Our "New to Us" Winnie

Please feel free to describe your motorhome, campervan or caravan. (make, model, length etc)
User avatar
supersparky
Posts: 9092
Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2012 7:00 pm
Location: Home on the beautiful Gold Coast for a while.
Has thanked: 115 times
Been thanked: 92 times

Re: Our "New to Us" Winnie

Post by supersparky »

The last time I went looking, the sales guy claimed that any fridge with a 10 year warranty on the compressor is an inverter type.
I don't know if that is totally accurate or not.
We are getting the fridge that the insurance is paying for, so we don't really have much say. Our doorway is 615mm wide, it is a bit wider if you take the frame out but haven't had the need to do that yet.
Cheers
David

David and Terrie
2006 Winnebago Alpine
Not all who wander are lost.
User avatar
jon_d
Posts: 4957
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2013 6:37 pm
Location: bedford
Has thanked: 48 times
Been thanked: 61 times

Re: Our "New to Us" Winnie

Post by jon_d »

I have a simple Aldi compressor fridge.

It needs a decent inverter to get the compressor started.

Trouble was, the big inverter had a massive "standby current" and overnight, it would consume upto 24 plus ah including cooling.

I couldn't find an inverter fridge then. Samsung stopped making the small one and all the rest were to big.

Eventually the inverter died so I installed a Victon with its fully programmable eco mode.

Now,the inverter fully shuts down at night and only starts up when the fridge's mechanical thermostat toggles and the inverter detects a load.

This concept won't work with an electronic thermostat.


So, you don't necessarily need an inverter fridge....
User avatar
T1 Terry
Posts: 16620
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2012 3:44 pm
Location: Mannum South Australia by the beautiful Murray River
Has thanked: 75 times
Been thanked: 58 times

Re: Our "New to Us" Winnie

Post by T1 Terry »

jon_d wrote: Fri Dec 26, 2025 5:14 pm I have a simple Aldi compressor fridge.

It needs a decent inverter to get the compressor started.

Trouble was, the big inverter had a massive "standby current" and overnight, it would consume upto 24 plus ah including cooling.

I couldn't find an inverter fridge then. Samsung stopped making the small one and all the rest were to big.

Eventually the inverter died so I installed a Victon with its fully programmable eco mode.

Now,the inverter fully shuts down at night and only starts up when the fridge's mechanical thermostat toggles and the inverter detects a load.

This concept won't work with an electronic thermostat.


So, you don't necessarily need an inverter fridge....
Getting that search mode current tuned can be rather tricky .... to high and the fridge light won't turn, too low and it no sooner goes into search mode that a load will reset the timer ..... but really, zero load is 15w, SEA load is 11w and search mode is 4w, at the constant 15w load, 12hrs over night is only 180w, with a 12v battery that's only around 12Ah, not very much out of a 600Ah 12v battery .... might be for a lead acid battery I suppose, but these Sodium ion batteries, I doubt I'll bother trying to set it up ....

If you can get away with using the Victron 375w dedicated unit, it will drop into eco mode and only draw 0.9w while waiting for something to happen, it checks every 2.5 secs to see if there is a load high enough to turn it on, but on no load, draw is only 5.6w, 67w over a 12 hr period .....

T1 Terry
A person may fail many times, they only become a failure when they blame someone else John Burrows
Those who struggle to become a leader, rarely know a clear direction forward for anyone but themselves
User avatar
BruceS
Site Admin
Posts: 9445
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2012 7:32 pm
Location: Nebo, Qld
Has thanked: 67 times
Been thanked: 53 times

Re: Our "New to Us" Winnie

Post by BruceS »

Terry mine used to go into defrost mode each nite.
Often wondered if it could be changed to daytime?
*******************
BruceS
Nebo, Qld

********************
User avatar
jon_d
Posts: 4957
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2013 6:37 pm
Location: bedford
Has thanked: 48 times
Been thanked: 61 times

Re: Our "New to Us" Winnie

Post by jon_d »

Wasn't that tricky for me.
tricky.jpg
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
User avatar
T1 Terry
Posts: 16620
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2012 3:44 pm
Location: Mannum South Australia by the beautiful Murray River
Has thanked: 75 times
Been thanked: 58 times

Re: Our "New to Us" Winnie

Post by T1 Terry »

BruceS wrote: Fri Dec 26, 2025 6:44 pm Terry mine used to go into defrost mode each nite.
Often wondered if it could be changed to daytime?
The auto defrost is supposed to run on a time clock that was powered while the compressor was running, so the defrost cycle was a bit of a random event if viewed by a 24 hr clock. The way the ones I know of worked, they switch the supply to the compressor to the heater units, if it was a model with the evaporator in the back wall of the fridge, that went through a defrost cycle after .... 12hr I think it was, the one in the freezer was more like 36hrs compressor run time and had a far more aggressive heater element in the heatsink, the circulation fan would be switched out, so only the heat sink came up to 1*C, then the defrost cycle ended and the normal operating cycle resumed .....

For a while, some manufacturers had a system of vents to redirected the air from the top of the fridge cabinet, over the freezer heatsink and directed down the back wall of the fridge to the crisper bins ..... The idea was to push the warm air up by filling the lower part with cold air .... but they would also melt the ice that formed on the back wall and leave a puddle of water under the crisper bins .... open the fridge door and the flood gates were opened and is poured out onto the floor and your feet if you were standing there :twisted:

T1 Terry
A person may fail many times, they only become a failure when they blame someone else John Burrows
Those who struggle to become a leader, rarely know a clear direction forward for anyone but themselves
User avatar
T1 Terry
Posts: 16620
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2012 3:44 pm
Location: Mannum South Australia by the beautiful Murray River
Has thanked: 75 times
Been thanked: 58 times

Re: Our "New to Us" Winnie

Post by T1 Terry »

jon_d wrote: Fri Dec 26, 2025 7:34 pm Wasn't that tricky for me.

tricky.jpg
You have (in a different voice 1) ..... notifications .....probably wants another update .....

Is ECO AES mode or no load shut down, the no load shutdown I believe has to be set using a computer .... but I believe there is a patch cord and program stripped down for Android phones ..... but I've never used one, so I don't know how much of the programming capability is stripped out to accommodate the simpler phone programming ..... I know that it's not available via bluetooth .....

I doubt they could dumb it down enough to work on an Apple phone, I think they are limited to the blue tooth functions ....
A person may fail many times, they only become a failure when they blame someone else John Burrows
Those who struggle to become a leader, rarely know a clear direction forward for anyone but themselves
User avatar
jon_d
Posts: 4957
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2013 6:37 pm
Location: bedford
Has thanked: 48 times
Been thanked: 61 times

Re: Our "New to Us" Winnie

Post by jon_d »

T1 Terry wrote: Fri Dec 26, 2025 8:04 pm
jon_d wrote: Fri Dec 26, 2025 7:34 pm Wasn't that tricky for me.

tricky.jpg
You have (in a different voice 1) ..... notifications .....probably wants another update .....

Is ECO AES mode or no load shut down, the no load shutdown I believe has to be set using a computer .... but I believe there is a patch cord and program stripped down for Android phones ..... but I've never used one, so I don't know how much of the programming capability is stripped out to accommodate the simpler phone programming ..... I know that it's not available via bluetooth .....

I doubt they could dumb it down enough to work on an Apple phone, I think they are limited to the blue tooth functions ....

I have no idea what you're talking about. It's all done using the app, I was just showing the settings to help get past the "trickyness".

The notification is not what you're guessing it is.
User avatar
T1 Terry
Posts: 16620
Joined: Fri Nov 23, 2012 3:44 pm
Location: Mannum South Australia by the beautiful Murray River
Has thanked: 75 times
Been thanked: 58 times

Re: Our "New to Us" Winnie

Post by T1 Terry »

jon_d wrote: Fri Dec 26, 2025 8:38 pm
T1 Terry wrote: Fri Dec 26, 2025 8:04 pm
jon_d wrote: Fri Dec 26, 2025 7:34 pm Wasn't that tricky for me.

tricky.jpg
You have (in a different voice 1) ..... notifications .....probably wants another update .....

Is ECO AES mode or no load shut down, the no load shutdown I believe has to be set using a computer .... but I believe there is a patch cord and program stripped down for Android phones ..... but I've never used one, so I don't know how much of the programming capability is stripped out to accommodate the simpler phone programming ..... I know that it's not available via bluetooth .....

I doubt they could dumb it down enough to work on an Apple phone, I think they are limited to the blue tooth functions ....

I have no idea what you're talking about. It's all done using the app, I was just showing the settings to help get past the "trickyness".

The notification is not what you're guessing it is.
This is from the inverter specs PDF
Victron power save settings.jpeg
The first column and three different figures are for the 12/3000, 24/3000, 48/3000 inverters
The second column is the 12/5000, 24/5000, 48/5000

I can say for certain, but I believe the "eco" mode is the same as AES, the real power saver is the zero load search mode, and that can't be programmed via a bluetooth app, you need to dive into the programming by linking it to a computer data cable, make the changes, save then to a file, then upload them into the inverter

T1 Terry
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
A person may fail many times, they only become a failure when they blame someone else John Burrows
Those who struggle to become a leader, rarely know a clear direction forward for anyone but themselves
User avatar
jon_d
Posts: 4957
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2013 6:37 pm
Location: bedford
Has thanked: 48 times
Been thanked: 61 times

Re: Our "New to Us" Winnie

Post by jon_d »

Terry,

2 watts. (24v/3000w)

I think you're looking at the wrong manual.
https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/do ... pdf-en.pdf

Page 2 and page 16

Return to “About your outfit”