12v DC operation

[Jssiegle]

Hello,

I am trying to find out if there is a direct way to operate Rec Teq grills off of 12 volts DC. I reached out to support a few days ago with this question, and a few others, but haven’t heard back from them yet. I know I can use an inverter so please don’t mention that. Power loss from the inverter is what I want to avoid. I’m ok with mods. Thanks!

 

[C. Keeper]

What's your budget for this project?

 

[Jssiegle]

Lets try to stay below $100.

 

[chadinsc]

without an inverter i don’t know of a way to do it with changing the motors to 12v but the controller would have to be also changed somehow. im sure it can be done by a smarter person than me. its above your budget but another member mentioned the grill can be run off a tesla cybertruck.

 

[ol' stonebreaker]

How about one of the little 700 watt generators and a 100' ext cord to get the annoying 2 stroke sound far away.

 

[Jssiegle]

Where I want to use it I already have 12v DC from solar power. Most electronics today run off of DC current. I was hoping a DC converter connected in the correct spot would solve the issue. Without schematics it’s hard to know. GMG gave me the idea. All their grills are powerd via 12v DC.

 

[chadinsc]

not sure if this helps. but this is the auger motors recteq uses. 120v .25 amp

 

[Jssiegle]

not sure if this helps. but this is the auger motors recteq uses. 120v .25 amp

Thanks for the pic. That makes things a bit more difficult. Looking like this will be more of a rebuild than a mod. The inverter is looking better even with the losses involved.

 

[C. Keeper]

The inverter would be a wise decision for your budget.

 

[chadinsc]

inverter is the best and easiest way in my opinion. i have thought about mounting an onboard battery charger like boats have. they cost about $50 and can go way up from there but basic will work for this. and a deep cycle battery with inverter. to keep cost down i would buy the deep cycle battery from a store that sells rebuilt batteries, i have had a rebuilt $35 deep cycle agm battery in my boat for 5 years now! doing it like that every thing could be contained and hidden inside a comp cart or just under the grill. but im not sure how much power the grills actually use. or how much the igniter uses. if you figure that out let us know please.

 

[C. Keeper]

Get a UPS for a hundred bucks and you will have the best of both worlds.

 

[Roaniecowpony]

Get a UPS for a hundred bucks and you will have the best of both worlds.

Maybe tie a solar array into the UPS to prolong battery capacity or find someone's dead UPS and make your own battery bank out of higher capacity batteries.

 

[Jssiegle]

I appreciate all the suggestions. Thank you to all who responded. Just to tie up the discussion. I have solar panels and LiFePo4 batteries for energy storage. That isn't the issue. The issue is power loss. I use the power generated by the panels for a variety of things so being efficient is very important. An average pure sine wave inverter is only about 90% efficient. Once I saw the picture, provided by chadisnc, of the auger motors that told me a component replacement would be required for these grills as the motors run on AC power. I'm not interested in doing that. The way forward will be to decide between GMG for DC operation, or RecTeq for build quality. Right now I'm leaning RecTeq based on owner reviews and build quality. Again, thank you for taking the time to respond. Much appreciated.