Hard wiring a fridge...

I' not going to say that hard wiring is the best way to go, but the more connections you have have from power source to fridge the more resistance you get which uses power. I would still want to be able to unplug if desired.
Cheers
Joel

townsville,
You definately use an inline fuse at the battery end of the power cable.

Use 10mm² or larger cable from the battery to the fuse, then I assume your going to connect the fridge cable to the fuse.

This method will give the least voltage drop in the fridge power cable.

If you use this method you can change the fridge from the direct to battery situation back to a ciggy plug etc, by adding a 'missing' section of the fuse container to the ciggy plug cable.

Maîneÿ . . .

I cut mine leaving about 6 inches of cable from the cig plug then fitted anderson plugs to both ends. That way you can re use cig plug if you want it in another vehicle etc. I then ran a hard wired cable direct from battery with an inline fuse with an anderson plug on end to connect fridge with. I don't think it is a case of draining more or less battery but getting a good solid connection so that your fridge works properly

I hard wired my Waeco CF80 into the back of my patrol after a tragic trip away.... pulled up after a hard drive with some serious country behind me only to find that the ciggie plug had come loose and the beer was warm. Tried with the red cover to the plug removed and a different female end - same result a month or two later.

So - I bought a second power lead and cut the end off it and hard wired it into the truck. Never ever let me down since. The other thing you get is less voltage drop as one less connection in the circuit.

I hard wired my fridge as the cig lighter connection kept working loose. However I was still having voltage loss problems so I installed the Waeco wiring kit which has a ""merit" (spelling) plug connector which is very tight. I have had no problems since with either voltage loss or loose connections.

Direct wiring to fridge wont make fridge "less hungry" or reduce power required to run fridge. But it will reduce possible sources of power loss/heat generation etc caused by bad connections (especially cig sockets!). Also the correct sized wiring helps to reduce voltage drop.