Home Use of Portable Fridge.

Submitted: Sunday, Aug 18, 2024 at 14:19

ThreadID: 148234 Views:1574 Replies:3 FollowUps:3

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Genny

I have a Brass Monkey 75 L fridge that is primarily used as a drinks fridge at home. The inscrutable designers didn't feel the need to supply a direct 240V connection, but, for additional cost, a 240V ac to 14.5V DC brick was obtained to enable use on 240V at home. I'm onto my third such brick, as they seem to fail at the most inopportune times. I have a number of the switching power supplies pictured below (*hangs head, shuffles feet*, I am a Christmas lights addict). I have 12V DC and 24V DC versions around 25A, as well as others. I'm tempted to use one of the 24V versions (in a suitable enclosure) as a backup for when the current brick inevitably fails. Would there be any long term drawbacks to just continuing to use the home-brewed one?

Switching Power Supply

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Reply By: RMD - Sunday, Aug 18, 2024 at 16:33

Sunday, Aug 18, 2024 at 16:33

I suppose you can use either 12v or 24v SMPS units. If the fridge has been working on a 12v Brick, as you say, then it will also work on a 12v SMPS. The quality of the SUPPLIED Bricks may be poor, whereas most SMPS are quite ok. Just not water proof though. Make sure you shield the 240vac section well so no fingers or other bits can get to the zappy terminals. Usually they are adjustable from around 12 to 13.6v via trim pot.
Just an after thought! If you connect a 25v relatively large electrolytic capacitor to the 12v terminals, it may help the sudden switch ON loading shock on the power supply output stage.

AnswerID: 646370

Reply By: Kazza055 - Monday, Aug 19, 2024 at 10:20

Monday, Aug 19, 2024 at 10:20

According to Jaycar, this fridge will pull 6 Amps at 12V and their 240V power supply (brick) is rated at 14V 6A so it seems to be at the top for this supply.

I run a 50L and 60L Brass Monkey 24/7 at home and away and they both run fine on the brick but the 60L is rated at 3.8A so is probably better suited to that supply.

I did try to run both fridges using a computer power supply I had that was rated at 12V at 25A but it did not work and my guess was that the switch mode supply did not like the back emf produced when the fridges turn off.

I would suggest that you find a 12V 10A power supply and use that.

AnswerID: 646371

Follow Up By: Genny - Monday, Aug 19, 2024 at 17:36

Monday, Aug 19, 2024 at 17:36

I bought a 10 amp 12V supply from Jaycar. It'd only run the fridge for a few seconds before tripping out. I guess the "10 amp" is pretty arbitary.

FollowupID: 926934

Follow Up By: RMD - Monday, Aug 19, 2024 at 21:47

Monday, Aug 19, 2024 at 21:47

Might be best to check the actual draw current so you know it is within normal spec. If a 10amp supply trips with around 5 amp supposed draw then something is wrong.

FollowupID: 926935