Brass Monkey Fridge Review

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Hard Luck said:
This looks pretty good and has quite a few good reviews but I'm a simpleton when it comes to this sort of stuff. I've recently started work that will be outside for the summer and I'm taking a small esky to work daily with ice packs in it.
I've got a Waeco CoolPower Battery Pack 12V 44AH that I use to power led lights when camping.

Question is. Can I run the Waeco battery of the ciggie lighter whilst this unit is plugged into the battery. Or is there a danger of causing damage. :Y:
If your battery pack has a 240v socket then yes mate it will work fine.
 
condor22 said:
Simmo said:
RR I looked for one with an Aussie plug and got this page, which has the 12v Anderson plug ones too, so I thought I would post the whole link.
https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2060353.m570.l1313&_nkw=power+meter&_sacat=0

Not sure if you twigged Simmo, the ones me and RR were chatting were 240 VAC mains devices, the one you link to is the 12 VDC type. :) :)

Well my fridge has just past the 24 hour mark and it used a total of 122wh running on 240v AC and it still has not powered up since it's last On Cycle which it ran for 13 minutes and that was just over 2 hours ago so it should start up soon in the next 10 or 20mins, :Y:

Also it's total run time in a 24 hour period was 2 hrs 11 mins.

So 1 Kwh should be enough to power it for 8.19 Days.
 
I plugged in my meter overnight, before realising I needed to set the dam thing up before use

Spent the last hour going through the operator manual for the data logger, lol. Then pressing buttons through menu after menu to set thing up.

To make this thing do its job, the year, month, day, hour and minute need to be set. Then pressing the SET button for longer enters the pricing menu. Here, the first option is to set the UI i.e. Pounds Sterling, Euro or $, then how long you want to record for, then the cost per kWh. I did all of this then realised it had some data already stored from overnight without dates n pricing. So pressed the reset button and went through the whole setup a second time.

I must admit that having done it once, the second time was relatively quick n easy. :)

So test starts now for the next 24 hours initially, but I'll let it run for a week to get a better result.

FYI, I won't mention providers names openly - I recently changed my electricity retailer, my previous one was charging $0.488 / kWh + approx $0.80 per day supply charge. This had increased by 10 cents / kWh since last year and paid quarterly.

My new supplier is prepaid fortnightly and their tariff is $0.2595 / kWh + $1.008 supply charge. I then divided the supply charge by 24 for an hourly rate and added that to the kWh rate for a total kWh charge of $0.3015. Although the meter has a floating decimal point for cost, I left it at $0.00 which rounds the cost at $0.30 / kWh.
If anyone wants to know the retailers names, PM me. (They have estimated my fortnightly bill based on past use at $60 PF. At the 3 month meter read, they then acquit the account. Then the next bill is adjusted lower if I overpay or higher if underpaid.)

PS, the retailer change saves me $140+ per qtr/$560 P.A. based on my last 3 month use. :)
 
So after doing all that are you ready to do your test ?

With mine you only have to set the cost per Kwh and press the reset to start recording or if you are not worried about the cost just press reset and away ya go, I think 122w or 0.122Kwh for 24 hours is pretty good for my fridge, :Y:

At the cost of your electricity It would cost $0.036c per day to run my little Dometic fridge.
 
Yup test is on, lol.

With this device, if I want to do a new test and reset any values, it resets everything including date/time. But, as I said pretty quick once done a couple of times.

What are you paying in Pomland for your "Juice" / kWh?
 
condor22 said:
Yup test is on, lol.

With this device, if I want to do a new test and reset any values, it resets everything including date/time. But, as I said pretty quick once done a couple of times.

What are you paying in Pomland for your "Juice" / kWh?

It's about $0.48c per Kwh plus the standing charge of about $0.76c per day,

I never use the cost section of my meter because with the price always changing it is easier to get the total of Kwh and do the maths once they send the bill,

I have a feud on going with the power company because when my Mum died we settled all her bills and finalized her power and Gas bills and a couple of months later they took money out of her Account and it took over 6 months to get it back :poop: :N:
 
Same as Q'land government , took me 6 months to get my $2,000 bond money back , from my opal lease . You have to pay on the spot , but to get it back is another story , even with all the paper work in place .
 
My last bill was for $740, but with pay on time discount and the pensioner concession it came down to $530. I sent that bill to my new retailer and it came in at just over $390.

Shop around, lol. :)
 
My power bill for the year is between 250 to 400 Max,

I changed everything to Low Power Items, This all started when the power Mob sent me a $1200+ when I first moved in so I changed a few power hungry items, Then they sent me a power saving tips booklet so I did every thing they said and Ditched the 49" TV and the big house fridge freezer and replaced all the Halogen globes in the house which were the real killers and my bill dropped by 73%+/-.

The power company thought I had bypassed the meters so they sent someone round to read them, which was fine then three days later they sent another person and he started talking photo's of the meters and the wiring, which P'd me off a bit, 4 days later another guy turned up to read the meter so I let him and I asked him what the ****'s going on ?? Three days later another bloke turned up to read the meter, So I said "are you taking the P*$$ and told him to **** Off and to tell his boss that I said Get ***ked and if he has a problem to come Personally and see me him self and I will fix him right Up,

Needless to say I have not had an Issue since, Stupid thing is they gave me the book on tips on how to save power and when I did it they started to harass me, 4 times in less than 3 weeks is a bit much I think, ]:D ]:D ]:D ]:D
 
All good. Picked up the 22 litre with cover yesterday. Been on the back-seat running of the raps 36 battery.
Battery charging of ciggie lighter. Seems to work fine so far.
Nice big weekday lunch box for me.
:Y:
Please, no one ask me about power consumption. I wouldn't have a clue about those things.
Battery is 5 years old and used to power led lights.
I'll look at picking up something else in the new year.
 
condor22 said:
My last bill was for $740, but with pay on time discount and the pensioner concession it came down to $530. I sent that bill to my new retailer and it came in at just over $390.

Shop around, lol. :)

Far out Condor, what are you running?
We have 10 panels and our average bill is $90.00. That's why I choked when I saw the last one until realising it was credit not debit.
Nearly 12 months free ahead.
 
RR is your 250 -400 max Pounds Sterling or AUD?

Nightjar, not to make a big thing of it, but, my wife has MS (35 years), heat kicks the crap out of her. We have no solar on the house, when we moved in to look after M in Law there was one huge antiquated ducted rev cycle A/C and the 2 rooms of extensions not A/C at all. We installed a split system in each of those rooms as they are the main rooms used.
Their combined load is less than the old big one, which is risky to use. Once it gets to 30 C or above those A/Cs go on. In fact I often sit here with a warm top on because I feel cold, but it is for her health, not mine. Our winter time bill is usually a bit over half our summer bills, so on average we get 2 high bills a year and 2 low. I'm 70 and my wife a couple of years behind, she is home pretty well all day every day, so things that others don't use because they are not home, get used because we are. My detecting window is Apr to Oct, so I get a couple of trips in because in the cooler months she is generally good to go at home alone. I go to VIC so can be home in 7 hours should she need me + friends across the load are both RNs if needed. :)

As with the way we all differ in our bush power needs and gear used, we all have a different story in our private lives. (My apologies for rambling, I try to post in an impersonal and unemotive way at all times.)
 
Back to the topic at hand -

The BM used 120 W in 24 hours = $0.42 for the day at the tariff I currently pay. (about $37per 1/4) I should note, the temp in Adelaide was over 35 C yesterday and higher today and the BM is in an older part of the house not airconditioned, but double brick.

I would expect this to be different with an in car install as it would be running from 12 VDC in a warmer ambient. But with solar, in car charging and running from a battery, the ongoing net cost is zero. (Net, excepting the cost of setting it all up, lol.)

Edit Please note the above calculation is wrong and corrected in a further post.
 
condor22 said:
Back to the topic at hand -

The BM used 120 W in 24 hours = $0.42 for the day at the tariff I currently pay. (about $37per 1/4) I should note, the temp in Adelaide was over 35 C yesterday and higher today and the BM is in an older part of the house not airconditioned, but double brick.

I would expect this to be different with an in car install as it would be running from 12 VDC in a warmer ambient. But with solar, in car charging and running from a battery, the ongoing net cost is zero. (Net, excepting the cost of setting it all up, lol.)

Cool, But I think your maths are a bit off because if it is using 120w per 24hrs means 1000/1kwh divided by 120w = 8.333 recurring is 8.333 days per 1 Kwh, Which means it is going to use 840W per week, which is totally awesome

I think you BM has to be the best fridge on the planet power wise, Major Thumbs Up, :Y: :Y: :Y: :Y: :Y:

In my other post I was quoting in AUD $ My last power bill was 31.00 / $54.56 for about 2 and a half month period, That 250 - 400$ was for the year,

My fridges don't use much power and my little TV uses about 7.2 to 7.9w per hour and the laptop uses about 31w per hour. and my lighting is low watt LED type globes, which are about 7w.
 
RR beg to differ

120 W is .12 kW therefore .12 x tarriff ($0.3015) However, my math was out, I just checked the Excel calc I did and I had finger trouble lol and use a + instead of a *. Added the figured instead of multiply, thanks for picking it up. Digitus Extractus. :)

So;

0.12 x .3015 = 0.036 cents per day

This multiplied by 90 days = $13.15 per 1/4

So your observation is spot on, great result, can't be happier. :)
 
condor22 said:
RR beg to differ

120 W is .12 kW therefore .12 x tarriff ($0.3015) However, my math was out, I just checked the Excel calc I did and I had finger trouble lol and use a + instead of a *. Added the figured instead of multiply, thanks for picking it up. Digitus Extractus. :)

So;

0.12 x .3015 = 0.036 cents per day

This multiplied by 90 days = $13.15 per 1/4

So your observation is spot on, great result, can't be happier. :)

0.035c per day that's mind blowing, that's only 5w per hour,

When you think about it the BM is the perfect fridge for Off road Travel because it means the less batteries you need, One 110Ah battery run down to 50% would run it for a week without charging and still have 55Ah left in the battery, :Y:

Totally Awesome :inlove: :perfect:
 
As I mentioned, I don't expect the same result when in car, especially today at 37 C ambient and likely nearer 50 C in the 4by rear end, lol. There's no direct sunlight on it in the house. In house 240 VAC fridge testing v 12 VDC in vehicle, is like comparing apples with oranges. :)

I've tested the Engel in the rear of the car, on average it cycles at about 30% on a 25 C day, but on a 4 C day it runs pretty well non stop.

25 C day - 3.0 x 24 = 72 x 0.3 = 24 AH (load x hours in the day x 30%) = a couple of days from my 100 AH
40 C day - 3.0 x 24 = 72 AH (with a caveat) = Too bloody low for even a one full day from my battery

Caveat - Overnight once the heat of the day has past I know it starts to cycle on off, but have never tested it. I have assumed a 50% cycle from say 8 pm to 6 am (10 hours) If my assumption for a hot day/night is somewhat correct I would expect a 24 hour use to be approx 14 hours @ 42 AH + 10 hours @ 15 AH = 57 AH.

Therefore somewhere between 50-60 AH in the hot weather. = Very close to more than the max I want to use. I try to keep my DOC to 25-30% wherever I can to maximise battery life. (DOC = Depth of Cycle for those that don't like abbreviations, lol)

I had my solar panel mounted on top of my roof basket along with Maxtrax, leaving little to no use of the basket. It's steel and adds weight up top. So I'm currently making new mounts for the panel and Maxtrax so that the roof rails and basket are removed. Reduces up top weight and the height by about 6". As a consequence, I don't have solar up there at the moment and it's too bloody hot to go out do anything for a few days. Which also means I can't do any hot weather testing as the risk of dropping battery SOC too low without solar. (State Of Charge)

I've reset my power meter and put it on the big house fridge/freezer for 24 hours, then next day on the cabinet freezer for another day. I'll post their brands, specs and results when in for interest. :)
 
You can expect the house fridge freezer to chew some power, I tested mine and that's why I powered up the ARB 4+ years ago, I have not used the house fridge freezer since, I have been running the ARB for 5 years non stop come this March,

The little 18L Dometic is a joy for camping because you can sleep right next to it without issue, The 3 days I went away before lockdown I never heard it once and if the LED hadn't of lit up Green I would never of known it was working, It turns Orange when it's doing it's Off Cycle,
 
Although not on topic, I did mention I was going to check my household fridges, here are the results

Main fridge is a Westinghouse 313 lt fridge with a 103 lt top freezer. It is in a room adjacent to the kitchen and airconditioned, the split directly above the fridge near the ceiling. Although set to 23 C on cool, because of it being directly below the A/C outlet, the fridge ambient is around 20 C.

Freezer is a Hisense 220 lt vertical freezer located in the kitchen and not air conditioned, ambient was an average of 27 C during the test.

Westinghouse used 1.22 kWh @ 36 cents over 24 hours = $32.40 per qtr or $131.40 P.A.
Hisense used 0.9 kWh @ 27 cents over 24 hours = $24.30 per qtr or $98.55 P.A. (runs at about -16 C)

Total fridge freezer $$$ P.A. = $230 (rounded)

The result surprised me initially that the freezer used less, however, 2 considerations;

The fridge is opened more often than the freezer and being a vertical door lets the cold out.
The freezer has a door flap on the top shelf and drawers below, so even though a vertical door, will hold temp much better than an open shelf fridge. Also it' a smaller capacity.
 
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