Warm lemonade and thin ice cream are not the most delicious treats at a picnic. A car refrigerator will help keep drinks and food in the same condition as when purchased in the store. The accessory is well-known and widely available for sale. All that remains is to make the right choice, taking into account the technical characteristics and design features. The “engine” will deal with the issue.
A car refrigerator is now called any small refrigerator that can be powered by a 12/24 V DC network. Based on the principle of the cooling system, such devices are divided into compressor, absorption and thermoelectric, operating on a Peltier semiconductor module. The first two types, although intended for use in cars, belong to commercial and industrial equipment, are expensive, from 30 thousand rubles and above, so we will not consider them here, but let’s talk about “civilian” car refrigerators. The variety here is enormous: today on Yandex.Market there are more than four hundred offers in this category, prices start from 2,500 rubles. Average cost: 4,000 - 6,000 rubles. Among the most notable brands here are AVS, Ezetil, Mobicool, Mystery, Rolsen, Supra, Waeco.
The thermoelectric module used in car refrigerators operates due to the thermal effect that occurs when current is passed through series-connected p and n type semiconductors. Thanks to this, the car refrigerator can also function as a heater.
Varieties
There are two main types of car refrigerators: “hard” and “soft”. The first is a plastic thermal container, the space between the inner and outer walls of which is filled with heat-insulating material based on foam plastic. The cooling element is most often placed in the lid, less often in the walls of the container. In some models, the lid with the cooler is removable, which allows it to be used separately from the container.
The “soft” type is a fabric bag with a thick layer of synthetic thermal insulation inside the walls. In essence, such auto-refrigerators are ordinary thermal bags, only equipped with a cooling module. Here it is most often placed in the wall, less often in the upper part, and can be made easily removable or installed on screw fastenings.
The advantages of the “hard” type are better thermal insulation, which allows you to keep the cold longer without connecting to power. It is also much easier to wash a plastic box than a fabric bag to remove dirt that inevitably appears during a picnic. Due to the hard walls, the safety of the contents here is better, but the box itself can be split upon impact, which does not threaten the soft walls of the refrigerator-bag. At the same time, the bag is more convenient to carry and has less dead weight.
Car refrigerators based on an isothermal plastic container and a fabric thermal bag.
Chamber volume
The capacity of all car refrigerators is different, and the volume of the chamber can range from 10 to 40 liters. As a rule, manufacturers are guided by the standard dimensions of beverage and food packaging and give their products the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped, which allows the product to be placed in the refrigerator in any standard container.
But it’s still worth keeping in mind that large 2-liter bottles may not fit in a small refrigerator. This especially applies to refrigerators in the form of a container, the sides of which, unlike a bag, cannot be deformed. Therefore, not only the volume, but also the size of the refrigerating chamber is important.
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As an example of capacity in a given volume, we can cite the AVS refrigerator we tested: with a chamber volume of 24 liters, its dimensions are 44.5 cm in length, 24.5 cm in width and 24.5 cm in depth. In practice, this allows you to fit 18 half-liter aluminum cans or 3 two-liter plastic bottles, and still have some free space for small products, such as ice cream and fruit.
Cooling temperature
Descriptions of refrigerators usually indicate two parameters: maximum low temperature and cooling relative to the environment. Here, refrigerator bags can cool from +5 to +7 C, and the difference with the external temperature can be up to 16 - 18 C. The second characteristic in practice turns out to be more important. For example, if it is + 25 C outside, then the temperature in the refrigerator can no longer be below 7 - 9 degrees.
As a rule, container refrigerators have the best characteristics here, capable of cooling with a temperature difference of 22 to 28 C (depending on the model). At the same time, the isothermal properties of a plastic thermal container are usually better than those of a thermal bag, and the box refrigerator keeps food in its original condition longer.
Energy consumption
The power consumption of most models of car refrigerators ranges from 40 to 75 W. It is directly dependent on the size of the refrigeration chamber and the highest cooling temperature relative to the environment. The higher these indicators, the more voracious the refrigerator will be. At the same time, in powerful models, energy is actively consumed by fans that remove heat from the “hot” side of the thermoelectric module.
Thus, a powerful 75 Watt refrigerator in continuous cooling mode will have to consume a fully charged battery with a capacity of 60 A/h in 9 hours 36 minutes. (We calculate using the simplest general formula: the created load (I, Ampere) is equal to the ratio of the power of the electrical appliance (P, Watt) to the network voltage (U, Volt). I = P/U. We substitute the power rating data and battery voltage into the formula - 12 V. We get the load value and divide the battery capacity by it.) In turn, a 40-watt refrigerator will consume half as much, discharging a 60-amp battery to a critical minimum in 18 hours.
The ability to power the car refrigerator from a 220 V network will be very useful when used in a country house or equipped campsite.
For the refrigerator there is a separate 10 or 16 A circuit breaker
You need to use what is needed and what is designed for.
I also have 25A machines, with 64A input.
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