Equipt FAQ: What Size Wire Do I Need to Run My Fridge?

Video Transcript

Hi, this is Paul with Equipt Expedition Outfitters. I'm going to talk a minute about the size of wire for running a refrigerator in your vehicle. We suggest that you run a dedicated line from your main battery or auxiliary battery system to where you're going to have your fridge plugged in and install an outlet there to plug your fridge into so that you can have a constant live stream of current. But what wire do you want to run?

Our general theory is that you need to have a wire equal to or slightly larger than the wire that is supplied in the cord for your fridge. Now, National Luna uses a cable they call a four millimeter squared, which is roughly a 12 gauge in the US AWG spec. That's the size of the wire here. If you run a set of number 12 wire from the battery, if it's under the hood, run that down through the vehicle and put in an outlet. Even National Luna provides an outlet to run that to the outlet. Then the battery can supply enough current for the fridge to run correctly.

In some circumstances, you can run a number 10 gauge wire. It's a little higher gauge size, and that's nice because it's compensating for some of the voltage drop you're getting between your battery and the location for the fridge. It helps overcome some of the concerns about the bump start of the compressor on the fridge and running that direction. So either a 12 gauge or 10 gauge wire run back to an outlet in the back of the vehicle will provide live current for your fridge to run correctly.