Refrigeration

[sassypickins]

I am considering the Whynter compressor fridge/freezer. I would use the Whynter as a freezer for meat/fish and two half-gallon plastic bottles of water.

I start out my cooler with cold food, a little frozen food, and two half-gallon jugs of water, and with the freezer, I'd be able to keep the cooler going with backup frozen water bottles. I cover my cooler with a wool blanket and a tarp and in shade the water will stay frozen for about 4 days and cold for another day or two. My experience isn't in 100* weather, more like high 80's, low 90's, and I've never measured the temperature inside the cooler.

I would like to know if anyone uses a little freezer in this way and what are your results or recommendations?

Thanks!

 

[akrvbob]

I'm sorry I've never done it because I don't really need a freezer, so I can't help. However, I've always thought it was a good idea worth pursuing though.

I think the key is to add a lot of insulation to each to minimize heat loss. I highly recommend PolyIso because it's R 6 per inch.
Bob

 

[vagari]

Set Whynter to freezer mode. Put a 1" foam divider in the Whynter freezer. side closest to cooling unit is freezer and other side is fridge. Might have to punch holes in foam to get fridge temperature right. This is an idea I saw in an Amazon comment. Not sure if it works.

 

[akrvbob]

that's not the way my Whytner works. The cold flows around all the walls and if I set it too low all the items along the walls will freeze, not just the wall by the freezer. In fact on my Dometic, the area around the compressor is the warmest because the compressor is creating heat. That isn't true on the Whyter, it's all cold.

The cold comes in equally from all the walls, I don't think a divider in the middle would accomplish anything.

bob

 

[sassypickins]

Thanks Bob and Vagari. I posted this separately from your post, Vagari, about separating the inside of a fridge/freezer because I really just want to use the Whynter as a freezer and use a separate cooler as a fridge and I didn't want to dilute your thread.

But yeah, I hope I get a response from someone who is doing this. I can't see why it wouldn't work, if the Whynter is a good freezing unit. It's a big expense, though... and I wonder how much power the Whynter will use solely as a freezer...

Thank you again, guys!

 

[akrvbob]

I haven't used mine as a freezer so I can't really say. But it is tremendously well insulated and efficient so I think it should do really well.

I bought mine from Home Depot and when I picked it up I wanted to test it right away. So I unboxed it, threw it in the van and plugged it in. It has a Fast Freeze setting so I turned that on just as a test. It had been a busy day so I left Home Depot and stopped at Burger King for lunch. I went in, ordered, and ate there. I didn't time it but it had to be plugged in less than hour. When I came out I checked it and it was already at 20 degrees. I thought that can't be right so I put my hand in and yep, it was very cold!

In the winter, using it as a fridge, it runs less than 3 hours a day and stays within a few degrees over 24 hours. I know how much it runs because I unplug it the other 21 hours!

Really an outstanding unit!
Bob

 

[sassypickins]

I got a wild hair and emailed Whynter last week to see if they wanted to put together a power consumption chart for their 12v fridge/freezers and the dual compartment fridge/freezer.

I just got an email saying they added it to their website. Here's a link to the one for the 45-quart fridge/freezer:

Whynter_45_Quart_Portable_Fridge-_Freezer/282

Click on the Power Consumption Chart under Product Specification --below the photos. They made one for the 45-quart, 65-quart, 85-quart and the 62-quart dual zone.

Is this helpful? Honestly, my brain cells in the electrical department seem to be on strike no matter how much I read and take notes, but I hope it will be helpful for anyone needing to watch power use and I told Whynter I'd pass the word about this so I am. BTW, they seemed very receptive to comments and suggestions.

 

[TucsonAZ]

I got a wild hair and emailed Whynter last week to see if they wanted to put together a power consumption chart for their 12v fridge/freezers and the dual compartment fridge/freezer.

I just got an email saying they added it to their website. Here's a link to the one for the 45-quart fridge/freezer:

Whynter_45_Quart_Portable_Fridge-_Freezer/282

Click on the Power Consumption Chart under Product Specification --below the photos. They made one for the 45-quart, 65-quart, 85-quart and the 62-quart dual zone.

Is this helpful? Honestly, my brain cells in the electrical department seem to be on strike no matter how much I read and take notes, but I hope it will be helpful for anyone needing to watch power use and I told Whynter I'd pass the word about this so I am. BTW, they seemed very receptive to comments and suggestions.

They don't seem to list the duty cycle though or am I missing something?

 

[Zil]

Duty cycle usually refers to how long electric powered equipment can be operated continuously before shutting down to cool. Welders, electric motors and such. The refrigerator automatically shuts down and restarts by thermostat.
What is your definition of duty cycle in this instance?

 

[sassypickins]

Hi Zil, here's what I asked not knowing the right words -- about average compressor cycling and amps used per hour given conditions like ambient temperature, unit's set temperature and how filled the unit was.

 

[akrvbob]

I read the chart to mean the draw per day. On the AC side they explicitly say per 24 hours but for some reason they don't say that for the DC. But taken as a total they are saying that is the consumption per day.

They claim that it will draw 26.5 ah per day at 90 degrees F. Mine actually uses less but I added extra insulation.

Through April in the AZ desert mine drew about 15 ah per day. I know that because I plugged and unplugged it so I knew exactly how much it ran. I plugged it in every morning for two or three hours depending on the temperature. On cloudy, cooler days I didn't have to plug it in at all! After 24 hours it only went up 2 degrees! The next day after 48 hours it had only gone up 7 degrees so I ran it.

They are extremely efficient and well insulated!
Bob

 

[Zil]

The type of testing to develop that duty cycle has too many variables. It would be expensive for any company to publish and then if they missed one persons experience, would be harangued.

 

[sassypickins]

Yeah, I figured that, too so suggested they add a disclaimer that the results were from their experiences and were not a guarantee, only examples. When I saw they didn't do that or state the cycle times, I wondered if maybe they did not do testing. Well, it was worth a shot.

 

[akrvbob]

It's my interpretation of the chart that they have done all the math and are giving you a daily draw.

On a 77 degree day with it set at 39 degrees it draws 20 amps per day.

They give you enough info to figure the duty cycle. On DC it draws 60 watts which is 5 ah. Since it draws 20 ah a day that means the duty cycle is 4 hours per day (5 ah for 4 hours = 20 ah per day).

That exactly coincides with my real world experience except that I draw a little less because I added extra insulation.

I find it remarkable that they are that forthcoming with full disclosure. But when it does that outstanding a job they should be very proud of it and shout it from the mountaintop!
Bob