$500 to spend, where would it go?

Dereco

So, I have about $500 to spend, and am looking to fill some perceived gaps on the 'power' side of our 320-S. I have mulled some considerations, and was inclined to provide them all here and ask for feedback. I anticipate some responses will be 'depends on what you want it for' which is fair. But so as to allow new considerations apart from my own, which I think might be more helpful, I just want to outline my options and ask for general feedback from those who perhaps have been down a similar path.

Situation: I have 12V battery, nothing special. Have Honda 900 generator, great for boosting battery or running things away from parks, but noisy even where usage is permitted. Have two (cheapie) solar panels, combined about 80 watts. I have got 9 days from those with battery topped at start, fridge on propane (that is one issue: fridge is flakey on propane, can't always get it working).

Basic premise: add a nice solar generator, can run fridge for between 3 and 7 hours (depending on power) for emergencies, and extra for around campsite, for phones, iPads, etc.  Quiet, charges quickly (in some circumstances).  Question is whether I should top up and get better solar/better battery, and park idea of solar generator (Jackery, Bluetti, etc). My thinking is generator gets me the most flex.  

Look forward to your feedback.

techietab

$500 won't go far with battery upgrades. It would get you a single cheap-ish ~100Ah LiFePO4 battery plus maybe an enhanced AC to DC charger to fully top it up (the on board power center does a lousy job of this). A standalone solar generator/power station would probably be better bang-for-buck.

That said, there's generally nothing wrong with cheaper LiFePO4 batteries if you understand their quirks and are willing to work around them (e.g. install a heating pad under them for winter use).

AnOldUR

I agree with @techietab except for the power station part. In your shoes, the first thing I'd do is upgrade my onboard battery.  IMO power stations are overpriced batteries with some fancy stuff added on.

WayneW

+1 on upgrading to a lower-priced lifepo4 battery and understanding the quirks. I have a AmpereTime (now LiTime) 100 ahr battery and I’m very happy with results.  The available 80-90 ahr along w the 80 watts of solar will get you a long way. 

And figure out why the propane fridge is unreliable. Then you won’t have to worry about battery power for it. 

If the budget stretches far enough you could install a dc-dc charger and probably leave the generator home. Renogy has a 20 amp dc-dc charger on sale for $110.

VictoriaP

Solar power stations (calling them “generators” is a misnomer as the don’t generate anything) can have a place in trailer life. I use mine regularly, both camping and at home. In your case, since your propane fridge is flaky on propane, I’d be putting money towards fixing or upgrading that first. 3 way fridges eat a ton of 12v power on that setting, and that will drain a $500 power station incredibly fast, far quicker than a 12v only fridge will. I’d work that problem out before I worried about bumping up power, either by getting the fridge repaired or by getting an alternative. Many of us supplement with traditional or 12v coolers.

I think power stations can be useful around camp and especially around the house or during power outages. But mine is paired with a trailer that has a 100 ah AGM battery with 200 watts of portable solar, a very solid (so far) propane fridge, and a 12v cooler that just sips power rather than guzzling it the way the propane one would. A $500 power station just isn’t big enough to be worthwhile running your fridge, you’d need a much bigger power station and a lot more solar to make that even somewhat practical. I have a Jackery 1500 that’s mostly used for outages at home, and I’d hesitate to use even that monster to run a 3 way fridge on 12v. 

If your heart is set on buying one though, I have a Jackery, Goal Zero, and EcoFlow, all different sizes. Each has its pluses and minuses. The EcoFlow is the noisiest by far, the fan is surprisingly loud and runs even with a tiny load…that’s the price you pay for their specific charging rate and higher output inverters. The GZ is a quiet, solid performer, but overpriced. The Jackery is a decent compromise brand, that has performed very well, but doesn’t charge fast. Of the three, I’m not sure I’d buy another EcoFlow due to the noise. I’d gladly buy a GZ again except for the price tag, the Jackery is a maybe (a better option in that size now exists from Anker, recently reviewed by Will Prowse on his channel).

It’s mostly more economical per amp hour to put a LiFePo battery into the trailer than to buy a standalone unit. But the standalones can be very useful, and shouldn’t be automatically dismissed. They just won’t help enough with your fridge to be worthwhile.

Edit to add: Out of curiosity, I just dragged the Jackery out to the trailer to test something. Using short extension cord, I plugged the fridge directly into the battery on 110v. It works…but it’s pulling 145 watts continuous to do so, which the Jackery 1500 says it can handle for eight hours. And that setup is 3x larger than what you’ll likely get with a $500 unit. Contrast that with my Iceco go20 12v cooler, which can run for 5 days on my GZ Yeti 400 lithium (comparable to units within your budget), because the compressor on that cooler is way more efficient. The stats I’ve seen put my Norcold fridge at 11.7 amps on 12v, which if my math is right still comes out to around 140+ watts; plus to run that, you’d have to plug the whole trailer into the power station…which means you’ll have a somewhat higher draw due to the converter and various parasitic draws on the trailer.

So yeah, put that $500 toward fixing or replacing or supplementing the fridge before upgrading your electrical. It’s really too power hungry to run off battery in either 12v or 110v modes.

techietab

Everyone above makes very fair points. My perspective is skewed by the fact that my rig is *very* power hungry. I've got a bunch of power-hungry after-market addons (enterprise-grade router with dual LTE/quad SIM modem with a giant antenna array, IoT environmental monitoring system, 5g modem, 2nd generation Starlink dish, Raspberry Pi 4b running an entertainment center package + a bunch of server-type container workloads, CPAP for my sleep apnea) plus all the usual consumer portable electronics in addition to bunch of laptops that are issued by my clients for remote work. I'm lucky to get 1.5-2 days out of 200Ah of LiFePO4 on my rig. I can usually stretch that a day or two longer with 100-200W of solar input, but usually end up having to top off with a generator.

But, when I bring my EcoFlow Delta Max along - it alone will buy me an extra couple days of overall runtime if I offload as much DC power-drainers to it as possible. Granted, the Delta Max is a *lot* more than $500.

webers3

++ on Ampere Time + $130 for Victron Shunt

Dereco

Circling back to thank all for feedback, and to update and close the loop: I have chosen the LiTime 100 ahr battery. And I'll chase down the fridge issue once the trailer is out of storage. Thanks again to all for responses. If ever you're in Newfoundland, look me up!