Charging An Auxiliary Battery..?

[Ade]

Thanks heap guys. I've tried it and it works! Damn "L" lol..

Anyway, quite suprisingly..yesterday morning, I've set the fridge (ARB 60L) cut off voltage to medium which is 11.4v, 0c on the temperature and ran it with few bottles of water inside. A short 20 minutes drive to the town in the night and switched it off before midnight. Early this morning I switched it on again and at about around noon it switched itself off which I presumed due to the Optima has reached the preset 11.4v. Later afternoon, had a half an hour drive to and around town. Just now, as I connect the Bosch charger to the main batteries, turn it on and went into the trol to have a look to the BCDC, its already at its float charge rate. Thats was quick..??

[Cuppa]

Suggest for the sake of your battery that you set the battery protection setting on 'Hi'. 11.4v is into damage territory. (Portable fridge manufacturers are notorious for setting protection levels far too low, ARB are by no means alone in this).

I'm not familiar with the Bosch C7 charger, but it appears to be a pretty fancy smart charger, & as such should be ok to leave connected to your crank batteries & switched on if you are leaving your fridge running. If it has a 'supply' mode, get the batteries fully charged & then switch to supply mode, if not just leave it in float mode. It will work out when to revert to bulk charging rates. If the latter just keep an eye on your crank batteries, assuming they are wet type batteries, & top them up with distilled water to ensure the plates remain covered. This is because they will be getting charged to 100% rather than to the usual 70% to 80% that alternator charging does. In so doing gassing & gradual fluid loss is normal.

I have a couple of ARB fridges, including a 60 litre one, & know that the digital temperature readout can be misleading. This is not just an ARB fridge thing though. If you fill the fridge as much as you can with bottles of water or similar you can be more confident of the readout. I've found that with an empty or partially empty fridge it appears to get down to temperature rather quickly. If you have as little unused space as possible the internal temperature will remain more constant with less cycling of the compressor. When planning to use mine I usually fill the fridge (or freezer) with frozen bottles of water from our household freezer for 24 hours before refilling with food from the fridge or freezer to ensure a more stable temperature. This is far more efficient than using the 12v fridge/freezer to do the initial cooling/freezing.

Cuppa

[Yendor]

Cuppa is the guru when it comes to solar, so I will leave that with him.

If I wanted to run my 60L fridge all the time in the trol, what size of solar panel should I use? Lol..seriously, is it even possible to do this? Let say for a week without starting the engine and parked under a porch and the Optima is YT S5.5. Kinda stupid but Im just curious..

If this the only reason you want solar for. I wouldn't worry about getting solar. I would just plug the fridge into mains power while it is under the porch.

[Cuppa]

Agree with Yendor. I wrote the stuff about solar before I realised your charger did have 24v charging.

Whilst away from home the bcdc1225 will suffice if you are driving for sufficient time each day. If camped in one spot for more than overnight you will need some solar input and or increased battery capacity. How much of each would depend upon your expected travelling style.


Cuppa

[Ade]

Thanks heaps guys. Appreciate that detailed explanation Cuppa, I've read loads of your post and threads. Same goes to you Rod..top blokes! I reckon there will be more questions to come soon..lol.

Bloody L