Thanks! I am trying to figure out the shipping time and if I can get it before we leave. Appreciate the tip.
Nice thing about REI is they are pretty good about taking things back for just about any good reason.
I've used a couple sogens for years- a 40ah thats still doing great, I use for CPAP and a 100ah Sogen from same folks who were making the lion self heating battery that CampInn chose at first-which is roughly same capacity as others here- it runs the dometic all nite on the sogen but peter out in the sun and needs a charge if its hot outside when set in freeze mode. (i freeze mest, water bottles and yeti blocks and rotate those to the oem Coleman cooler for veggies, daily.
Cary called in ghe "Postman" method named after snother CI owner. Dear Wife likes her ice cream and nothing beats ice cold water on a hot day.
So I'm a heavy power user.
I just upgraded from lead acid to the Precision 110ah Lion in the CI and will be fiddling with how that helps- recharged by the factory solar roof, and/or alternator, and with added panels plugged into side of Campinn.
On my maiden 6000 mile trip from CA to FL and back I fooled with a couple of things - driving down the road in good sun all day I found the CTEK invaluable as between car charging and roof solar, I could run the dome-tic in freezer mode, top up the little sogen and totally recharge the big one, all while plugged into cigarette lighter plugs I had added. The big sogen ran the Dometic all nite, and the lead acid in CI runs the house needs- fan, lights, water pump...nominal, last three days un-recharged, and my cpap backup in a pinch.
Crazy Good but of course- that all changes if its raining all day...if I was parked I needed extra panels to directly recharge the big sogen, while keeping dometic cool off the CI lead acid or plugged into TV...but that was in record setting 100 degree heat mostly...so...
Running the fan, a lot etc.
And a lot of juggling...Moving dometic in and out of TV, or CI cabin...
A better way is to keep the big sogen in the TV and dometic in tv as well...but then its how to recharge that sogen? If you are at a campground its easy- plug into 110vAC on post. What if you are dry camping somewhere, or boondocking longer?
So it all comes down to your use-case, and that will vary depending on how you like to camp, and you get comfortable with getting by with less, or making your own power...
What you will find is there are a lot of variables on power needed for dometic-how hot is it where you are using the dometic, what temp is dometic set at, is it in an enclosed space like galley where it cant circulate exhaust as well as in an open area, is it setting in the sun or shade, etc.
How many times do you open it to get a cold beer? Do you have a cover for it?
And of course same on the sogen- how is it recharged? Is it "free" from the sun via your expensive solar panels or is it dinosaur bones via the alternator or coal fired plant that feeds the KOA?
So dont sweat it too much on the numbers- get one of the sogens that you like - or similar as others here have suggsted and just play with it to test it out, and you'll learn from that in YOUR use case...
Including what works at different times-
Recharging on AC in hotel, at the post at campground, on solar panels set up at camp while boondocking- and that involves how many panels of what watts, setup and repositioned twice more to face the sun as perpendicular on sunnny day-2 100w panels run 8-10 hrs should do it on a 100ah sogen.
In 3 years or so if your dometic has lasted that long in lots of use, you'll probably be looking at both a new fridge and new sogens then as you'll want more and the prices will likely come down Some again.
So if its not perfect at first, you can update later with the benefit of experience.
And so just get out and camp!
You'll figure it out as you go.
Have fun, dont sweat the small stuff.
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I like REI, but it pays to check around a little.
