1st time, 1 chest freezer and 1 chest refrigerator, 5 hours of 24" tv and burned up a total of roughly 1000w in 24 hours. I am pretty sure I only used 8 or 6 gauge wiring. Also, the math I learned on this... I have (4) 100w panels. 12v*460ah=5520w. 5520w * .20 in losses = roughly 4400w. 4400w/50% of my batter means I should get 2200 usable watts. I found that is not accurate. I should get 2200 but realistically get about 1500 usable of the 2200. Always use thicker wires too. Wiring is important. Thinner wires will get hot I believe and can cause issues. One more note, all appliances I used were very energy efficient. Chest freezer uses 212kwh per year Chest Fridge uses less that 172kwh per year (not sure the exact number) TV uses roughly 55kwh per year I have started all these up at the exact same time with no problems. Pure sign wave inverters are critical for anything that uses a motor.
What were you using to measure the consumption of energy? It is best not to wire batteries in parallel if at all possible. Invariably one of the "strings" of batteries will take the bigger brunt of the load as the electricity will flow from whatever has the least resistance (better connection, shorter wire, etc.). Also, if you were to wire your 4 batteries all in series and use your system as 24V instead of 12V you would not need to run big wires and voltage drop and heat would be less of an issue. It would also be safer as you would be using half as many amps to power your inverter (although your 1,000W inverter should be safe - my general rule is never go above 1,000W for 12V and 2,000W for 24V, etc.).
From what I see you wires are too small you need thicker wires running from your battery to your inverters and shorter wires connecting your two batteries.
Hmmm, I don't think that is the issue. If that is the case, why did it work when I used the 1200 watt inverter with all the same wires? Those wires to the inverter are 6 gauge and the jumper cables between the two batteries are designed to jump a vehicle with over 200 amps so they are fine.
He don’t know his ass from a hole in the ground. This in NOT the proper way to run and inverter. You need at least 2 gauge wires with the proper terminals. And I guarantee it will work. 6 gauge alone is not enough plus the length and not to mention those clamps are not efficient. The reason it worked on the 1200 watt inverter is probably partly due to it being better built. As for the vehicle it’s a starter it will turn no mater what if your feeding it power but your actually creating heat in the starter because it’s not enough current through those cables. Let’s see you perform this task hooked up the right way and we will see what works and what don’t.
You are dealing with a issue called Locked Rotor Amps. A very common issue when dealing with refrigeration. The initial current to get the compressor going is what is causing the Inverters to trip. Set your testers to check the max current at start up and your will see what it is using.
Thanks for putting a name to the phenomenon. My testing equipment does not have fast enough resolution to catch the current spike. What do you suggest I use?
@@LDSreliance I use an ALS-1 Line splitter and a Fluke 325 Clamp on amp meter. The Fluke has a Min/Max button that records spikes during an amp measurement. The ALS-1 is a device that you use so you do not have to cut open the power cord and put the clamp on one of the wires. You just plug the ALS-1 into the receptacle and then the power cord goes into the other end and put your clamp on through the X1 opening. The X10 opening multiplies the reading by 10. It is used for very low amp readings. Your video gave me the idea to put my small refrigerator in my RV when I go camping to save on the cost of ice and a trip to the store. The last trip this summer I went through a $5 bag of ice every 1.5 days and it was a two week trip. My refrigerator is running on 2 Costco 6 volt golf cart batteries, 400 Watts of solar panels, and a Xantrex PROWatt 2000 Inverter. The Solar covers the load during the day and the batteries handle it no problem at night. Very little load on the system. Thanks for the good Idea.
The start cap could be changed to a different value. All of that trouble was from starting the compressor motor. Also there may be HVAC rated power inverters for things like that.
+worddunlap Good point. I try to keep my videos on a beginner or intermediate level to educate and share basic concepts. I don't think most people are comfortable using a capacitor or know what one is so that is why I did not use it to start with. Hard to find specialty inverters are another thing that most people aren't going to take the time to look into. They just want something as simple as possible that works.
+LDSreliance time for a much bigger and more powerful inverter! a fridge compressor when starting can pull massive power. you want like a 1000w or more inverter for that.
+LDSreliance Jan 23 at 7:11 PM I have a 125 watt solar panel that puts out 18.5 Volts and 6.5 amps. I want to use it to charge a 12 Volt deep cycle battery to power a 1500 watt inverter with a peak of 3000 watts. The inverter is intended to power a mini fridge or a chest freezer. The mini fridge is 1.5 amps or 180 Watts and the freezer is 5 amps or about 700 watts. What size of charge controller would you recommend ???? Whooperone@yahoo.com
high frequency inverters dont work well with motors When a motor starts there is a high surge current for a couple seconds. But a high frequency inverter will onky handle a surge for aprix 5 milliseconds so they trip out. Get a low freq inverter they are designed for motor and fridges etc
Yes, I have noticed that. Unfortunately, most inverters do not publish that kind of information. They all claim they can handle "surges" but that proves not to be the case in the real world, at least not with motors.
12.4V on your 12V battery means it is dead. A 12V battery reads 12.6 uncharged, and around 13.4-13.7 charged. Read the vtage of your car battery sitting in your driveway (not running). It should be around 13V+. Your test is failing in part due to asking a dead battery bank to kick start a motor.
hey your inverter will show low voltage if your vehicle is not supplying 14volts aka alternator power so to keep your battery from dropping. to low to start the shut off with your car so that's prolly what is happening with your other inverters
Maybe, but only the one inverter (Cobra) is really designed for use in cars. The bigger inverters are more designed for running off batteries or solar.
Compressor motors draw 10+ amps to start up, mine would not even run with a 1200 watt inverter. The inverter compressors used in big fridges do slow start and I've been able to get mine to run off a 300 watt inverter, but instead of motor startup, they have a surge when you plug it in to fill the capacitors, so I needed to slow that down, but that is only when plugged in once, not to start the compressor. hope that helps someone.
How do you figure? They are heavy gauge with copper clips. They are just fine for 200+ amps when starting a car, why would they not be good enough for a brief demonstration on a 6 amp mini fridge?
+LDSreliance the jumper cables will work but the alligator clamps are not the best connector it should work but you could do better with bolting the wires right to the batteries
Wait for a while... Give it 10 minutes before celebrating. We thought it was all good in the first five minutes, but my 2000W Performance Tool inverter isn't carrying my 3.2 cu-ft fridge at a 40-50W steady pull after the initial 580w start up surge. We're connected to 200W of solar but the inverter isn't staying lit for long. Thank goodness for power station backup, however, I'd rather run off the solar/battery/inverter setup.
If the inverter can make it through the initial surge, I don't think it is the inverter that is failing to keep up to the ongoing 40-50W. Sounds like the solar panel system is not giving it enough power. I'd guess voltage drop but I don't know much about your system. You could have 1000W of solar but if the voltage making it to the inverter is too low for the inverter's power range, it will shut itself off.
u need pure sine wave inverters ssquare wave inverters are on and off on and off when you plug in if its in a off cycle it will fault this is why most motors dont work good with square wave get a pure sine wave
True. This fridge will work with a modified sine wave inverter, though. I tried it with the biggest pure sine wave I had and it still didn't have enough to start the motor. The major factor is the surge capacity of the unit and most manufacturers lie about this rating.
Second thing I would do is split the batteries apart then drain one battery then drain the other then recharge them incycle the batteries couple of times individually then after you do that about four times connect the battery batteries so they make 12 volts so you're doubling that your capacity then connect a bigger power inverter cuz I'm probably power the refrigerator it's trying trip in the power inverter
I honestly expected the Xantrex to handle this fridge. It has a relatively lower surge than its 1200w rating but I don't believe that that particular fridge even reaches 900w. It could have been nice to show the start surge of on the Kill A Watt
The Kill A Watt does not register fast enough to catch the surge. I tried it numerous times. I wish I had an oscilloscope or some more advanced measuring equipment but I don't. I was also very surprised.
Sammy Kalintosh It is a mystery for sure. It is possible that the Xantrex has a higher low voltage threshold and the voltage drop was enough to trigger that in the Xantrex and not in the other models. I don't know.
In most inverters I have ever seen both plugs are in parallel in order to have them split you would actually have to have basically two inverter circuits inside the one box, so you should be able to get full watts out of just one but if you have seen how electronics companies rate stereo amp outputs you might get an idea of why you can't get advertised output :)
True, but I thought that was just when you were using both plugs? So you are saying that most inverters cannot supply their full rated watts to one plug?
well, I'm saying that one or both it doesn't matter it can supply all it has to either configuration, but what I am also saying is that electronics manufacturers have for a very long time lied about the ratings their product can put out. Things like "Peak" RMS power which is an oxymoron as RMS means root mean squared which is similar to average which IS NOT peak.. So I suggest that inverters may fall in that same category and since the same companies are making both amplifiers and inverters they may lie about both. At any rate the plug ins are connected to the same source inside so you can get all it has from just one.
integr8er66 Yeah I knew that about amplifiers but good to know about inverters. That is why I do these real world tests because a lot of people, including myself, will buy a product trusting the specs and then it won't run what you expect it to run.
FYI, I would not waste my money on square wave inverters. Yes they cost a lot less but in the end you don't want to have to select what you can and can't plug into an outlet, and some things a square wave will flat out ruin. I have an off grid cabin in the woods, well it's an old camper with a deck and roof, I have got a setup that has worked really well for me for several years now. I have about 100 watts of Solar panels, one 100 amp hour deep cycle battery from Bass pro shops, a 3 stage battery charger connected to the battery, and a 3500 watt remote start generator. The camper is old and back then they had duel lights in all the fixtures, so I run lights, water pump, TV Cell phone booster, radio amp, car stereo, phone charger all on 12 volt. I have a 1000W sine wave inverter for small short duration 120 volt loads like maybe a drill or something. and then if I want A/C or my wife wants a blow dryer or I want to make coffee I just fire up the genny. Since the Genny isn't on any longer then say 10 min or so at a time it really doesn't use much fuel at all other then when A/C is required. All in all it works really well. In fact I am over 5 miles to the nearest power pole as I type here :) Next up is to do Refrige on solar, and that is what got me to your video. What I know is I need probably at least 200 Watts of panels for that and probably another battery and I think I'll keep the systems separate at least until I know I have enough power for the frige from the new panels.
integr8er66 Look into converting an old chest freezer to a refrigerator. They have about double the insulation of a fridge, open at the lid to keep the cool air from escaping, and use a lot less electricity once you convert them to run at around 40 degrees or whatever your desired fridge temp is. There are lots of articles out there about how to do it but here is one example: newlifeonahomestead.com/convert-chest-freezer-to-fridge-solar/
The wire guage on the battery side is too small and will create too much resistance(heat) going in to the inverter therefore causing a thermal overload. Your watts and amps should be about half of what your reading as well. This is more than likely caused by a bad capacitor. you should be at about 50% of the RLA not right at it. That reading is the maximum working amperage of the compressor before it would shut down on internal thermal overload and or ruin the windings from too much heat.
Yes but even some inverters that claim a surge capacity that SHOULD start the fridge won't. It has to do with the internal build quality and components and design, too. A dorm fridge is a transient, inductive load that even appropriately sized inverters like the ProWatt can't handle.
Study some physics and focus on what the difference between static and kinetic friction is. The jist of it is that it takes a lot of "UMPH to get the compressor motor started. Once it's going it only takes 150 watts to run but for that first split second it's using ten times that.
So what is your point? I know it takes a big surge of power but how much? What kind of inverter is going to provide that power? No manufacturer of small fridges (or any fridge that I have seen) tells you the exact amount of surge that it takes to kick on the compressor motor. So the entire point of this video was to test as many devices as I could find until I found a feasible, real world setup that doesn't break the bank and can actually start one of these things.
From what I believe I understand the batteries can only make so many volts the inverter amplifies that to 110 volts so 1-2 amps on DC is like 5-10 amps AC the kill a wats probably just saying the actual charge at 110 volts that's why it took a 1200 watt inverters and dual batteries
No, that is not correct. The inverter amplifies the voltage by dropping the current. Let's say you have 10 amps of 12v DC power = 120 watts. Without factoring in conversion losses, that will equal 1.09 amps of 110v AC power = 120 watts. After talking with several A/C and refrigeration techs, the reason this happens is because the compressor motor draws a lot of power when it first kicks on and that surge of power cannot be handled by a lower watt, cheap inverter.
A kick ass pure sine wave inverter is a good Idea. Motors hate modified square wave. Starting Surge on a compressor s about 4-10 times what the running current is. I got a 2000w harbor freight unit for 99 bucks. easier to carry than a generator . all electrical motors with brushes are not so pickey about modified square wave power. Shaded pole or induction motors hate anything but pure sine wave.
alligator clip to the positive + on the inverter? You used massive jumper cables between the batteries and tiny wires to the inverter with poor connections.......there's your problem No1. Startup watts on the fridge you need to basically multiply the running watts by x8..... Problem No2....!
If you have not figured it out yet then here is your answer. Your inverter is to small to handle the compressor. When the compressor kicks it can pull 3 times as much power to kick it. Also it looks like you are using a modified sign wave inverter and some things just don't like modified sign wave inverters. If you are going to try and run something like that and you want to go with a cheap inverter then buy a Power Bright 1100 watt inverter from autozone. They cost $105.99 as of today. I have one and I can use it to power my 700 watt microwave. When I bought mine they were only $99.99. I also have a small fridge with a freezer that my power bright 1100 watt inverter will run.
I guess you didn't watch to the end of the video. I did figure it out and did get it to work on a large inverter like the Power Bright that you mentioned. The point of the video was not to discover that there was a large surge current. I already knew that. The point was to see what kind of inverter would actually work. Because just saying "3 times as much power" doesn't help. The running Watts of that Fridge was less than 150W as you can see at the end of the video. So by your math, the Xantrex ProWatt should have easily handled the load as it is rated for 600W continuous and over 720W surge. But it didn't. And the Xantrex is a pure sine wave inverter. It wasn't until I stepped up to a 1,000W unit that it worked. So the point is that not all inverters are designed equally internally to handle large transient, inductive loads like a compressor motor. It doesn't matter what the surge rating says or whether it is pure sine wave or modified sine wave. Because the inverter that got the motor to run is a modified sine wave inverter.
@@LDSreliance I did watch the whole video. My point was that if you were wanting to run that on a cheap modified sign wave inverter then I would have used a 1100 watt power bright inverter. I myself own a few inverters and a couple of them are complete junk. I have a 400 watt everstart inverter that can barely handle a laptop that pulls 90 watts. I have a 1100 watt power bright modified sign wave inverter that can handle my 700 watt microwave and can even handle my 10,000 btu haier air conditioner or my Mini fridge and my 3.5 Cu Ft chest freezer at the same time. Then I have a WZRELB 1500 watt pure sign wave inverter that can run pretty much anything that I need it to run. Then I have a 2500 watt cobra modified sign wave inverter. Most of the time the watts listed on a power inverter are a scam since a lot of them will not output the required amps needed.
Exactly. I am sure I didn't make the point of the videos clear but I wanted to illustrate to people that had not run into this issue that not all inverters are built and rated the same way. And about half of them are nearly worthless. So I wanted to take an actual common device that someone may attempt to use, in ignorance, on an inverter where they may run into severe issues. Microwaves, fridges, air conditioners, vacuums, and other devices throw a lot of people for a loop this way.
@@LDSreliance I agree with you 100 percent. I have done a few videos myself showing some of my inverters. It more or less comes down to the amp draw on a lot of things. Any inverters from wally world are complete junk. Cobra inverters are rather expensive. The middle ground inverters are the best inverters for most people. 1000 watt up to 1500 watt inverters would work for the average person. In my video uploads I ran a 120 volt dryer on my 1500 watt pure sign wave inverter. I was not downgrading your video in fact I enjoyed it. keep up the good work and have a nice day.
longboy1998 Someday I will invest in one of those. I was hoping that my expensive pure sine wave inverter (Xantrex in the video) would have a high surge but the surge is barely higher than the continuous.
you have your batteries wired wrong your charge wires should have positive wire on first battery and negative on second battery and same for your load positive on first battery and negative on second battery. That way you are pulling or charging to or from both batteries not just the first battery.
No, that would wire the batteries in series, which would double the voltage to 24. The inverter would not have worked that way. I needed extra amps, not extra voltage.
The first part of what Austin said in wrong (you're not even charging in this video) but the second part is true (from what I hear) that when batteries are connected in parallel, you should pull power from the (+) on one end of the bank and from the (-) of the battery on the opposite end of the bank. Even though your jumper cables basically merge the positives and the negatives, people say you can get uneven depletion if you pull from just one battery.
Christmas Eve True. When permanently wiring a battery bank you would want to do that for sure. You would also want all the cables to be as close to the same length as possible. You would also periodically rotate the batteries so that they stay charging and discharging evenly. However, this video was a demonstration and test and it doesn't matter for that purpose.
why don't you go to the wall outlet plug the kilowatt into the house plug the refrigerator into the killalot tmh power it's taking it might be taking a thousand watt and your power inverter is only a 750
I have never seen that. Regardless, the point of the video was to prove that the components will actually do what they are supposed to do. You can't just look at a specs sheet and buy stuff and assume it is going to meet your needs. That would be stupid.
Your definitive testing will need a meter with peak capture or a 'scope to see what the start current is. Kill-A-Watt is useful but only reads averaged values. Assume that a fridge compressor will require 3 to 7 times its running watts on startup. That puts the startup of a 137 watt fridge at 411 to 959 watts. I have a VERY efficient Kenmore 4.4 cu ft counter height fridge (big dorm fridge) that runs at 55 watts and the Kill-A-Watt tells me that the fridge is only on for 5 1/2 hours/day. The price may seem high at $190 but remember how little power it uses. www.sears.com/kenmore-4.4-cu-ft-compact-refrigerator-stainless-steel/p-04699783000P The little fridge won't start on a 500 watt Pure Sine Wave (PSW) inverter but the 2000 watt PSW inverter starts it with no problems. I don't try to run electronics or motors (other than brushed power tools) on anything other than PSW. Samsung has a french door bottom freezer 28 cu ft fridge that averages 59 watts/hour (1416 watts/day). The actual power varies between 2 and 180 watts (had a Kill-A-Watt on one for a week) and the average power after acclimating to an environment (cooling down from being on a truck, making enough ice to fill the bin, etc, etc) varied from 89 watts/hour the first day to 59 watts/hour by the end of the week. That's pretty good for a fridge that big.
Jumper cables can provide huge amounts of current for short periods of time. They are not the problem at all. If you watched the video until the end you saw that the issue was the inverter, not the cables/wires or the batteries.
It was indeed. But I just sold my brand new travel trailer to build a cargo trailer that can run on solar. So this fit the bill perfectly for what we needed and cheaper than what my new travel trailer was.
It’s been 5 years That inverter is designed to sell not running anything useful. Pure sine is the only inverter you should run a fridge with if you don’t want to burn out the fridge motor 12.4 is not fully charged btw
Glad you finnally solved the problem yourself, took me about 3 seconds once you showed the inverter lol. Either this was just click bait or you really should learn more before doing videos that make you look so dumb! Most any normal motor or compressor has a startup "locked rotor" surge amps/watts requirement far more than the normal running watts.
I don't have a 500 watt work light. The point was to test the fridge and find out what would run it. Obviously the cheap, small inverters will not run it which is what I learned and was demonstrating.
As strange as it may sound and pun intended. Not all electricity is created equally. Starting a motor is a very dynamic operation. There is a fine line between a starting surge and a dead short on induction motors.
Yep. I know enough to conceptually know that there is a big surge but beyond that I am no electrical engineer. So I just have to test stuff in the real world and find out if it works. I thought for sure that the capacitor in this video would do the trick. Maybe the cap was not big enough.
Thank you!! I couldn't figure out why my 1.7cu ft igloo dorm fridge would not run with my 500watt inverter. Now I know....need to get a higher watt inverter!
Sheila Stallcup Yep. Even though it only pulls a little bit of electricity while it is running it needs a ton of it to start up.
@@LDSreliance Wouldnt surprise me if its drawing over 20 amps of current at 120V. They have more efficient refridgerators now. My 1.7 Cu Ft Haier fridge only draws 45 watts when running.
THANK YOU !!!
I had the exact problem with mine.
I got a solar setup for surviving huricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
Thanks for sharing
You are welcome! Hopefully it helped you.
Hola Luis soy de PR también. Vivo en apto y me gustaría comprar batería, inverter y panel solar pequeños o que sean pocos ya que no permiten aqui pero puedo ponerlo en el patio del apto primer piso. Alguna recomendación para 1 Tv? Tengo nevera side by side asi que supongo que no podré usarla. Alguna recomendación para comprar una nevera que pueda usar? Por ejemplo nevera pequeña de oficina o algo así.
Need some 120v capacitors or "Run/Start Capacitors" to assist in smoothing of the surge current upon startup.
+DarkLinkAD Yeah, I want to re-visit this sometime and see if it can be done with a smaller inverter and a bigger or better cap.
I love your ideas on your channel! I have the exact same interests you do, and this helps me improve my ideas as well! I just wanted to tell you that your intuitive motivation is amazing, and that I love the creativity!
approximately 1.5 amp multiplied by 110 volt= 160 watts multiplied by 24 hours and 20% duty cycle is 800 watt-hour of energy for one day. 2 battery of 100 amp-hour= 200 amp-hour multiplied by 12 volt= 2400 watt-hour inside the battery but we can use only 50% if it is a deep cycle AGM so 2400/2=1200 watt-hour so we have enough energy inside the battery bank to run the fridge for one day. 2 solar panel of 100 watt with sun for 4 hours is 2 x 100 x 4 = 800 watt hour so we will be able to recharge the batteries with 4 hours of sun.
Yes, the math works. That has never been the problem. This video series was trying to demonstrate that math doesn't always translate to the real world. In this case, an inverter with a 600-800W surge capacity should have been able to run this load. However, the internal circuity and surge capacity of inverters is often misreported, outright false, or misleading. You will need at least 4-5x the running watts of the motor for a full 2 seconds to start the compressor motor. Most surge ratings are only for a split second.
do you know if a supercapacitor assembly could help during the surge
Yes it does. Unfortunately, I used too small of a capacitor in my testing.
Denis Fortier hey i wrote a comment about reducing the amount of times the fridge/freezer will need to start up on his first video of 'mini fridge will it solar'
If it helps your calcs. It doesn't run all day the thermostat shuts off the bulk. It just a mater of the circuit.
Supco hard start capacitor.
You can add a capacitor to the existing start capacitor on the compressor to send a greater surge of current to the compressor motor at startup. The Supco has an internal relay that dumps the charge when full, after about 10-15 seconds. It is polarity specific, and runs parallel with the existing capacitor.
Good idea. Have a link for one?
They are polar specific from what I've read, so make sure to hook them up correctly, or they wont work.
I have NOT attempted this, but from other YT videos, it should do the trick on lower amp draw compressor.
I also read that you can build a bank of capacitors to increase the surge capacity if 1 isn't enough.
www.amazon.com/SPP6-Capacitor-Increase-Starting-Torque/dp/B0002YTLFE
It gets me wondering, instead of building a bank of capacitors dedicated to the fridge compressor, you might be able to extend the inverters' ability by increasing its peak output for any device connected. I could even see it being a stand alone product that plugs inline between inverter and other appliances.
That way if you have a camper van with an ac unit and a fridge, each which draw only 3-400w continuous, but surge at 1500w for 1-2 seconds, you could run them off a 1000w inverter, but have a capacitor bank ready to deliver either of them 3-4000w at any given moment.
It sees that is a weakness to many inverters. Their surge capabilities are limited to only a few milliseconds, and a compressor requires a surge of 1-2 seconds or more.
I've always brought coolers/ice for camping trips and think its time to upgrade to a portable refrigerator which are very expensive and then I came across your video...mini frig's are way cheaper. Would this work with only one of those batteries?
My portable 500w solar power stations run my 3.1 cubic ft dorm fridge but not my 5 cubic ft manual defrost box freezer. My Bluetti EB70 with 700/800 watt inverter runs the freezer though. These power stations run these about 24 hours depending on ambient temperature. They would likely have a shorter run time after a hurricane when it`s 99 degrees and I tested them at normal room temperature. So I got two power stations for each so I can be charging two as the others run them. I just bought a 300 ah LiFeP04 battery, 2000w inverter, and a charge controller so I can have some power for a tiny window air conditioner, a bit of backup heat in Winter, and to cook or heat/distill water if needed.
What is super cab in line on the positive side of the batteries for the surge
?
from my experience adding a big capacitor before the inverter with a diode on the neg side so the power doesnt feedback into the battery. that should solve the hard start issue. it works with big car audio amps so we tried it on my motorhomes ac, worked like a charm.
Interesting. I'll have to try that if I ever re-visit this. Thanks!
Chris is right. RV air conditioner manufacturers sell them as a "hard start" kit. A fairly knowledgeable home owner should be able to install one. I would wonder if it should be *before* the inverter -- I'd put it at the fridge, otherwise the surge of start-up power would have to be handled by the inverter. If the capacitor is at the fridge, the inverter would never "see" the surge (it would, of course, have to provide the power to charge the capacitor but that would be done under conditions of low power load).
Chris Sholtz was going to say a hardstart kit on the mini rf and a 2.1F old fosgate low esr cap across the power input will do wonders for surge power I'm running 4 maxwell super caps 3000F right at my 7000w rms inverter and running li-ion batteries with a short circuit current over 8000Amps on tap (24v system using 10 tesla modules 54kWh and 1.2kwh or solar on 7x16ft cargo conversion also used as home backup power lol)
That wouldn't do a thing. The inverter shuts down because it sees an excessive amount of current drawn into the inverter. Starting a fridge is about a 12A surge at kine voltage, I've measured over 120A into the inverter. You can't get 120A thru the transformers and FET of a 400W inverter. This problem is not the result of battery sag. I run a 2KW inverter on my fridge even though it is only about 100W running.
Underrated comment
I also found it makes a huge difference if you run pure sine wave inverters fridges and microwaves need pure sine wave power
Part of that might be because pure sine inverters are much more expensive and are usually much better built.
I had a similar problem with an icemaker on my inverters. I surge protector resolved it!
Nice!
I ran into the same problem with a like small refrigerator on my yeti 400, same thing. Went to a 1500 watt pure sign inverted, runs now.
Yep. Pretty common problem. Just wanted to demonstrate it and try to find the easiest solution.
Have you tried doing this to a full size residential refrigerator? I wonder how big the battery and inverter would have to be. Thanks for the info
Great idea! I do want to re-visit this series now that I have better equipment and more knowledge. I have a chest freezer that I would probably start out with but a full size fridge would also be do-able.
How many solar panels are you using how much walts does your pannel produce...?
You need probably about 1500-2000 max watts just to kick the fridge on.
Yep, that is exactly what it ended up needing. A bigger inverter that can provide a big surge of power for a few seconds.
Mine needs startup 500W and 60W at working. Just cheapest normal size Elextrolux.
The compressor on a refrigerator takes a huge surge for startup. Then it drops down to something much lower. Nice video!
Those little fridges are awefully inefficient. They have very poor insulation and for the amount of cooling they produce compared to a camping compressor fridge. Probably 80percent less efficient.
From the first video I figured that was the batteries because it went under voltage . I would have never guessed you needed that big of a inverter to get going but compressors always take a lot amps startup . but you just like me something's bothering you you gotta figure it out. I'm glad you worked it out too bad it can be cheaper to do it
Tom Ziesmer It was a good learning lesson. I fail a lot creating these videos but I am able to convert those failures to knowledge and then hopefully give some of that knowledge to my subscribers. That is the goal. I'm not one of those guys on here that already knows it all and is just teaching or demonstrating because they are an expert. I am far from an expert!
LDSreliance yes sometimes everythings a learning experience but I have a mini fridge that I wanted to run off my solar panels and I got a kilowatt meter hooked up to it for the past week and it has only gone up to 800 watts do you think I would be good with a 800 watt peak 400 what continuous or do you think I need to get a bigger one like you did to take that extra amount of current going through it. Thanks for replying
My suspicion is that you will need a bigger one like mine. I have heard that some inverters are rated for both outlets combined (the 2 AC receptacles on the front) and that you can't run the full wattage through only one of them. I am not sure if that is true or not but it seems plausible based on my testing.
There isn't a huge price difference so if you are ordering one for this purpose I would be safe and just get the 1000+ watt continuous one. The one I showed in the video is $74 with free shipping on Amazon (www.amazon.com/Whistler-XP1200i-1200-Watt-Power-Inverter/dp/B00HWL4NDK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435539262&sr=8-1&keywords=whistler+1200+inverter&pebp=1435539263648&perid=1YNXY6K7WVPAA76S5FTZ). I will be doing a review video on it this week.
It didn't say is that a pure sine wave and it looks like a good deal I might have to get me one of those thanks for being my guienne pig lol
The Whistler unit is not a pure sine wave.
Is that a sine wave inverter? What is the rating on the inverter?
My full size side x side fridge will run on an 800 watt inverter. You need large inverter cables. But i would advise a 1200 watt sine wave inverter or larger to run coffee pots or a small microwave.
Thanks for the video! I was thinking about exactly this problem, what it would take to run a small frig. Looks like the answer is a lot!
It is all in the quality of the inverter. Most inverters that are around $100 or so and claim 2000+ watts are garbage. They cannot produce enough surge power (even though they claim they can) to power up air conditioners and refrigerators. You could do it if you had a start capacitor wired in to help handle the surge (my capacitor in this video series was a car audio capacitor which was not up to the task or was too small).
But the silver bullet solution is to have a really good inverter.
Im surprised it still ran !! Didnt you say it was a Modified sine-wave& not a Pure Sjne-wave ?
Yes.
Almost anything will run On modified, puresine is always better though. Some motors compressors may use more power and run warmer but most work fine. Electronics may not work as well like stereo/radio may have static or hum, but works. Etc...
How long you think a full sized fridge can run off a 50 Ah or 20 Ah battery?
There are too many variables to be very accurate with an estimate. And most likely the 50Ah cannot provide enough surge current to start the compressor motor on a full size fridge (the 20Ah definitely cannot).
But if we make some assumptions that the fridge uses 150W when running, it runs 10 minutes every hour, and the 50Ah is a 12V battery, then a 50Ah battery would last about 24 hours with an incredibly efficient inverter.
@@LDSreliance thanks brother
You are welcome. Thanks for watching!
i done what you got there but 3 days of cloudy weather and i was killing my battery bank.. you dont want your battery to sit at 12 volts or under for to long ive herd they start sulfating on the lead plates ...so a masive battery bank is required to stay over 12.5.. but if you get a hole week of cloud your big bank will suffer to ...my setup fridge only comes on when its sunny only.... to not kill my battery bank..its hard to run an appliance that goes round the clock cause its constantly draining untill the shit hits the fan with constant cloudy days in a row
Yes, 24 hour loads are the bane of solar. Even small ones like fans that run 24/7 require enormous amounts of power and battery storage.
My fridge draws 350w from an 12v inverter, but when running from the wall it draws only 150w. Any1 know why???
Got old APC SmartUPS 1000 (670W) for free and it works fine with my normal size fridge. Need add fan also.
Cool! Good idea to use one of those. They are more expensive than a similar size inverter but they have advantages.
I use a different brand than the kill a watt, but it will show max watts pulled, though not sure how well it can catch a motor startup spike (it was only $15). For my fridge, the watt meter shows high/peak of 826 and it uses on average 108 watts while running (ranges from 96-170). If your watt meter does show high/low values, then for future tests, you can always reset it, then plug the device into a regular outlet to find out the average and max watts needed before trying it on battery/solar.
Good ideas. I need to find a good one that reads fast enough to catch the current surge of a compressor motor firing up. That would be very useful!
I had a 1000w inverter on one battery fully charged and it also would not start a small fridge but the 1000w petrol generator started the fridge no problem at all.
It has to do with the circuitry that provides surge power. Some inverters have it and some don't. I remember reading an article that was very technical about why that is but I forgot and I'm not an electrical engineer :)
@@LDSreliance the minimum is a 3000 watt inverter......you need the juice to startup , then continuous 1500 which is supplied by this inverted keeps it going.
These are perfect for me. Thank you
You are welcome. Thanks for watching!
Is this a freon refrigerator? Or electronic? If it has a motor, you need to get a softstart for it....
It is a freon refrigerator. How do you retrofit soft start? I thought that was a feature built in to the motor.
Softstart capacitor was my first thought too. Google it and you will find a lot of info and videos. Once installed, you should be able to run with a smaller inverter since the draw will be greatly reduced on startup.
Good luck with your system.
John Beckman
Thanks! I will have to check that out.
Another note is is ac motors really only work well on true sine wave inverters ac motors lose about 30% of there power when modified wave inverters and use around 40% more power is lost in heat inductance. Also PC compressors surge is on avg 6-8x the running power.
Good to know. Thanks!
Would love to see a revisit with a solar panel!
hi do you think a portable ac unit (115V, 60Hz, cooling 11.9A) would work on a set up similar to this?...thanks
+mikeybdos Yes it can with a big enough battery bank. You will have the same problems I had in this video series where the motor will take a huge current spike to start up. The motors in air conditioners and fridges are basically the same.
thanks for replying...so basically two batteries should be enough to run the unit?
mikeybdos
It depends on the size of the batteries. They are rated in amp hours. Also it depends on how long you want to run the unit. If you run the unit too long the batteries will run down and you will need to charge them back up.
cool. i'm planning on running the unit for a short time max 2 hrs at a time in a vehicle which did not come with factory ac...i have a dual battery system which i plan on using to connect the second batteries (battery/batteries for ac) to the alternator so they will be charged while the vehicle is in operation (running)...well thats my plan....what are your thoughts?...thanks man
mikeybdos
You could pretty easily do 2 hours as long as it isn't drawing 11.9 amps the whole time. I am not sure how they rate those fridges when they say 11.9 amps. If it is like mine and only draws an amp or less while it is in "maintain cool" mode after the compressor has fired up and warmed up then you should be good.
The fridge compressor is either old or just not functioning right. Typically compressors consume between 50 and 70 watts, even for big units. 160 watt draw suggests it might be broken and the surge current could be even more than the typical ratio of 7-10x of running current. Thus, for a modern fridge/freezer compressor you need approx. 500-700 watt surge, 400 or so continuous, and for that particular fridge, perhaps 2000 watt surge if not more.
ya your right mines larger and uses 75 or 80 watts
Awesome! coincidence for me, but I had just purchased that same Whistler 1200watt inverter. I usually mount my inverters on top of my trucks battery. Now my question (for all) is do you really need two batteries? And do they need to be deep cell? Anybody upgrade their truck/car battery for an application like this? I've heard of people using very large deep cell batteries in their cars with no issues. Thanks
You do not need two batteries. I just wanted to have MORE than enough battery power so that I could safely eliminate that as a variable in the semi-scientific experiment I was trying to conduct. I knew that it was overkill. I would not run an inverter off of a normal car battery. It cannot be discharged below 90%. Deep cycle batteries can safely go down to 20% before you do lasting damage. So if you wire that Whistler into a truck, be very careful!
Deep cycle batteries don't do well for starting vehicles. The reason is the way they're designed and built -- deep cycle has many thin plates per cell, that lets the chemicals work on a large surface area and continue to give useful power as the battery discharges. The downside of this is that a large surge of power can damage the thinner plates and when you turn the key to "start" in a vehicle, the starter draws a huge surge of power. If the thin plates are overheated enough to warp them so that even two of them touch, that cell -- and the entire battery -- is shorted out and dead. The thicker plates in a regular starting battery resist the effects of the starter surge much better, but they don't supply the even power when they're run down a bit that deep cycle batteries do.
The two batteries are built differently because they have different jobs to do, unfortunately, they don't do each others job very well.
A good thing to do is to install a deep cycle as an auxiliary battery through an auxiliary diverter switch. Your alternator will charge the startup battery and use that to start the truck or car and the inverter will also charge the deep cell to power your inverter. Each battery is doing the job it's meant to.
I'd be worried about a 1200 watt inverter in a vehicle. At full load, an inverter that big would be pulling about 100 Amps DC off the vehicle (and basically loading the alternator that much). That's a large load, especially when you consider that it's in addition to all the other loads on the vehicle. There's a pretty good chance that it would also send power surges back into the vehicle's electrical system when the inverter turns on and off -- you wouldn't want to burn out the engine's ECM computer. If you install it, be careful about the amount of loads you put on it.
Square wave inverters are not very compatible with A/C motors. they will run but not well. If you had a pure sine wave inverter it may draw less.
I tried a pure sine wave inverter in the previous video. Granted it was only 600 watts, but that is the biggest I have in 12v.
old video but thother unit needed thicker wire to work?
That was one thing I tried changing, including another battery. But the real problem seemed to be the inverter. Some inverters just aren't built with internals to handle big transient, inductive loads like a compressor motor winding up.
Sir, remember that even without the nasty startup power surge your 110 fridge stil puls 1,5 amps when the compressor is working, however this means around 15 amps load at the battery side witch by itself will deplete your battery bank very fast!
In general your much better of looking for a 12 volt compressor fridge keyword " danfoss" witch is the brand of dc compressors even used in the ISS space station to conserve pressious solar power, these fridges are not cheap but will paybin itself for saving your batteries.....( Danfoss_BD 35)
brands are Engel, weaco, Indell_b and others...hope this helps
+giottodiotto1 Yeah, I have looked into those. They are quite expensive. This was just for testing and I was just curious if I could run it for short periods of time if my grid power went down. For longer term you are right it would be dumb. I have built a peltier fridge that I would use in a longer term scenario.
If you convert a chest freezer to run as a fridge the draw is approx. 10A at 12V. For $150 versus $1000 for half the capacity I say it's a good idea. And if you read how unreliable the Engels etc. are compared to a house 110V unit that typically lasts 20 years then it makes sense NOT to buy a 12V refrigerator.
@@LDSreliance Peltier is far worse than using a compressor fridge!!!
Put the positive on one battery and the negative on the other for the inverter so it draws the power through the whole pack and not just one
Just wanted to pass my solar test along to you.
I use a 1000w pure sign wave inverter, (4)6v batteries for a total of 12v and 460ah. I just powered for the 1st time, 1 chest freezer and 1 chest refrigerator, 5 hours of 24" tv and burned up a total of roughly 1000w in 24 hours. I am pretty sure I only used 8 or 6 gauge wiring. Also, the math I learned on this... I have (4) 100w panels. 12v*460ah=5520w. 5520w * .20 in losses = roughly 4400w. 4400w/50% of my batter means I should get 2200 usable watts. I found that is not accurate. I should get 2200 but realistically get about 1500 usable of the 2200. Always use thicker wires too. Wiring is important. Thinner wires will get hot I believe and can cause issues.
One more note, all appliances I used were very energy efficient.
Chest freezer uses 212kwh per year
Chest Fridge uses less that 172kwh per year (not sure the exact number)
TV uses roughly 55kwh per year
I have started all these up at the exact same time with no problems.
Pure sign wave inverters are critical for anything that uses a motor.
What were you using to measure the consumption of energy?
It is best not to wire batteries in parallel if at all possible. Invariably one of the "strings" of batteries will take the bigger brunt of the load as the electricity will flow from whatever has the least resistance (better connection, shorter wire, etc.).
Also, if you were to wire your 4 batteries all in series and use your system as 24V instead of 12V you would not need to run big wires and voltage drop and heat would be less of an issue. It would also be safer as you would be using half as many amps to power your inverter (although your 1,000W inverter should be safe - my general rule is never go above 1,000W for 12V and 2,000W for 24V, etc.).
From what I see you wires are too small you need thicker wires running from your battery to your inverters and shorter wires connecting your two batteries.
Hmmm, I don't think that is the issue. If that is the case, why did it work when I used the 1200 watt inverter with all the same wires? Those wires to the inverter are 6 gauge and the jumper cables between the two batteries are designed to jump a vehicle with over 200 amps so they are fine.
He don’t know his ass from a hole in the ground. This in NOT the proper way to run and inverter. You need at least 2 gauge wires with the proper terminals. And I guarantee it will work. 6 gauge alone is not enough plus the length and not to mention those clamps are not efficient. The reason it worked on the 1200 watt inverter is probably partly due to it being better built. As for the vehicle it’s a starter it will turn no mater what if your feeding it power but your actually creating heat in the starter because it’s not enough current through those cables. Let’s see you perform this task hooked up the right way and we will see what works and what don’t.
@@R.N.GPerformance 2 guage????
In my opinion 6 gauge is to thin, you should try with a 4 gauge.
You are dealing with a issue called Locked Rotor Amps. A very common issue when dealing with refrigeration. The initial current to get the compressor going is what is causing the Inverters to trip. Set your testers to check the max current at start up and your will see what it is using.
Thanks for putting a name to the phenomenon. My testing equipment does not have fast enough resolution to catch the current spike. What do you suggest I use?
@@LDSreliance I use an ALS-1 Line splitter and a Fluke 325 Clamp on amp meter. The Fluke has a Min/Max button that records spikes during an amp measurement. The ALS-1 is a device that you use so you do not have to cut open the power cord and put the clamp on one of the wires. You just plug the ALS-1 into the receptacle and then the power cord goes into the other end and put your clamp on through the X1 opening. The X10 opening multiplies the reading by 10. It is used for very low amp readings. Your video gave me the idea to put my small refrigerator in my RV when I go camping to save on the cost of ice and a trip to the store. The last trip this summer I went through a $5 bag of ice every 1.5 days and it was a two week trip. My refrigerator is running on 2 Costco 6 volt golf cart batteries, 400 Watts of solar panels, and a Xantrex PROWatt 2000 Inverter. The Solar covers the load during the day and the batteries handle it no problem at night. Very little load on the system. Thanks for the good Idea.
You are welcome. And thanks for the recommendations!
The start cap could be changed to a different value. All of that trouble was from starting the compressor motor. Also there may be HVAC rated power inverters for things like that.
+worddunlap Good point. I try to keep my videos on a beginner or intermediate level to educate and share basic concepts. I don't think most people are comfortable using a capacitor or know what one is so that is why I did not use it to start with. Hard to find specialty inverters are another thing that most people aren't going to take the time to look into. They just want something as simple as possible that works.
+LDSreliance time for a much bigger and more powerful inverter!
a fridge compressor when starting can pull massive power.
you want like a 1000w or more inverter for that.
John Douglas
Yep, I eventually busted out a big inverter and was able to get it to run. Was shocked at how much it pulled to get that motor running.
+LDSreliance
Jan 23 at 7:11 PM
I have a 125 watt solar panel that puts out 18.5 Volts and 6.5 amps.
I want to use it to charge a 12 Volt deep cycle battery to power a
1500 watt inverter with a peak of 3000 watts.
The inverter is intended to power a mini fridge or a chest freezer.
The mini fridge is 1.5 amps or 180 Watts and the freezer is 5 amps or about 700 watts.
What size of charge controller would you recommend ????
Whooperone@yahoo.com
I thought I answered this comment already?
high frequency inverters dont work well with motors When a motor starts there is a high surge current for a couple seconds. But a high frequency inverter will onky handle a surge for aprix 5 milliseconds so they trip out. Get a low freq inverter they are designed for motor and fridges etc
Yes, I have noticed that. Unfortunately, most inverters do not publish that kind of information. They all claim they can handle "surges" but that proves not to be the case in the real world, at least not with motors.
12.4V on your 12V battery means it is dead. A 12V battery reads 12.6 uncharged, and around 13.4-13.7 charged. Read the vtage of your car battery sitting in your driveway (not running). It should be around 13V+. Your test is failing in part due to asking a dead battery bank to kick start a motor.
Ya nice vid
My fridge says 1.2 amps
But look at the compressor it says 8amps
So it needs an 8amp kick
8x120volts
Then add 20% buffer
1152watts
Thx man
Good find. I wish that information was published in every refrigerator specification sheet.
you are only pushing 200 watts per output on the inverter continuous 400 peak
hey your inverter will show low voltage if your vehicle is not supplying 14volts aka alternator power so to keep your battery from dropping. to low to start the shut off with your car so that's prolly what is happening with your other inverters
Maybe, but only the one inverter (Cobra) is really designed for use in cars. The bigger inverters are more designed for running off batteries or solar.
Compressor motors draw 10+ amps to start up, mine would not even run with a 1200 watt inverter. The inverter compressors used in big fridges do slow start and I've been able to get mine to run off a 300 watt inverter, but instead of motor startup, they have a surge when you plug it in to fill the capacitors, so I needed to slow that down, but that is only when plugged in once, not to start the compressor. hope that helps someone.
also jumper cables are a awful way to connect two batteries together they dont give you a powerful enough connection.
How do you figure? They are heavy gauge with copper clips. They are just fine for 200+ amps when starting a car, why would they not be good enough for a brief demonstration on a 6 amp mini fridge?
+LDSreliance the jumper cables will work but the alligator clamps are not the best connector it should work but you could do better with bolting the wires right to the batteries
Austin Pieschel
I understand but for a quick test this is more than capable.
Wait for a while... Give it 10 minutes before celebrating. We thought it was all good in the first five minutes, but my 2000W Performance Tool inverter isn't carrying my 3.2 cu-ft fridge at a 40-50W steady pull after the initial 580w start up surge.
We're connected to 200W of solar but the inverter isn't staying lit for long. Thank goodness for power station backup, however, I'd rather run off the solar/battery/inverter setup.
If the inverter can make it through the initial surge, I don't think it is the inverter that is failing to keep up to the ongoing 40-50W. Sounds like the solar panel system is not giving it enough power. I'd guess voltage drop but I don't know much about your system. You could have 1000W of solar but if the voltage making it to the inverter is too low for the inverter's power range, it will shut itself off.
Don’t set your batteries on cement it drains the batteries
u need pure sine wave inverters ssquare wave inverters are on and off on and off when you plug in if its in a off cycle it will fault this is why most motors dont work good with square wave get a pure sine wave
True. This fridge will work with a modified sine wave inverter, though. I tried it with the biggest pure sine wave I had and it still didn't have enough to start the motor. The major factor is the surge capacity of the unit and most manufacturers lie about this rating.
Second thing I would do is split the batteries apart then drain one battery then drain the other then recharge them incycle the batteries couple of times individually then after you do that about four times connect the battery batteries so they make 12 volts so you're doubling that your capacity then connect a bigger power inverter cuz I'm probably power the refrigerator it's trying trip in the power inverter
cool awesome inverters!
Jerónimo Barraco Mármol Thanks! I think they are fun.
yep and interesting. you have many.
I honestly expected the Xantrex to handle this fridge. It has a relatively lower surge than its 1200w rating but I don't believe that that particular fridge even reaches 900w. It could have been nice to show the start surge of on the Kill A Watt
The Kill A Watt does not register fast enough to catch the surge. I tried it numerous times. I wish I had an oscilloscope or some more advanced measuring equipment but I don't. I was also very surprised.
Did you use different cables perhaps? That the difference in the gauges is what made some inverters to fail because of voltage drops?
Sammy Kalintosh No, I used the same setup for all the inverters.
Ok
Sammy Kalintosh It is a mystery for sure. It is possible that the Xantrex has a higher low voltage threshold and the voltage drop was enough to trigger that in the Xantrex and not in the other models. I don't know.
In most inverters I have ever seen both plugs are in parallel in order to have them split you would actually have to have basically two inverter circuits inside the one box, so you should be able to get full watts out of just one but if you have seen how electronics companies rate stereo amp outputs you might get an idea of why you can't get advertised output :)
True, but I thought that was just when you were using both plugs? So you are saying that most inverters cannot supply their full rated watts to one plug?
well, I'm saying that one or both it doesn't matter it can supply all it has to either configuration, but what I am also saying is that electronics manufacturers have for a very long time lied about the ratings their product can put out. Things like "Peak" RMS power which is an oxymoron as RMS means root mean squared which is similar to average which IS NOT peak.. So I suggest that inverters may fall in that same category and since the same companies are making both amplifiers and inverters they may lie about both. At any rate the plug ins are connected to the same source inside so you can get all it has from just one.
integr8er66 Yeah I knew that about amplifiers but good to know about inverters. That is why I do these real world tests because a lot of people, including myself, will buy a product trusting the specs and then it won't run what you expect it to run.
FYI, I would not waste my money on square wave inverters. Yes they cost a lot less but in the end you don't want to have to select what you can and can't plug into an outlet, and some things a square wave will flat out ruin. I have an off grid cabin in the woods, well it's an old camper with a deck and roof, I have got a setup that has worked really well for me for several years now. I have about 100 watts of Solar panels, one 100 amp hour deep cycle battery from Bass pro shops, a 3 stage battery charger connected to the battery, and a 3500 watt remote start generator. The camper is old and back then they had duel lights in all the fixtures, so I run lights, water pump, TV Cell phone booster, radio amp, car stereo, phone charger all on 12 volt. I have a 1000W sine wave inverter for small short duration 120 volt loads like maybe a drill or something. and then if I want A/C or my wife wants a blow dryer or I want to make coffee I just fire up the genny. Since the Genny isn't on any longer then say 10 min or so at a time it really doesn't use much fuel at all other then when A/C is required. All in all it works really well. In fact I am over 5 miles to the nearest power pole as I type here :) Next up is to do Refrige on solar, and that is what got me to your video. What I know is I need probably at least 200 Watts of panels for that and probably another battery and I think I'll keep the systems separate at least until I know I have enough power for the frige from the new panels.
integr8er66
Look into converting an old chest freezer to a refrigerator. They have about double the insulation of a fridge, open at the lid to keep the cool air from escaping, and use a lot less electricity once you convert them to run at around 40 degrees or whatever your desired fridge temp is. There are lots of articles out there about how to do it but here is one example:
newlifeonahomestead.com/convert-chest-freezer-to-fridge-solar/
Maybe Startup Wattage from the appliance?
Yes, the amps that the compressor motor pulls on startup is too much for small inverters. Had to bring out the big guns.
The wire guage on the battery side is too small and will create too much resistance(heat) going in to the inverter therefore causing a thermal overload. Your watts and amps should be about half of what your reading as well. This is more than likely caused by a bad capacitor. you should be at about 50% of the RLA not right at it. That reading is the maximum working amperage of the compressor before it would shut down on internal thermal overload and or ruin the windings from too much heat.
I know you're making a video but why do you have your batteries sitting on concrete
It was just temporarily for testing.
It's the initial surge, the inverter is not large enough. 750 watts
Yes but even some inverters that claim a surge capacity that SHOULD start the fridge won't. It has to do with the internal build quality and components and design, too. A dorm fridge is a transient, inductive load that even appropriately sized inverters like the ProWatt can't handle.
Study some physics and focus on what the difference between static and kinetic friction is. The jist of it is that it takes a lot of "UMPH to get the compressor motor started. Once it's going it only takes 150 watts to run but for that first split second it's using ten times that.
So what is your point? I know it takes a big surge of power but how much? What kind of inverter is going to provide that power? No manufacturer of small fridges (or any fridge that I have seen) tells you the exact amount of surge that it takes to kick on the compressor motor. So the entire point of this video was to test as many devices as I could find until I found a feasible, real world setup that doesn't break the bank and can actually start one of these things.
@@LDSreliance 3000 pure sine wave inverter
From what I believe I understand the batteries can only make so many volts the inverter amplifies that to 110 volts so 1-2 amps on DC is like 5-10 amps AC the kill a wats probably just saying the actual charge at 110 volts that's why it took a 1200 watt inverters and dual batteries
By that logic a 800 watt inverter not working isnt crazy
No, that is not correct. The inverter amplifies the voltage by dropping the current. Let's say you have 10 amps of 12v DC power = 120 watts. Without factoring in conversion losses, that will equal 1.09 amps of 110v AC power = 120 watts.
After talking with several A/C and refrigeration techs, the reason this happens is because the compressor motor draws a lot of power when it first kicks on and that surge of power cannot be handled by a lower watt, cheap inverter.
A kick ass pure sine wave inverter is a good Idea. Motors hate modified square wave.
Starting Surge on a compressor s about 4-10 times what the running current is. I got a 2000w harbor freight unit for 99 bucks. easier to carry than a generator . all electrical motors with brushes are not so pickey about modified square wave power. Shaded pole or induction motors hate anything but pure sine wave.
Good info. I did eventually get the thing running as you probably saw with a 1200w modified sine wave inverter.
alligator clip to the positive + on the inverter? You used massive jumper cables between the batteries and tiny wires to the inverter with poor connections.......there's your problem No1. Startup watts on the fridge you need to basically multiply the running watts by x8..... Problem No2....!
Then why did the exact same setup work just fine with a different inverter? It isn't the wiring that is a problem.
I had the same problem use 8 guage wire
That could certainly help. But in this case it is the inverter that has to be able to handle a surge load for more than a split second.
Your inverter should be 1000 watts for a mini fridge.
You can simply calculate the power. In DC it is simple.
How much is this
How much what?
The compressor has a run and start winding
If you have not figured it out yet then here is your answer. Your inverter is to small to handle the compressor. When the compressor kicks it can pull 3 times as much power to kick it. Also it looks like you are using a modified sign wave inverter and some things just don't like modified sign wave inverters. If you are going to try and run something like that and you want to go with a cheap inverter then buy a Power Bright 1100 watt inverter from autozone. They cost $105.99 as of today. I have one and I can use it to power my 700 watt microwave. When I bought mine they were only $99.99. I also have a small fridge with a freezer that my power bright 1100 watt inverter will run.
I guess you didn't watch to the end of the video. I did figure it out and did get it to work on a large inverter like the Power Bright that you mentioned. The point of the video was not to discover that there was a large surge current. I already knew that. The point was to see what kind of inverter would actually work. Because just saying "3 times as much power" doesn't help. The running Watts of that Fridge was less than 150W as you can see at the end of the video. So by your math, the Xantrex ProWatt should have easily handled the load as it is rated for 600W continuous and over 720W surge. But it didn't. And the Xantrex is a pure sine wave inverter.
It wasn't until I stepped up to a 1,000W unit that it worked. So the point is that not all inverters are designed equally internally to handle large transient, inductive loads like a compressor motor. It doesn't matter what the surge rating says or whether it is pure sine wave or modified sine wave. Because the inverter that got the motor to run is a modified sine wave inverter.
@@LDSreliance I did watch the whole video. My point was that if you were wanting to run that on a cheap modified sign wave inverter then I would have used a 1100 watt power bright inverter. I myself own a few inverters and a couple of them are complete junk. I have a 400 watt everstart inverter that can barely handle a laptop that pulls 90 watts. I have a 1100 watt power bright modified sign wave inverter that can handle my 700 watt microwave and can even handle my 10,000 btu haier air conditioner or my Mini fridge and my 3.5 Cu Ft chest freezer at the same time. Then I have a WZRELB 1500 watt pure sign wave inverter that can run pretty much anything that I need it to run. Then I have a 2500 watt cobra modified sign wave inverter. Most of the time the watts listed on a power inverter are a scam since a lot of them will not output the required amps needed.
Exactly. I am sure I didn't make the point of the videos clear but I wanted to illustrate to people that had not run into this issue that not all inverters are built and rated the same way. And about half of them are nearly worthless. So I wanted to take an actual common device that someone may attempt to use, in ignorance, on an inverter where they may run into severe issues. Microwaves, fridges, air conditioners, vacuums, and other devices throw a lot of people for a loop this way.
@@LDSreliance I agree with you 100 percent. I have done a few videos myself showing some of my inverters. It more or less comes down to the amp draw on a lot of things. Any inverters from wally world are complete junk. Cobra inverters are rather expensive. The middle ground inverters are the best inverters for most people. 1000 watt up to 1500 watt inverters would work for the average person. In my video uploads I ran a 120 volt dryer on my 1500 watt pure sign wave inverter. I was not downgrading your video in fact I enjoyed it. keep up the good work and have a nice day.
Thanks man. You too
That's funny because my 2door mini fridge runs off of a 400w power inverter (it's a low frequency inverter not a high frequency like the cheap ones)
longboy1998 Yeah, I guess you get what you pay for!
Yep that's the way it goes but they have large surge capabilities with that massive transformer
longboy1998 Someday I will invest in one of those. I was hoping that my expensive pure sine wave inverter (Xantrex in the video) would have a high surge but the surge is barely higher than the continuous.
you have your batteries wired wrong your charge wires should have positive wire on first battery and negative on second battery and same for your load positive on first battery and negative on second battery. That way you are pulling or charging to or from both batteries not just the first battery.
No, that would wire the batteries in series, which would double the voltage to 24. The inverter would not have worked that way. I needed extra amps, not extra voltage.
The first part of what Austin said in wrong (you're not even charging in this video) but the second part is true (from what I hear) that when batteries are connected in parallel, you should pull power from the (+) on one end of the bank and from the (-) of the battery on the opposite end of the bank. Even though your jumper cables basically merge the positives and the negatives, people say you can get uneven depletion if you pull from just one battery.
Christmas Eve True. When permanently wiring a battery bank you would want to do that for sure. You would also want all the cables to be as close to the same length as possible. You would also periodically rotate the batteries so that they stay charging and discharging evenly.
However, this video was a demonstration and test and it doesn't matter for that purpose.
I run mine of a 400 watt inverter no problem. .and it's a bigger fridge that's you got. .
Cool deal. Guess you got lucky.
What brand 400 watt inverter u use ?
what kind of inverter what make
why don't you go to the wall outlet plug the kilowatt into the house plug the refrigerator into the killalot tmh power it's taking it might be taking a thousand watt and your power inverter is only a 750
The Kill A Watt isn't fast enough to read the amp surge when the compressor motor fires up.
@@LDSreliance it says what the surges on the refrigerator are you stupid. look up the model if it's not on the refrigerator.
I have never seen that. Regardless, the point of the video was to prove that the components will actually do what they are supposed to do. You can't just look at a specs sheet and buy stuff and assume it is going to meet your needs. That would be stupid.
Your definitive testing will need a meter with peak capture or a 'scope to see what the start current is. Kill-A-Watt is useful but only reads averaged values. Assume that a fridge compressor will require 3 to 7 times its running watts on startup. That puts the startup of a 137 watt fridge at 411 to 959 watts. I have a VERY efficient Kenmore 4.4 cu ft counter height fridge (big dorm fridge) that runs at 55 watts and the Kill-A-Watt tells me that the fridge is only on for 5 1/2 hours/day. The price may seem high at $190 but remember how little power it uses.
www.sears.com/kenmore-4.4-cu-ft-compact-refrigerator-stainless-steel/p-04699783000P
The little fridge won't start on a 500 watt Pure Sine Wave (PSW) inverter but the 2000 watt PSW inverter starts it with no problems. I don't try to run electronics or motors (other than brushed power tools) on anything other than PSW.
Samsung has a french door bottom freezer 28 cu ft fridge that averages 59 watts/hour (1416 watts/day). The actual power varies between 2 and 180 watts (had a Kill-A-Watt on one for a week) and the average power after acclimating to an environment (cooling down from being on a truck, making enough ice to fill the bin, etc, etc) varied from 89 watts/hour the first day to 59 watts/hour by the end of the week. That's pretty good for a fridge that big.
Great info. Thanks for commenting!
your whole issue is those jumper cables bud. you cant do that.
Please explain.
You need 2awg wire with good copper lugs on the ends. Either crimped on or solder on. I solder then crimp personally
Jumper cables can provide huge amounts of current for short periods of time. They are not the problem at all. If you watched the video until the end you saw that the issue was the inverter, not the cables/wires or the batteries.
👌 let’s say this. Try it with my method and let’s see the difference on video.
I don't have that fridge any more or we could revisit this.
Yup inverter
Don't putting batteries on the ground especially concrete ground them out cause then to be no good
That hasn't been true for decades, actually.
Plug with out the meter
I did a Dometic 65: amzn.to/2mesVED on a 12v setup in my cargo trailer. So far I love it!!! Great video.
I love Dometic air conditioners and refrigerators. I wish I could afford them. They are steep!
It was indeed. But I just sold my brand new travel trailer to build a cargo trailer that can run on solar.
So this fit the bill perfectly for what we needed and cheaper than what my new travel trailer was.
Not saying you made a mistake, just that they have almost no competition in the 12v refrigeration and air conditioning world so they are expensive.
It’s been 5 years
That inverter is designed to sell not running anything useful.
Pure sine is the only inverter you should run a fridge with if you don’t want to burn out the fridge motor
12.4 is not fully charged btw
Yeah that's way too small
Bad inverter fridge pulling to many amps to many
Yes, some inverters aren't built for it and some refrigerators make it harder with inefficient compressors and no soft start.
Your batteries are dead dude
Then why did it work with a different inverter?
Glad you finnally solved the problem yourself, took me about 3 seconds once you showed the inverter lol. Either this was just click bait or you really should learn more before doing videos that make you look so dumb! Most any normal motor or compressor has a startup "locked rotor" surge amps/watts requirement far more than the normal running watts.
Yes, everyone knows that. But the inverter should have handled that surge easily according to its specifications.
stop with the shitty inverter. The neutral is also hot.
put a 500 watt work light on it.
I don't have a 500 watt work light. The point was to test the fridge and find out what would run it. Obviously the cheap, small inverters will not run it which is what I learned and was demonstrating.
As strange as it may sound and pun intended. Not all electricity is created equally. Starting a motor is a very dynamic operation.
There is a fine line between a starting surge and a dead short on induction motors.
Yep. I know enough to conceptually know that there is a big surge but beyond that I am no electrical engineer. So I just have to test stuff in the real world and find out if it works. I thought for sure that the capacitor in this video would do the trick. Maybe the cap was not big enough.
Maybe Startup Wattage from the appliance?
Surge