Solstice fridge

Jackie_1111

Hi there I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post this or not I hope so I'm new here if you couldn't tell lol. But I was wondering if anyone's delt with the solstice fridges? How often they run if there was frost build up on the back of the fridge? And info would help. We are currently running it at 2.5 but it's not cold enough to freeze Things in the freezer.... And if we bump it up to the recommended 3.5 then it runs all the time and there's frost on the back wall of the fridge.... Is this normal? Thanks for any help you can give in advance ☺️

BB.

Welcome to the forum Jackie,

You are welcome to post your question(s) here.

I cannot answer questions about "Solstice" appliances...

https://rematek-energie.com/eng/Solar-refrigerator/12-24V/TSI-SOLSTICE-308/p/1695 (your fridge?)

But about ice/water condensation... This is normal. The back of the fridge/freezer is where it cools the air in the fridge. So that water condenses on the cold area(s). If you live in a humid area and/or put warm uncovered food in the fridge, more water will condense. At the bottom of the wall, you may have a drain to let the water drain.

As you cool the freezer (or fridge) more, then the back falls below freezing and condenses more water which forms ice.

Depending again on how humid your place is, you may need to defrost every few to 6 months. The ice in a freezer will stay there until you manual defrost (take everything out of the fridge for a few hours, turn off the cooler, and let it warm up and melt the ice.

If you have been using a standard frost free fridge/freezer--There is still a "evaporator" in the back of the fridge/freezer that cools the air and condenses water/forms ice. And roughly every 12-24 hours, there is a heating element in the back that melts any ice and drains the water to bottom of the refrigerator (drip pane)--And lets the water evaporate.

-Bill

Byrne14

Jackie, Did you ever find out if that was normal operation for your Solstice refrigerator

706jim

I've seen either this fridge at a local retailer (or one very similar to it). Back when I started solar, panels cost a lot and solar powered refrigeration was impractical. But times have since changed where panels are relatively cheap and larger solar systems more affordable. I read the specs (?) on your fridge and suggest that the 43 watts mentioned are probably more like 430 watt-hours or just under half of what an ordinary fridge would consume.

As Bill mentioned, our "ordinary" fridges have a defrost cycle that takes care of the condensation that you are experiencing at the cost of about double the rated power consumption of the DC fridge. The ordinary fridge just works better. 

The performance of the DC fridge reminds me of my time with propane fired fridges where defrosting was necessary at least once a month if not sooner.

So if you stick with this fridge (in my city they are about 400% more expensive than a conventional fridge) you are pretty much obligated to crank the temperature down and defrost it monthly.

Byrne14

I was curious about his run time.  I have a good 13v at the fridge and draw about 3.5 amps when running.  With my camp at room temperature and leaving the door closed it basically runs about 10 minutes then off about 10 minutes. The fridge is about 4. Celsius. Just wondering if that’s a normal on/off cycle also  it’s a 12 cu ft fridge