Deep Freezer on Generator?

[jayinsurrey]

Anyone here run a deep freezer on generator when camping to store fish. I just got back from Nootka, and noticed a lot of people in the campgrounds (Cougar & Tuta) keep a freezer at camp. I want to ask how manyu hours a day do you need to run that generator to keep the fish frozen? Thanks in advance!

 

[Yyjdennis]

We have an Engel 65 litre chest freezer we use on our boat. It can run on 12V DC or on AC power and it draws about 4 amps when running. In the boat, which is fairly cool it runs maybe 10% to 20% of the time when it's on its coldest setting (about -30C). If that's big enough it would be a good way to go as you can run it off a battery and fire up the generator now and then to recharge the battery. Otherwise the generator is idling when the freezer compressor isn't running.

 

[CIVANO]

Get an indoor/outdoor thermometer and put the outdoor piece in the freezer. You can monitor the temperature without opening the lid and also know when the generator needs to run to cool it down

 

[Alex_c]

I would pre-freeze it with as many water jugs full of ice as possible. Will keep the run time down a bunch.

 

[Pippen]

Get an indoor/outdoor thermometer and put the outdoor piece in the freezer. You can monitor the temperature without opening the lid and also know when the generator needs to run to cool it down

You can buy all sorts of probes or wireless monitors as well.

HODIK Refrigerator Thermometer with Alarm Fridge Freezer Thermometer, 100M Range Wireless Digital Thermometer with 3 Adjustable Backlight for Kitchen Home Restaurant : Amazon.ca: Home

HODIK Refrigerator Thermometer with Alarm Fridge Freezer Thermometer, 100M Range Wireless Digital Thermometer with 3 Adjustable Backlight for Kitchen Home Restaurant : Amazon.ca: Home

www.amazon.ca

KeeKit Refrigerator Thermometer, 2 Pack Digital Freezer Thermometer, Upgraded Fridge Thermometer with High & Low Temperature Alarm, LCD Display, Magnetic for for Home, Kitchen, Restaurants : Amazon.ca: Home

KeeKit Refrigerator Thermometer, 2 Pack Digital Freezer Thermometer, Upgraded Fridge Thermometer with High & Low Temperature Alarm, LCD Display, Magnetic for for Home, Kitchen, Restaurants : Amazon.ca: Home

www.amazon.ca

 

[wolf]

We do all the time moose hunting as we have to have ice cubs for end of day Rum n cokes , and all my premade meals I do before ..As i make up all the dinner then Vac seal and we take out what we want in am, and boil in bag . Like other said they draw hardly any amperage we have a 3500 Watt and it powers deep freeze the moose cooler, ( air conditioner and cool bot) lights etc

 

[wildmanyeah]

Might be better to get one of Thoes battery banks to run it off and then only use the generator to power up the battery banks.

 

[Alex_c]

I suspect the original poster is more concerned about limited generator hours at a campground being sufficient to keep their freezer cold than they are about the ability of a 2kW genny to run a 500w freezer. Battery packs would work if you can charge them while the freezer is running off the genny, but that’s a significant additional cost if you don’t already own them.

That’s why I suggested using ice packs (water jugs, vac bags, whatever) as a buffer to keep things cold during quiet hours.

I have done it before and it works great, but limited generator hours aren’t enough time. We ended up burying the genny in the bush and ran a bunch of extension cables so nobody could hear us breaking the rules lol.

 

[jayinsurrey]

Thanks for the replies..... I am curious if you need to run the genny 4 or 6 or 8 hours a day kinda thing. I like the idea of putting pre made meals and ice cubes for rumskies in the there too!

 

[CIVANO]

I lived in Tucson in the winters for 20 years. We traveled back and forth in a truck with canopy and 5 cf chest freezer. 1700 miles. we ran the freezer off a 1750w inverter. We usually ran the freezer 6-8 hours during the day and it was pretty full and would get to -4F. We parked around 3 pm and left the freezer un touched until around 5 in the morning and the temp would have risen to around 18 degrees F when we started the next day. Just FYI