here is the plan, can anything foreseen go wrong ?

Vansflyer said:
+1 on the compressor fridge / freezer option. I have just been looking to get one for when it is "hot" as our Dometic can't cool well when over 30-35c. Depending on size required they are between £200-£500 for a good one and only pull between 3 & 5A when running and they don't run all the time. My thoughts are the cooler box can go with us on days out in the car and away in the van for a "beer fridge", a "pre cool fridge" post shopping or "the main fridge" if temps hit 35C for a while. It will also go with us to our next van if we wish to change. This one suits our space in the floor so it is out of view and we won't hear it running. Amazon product ASIN B001TPN3TA
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I have that very item. Usual use is as a beer fridge when away, but currently at home and it is being used as an ice-cream freezer. It is not great for this is as its freezer temperature is about -15C. Salted caramel magnums melt at this sort of temperature. Fine for ice and frozen food though.
Electric usage 12v is around 30watts/3A but when used as a freezer the compressor runs a lot, as a fridge it's consumption is hardly noticed.
 
Lenny HB Raul

From what I can work out this battery seems to stem from America and Canada where it is sold at much cheaper prices than we can do.
Reviews are favourable and even good (I appreciate reviews can be bought)
I think someone has imported a number of them and reselling them having forgot to tell the taxman. Hence 6 left and we know little to nothing about them.
With the Amazon angle, I shall have a bit of a puff on my electronic thingy and a cup of coffee and mull it over overnight, but cant see too much preventative in me purchasing one as the only real issue is they are cheap and I like cheap.
 
While some French sites are excellent and you have your own marked out individual bay and sole ehu point, we have been on others in busy periods where site operators cram in lots of units and daisy chain the ehu. When that happened we noticed the fridge stopped working on electric and automatically went on to gas. If you are not on these types of sites at busy peak times then your plans could work. It is one of the reasons I used to justify to myself lithium would be advantageous.
The best judge of the lithium supplier if no one comes up with a really good review is yourself, clearly you are already sus about it, and your gut feeling is usually right.
 
suavecarve said:
We have a new van but unfortunately the fridge on gas is a disaster.
That is a separate issue which is "being resolved"
It wont be resolved before our next holiday at end of August.
We normally only use aires and normally free ones

Plan A involves campsites using ACSI and costing 400 euros for 20 nights or similar
Plan B involves aires and trusting we can get there in time to get one of the leccy posts and paying x euros per night but obviously limiting where we can go
Plan C involves Plan A and Plan B

Plan D. Currently have 220 amps of Gel. 370 watts of solar and a B2B which is lithium ready as is the solar. I have access to a 12 volt freezer. I have several ice blocks possibly 24 but can increase. The plan includes buying 200 amps of lithium for 649 pounds off amazon (2 year warranty 7 positive reviews no negatives and appears genuine). Thinking buying the lithium which is more or less a drop in (width of battery slightly too big but easily rectifiable) then feeding via the inverter into the mains (have the lead) and topping up at intervals (couple of hours at a time) and in between using half the ice blocks to keep fridge level down but keeping the ice blocks in the 12 volt freezer. Battery also required for E bikes and have easily recharged both on a daily basis from the 220 amps of Gel without denting the batteries.
Checked today and took 2 hours for 240 volts to bring fridge down to 3.9 from 17. Using ice blocks overnight (with no power source) to see how temperature holds

My thoughts are I could be spending 100-400 nicker on electricity beyond what we normally pay, and that could be put towards the lithium (which is in the planning and not a problem financially just preferred not to do it yet)

Can anyone see fault with the plan or has a further cunning plan (I dont really want to wire it up the fridge permanently to 240 via inverter from batteries as this is a temporary thing)

Cheers
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I have a Mobicool compressor fridge and a mobicool freezer, they both run off 12 volts when on the move, then 220 V on hook up and I have a small "quiet" generator for everything else. It can run during the day without any noise complaints and I switch it off at night and rely on frozen 1 litre bottles to keep it all cold. As I live in South of France where it is very hot , this works well
 
suavecarve said:
We have a magnificent flame. Truly beautiful.
It works fantastically on 240 and adequately on 12.
The burner was changed and it worked...for a fortnight.
Thetford are scratching their heads and next plan is either to change baffle or fridge. If former and it doesn't work then latter is in the pipeline, but work cannot be completed before August owing to staff holidays.
It is what it is hence a temporary solution.
We suspect same issue as VXman

Itsmcb it is very cheap and would prefer longer warranty but I like my money !!! Dodgy or not ?


12V Lifepo4 Battery, 200AH Series/Parallel Lithium Batteries, Upgraded BMS, Lighweight Small Size Perfect for RV, Marine, Trolling Motor, Solar, Van Life, Back Up Power & Off Grid Applications https://amzn.eu/d/h4z7No9
Click to expand...
Is it me, or is the 200Ah one £649?

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Quite a few around that price area now. They are definitely coming down in price :party3:, not much more than gel now.
 
Take a look at these batteries; he has a great reputation in boating circles.

Life Batteries

Ian
 
Controversial i know but why not use CCP Aires, you can book a spot if its busy and you get hook up every day?
 
Why don't you just chuck it out and put a compressor fridge in its place, far cheaper and easier than messing about with other batteries, we have one in our ambulance that runs off two 100a batteries and a 100 w solar panel , never run out of electric yet without hookup unless it's thrown in.

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where are you ?
i have new 200amh for sale in louth lincolnshire, i very greedily bought 3 have space for 2, changed out all old system to solar, b2b , not had enough time to fully evaluate but as now two months old and find it hard to keep them below 100% need to put an isolation switch on the panels
if interested £600?
regards bob
 

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Jimbohorlicks said:
We have been on a few Aires in France and most had no electric ,some had free electric but not many and some pay electric but expensive
Those with electric sometimes don't have any spare outlets ,all being taken by folks on there already..
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It's a good idea to have a 'splitter' adaptor, to plug two or three blue plugs into one. Many people on that kind of aire will carry one, but you could get your own to make sure. Be careful to get a 16A to 16A type. There is a 32A to 16A type that looks almost the same in a photo, but is bigger and won't fit in a normal 16A socket.
Amazon product ASIN B075VDRVTS
 
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Yes we carry a splitter and have used it a few times,and even offered to use it with some frenchies who had no hook up.Very handy.
 
Lenny HB said:
Raul do you know anything about MOSEWORTH Lifepo4 batteries.
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Never heard of them. Allot of companies assemble batteries with access to raw cells at a good price. Some cheaper can be grade B cells, but still good deal as they will be protected by bms with conservative settings.

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chaser said:
Why don't you just chuck it out and put a compressor fridge in its place, far cheaper and easier than messing about with other batteries, we have one in our ambulance that runs off two 100a batteries and a 100 w solar panel , never run out of electric yet without hookup unless it's thrown in.
Click to expand...
Its a brand new fridge in a brand new van under warranty and we generally never use a hook up
 
bobupanddown said:
where are you ?
i have new 200amh for sale in louth lincolnshire, i very greedily bought 3 have space for 2, changed out all old system to solar, b2b , not had enough time to fully evaluate but as now two months old and find it hard to keep them below 100% need to put an isolation switch on the panels
if interested £600?
regards bob
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Bob, It is very unfortunate but my nearest big town is Guildford and looking at where you are it would cost me more of the difference to come and get it.
SOmeone else might see this and get a hold of you and I shouldnt think you would be long before you lose it for pound notes with someone more local.
Thank you for the offer
 
suavecarve said:
Its a brand new fridge in a brand new van under warranty and we generally never use a hook up
Click to expand...
Yeah but it would cost far less than what you are planning with batteries.
 
Having mulled it over, I have just purchased the 200 ah and it will be coming 30th July-6th August. It will be put in very early and will give a review on this thread in September after the holiday as it will have more or less no use in between times.
Thanks for everyone's input

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chaser said:
Yeah but it would cost far less than what you are planning with batteries.
Click to expand...
We have one that I can borrow.
Changing batteries was on the agenda anyway, hence the planning with increased solars increased wires and the B2B.
I just preferred to wait for prices to come down. In January there was an offer of 699 for 100 ah that several funsters entered the draw for, and I just bought twice the amount for a little cheaper.
The battery will now easily charge my 2 ebikes rather than having to do a little thinking around battery management if we get to park in a forest or have a couple of non productive solar days AND it can be an emergency fridge source.
 
bigtwin said:
Was that cheaper than the Life Batteries that I linked to above?

Ian
Click to expand...
Yours is cheaper than the offer that was on in January but £220 more expensive than the one I just bought for the same amperage (on his site) (Or 110 litres of wine)
 
suavecarve said:
Checked today and took 2 hours for 240 volts to bring fridge down to 3.9 from 17. Using ice blocks overnight (with no power source) to see how temperature holds
Click to expand...
Once it's down to the correct temperature, the only power requirement is to extract the heat coming in through the insulation - walls and door. The ice blocks don't reduce the total overall power requirement, unless you are freezing them in an external freezer.

They just extend the time that the fridge stays at the right temperature. If you have to freeze them again in the freezer section of the fridge you don't save on power overall. However it could extend the time between mains hookups, or solar topups during the day.
 
suavecarve said:
Yours is cheaper than the offer that was on in January but £220 more expensive than the one I just bought for the same amperage (on his site) (Or 110 litres of wine)
Click to expand...

Sounds like you got a very good price.👍

Ian
 
bigtwin said:
Sounds like you got a very good price.👍

Ian
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For the wine ? ;)

Its one of those things where it may be a donkey or it may be a bargain. I m happy to take that risk having had a good old trawl around the internet and done some background on them.
 
Plan E... Save a load of money and buy a smaller cheaper 12v electric coolbox for little things like milk (and beer), and call at the shops every day or spend the money in bars.
 
Well the battery turned up today.
When purchasing a made the naive mistake of expecting it to be somewhere near length of my gels.
I did check the height and the width and knew I would have to move my "boxed off" area a bit and the inverter.
However, it is significantly larger than previous batteries and without moving the fuse box elsewhere I wouldnt get 2 of them in there.
Anyway, 2 hours of moving things about and an hour trying to change the switches (chair had to come out to be able to see) and it is in there and all working.
Have now connected the 240 input to the inverter and and have the fridge running to see how long that will take to freeze ice blocks.

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