Shaver Socket to power Mini Fridge!

[eponymous]

Hi, I have a 230V mini fridge which is rated at 65W when in Cold mode. I want to be able to run this from a shaver socket using a continental 2-pin plug or a shaver BS4573 style plug. However, as a test, I plugged the 3 pin standard british plug into a continental adapter, then plugged this into a "1 AMP 250V" 3 -pin to 2 pin shaver adapter. It blew the fuse. My question is, how can a fridge, which should techinically only draw about 0.2 amps or current, blow the 1 Amp fuse?

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance people.

Sean.

 

[plugwash]

answer: start up current and you are likley to have even worse problems trying to run it off one of the transformer isolated shaver sockets in bathrooms.

why do you wan't to run this off a shaver socket anyway?

 

[Steve]

What sort of fridge is it? a thermocouple or a compressor?

 

[Jonny7]

why do you wan't to run this off a shaver socket anyway?

I'd like to think it's so he can enjoy a nice cold beer whilst enjoying certain bodily functions but I could be wrong

___________________________
moderator

edited to correct quote

 

[eponymous]

Hi, thanks for the replies. Lol, its going to be in the bathroom of my room at uni, so the noise doesnt keep me awake at night. As for the type of fridge, im not sure what it is. Its the kind that can be used in a car runnign off 12V DC or 230V AC.

 

[Jonny7]

Hi, thanks for the replies. Lol, its going to be in the bathroom of my room at uni, so the noise doesnt keep me awake at night. As for the type of fridge, im not sure what it is. Its the kind that can be used in a car runnign off 12V DC or 230V AC.

Ah! now I know! I have one of those for when I go to hotels. They are ace cos it means you can keep your beers chilled (or a nice bottle of wine or two in case you ...er ... meet someone) without having to incurr the wrath of the mini bar "if you move a bottle of... you will be charged the equivalent of a small African country's national debt" scuse spelling.

They use those semi conductors where you can reverse the polarity and get heat.... can't remember the name of them.... but they do make a racket on the odd occaision when you go to bed sober...

My advice is to buy an extension lead (and by the sounds of it, a continental plug to UK 3 pin convertor) and connect it to a 13amp socket but put the unit in a cupboard. They are pretty robust as they are designed to be abused.

Right, just checked mine (I bought it in France, it's got Perrier written on it... as if...) It say's (looking at the maximum consumption) at 230/240 volts "mode chaud" - well it is French - 65watts.

So, looking at the TLC website for a shaver socket shows that an MK one will allow you to draw 200ma which at 230 volts is 46 watts. So sadly, the answer is no, don't plug it into your shaver socket. I'm not sure if there is an inrush current with these units.

Plan B would be to buy an extension and move the cool box (for that is what it really is) as far away from the used area as possible. A cupboard might be stretching it too far in terms of cooling though.

another thing to bare in mind is that these things, if left on for a long time do actually ice up! The best remedy is a constant exchange of items to be cooled I've always found

 

[ban-all-sheds]

without having to incurr the wrath of the mini bar "if you move a bottle of... you will be charged the equivalent of a small African country's national debt" scuse spelling.

Just empty the minibar and use that.

If they try to charge you, point out that their wording is utterly pointless - they might as well say "if you move a bottle we will beat you up" for all the legality it has.

If you don't consume the contents, they cannot make you pay.

Also, make it clear to them that if they put a charge on your credit card you will report them to the police for theft.

 

[AdamW]

I agree, but it is always better to avoid the agro. Wonder how often ninebob had to have this conversation with a customer

The other problem with using the minibar fridge is that the maid tends to empty your stuff out of it, and put the hotel stuff back in. Thus your beers will have warmed up again by the time you get back.

I have noticed that hotels on the continent don't seem to have mini-bars in the rooms as much as ours do... In fact, I don't recall ever seeing one outside of the UK!

 

[Adam_151]

They use those semi conductors where you can reverse the polarity and get heat.... can't remember the name of them.... but they do make a racket on the odd occaision when you go to bed sober...

Peltier, a load of P-N semiconductor junctions in an electrically series, and physically parrallel arrangement, when a current is passed through it, it will act as a heat pump and create a deferential of temperatures between the two sides, the reverse of the peltier effect is the seabeck effect, where a difference in temperature causes a current to flow, this was soemtimes used to power equipment on board spacecraft, the heat being generated by radioactive decay, the heat generating radioactive decay was also used on its own in some places o keep stuff warm, think nasa kept it secret for a while, because of anticipated protests from greenpeace of attaching radioactive substances to rockets

 

[ninebob]

I agree, but it is always better to avoid the agro. Wonder how often ninebob had to have this conversation with a customer

Tooooo many times - the things are a bl**dy nightmare, you only have to fart near them and they charge for the contents. I would say it was pretty much on a daily basis that I had staff running up and down to the rooms to check what actually was and wasn't there......


More seriously, to the original poster - Having a fridge (or any other appliance) in a bathroom is a Bad Thing™ anyway.