fridges and batteries

I suspect that we will be rehashing old posts here, but I am struggling to understand what I going on with my fridge / deep cycle battery/ solar panels setup.
I have one of the fridge mates, a 96 litre one that draws 2.5A. The deep cycle battery I'm using is a 65ah, and the solar panels are 120w, putting back 4.5a. The fridge hardly works on this set up but happily runs off the car when I am travelling. The fan works, but as soon as the compressor kicks in, the fault light starts to flash.
Any gurus out there that can help, battery world just see me coming!

Any comments will be appreciated

sounds like your battery is dead flat or buggered,

but it may pay to check what voltage cutout your fridge is set at and lower it this will let it draw down your battery more before turning off.

cheers Tom

Flying kiwi wrote:sounds like your battery is dead flat or buggered,

but it may pay to check what voltage cutout your fridge is set at and lower it this will let it draw down your battery more before turning off.

cheers Tom

thanks Tom, today was a day for stooopid!
Got my first speeding fine in 12 years in the mail and had to put water in suspect battery!  

it happens to the best of us.
when u replace the battery put the date on it with a white marker pen --to b sure.. maintenance free r the way 2 go these days.

regards
oneday

I reckon that 65 ah battery is barely adequate. Given the fact you should not run a battery below 50% of its capacity that only gives you about 32.5 ah to play with. If you do end up replacing the battery try and increase the battery capacity. Also AGM's can tolerate dropping below 50% compared to most others. They will also accept a charge more readily than other lead batteries.
Now having said all that, Lithium batteries will do a better job and are lighter (by about half) and they have a 10 - 15 year life. They can be run lower than any lead battery but should not be run flat as this will destroy them. EV Works in Perth should be able to advise you on these.

thanks fellas, being up in Darwin, most battery joints are operated by franchisees who know how to sell, but don't offer much in the way of help. I have topped up the battery and left it on trickle charge, seems to be coming up ok. Bought another two batteries and am getting them set up under the tray of the ute so we shouldn't have the same dramas.

thanks again for the comments