2 way 12V fridge reviews?

lkc001

Hello-- I have a 2017 Tab 320S with 3-way fridge now.  Am thinking about going bigger to a 400.  My concern is 12v battery power as I primarily boondock.  Also try to be frugal with other power usage such as lights, etc.
1.  What year did the Tab 400s go to the 2 way fridge?
2.  Reviews on the 12v fridge and how many days can you boondock with the use of a solar panel?

pthomas745

There were lots of posts about this around the time the new Indel Cruise 65 fridges showed up, which is about 2020.  The 3 way fridges disappeared around 2022(?) since most manufacturers simply don't make them any more. 

As far as "how long can I boondock" it depends on the size of the battery, also.  The Cruise 65 appears to use 25-35 amps per 24 hours (solar input during the day will make this much less).  The issue for owners with the "stock" 80 ah battery:  that amount of fridge power use will overwhelm the 40 available amp hours of a "stock" battery, especially if solar isn't optimum at the campsite.  The combo of a 100ah lithium or larger AGM setup works quite well with the 2 way fridges.

My 3163 fridge on propane is simply no longer reliable.  I carry a small portable fridge that basically uses 1 amp per hour.  (Alpicool 20 qt). That and a 100 ah lithium is easy to deal with. The 3163 is still a decent cooler, and pretty handy for storage. 

This thread has some good numbers.

https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/11483/field-experience-with-dc-refrigerator-power-consumption-and-factory-solar

And, here are more threads.

https://www.google.com/search?q=2+way+fridge+power+use+site:tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com&client=firefox-b-1-d&sca_esv=6c300049f602ecc4&sxsrf=ACQVn0-GOo7M1aESXD0p57DI5lN3lRmpDQ:1712253192315&ei=COkOZqP4EuHQkPIPyJ6omAM&ved=0ahUKEwijnKyakKmFAxVhKEQIHUgPCjMQ4dUDCBA&oq=2+way+fridge+power+use+site:tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiNzIgd2F5IGZyaWRnZSBwb3dlciB1c2Ugc2l0ZTp0YWItcnYudmFuaWxsYWNvbW11bml0eS5jb21IAFAAWABwAHgAkAEAmAEAoAEAqgEAuAEMyAEAmAIAoAIAmAMAkgcAoAcA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp

RTWCTS

In full sun our 12V fridge could run indefinitely off the stock battery/solar. We even cool it down from off using battery power. Agree with @pthomas745 about the timeline of 3-way in the 400. 2022 was the last time I saw them as an option. 

lkc001

pthomas745 said:

There were lots of posts about this around the time the new Indel Cruise 65 fridges showed up, which is about 2020.  The 3 way fridges disappeared around 2022(?) since most manufacturers simply don't make them any more. 

As far as "how long can I boondock" it depends on the size of the battery, also.  The Cruise 65 appears to use 25-35 amps per 24 hours (solar input during the day will make this much less).  The issue for owners with the "stock" 80 ah battery:  that amount of fridge power use will overwhelm the 40 available amp hours of a "stock" battery, especially if solar isn't optimum at the campsite.  The combo of a 100ah lithium or larger AGM setup works quite well with the 2 way fridges.

My 3163 fridge on propane is simply no longer reliable.  I carry a small portable fridge that basically uses 1 amp per hour.  (Alpicool 20 qt). That and a 100 ah lithium is easy to deal with. The 3163 is still a decent cooler, and pretty handy for storage. 

This thread has some good numbers.

https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/11483/field-experience-with-dc-refrigerator-power-consumption-and-factory-solar

And, here are more threads.

https://www.google.com/search?q=2+way+fridge+power+use+site:tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com&client=firefox-b-1-d&sca_esv=6c300049f602ecc4&sxsrf=ACQVn0-GOo7M1aESXD0p57DI5lN3lRmpDQ:1712253192315&ei=COkOZqP4EuHQkPIPyJ6omAM&ved=0ahUKEwijnKyakKmFAxVhKEQIHUgPCjMQ4dUDCBA&oq=2+way+fridge+power+use+site:tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiNzIgd2F5IGZyaWRnZSBwb3dlciB1c2Ugc2l0ZTp0YWItcnYudmFuaWxsYWNvbW11bml0eS5jb21IAFAAWABwAHgAkAEAmAEAoAEAqgEAuAEMyAEAmAIAoAIAmAMAkgcAoAcA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp

Thanks for the info--when you say "larger AGM battery"--how many amp hours?  We usually boondock for 4-5 days at a time.  

lkc001

RTWCTS said:

In full sun our 12V fridge could run indefinitely off the stock battery/solar. We even cool it down from off using battery power. Agree with @pthomas745 about the timeline of 3-way in the 400. 2022 was the last time I saw them as an option. 

Thanks for the info

Binghi

Make sure you get a 400 with solar panel built-in. You can boondock the two-way fridge if you get a lot of sun. With cloudy days or shady parking sites, the fridge will drain your batteries. We have found that with reasonable solar gain we can boondock with that fridge for up to a week. On our just-completed trip to Baja California, we ended up turning off the fridge for the last three weeks to keep our AGM batteries alive. No big deal, we used the ice chest in the bed of the truck.

Denny16

Bing hi, hat kind of load did you have on that battery?  We went almost four days and three nights on our TaB400 200 amp AGM battery, running the 12 VDC fridge the whole time and had the TaB under a small shade tree, so the solar only got partial sun, and our battery was recharged by mid day here I. nor Cal during a early Spring trip.
cheers