Recently I put a 12V fridge in the back of my 2016 Limited.
It's an Iceco VL45ProS and it came with a 250Wh battery pack.
The tiny little pack is great, it magnetizes to the fridge, weighs nothing, I can take it out of the car and bring it to a park. Runs it for between 15-20 hours depending on how hot the car is.
The pack has a max input of 100W, and takes about 3 hours to charge. Which turns out to be problematic, if I want to leave that fridge in the back for daily driving.
if I leave the fridge in the car overnight and we only drive for half an hour, that means that after a few days, that little pack is dead.
On a weekend long trip I can bring a bigger pack, last the weekend and recharge it at home, but that doesn't solve my weekday issue.
Is there a common way that people solve this without dropping another grand?
My initial idea was, to make a permanently "hot" 12V connection in the back and wire in a low voltage protector, plug the pack in there to allow through charging with the car off, and once the protector kicks in, the pack can take over. The car will recharge itself pretty quickly via the alternator, the pack will not have drained as much, and recharge the rest on 100W.
On a scale of 1-10 am I missing something obvious or am I over-complicating it?
This is the low voltage protector I had in mind.
https://a.co/d/0iaEb1GN
This is the fridge I useICECO VL45ProS 47.5QT Single Zone Portable Electric Cooler Compact Refrigerators
– ICECOFREEZER
This is the power pack Magnetic Power Bank 250WH | ICECO
– ICECOFREEZER
It's an Iceco VL45ProS and it came with a 250Wh battery pack.
The tiny little pack is great, it magnetizes to the fridge, weighs nothing, I can take it out of the car and bring it to a park. Runs it for between 15-20 hours depending on how hot the car is.
The pack has a max input of 100W, and takes about 3 hours to charge. Which turns out to be problematic, if I want to leave that fridge in the back for daily driving.
if I leave the fridge in the car overnight and we only drive for half an hour, that means that after a few days, that little pack is dead.
On a weekend long trip I can bring a bigger pack, last the weekend and recharge it at home, but that doesn't solve my weekday issue.
Is there a common way that people solve this without dropping another grand?
My initial idea was, to make a permanently "hot" 12V connection in the back and wire in a low voltage protector, plug the pack in there to allow through charging with the car off, and once the protector kicks in, the pack can take over. The car will recharge itself pretty quickly via the alternator, the pack will not have drained as much, and recharge the rest on 100W.
On a scale of 1-10 am I missing something obvious or am I over-complicating it?
This is the low voltage protector I had in mind.
https://a.co/d/0iaEb1GN
This is the fridge I useICECO VL45ProS 47.5QT Single Zone Portable Electric Cooler Compact Refrigerators
– ICECOFREEZER
This is the power pack Magnetic Power Bank 250WH | ICECO
– ICECOFREEZER
Last edited: