How many watts does a top-freezer refrigerator use — and what can run it?

The figures come from one representative model, the Frigidaire FFTR1814WW (18.3 cu ft). Its specification sheet lists 3 amps at 120 volts, which gives the 360 W running figure, and 410 kWh of annual energy, which works out to the 47 W average. The 3 A is the appliance's electrical rating, not a reading of the compressor while it runs, so the running-draw runtimes below lean short. Frigidaire publishes no starting figure; the 1,200 W is the top of the 800–1,200 W refrigerator range on the Champion generator wattage chart.

What changes the draw

The compressor cycles: it runs until the thermostat is satisfied, stops, and starts again. The share of each hour it runs rises with a warm room, frequent door openings, a colder setting and a load of warm food after an outage; automatic defrost adds its own periods of draw. The annual figure averages all of that over a year, so a hot kitchen will use more than 47 W.

Why the starting draw matters

A compressor motor draws several times its running current for a fraction of a second as it starts, and the station has to deliver that peak. The Goal Zero Yeti 500 is rated 500 W continuous, more than 360 W, but its 1,000 W peak is below 1,200 W, so it fails. With other appliances connected, the start is added on top of everything already running — see how loads are added.

Reading the tables

"Runtime at 360 W" assumes the compressor never stops; "At average draw" uses the 47 W yearly average. The EcoFlow DELTA 3 record has no maker factor, so the site default of 0.85 applies: 1,024 Wh × 0.85 ÷ 47 W = 18.5 hours.