12v solar and chest freezer to fridge conversion - what went wrong?

[paulgareau]

Really light on the panels. Why does everyone go cheap on panels? They cost far less than batteries. I've been using a chest fridge for years ( five months at a time), first with a 5CF and then with a 7CF when that outgassed. I use only a single car battery and a little more than a KW of panels. Fridge only operates during the day and will only start when battery is at least 13.7V. Cold is stored in mass liquids and electronically controlled to 33F. A mechanical thermostat is asking for disaster.

I'm glad that's working for you, but I doubt many people would call that a well designed system. You're pushing a huge amount of amps into that battery. Also, it doesn't help if you want to run a fridge 24x7, which was my goal. Also, I said my batteries were floating by noon, so I'd say the panel was adequate. The thing that surprised me was that a battery bank that was 300ah shouldnt be able to charge from <50% to 100% in such a short amount of time with the size panel I was using. That's the question I was hoping to have answered.

[paulgareau]

you don't believe in miracles that OP realizes his ignorance and amount of details involved in reliable design and comes around? I don't- I bet he's now searching Net up and down for quick-n-dirty shortcut. Trouble is there's none and with just little patience and attention to details he could accomplish what he is after. Oh well.

Jeez man. Read my original post again. Then read your replies. You missed so much I can't believe you'd talk about attention to details. Case in point - it was a /temporary system/. I was looking for information to satiate my curiosity, not shortcuts.

I'm sure you have a lot of useful knowledge, but if you don't take the time to understand the system as it's been described and the question as it's been asked, you're just wasting your time any everyone else's. What value can you have here if you're not paying attention to those things?

[paulgareau]

To be fair, it sounded (to me at least) like he was buying ice to keep his food cold.

Yes - I thought it was obvious too. I was using ice and a cooler. Got tired of buying ice so converted a chest freezer to a fridge. Thanks!

[max2k]

Jeez man. Read my original post again. Then read your replies. You missed so much I can't believe you'd talk about attention to details. Case in point - it was a /temporary system/. I was looking for information to satiate my curiosity, not shortcuts.

I'm sure you have a lot of useful knowledge, but if you don't take the time to understand the system as it's been described and the question as it's been asked, you're just wasting your time any everyone else's. What value can you have here if you're not paying attention to those things?

this thread reminds me more and more of the well known joke: http://www.design.caltech.edu/erik/Misc/balloon.html

[J.P.M.]

this thread reminds me more and more of the well known joke: http://www.design.caltech.edu/erik/Misc/balloon.html

Not bad. I need stuff like that when I take myself too seriously.

[sensij]

That's the question I was hoping to have answered.

AzRoute66 asked some questions that were intended to help. "Charging too fast" is a symptom of a sulfated battery. Maybe your "new" battery sat in a warehouse for 6 months before you bought it, I don't know. MCA testing isn't going to translate to Ah capacity very well, but everything else you've said is consistent with a bad battery.

Putting AGM batteries in parallel is asking for trouble... if you want to recreate your setup, try measuring the current discharging from each of the batteries while the fridge is cycling, and see how balanced they are.