Fridge Doesn't Run on Gas! Leisure Battery help

on the hook

on the hook

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We have a Bailey Adamo 2025 for our sins. We realised at the weekend that the fridge Dometic 2152c only runs on 12v, which I find unbelievable, surely it should run on gas as well, at the very least, anyway it is what it is.
We often travel without electricity availability and realising the fridge will kill the battery, along with all the usual things like water pump and fan heating etc.
What to do to extend the time we can stay without leccy?
Can I attach a second L Battery, do I lug a jenny with me. ( don’t think the wife will let me!)
I suppose the max amount of time without 240v would be 4 to 5 days say at Motorhome shows and then when traveling around the country and abroad 2 to 3 days between driving.
The main thing is to keep the fridge going and the pump turning.
We are a couple and not excessive on using the juice.
If you can please offer suggestions, hopefully none to mega expensive please.
Many thanks in advance
 
The best option would be to fit a reasonable size lithium battery and solar pannels.
If you fit lithium you will need to change the mains charger being a 2025 van you should already have a B2B which is needed for lithium.

Have a chat with RogerIvy & nigelivy they run Off Grid and will give you good advice. They will suppy the parts or a complete fitting service and you get a Funster discount.

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on the hook said:
the fridge Dometic 2152c
Click to expand...
I can't find any information on that fridge, does the manual say what its average daily consumption is? I think the consumption would be the energy from about 100W to 150W of solar panels, at least in summer and maybe most of spring and autumn.

So you'd need at least 200W of solar to cover it with some margin, and 300W would be better. Also about 200Ah of leisure batteries to tide you over a spell of dull weather. This sort of setup is becoming more popular, and with care it's possible to stay off-grid indefinitely.

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I think it's already been covered, but yes, you can add as many batteries as you want / have room for but you also need to be able to put power back into them.

What most people do is add solar but depending on how much power you need to put back in the batteries and how much space you have available on the roof (and if you camp in the winter when there's not much solar in the UK) then you might need to start considering other options.

Folding solar panels might be one option, adding a B2B charger so you can charge the batteries while you are driving might be another. A generator could also be an option, as could putting in a large battery bank and no solar etc and charge it all when you're next on EHU.

Each option has advantages / disadvantages and the reason we all do things a bit differently is because we all use our vans a bit differently.

For example, I never use EHU and only have a 12v system and no 240v. I've also only got a PVC and two fans (well, I haven't fitted the second one yet, but...) so my roof space is much smaller than a motorhome would have which limits how much solar I can fix to the roof. So I also have a B2B charger and the option to add folding solar panels.

Because I also do a couple of events each year that mean I'm not driving for 4 days (one of which is in September when the solar gain can vary between excellent and terrible!) I've also put in a large battery bank to cope with that use.

I personally didn't go down the generator route because the only time I'm stopping somewhere for more than a night or two is at these events where everyone is fairly close to other people so it would be a bit antisocial. It's also quite large and would need a Jerry can for the petrol (or diesel) so it would be using a lot of valuable space inside what is a small van. However, if you camp in the middle of nowhere and have a motorhome with a separate garage then it might be the easiest and least expensive solution for you.
 
on the hook said:
We have a Bailey Adamo 2025 for our sins. We realised at the weekend that the fridge Dometic 2152c only runs on 12v, which I find unbelievable, surely it should run on gas as well, at the very least, anyway it is what it is.
We often travel without electricity availability and realising the fridge will kill the battery, along with all the usual things like water pump and fan heating etc.
What to do to extend the time we can stay without leccy?
Can I attach a second L Battery, do I lug a jenny with me. ( don’t think the wife will let me!)
I suppose the max amount of time without 240v would be 4 to 5 days say at Motorhome shows and then when traveling around the country and abroad 2 to 3 days between driving.
The main thing is to keep the fridge going and the pump turning.
We are a couple and not excessive on using the juice.
If you can please offer suggestions, hopefully none to mega expensive please.
Many thanks in advance
Click to expand...
If you don't use the van in winter you just need a 150w solar panel on the roof. And maybe a portable one to help on dull days if you camp in the UK
 
I too have a compressor fridge in my little van. The first thing I did was add a solar panel to the roof - they aren’t expensive especially if you can fit it yourself. You haven’t mentioned the capacity of your leisure battery but that is the other thing I changed immediately. My van (second hand) only had a 80amp battery so that got ditched. I now have have a 110 amp gel battery but will swop to lithium (now the prices are coming down) when this one gives up! Just this week I’ve bought a portable solar panel which I will use when at shows/rallies if needed.
 
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Cal54 said:
I too have a compressor fridge in my little van. The first thing I did was add a solar panel to the roof - they aren’t expensive especially if you can fit it yourself. You haven’t mentioned the capacity of your leisure battery but that is the other thing I changed immediately. My van (second hand) only had a 80amp battery so that got ditched. I now have have a 110 amp gel battery but will swop to lithium when this one gives up! Just this week I’ve bought a portable solar panel which I will use when at shows/rallies if needed.
Click to expand...
I've got an 80ag gel, I'm very tempted by lithium with the prices lately 🤔 my gel battery is now coming up 6 years old.
 
Well I cannot thank you all enough for the information so far.
I am know 66 and have had trailer tents caravans and Motorhome’s all my life and I still keep learning to be more astute when buying a vehicle of this type, I just don’t believe that a company like Bailey producing a motorhome that is designed for touring, not being strapped to a post to work properly for days on end, why not just add LPG to power the fridge as well. Touring in the uk has so many advantages, one of the definite disadvantages is the sun.
So the set up by Bailey when you buy the van is below
“Ready for off-grid adventures with a 200W Truma solar panel and 105 Ah AGM leisure battery fridge consuming .54 KWH / 24hrs” it does not say at what setting the fridge is at to allow this usage.
My Battery is under the passenger seat, I doubt if room for another battery to strap together but if there is it might give me a longer life I guess, i could also bolt the second 110 battery under my rear lounge seat and connect the two, if someone could advise me please the best way to do this, the distance between the two batteries would be approx between 80cm and 120cm maybe a bit less run of cables. ? Just literally connect pos to pos neg to neg with fuses on both sides for safety?
Do I understand that if I brought a Lithium, say 250amp it will give me power for longer and last for a very long time over the two 110 and 105 batteries I do already have a 6 months old 110amp spare L battery in the garage.
I don’t mind scrapping the conventional batteries and buying Lithium if its advantages are overwhelming and make my fridge work even on a dull miserable day.
We are not off grid campers generally, but our plans to go abroad in summer and winter, France Spain Portugal etc and stay on aires for 2 or 3 days are scuppered if I don’t have a fridge and trauma heater fan as these are the main consumers.
 
Lots of new vans come with Compressor fridges now which don’t run off gas and they are very efficient and quiet. Your set up would be fine for fair weather motorhoming but that’s not how so many of us do it now! You’d need hookup in the rain and cloud.

We bought a new van last year and immediately went for the lithium battery 240a . 2 solar panels 320 w and B2B charger as we have the Compressor fridge and a 1000w inverter . It makes life so much more relaxing.
You can run a lithium battery down to nearly empty 20% anyway . They are lighter whereas that would kill an AGM.

Others will explain this in technical words but this is the “idiots guide” :giggle:
 
Think yours is on a Ford.
Some of us have got the fogstar 280 or 300 on its side under the seat on a fiat.

Unsure if anyone has done it in a Ford yet.

With Fogstar discount you won't have to worry again with your apparent low usage of electricity.

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on the hook said:
We have a Bailey Adamo 2025 for our sins. We realised at the weekend that the fridge Dometic 2152c only runs on 12v, which I find unbelievable, surely it should run on gas as well, at the very least, anyway it is what it is.
We often travel without electricity availability and realising the fridge will kill the battery, along with all the usual things like water pump and fan heating etc.
What to do to extend the time we can stay without leccy?
Can I attach a second L Battery, do I lug a jenny with me. ( don’t think the wife will let me!)
I suppose the max amount of time without 240v would be 4 to 5 days say at Motorhome shows and then when traveling around the country and abroad 2 to 3 days between driving.
The main thing is to keep the fridge going and the pump turning.
We are a couple and not excessive on using the juice.
If you can please offer suggestions, hopefully none to mega expensive please.
Many thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Lithium batteries and solar panels. We are also electric only for the fridge. Apart from my son leaving the fridge door open in the 33 degree heat of Spain we haven't had any problems. Winter or summer.
 
You have a compressor fridge because they are so much more efficient.
The three way fridge takes maybe 12 to 15 amps, the compressor maybe six amps.
The old style three ways are also heavy on gas. after all, they use a heater to cool the content!!

Ill swap my three way for your compressor on a heartbeat!

Tony
 
on the hook said:
“Ready for off-grid adventures with a 200W Truma solar panel and 105 Ah AGM leisure battery fridge consuming .54 KWH / 24hrs”
Click to expand...
It's easy to convert energy usage in kilowatt-hours kWh to charge usage in amp-hours, just divide by the voltage. .54kWh = 540Wh, which from a 12V battery is equivalent to 540/12 = 45Ah. That would be your average daily consumption. You could get that from a 100W solar panel on a good long sunny summer day, so with a 200W panel you should get enough to keep the fridge going OK.

But you need to cope with a spell of dull weather. A 105Ah AGM should not be discharged below about the 20% level, so you have 80% of 105Ah (= 84Ah) available for use. That will last you a day or two of dull weather, depending on your other usage. Doubling up the leisure batteries is often the first upgrade anyone starts with.

If it's a 2025 MH, it will almost certainly have a smart alternator and a proper Battery-to-Battery (B2B) charger (also called a DC-DC charger), to charge the leisure battery from the alternator while the engine is running. These vary in power from about 20A to 50A, but you can get one up to 140A if the battery and alternator can take the strain. I would think the manufacturers would fit a 20A to 30A B2B. That means to put 45Ah into the batteries, you would need to drive for about 2 hours.

For a single 105Ah battery, you wouldn't want a B2B more than 30A, but if you double up the batteries, or go for lithium, then upgrading the B2B to 50A is a very good idea. Especially if you tend to move on after a day or two. If you do upgrade a charger, make sure it is 'lithium-compatible' for the future - most are, but some aren't.
 
Must have been a pretty rubbish handover if they didn't explain it was a compressor fridge! It's the same set up as the Bailey Alora - you may find the Alora Facebook group a useful source of info on the subject
 
It seems unbelievable to me that motorhome builders still put ridiculously small batteries, solar and dc-dc chargers in new vans. I am sure that to put a decent set up in at the build point, would cost less than £500 more than normal trade, which is a small price to pay to stop "range anxiety".
Like a lot of people, I ended up adding..... 250w of solar, 30a dc-dc charger, 280ah fogstar battery, and a 2kw inverter. At least our pvc is from 2014, when things were rather different.
 
Following as we're in the same situation... Though previous owner already fried the LA batteries (probably using the fridge :rolleyes:) so we have to change regardless. PVC with 3 rooflights, so solar real-estate is our biggest issue. Any recommendations for solar/LiFePo installers between East Midlands and W London much appreciated.

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My first port of call would be to a weigh bridge, my cousin has an Adamo and she couldn’t believe how out the figures were, and they really had to cut back on everything.
 
on the hook said:
Well I cannot thank you all enough for the information so far.
I am know 66 and have had trailer tents caravans and Motorhome’s all my life and I still keep learning to be more astute when buying a vehicle of this type, I just don’t believe that a company like Bailey producing a motorhome that is designed for touring, not being strapped to a post to work properly for days on end, why not just add LPG to power the fridge as well. Touring in the uk has so many advantages, one of the definite disadvantages is the sun.
So the set up by Bailey when you buy the van is below
“Ready for off-grid adventures with a 200W Truma solar panel and 105 Ah AGM leisure battery fridge consuming .54 KWH / 24hrs” it does not say at what setting the fridge is at to allow this usage.
My Battery is under the passenger seat, I doubt if room for another battery to strap together but if there is it might give me a longer life I guess, i could also bolt the second 110 battery under my rear lounge seat and connect the two, if someone could advise me please the best way to do this, the distance between the two batteries would be approx between 80cm and 120cm maybe a bit less run of cables. ? Just literally connect pos to pos neg to neg with fuses on both sides for safety?
Click to expand...
Get shot of your current battery, replace with a new lithium. You can't really mix battery chemistrys safely. a 105Ah AGM is only drawable by 50% so it's 50Ah in reality, where a 100Ah lithium you can take down to 5%, so 100Ah.

Personally I'd swap for a 200Ah lithium, and increase your solar on roof -> that should give you about 4 days off grid with no sun, and if you in summer, a 100Ah would do you plenty. 200Ah lithium is in reality equivalent to 4 of your AGM batterys and will probably be the same weight and size roughly (you do need to order a battery to suit the size of your leisure battery compartment).

You will probbaly want to add a B2B charger, and if not comfortable doing yourself, Off Grid Power (advertise here) and Vanbitz would both do this.

And it's not Baileys faullt -> most of their vans are not really built for off-grid - most motorhoming for Baileys is EHU socket to another EHU site. We have had to suppliement our own Bailey to allow off gridding but the positive is the sites are MILES cheaper (as in £10 - 20 max a night) if you want a campsite (wihtout any electric), or free if you use a parkup.
 
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A quick google shows that the Adamo has 200w of solar, 105ah hab battery and a Thetford 150l fridge.
Did you not get any paperwork or equipment booklets with it when you bought it?
 
Hello and thank you for taking the time to reply.
Agree with you on the panels and the battery. The fridge is a thetford 2152c 12v only. I will be changing to Lithium after April.
With all the previous answers and advice I feel very confident I can accommodate the shortfall of the fridge.
Next step to find out what charger I have, I have asked Spinney Northants and Bailey, won’t hold my breath for an answer.
The van is in a compound approx 40 mins away and the next trip is end April, so will check myself and accordingly buy what I need.
Thank you again.
 
With all the previous answers and advice I feel very confident I can accommodate the shortfall of the fridge.
Next step to find out what charger I have, I have asked Spinney Northants and Bailey, won’t hold my breath for an answer.
The van is in a compound approx 40 mins away and the next trip is end April, so will check myself and accordingly buy what I need.
Thank you again.

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