Ideal 12V Fridge and Jackery setup?

[JAF1]

I have a Jackery 500 and wanted to know the ideal way to operate it.

It’s primarily used to provide power to a 20qt, 45W freezer/fridge. I see in the Jackery manual they do not recommend using pass through charging. Ideally I’m guessing they would suggest to power fridge using the vehicle battery while running then plug it into the Jackery when the vehicle is not running. Since this would be a pain to keep swapping cords, I would like to keep the fridge plugged into the Jackery at all times, and keep the Jackery plugged into an ignition only power source in the vehicle. This way I don’t have to ever worry about the draining the vehicle battery.

Any issues with this configuration? If so, any other suggestions?

I have a choice of supplying input power to the Jackery either via a 12v car adapter or a 120v inverter. Which is best way to charge the Jackery?

Is there a preferred method to provide power to the fridge via the Jackery 12v or 120v as far as what’s best for the Jackery?

Thanks!

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[JL MADDOG]

What you are proposing is exactly what Jackery says not to do.

Swapping cords in no big deal...as long as you remember to do it.

 

[Adv_aw8s]

I run my fridge directly off the jeep through a dedicated arb wiring kit straight to the battery. I have never had a problem. We have been on two plus week trips and the jeep has sat for several days with out starting and it's been fine. I find this the easiest and least trouble free.

 

[Mad Hatter]

There are some conflicts between manuals and the website regarding this particular setup:

From the FAQ page of the Support section https://www.jackery.com/pages/faq:

I have a Jackery 300 I've used for pass-through charging after moving the relevant fuse to make the rear 12v outlet hot only when the engine is running. Seems to work fine with my Dometic and Iceco fridges. The Jackery is charged only when the engine is on, but the charging current likely also runs "some" of the fridge load. When the engine is off, of course the Jackery runs the fridge off of Jackery battery alone.

I'm not an electrical engineer, but I suspect that any reduction in Jackery battery life would be a function of charging current, simultaneous discharge current, temperature, etc. So it would be hard to come up with a definitive statement beyond what Jackery said above.

 

[JAF1]

Sent off an email to Jackery and got this response.

"Thank you for contacting Jackery

Please note that pass-through charging is a feature that is available in all of our generators which allows the unit to be used at the same time it is recharging, however, our technicians recommend this feature to be used only on devices that are under 200W to preserve the health of your battery in the long run."

So I'm reading that as long as I'm not trying to draw more that 200w, my 45w fridge should be fine.

 

[JAF1]

I run my fridge directly off the jeep through a dedicated arb wiring kit straight to the battery. I have never had a problem. We have been on two plus week trips and the jeep has sat for several days with out starting and it's been fine. I find this the easiest and least trouble free.

That's good to know, but I would be paranoid about my battery.

 

[BDinTX]

what kind of fridge do you have? I'm reading on RV forums that they support either 12VDC or 110AC and they plug in both. The fridge will use 110AC if available.

 

[JAF1]

what kind of fridge do you have? I'm reading on RV forums that they support either 12VDC or 110AC and they plug in both. The fridge will use 110AC if available.

It's a F40C4TMP. Don't want to insert a link but they're on Amazon. It could be used either 12vDC or 110vAC.

 

[Adv_aw8s]

what kind of fridge do you have? I'm reading on RV forums that they support either 12VDC or 110AC and they plug in both. The fridge will use 110AC if available.

I'm running the iceco jp50. It will run 12v or 110ac too. I ran a dedicated run from the battery instead of relying on the factory 12v cigarette lighter plug wiring. Plus the arb wiring kit fridge wiring works with the iceco and it's a threaded plug into the main wiring from the jeep so I don't have to worry about it jiggling loose offroad.

 

[Adv_aw8s]

That's good to know, but I would be paranoid about my battery.

The fridge has a three level voltage switch if it senses voltage drop to low it will shut the fridge off. You could always carry one of those small jumper packs just in case too. I've yet to have a problem in two years of running it in two different vehicles.

 

[BDinTX]

It looks like the OPs fridge requires a different power adapter cable for 110v use so I don't think fridge itself can switch between 12VDC and 110AC power.

F40C4TMP Portable Car Refrigerator 24 Quart 12V Car Freezer Travel Fridge 23L (-7.6℉~50℉) with 12/24V DC and 110-240 AC,Compressor Refrigerator for Home,Truck, RV, Boat and Camping : User Manual : Page 3 (manualshelf.com)

 

[JAF1]

It looks like the OPs fridge requires a different power adapter cable for 110v use so I don't think fridge itself can switch between 12VDC and 110AC power.

F40C4TMP Portable Car Refrigerator 24 Quart 12V Car Freezer Travel Fridge 23L (-7.6℉~50℉) with 12/24V DC and 110-240 AC,Compressor Refrigerator for Home,Truck, RV, Boat and Camping : User Manual : Page 3 (manualshelf.com)

Correct, since I could use either one or the other, didn't know which would be preferred.

 

[BDinTX]

Ya sorry. I was thinking you could plug in BOTH at the same time, let the fridge decide.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Be careful about plugging your fridge into both 12v and 120vac. Dometic had a recall about the 120 volt current finding a way into 12v circuitry, frying both the cooler and the parent 12v source.

https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/dometic-cfx3-recall-info-thread.217315/

 

[jou32]

Jackery Solar Generator 1500 and 4 SolarSaga 100-watt panels can keep your large refrigerator running for nearly 3 hours. Moreover, A battery bank with 100-200 amp hours of usable capacity is a good size for running most small 12V fridges. (This is assuming you're using your battery bank to power your fridge only.) That size should give most people 3-4 days of runtime off the battery bank alone.

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