Cabins How much does a propane refrigerator cost to run

twohats

Contributing Member
This may have been dealt with before but as I can't find it can any one tell me how much does a propane refrigerator cost to run?
Also do you need to have it plugged in to electricity to run?

Thanks.
 

Publius

TB Fanatic
There are some newer ones that will automatically swtich to electric if it detects it's on and will use it rather than the propane, so you have one like that it would need to be disconnected from any 120V or 12V system so it will just run on Propane only.

As for propane useage I'm not sure as it can depend on climate temp and the size of the frige. Now Lehmans sells these in a 10 cubic foot and they also have small 10 cubic foot freezers, they use to list the useage for each propane and K-1 models. You may be looking at 20 pounds a month or less and around here I can get a 20 pound BBQ tank refilled for $13.
 

twohats

Contributing Member
Thanks I just picked up 2 from an estate sale that were hooked up to a 1000 gal tank and still running when I unhooked them.\
the price was right and I thought they would be a good addition to my emergency preps
 

Starrkopf

Veteran Member
Late reply I know but they don't burn a lot of propane. on electric it's basically got a 300 watt heating element and the propane burner on these things are about the same. I don't know if they make non electric versions with just a pilot and thermocouple. but the auto start ones need a 12 volt power supply to run, even when on AC power. Propane fridges are ammonia based absorption fridges and need to be 100% level. You will also have to defrost them every so often like you used to have to do to fridges back in the old days.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_refrigerator for a bit more in depth info.

Basically you could run one of these things for probably a month or more easy on a grill tank as long as you had 12 volts supplied. Not sure how many amps it draws from the battery but I bet I could find out what my RV fridge does draw. I don't run mine on propane often but it is nice to have the auto-switchover when the grid power goes down.
 
Top