Shore power and 12v appliances

When hooked to shore power, what's the preferred way to hook up a 12 volt DC appliance with an optional 110v AC inverter/power supply?

A) Plug the appliance's male 12v DC cannon plug into one of the trailer's 12v DC receptacles?

B) Hook the appliance up to its 110v AC inverter/power supply and plug the power brick into 110, either at the campsite's power post or one of the trailer's 110 receptacles?

The appliance in question is a thermoelectric cooler, pulling 5 to 5.5 amps.

 

At the end of the day it probably doesn't make much difference.

Your option B would be my choice.

Your option A has the 110 from the power post, converted to 12 volts by the trailer battery and then running the cooler. There is a danger that the cooler usage plus other trailer consumption will be above the battery charger current, thus not charging the battery.

 

I agree with Rotus8. Either will work. But, option A puts alot of heat stress on the battery. The onboard charger will run in the high charge mode for a long time and that puts alot of heat into things. Switching the fridge over to a more direct AC connection like option B takes the trailer's battery/battery charger out of the loop.

Cary

 

Thanks, guys.

That makes sense.

 

Yep, I would let the device adapter do the work and not push it on the battery. Avoiding recharge cycles on the battery is usually a good thing.

I typically plug into shore power if the campground has more than 1, 110V outlet, I have a roll up extension cord that has 3 plugs on it, similar to this...

http://www.homedepot.ca/wcsstore/HomeDepotCanada/images/catalog/LifeLink726880_4.jpg

I typically run this directly into the extra campground power to avoid any undue stress on the trailer's power system.

If no power is available, then your only option is to go directly into the trailer 12V.