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simom avatar image
simom asked

Inverter for the mini-fridge.

I have a mini-fridge 45L at work and tested how much power it is draining before buying Victron inverter. Tested for 48 hours. So from start, it takes 380W and max is 480w. Usually, it takes up to 400W and is going down after one second to 80W. So I counted, 12/250 is too small but 12/375(peak power 700W) is plenty of power with extra reserve. Buying inverter 12/375, taking the same fridge to the boat. Connecting to 2x110 new lead-acid batteries and what am I getting? Inverter says it's overloaded. After getting the same message 3 times, the fridge starts running at 80w. When the fridge cycle finishes, the fridge stops and when it comes to the new cooling cycle, the same story. The fridge can't start from the first try and is getting overloaded and after a few tries, it starts working. It only needs 400W peak power but I have 700W. Why is it not working on the first try? Why does it start after a few tries? Faulty inverter? Wrong specification? The inverter doesn't have 700w peak power only 400W? Thanks.

Phoenix Inverter
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ejrossouw avatar image ejrossouw commented ·

In addition to everyone else's advice, it is worth noting the overload is merely a warning because the nominal capacity has been exceeded and only a real problem if exceeded for the period of typically 10 seconds or thereabouts and the inverter actually shuts down as a result. (not sure about actual value)

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4 Answers
klim8skeptic avatar image
klim8skeptic answered ·

Try shorter (50cm?), thicker (8g?) battery cable, and a quality 60a fuse.

This will reduce voltage drop on the battery cable, during start up.

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ripper avatar image
ripper answered ·

Is the inverter running on on or eco? If eco, try regular on. There were accounts of eco not being able to pull through once load was detected. A fridge is due to the compressor a bit of a challenge.

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Kevin Windrem avatar image
Kevin Windrem answered ·

Compressor start-up current can be 10-40 times the running current. This peak is often too fast for a typical meter to capture. A larger inverter may be needed to start up your fridge.

I added a Micro-Air soft-start to my travel tracer's air conditioner that reduces the peak substantially. I don't know if that's possible on your mini-fridge. Micro-Air says they don't support refrigerators but you could ask.

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mbr89 avatar image
mbr89 answered ·

Lulzzzz 10-40 times the running current ... wrong ... itz due to Victron's inability to provide a duration for peak power.

So if i would have known that the peak power is delivered only for milliseconds, then i never would have chosen any Victron product

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Kevin Windrem avatar image Kevin Windrem commented ·

Victron does provide a very detailed description of it's overload behavior. It's just not in the spec sheets which would not do the subject justice.

Here's a previous post here:

https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/4454/peak-power-of-victron-inverters.html

as well as the overload webinar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SXtGIx0x5w

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