Opinion please, Is a 1500W cont/1850 surge generator enough to get a fridge going?

[RogersJetboat454]

I call upon the opinion of the electrical guru's and perhaps the 2? of anybody with anecdotal evidence.

I will be going up to my place at Sebago Lake for the upcoming labor day weekend. This past weekend Irene made all hell break loose up there, causing boats to break from their moorings, docks to be wiped out, and trees down which has wiped out the power everywhere in the region.

Last I heard (yesterday), Central Maine Power speculated power restoration in 48 hrs. Nothing against the crews that work for CMP, but 2 years ago when a drunk hit a pole near by, the speculation for return of power was 6hrs. 27 hrs later we had power again. Needless to say, I'm pretty skeptical of the thought of having power by Thursday night/Friday.

To the question..
I have a little 3.5HP Coleman powermate Pulse thats rated for 1500 watts continuous, 1850 watts surge. Our fridge up there is approximately 7 years old, and an 18 cubic foot model. From what I can read on the Internet (mostly sights that want to sell me a nice big generator), the average fridge this size pulls 2K watts on start up then settles down to 500 watts. My extension cord is approximately 15 ft long, and was dubbed "the extension cord from hell" by the previous owner, due to the fact it's about as thick as 600V cable.

So all that in mind, would you think I have a snowballs chance of getting the fridge to stumble to life with little means, or do I need to seek a higher power (bigger generator).

Thanks.

 

[Don S]

Re: Opinion please, Is a 1500W cont/1850 surge generator enough to get a fridge going

Give it a try. Worst that can happen is the breaker on the gen will pop.

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: Opinion please, Is a 1500W cont/1850 surge generator enough to get a fridge going

yep as Don said you can't hurt a generator, it will simply pop the breaker on the generator and possibly shut the motor down.

If your looking to get the odds on a successful start up I would say your looking at 5 to 1 against it firing up

 

[RogersJetboat454]

Re: Opinion please, Is a 1500W cont/1850 surge generator enough to get a fridge going

Give it a try. Worst that can happen is the breaker on the gen will pop.

Thanks for the response Don.

I've considered winging it. Bring it up there, pull the rope, grit my teeth and plug it in. Problem with that is if it doesn't work, I will be in an area where bigger generators are in short supply, along with ice needed to keep a cooler cold.

If am told with out a doubt "not gunna work guy" I still have the chance of running over to Harbor Freight, and picking up a cheapie 3000 watt unit for $350 bucks. If times weren't tough, and money wasn't tight, I would do that with out a second thought. But as it stands, If I need to pick up a new gen, it would be Chase paying for it up front.

Other consideration is trying it with a fridge down here, but with many extension cords of average size, I don't know if I would loose too much amperage with a smaller cord. I don't feel like plunking down at least $70 bucks for a worthy cord just to run a test down here, when I have a good cord up there.

 

[MTboatguy]

Re: Opinion please, Is a 1500W cont/1850 surge generator enough to get a fridge going

Your odds are not good, but it is worth a shot, you might get lucky, my Coleman when I had it, actually was rated at 1850, but would handle a 2100 surge on start up of. The compressor in the fridge is going to cause the surge, and it is going to keep doing it, until such time as the fridge is cooled off. Again, it is not going to hurt anything, but your odds are not great.

 

[mscher]

Re: Opinion please, Is a 1500W cont/1850 surge generator enough to get a fridge going

Got Ice?

Do you really want run a generator non-stop, for three days, to cool a fridge?

If you have any neighbors, they will probably hope it throws a rod, after the first 8 hours, of listening to it run.

I know I would.

Maybe you could just run the generator, when you need it for other stuff.

Have a fun weekend.

 

[rogerwa]

Re: Opinion please, Is a 1500W cont/1850 surge generator enough to get a fridge going

Over the july 4th holiday we lost power due to a huge storm. A neighbor brought down a similar sized gen and I tried to get my well pump and fridge to run. It would run the fridge just fine but could not muster the start up power for the well pump. So I had it run on a 100 ft cord to give me a few lights and the fridge.

Why not buy the larger one at harbor freight, and try the other one first. If it fails, crack open the HF model. If it works try to sell the HF one at a profit as it sounds like it would be in demand or return it when you get back.

 

[scooper77515]

Re: Opinion please, Is a 1500W cont/1850 surge generator enough to get a fridge going

I have the 5750 generator and used it during Ike. Ran the garage fridge (6' tall "medium" sized fridge), two portable A/Cs, about 300' of extension cords with lights and occillating fans, but with all that running, it wouldn't kick on the compressor for my indoor "regular" refrigerator. So, by itself, it may run it, but as soon as you hook anything else up, it may not work.

You can listen to the generator to see if it can handle it. If it is too much, you will hear the engine bog down a bit when your fridge compressor kicks in. Try it before you need it, and see if it can handle it.

 

[RogersJetboat454]

Re: Opinion please, Is a 1500W cont/1850 surge generator enough to get a fridge going

Do you really want run a generator non-stop, for three days, to cool a fridge?

If you have any neighbors, they will probably hope it throws a rod, after the first 8 hours, of listening to it run.

Neighbors are running their generators too, so no worries on that front. The generator already threw a rod once. It was picked out of Home Depot's trash after the original owner ran it with out oil. A new crank, rod, piston, rings, and cam were half the price of buying it new, so I considered it a score.

I don't intend on running it the whole weekend. With any luck, I hope the power would be restored by Friday/early Saturday.

 

[RogersJetboat454]

Re: Opinion please, Is a 1500W cont/1850 surge generator enough to get a fridge going

So shes a runner....

I had an average size 25 ft extension cord, and it was able to power up a similar sized fridge. I plugged it in, heard a little dip in the engine, then it came back to what sounded close to unloaded governor speed. Granted that fridge was already cold, but it was running the compressor none the less.

Let's see what it does with a room temp fridge, after I clean all the spoiled food out of it of course....

 

[bigdee]

Re: Opinion please, Is a 1500W cont/1850 surge generator enough to get a fridge going

I think the odds are pretty good that it will work. Without knowing the exact specs for your frig it is hard to give a definitive answer. I would estimate your frig to be around 550 running watts with about a 2000 watt starting current. If your generator is 3.5 hp that is 2600 watts of mechanical power so de-rating to 80% of engine full load power you should be able to momentarily output 2100 watts.

 

[Fireman431]

Re: Opinion please, Is a 1500W cont/1850 surge generator enough to get a fridge going

Let's see what it does with a room temp fridge

Won't matter if it's room temp or not. The initial surge load is only to get the compressor running, not to keep it going. Once it gets going, your gennie won't have any problem. The rated capacity of the generator is actually only about 85% of what it will really handle.

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: Opinion please, Is a 1500W cont/1850 surge generator enough to get a fridge going

I have the same generator, I know it wouldn't start my medium sized fridge. The fridge would keep kicking the compressor out or thermal. I even pulled out of my box of tricks a capacitor kit used for hard starts on compressors. Still wouldn't work and I gave up so I wouldn't end up killing both the fridge and generator

I should have added the fridge I was trying to run was only 4 years old with the Energy Star rating . Cooling the inside of the fridge could have a bit of help on lowering the head pressure of the refrigerant which would help the compressor start. The hotter the temp, the more surge amps/watts its going to pull.

 

[NewfieDan]

Re: Opinion please, Is a 1500W cont/1850 surge generator enough to get a fridge going

As an electrician, I think it will work. the fridge is 7 years old so it should be relatively efficient. Not like the ones from years ago. The start up current in basic terms is the power to get the compressor running.

An electric motor is no different than any other motor. It takes a little bit more "energy" to get going. The same as your car from a stop light. It takes a little more gas to get it moving, but once its up to speed you can let off the pedal slightly. My suggestion would be to get up there early in the day. Leave all your lights off, start the genny, plug it in, and let the fridge cool down during the day. In the evening you should be able to use a couple of lights, since your fridge will be cooled and down and won't need to run as much.

From your description about the "cord from hell" it should be of the right gauge to handle the load. There should be marking on the side. Look for a two numbers separated by a slash. Something like 10/3 or 14/4 or I have also seen them reversed like a 3/14. This will tell you what size it is and how many wires (conductors)are in it. If it is like I said earlier a 10/3 is a ten gauge wire and it is good for 30amps or roughly 3500watts. If it is a 4 conductor (wire) then it can be used for 120V or 240V depending on the type of plug you have on the ends and how they are connected.

 

[skargo]

Re: Opinion please, Is a 1500W cont/1850 surge generator enough to get a fridge going

You don't need to run the fridge all the time anyway, get it cold and give the gennie a break. My 5K watt handled everything I needed during out 70 hour outage from Irene, well pump, 2 fridges, water heater(I alternated this with the fridges). Lights, internet, TV, etc.

 

[Pascal]

Re: Opinion please, Is a 1500W cont/1850 surge generator enough to get a fridge going

Try it on your fridge at home......

 

[RogersJetboat454]

Re: Opinion please, Is a 1500W cont/1850 surge generator enough to get a fridge going

Thanks for all the info gentlemen.

I'm heading up tonight, and will hopefully get there before dark. From what I understand, power is slowly comming back up there. Town Hall has power, and the list of roads with outages on CMP's website are going down. If I still don't have power by the time I get there, I would think I would by tomorrow as they are now patching together all the localized outages.

I spent some time today at work going through the genny. Cleaned out all the 4-5 year old gas, installed a inline fuel filter, cleaned up the carb, did another oil change. I also found that the silly thing had a small 2 stroke style spark plug installed (DJ8J). I believe the jamook who owned this first probably installed it after he tossed the rod hoping that it would some-how fix it. I recalled a mental note that I made to my self after I rebuilt it (change the spark plug to the right one!). I believe I had left that small plug in there just to see if it would run, then forgot about it.:redface: Oh well, I have a small engine repair place next door where I got a couple of J19LM's and all the other goodies.
It's now running with no little sputters.

 

[Fishing Dude too]

Re: Opinion please, Is a 1500W cont/1850 surge generator enough to get a fridge going

Here is a chart but you should be fine.



Typical Wattage



Electric Heater

600 & up



Freezer

600-1,000



Furnace Blower

400-600



Furnace Oil Burner

300




Furnace Stoker

400



Refrigerator

400-800




Table 1: Typical Equipment Wattage (Optional Home Equipment)



Optional Home Equipment

Typical Wattage



Central Air Conditioner

2,000-5,000



Coffee maker

1,000-1,500



Dishwasher

300 + 1,500 for heater



Electric Clothes Dryer

500 + 4,000 for heater



Electric Fan

75-300



Electric Iron

500-1,500



Electric Range

3,000-4,000



Electric Skillet

1,150-1,500



Kitchen Ventilator

150



Mixer

150



Sewing Machine

200-500



Sweeper

400-1,500



Television

200-500



Toaster

1,200-1,500



Washing Machine

400



Water Heater

1,000-5,000



Water Pump

800-2,500



Window Air Conditioner

1,000-2,500

 

[RogersJetboat454]

Re: Opinion please, Is a 1500W cont/1850 surge generator enough to get a fridge going

Well....

Turns out there was power at the camp when I got up there, so didn't need the generator. No major damage to the place, other than the hook that holds the phone line to the side of the cottage was ripped out by a branch. The fridge was a disgusting mess. Seems that when the power went out, the meat in the freezer thawed, then bled out filling the fridge below with blood . That was a 2hr process late at night for me to clean out the contents, then bleach the fridge down so I could unload my cooler with new food.

The generator did come in handy once though. I accidentally left the key to my mothers Blazer on one click over night, so the next day the battery was stone dead. Rather than pester one of the neighbors for a battery charger, I used the 12V charge port on the generator to charge the battery. It took 45 minutes to recharged the battery, but seemed to work good.

Thanks again to anybody who contributed to this thread.

 

[Fishing Dude too]

Re: Opinion please, Is a 1500W cont/1850 surge generator enough to get a fridge going

Good to hear that, but feel your pain. Had a fridge go to defroast caught when we walked in at 2 in the morning on a friday night. UGGGGGGGGGG Nothing like the smell of rotten, beef, venison, fish, and turtle. Funny part was wife put the new food in fridge, then as me as I entered the house. I kne what it was rght off the bat. Hauled fridge out of the house, made a trip to wally world for ice, then fridge shopping next day. Rented home depot truck to haul fridge fom ABC wearhouse. They took the old fridge but didn't want it when we got there but they took it.