Mini freezer for the boat/truck on 12v

Ken07AOVette · #1 04-04-2021, 05:58 PM

With going to Alaska last year from Rupert I am hooked on yankee fishing, and am looking forward to it again.
For this year I have bought a 2.5 cu ft chest freezer from Bestbuy, will keep it in the back of the truck for the trip there and then if needed will put it in the boat. I tried cooling it from warm with a new 900mca AGM battery and 800w cheap inverter. In 30 minutes the inverter kicked off, drained it enough.
I plugged the freezer into the garage overnight, got it cold and tried again.
Same deep cycle battery, but a new Energizer 1100w Princess auto inverter ($104 on sale now). After 3 hours the battery was showing 12.5v and the freezer was only drawing 58w when running. I left the freezer empty and ran it off the inverter for over 3 hours. Battery showed 12.4v. I then used my Snap-on battery yester and load tested the battery, showed it at 101% capacity after 3 hours.
This is going to work. I will try and mount the inverter under the hood, running short cables to the battery and a 110v cord to the freezer is easier than the inverse.
Pretty handy I think.
I always use a huge cooler to bring fish back, covered in sea ice. I will do the same, but this allows me to process right on the boat including freezing if need be.

58thecat · #2 04-05-2021, 07:58 AM

great piece of kit, got one in the truck all the time for keeping things cold if required….a ice pack helps when not running off the battery for short durations.

Ken07AOVette · #3 04-05-2021, 03:14 PM

I am definately going to try it in the 1 ton. I think even running all night the 2 1000cca batteries should be fine, and if not I am carrying a big NOCO booster anyway.
Now I need a lowpro slip tank

bronze · #4 04-05-2021, 08:11 PM

At 58w every hour it runs it will use 4.8 amps per hour. Most solar or continuous use batteries are rated in amp hours not cca. So a 100 amp hours battery would last about 20 hours of run time. Also most cheap/mid priced inverters are modified sine wave which don’t always work well with motors, this may cause the motor to heat up and shorten it’s life or may not run them at all.