Fridges - what do you have?

Dedman

Dedman

Forum Member
Joined
Dec 3, 2012
Messages
766
Location
Perth Western Australia
Car Year
1999
Car Model
Forester
Transmission
5MT
I am looking at buying myself a fridge to go in the back of the foz for camping trips so I thought I would start a fridge thread.

What fridge do you have?
What is the capacity?
Is it a fridge, freezer or both?
Would you buy it again/how is it?
How do you power it and how long does it last without charging the batteries/refilling the gas bottle?
Any other helpful comments?

There is heaps of info on the net about this but I thought I would get the opinions of wise Subaru owners as I feel they are more reliable than overcompensating blokes in their big fourbys that chat on most other forums :rotfl:

I am currently thinking I will get a evakool fridgemate 55l as it has fridge and freezer and seems to get good reviews with a reasonable price tag.
 
Dedmanwalking... I don't know about Evacool, we just have a prehistoric Engel fridge/freezer which has been revived from the depths of my Mum & Dad's shed. Every person who has seen it reckon that you can't kill them.. and also add to that statement that some of the new fridge/freezers with digital displays go well for awhile until the digital part packs it in... so maybe check the warranty on the digital display if the one you are thinking of has this, and also ask the salesman if they get many returned under warranty.

Having managed for many years with eskies and ice, all I can say is this. Go forth with confidence and install refrigeration in your Subaru. It makes the world of difference to our camping trips. Hottest tip would be once you make the decision what type/sort to get, go out and buy a set of good plastic containers with clip down lids that stack well inside the space you have, and you will never again throw out bercragged food/bait that has mingled in the depths of your fridge and become unusable and caused an unholy stinking mess. The back charging socket has some kind of isolator so that it won't run the main battery flat, which I think is great.

Hope this is of some help.

Best regards,
 
I have an Engel 55l fridge freezer, but I only use it as a fridge. I operate it through a second battery set up- see the build on my car. I have also recently purchased a 35l Evakool which will be used as a freezer. I chose both because the lid opens at the ends rather than the sides. I have a 250 watt solar panel which helps keep the battery alive when not running on the alternator. As my car currently runs a 90 amp alternator I plan on getting a 110 amp one and relegate the existing alternator to a spare. A recent trip to the outback showed how losing an alternator can be unforeseeable and in this instance ended in the trip coming to a premature end half way through for the family involved.

Buy on special- they come up now and again. I think Evakool make a fridge and a separate freezer in the one unit, while others partition part of the fridge off as a freezer. I like the Engel more because with the cover on them both, the Engel is easier to open the latch. But I am only slighter further down the road than you are in this so others who have had them longer would be worth chatting to. But I know on the last trip we had problems with a Waeco, and there were stories on the trip that it was not an isolated incident.
 
I have a 49L evakool fridge and a 60L evakool ice box. Both work really well. Both are based on the 60L white fibreglass box. For extended trips I run the fridge as a freezer and rotate ice bottles thru the ice box. The fridge is now 8 years old; the ice box is older. Yes, I'd buy these products again. Just make sure the lid opening direction suits your space. In the Foz I powered off a 90AH battery.
 
I have a waeco. Its never missed a beat in the approx 9 years since I bought it.

I did run it on a single battery for many years, and carried a jumpstarter. Now I have a dual battery system. Also have a solar panel for extended stays.
 
Sorry to get off topic, but it is related kindof. Dulagarl, what type of solar do you have, and how do you find it?

Best regards,
 
i have ironman 45ltr fridge freezer and it great. love it and would buy it again.
i run it off a battery pack and works great and last a few days.
i wouldnt buy evacool the guy at evacool told me that there fridge freezers are not as strong as competitors. unless u get there big fiberglass ones with external compressors. then there tuff as nails
 
thunder039 said:
I wouldnt buy evacool the guy at evacool told me that there fridge freezers are not as strong as competitors. unless u get there big fiberglass ones with external compressors. then there tuff as nails
Click to expand...

I was looking at one of the plastic ones with the compressor mounted on the outside as they are meant to have great insulation (essentially an esky with a compressor strapped on to it) and use very little power.
This is the model I am looking at;
https://www.evakool.com.au/products?sprod=107#
 
Dulagarl said:
I did run it on a single battery for many years, and various other people (such as but not limited to my old mate Tannin) used to start my car for me in the mornings 'coz my battery was always flat. Mind you, they were happy enough the night before drinking the cold beers out of the fridge that flattened the battery that wouldn't start the car, so I reckon the whole thing was fair enough
Click to expand...

(Slightly edited.)

:eek:
 
32L engel. Because of the end hinge lid design the 40L (taller) won't open while in the back of the fox.

Very happy with it.
 
Tannin said:
(Slightly edited.)

:eek:
Click to expand...

I can recall one occasion when you started the car for me: at the start of the walk to Wonga lake.

If there were more occasions than that then there was obviously a lot of beer involved. :iconwink:
 
Dedman said:
Thanks for the info guys :) Im still deciding but Im thinking the evakool is the way to go.



Really? How big is the fridge?
Click to expand...

Fridge is 35 or 40 litres IIRC.

Size is not the issue: its power consumption.

According to the site, the average power consumption is Ave. power consumption: 0.85 amps/hr (@ 12 volts, 5 °C interior, 32 °C ambient temperature).

I round that out to 1 amp per hour. A 20 watt panel will put out 20 amps per hour at the same voltage. Am I gonna use 20 amps every hour? No, am I gonna use an amp for every hour of the day? Not that either.

The panel is more than adequate to compensate for the fridge's draw on the 100 amp spare battery.
 
You are definitely not correct about the power output of a 20W Panel. According to the specs from Jaycar the panel will put out a maximum of 1.3 amps and only in full sun and only for sunny hours of the day.

If you say there are 12 hours of full sun a day which is pretty conservative that is only 0.65 amps per hour on average output from the solar panel which is less than the fridge average usage.

This is why I was interested in the fridge size.
 
sorry did that on the run.

the fridge never runs all day. It effectively doesn't run at night.

Put it this way. I have dug in for over a week with the fridge running on just a single battery, and not gone flat. of course that is in summer when there is more than 12 hours per day.
 
The Evakool model Dedman prefers has a Danfoss compressor which should be a safe bet. Probably the only difference to mine is the box itself.

During my outback travels I've noticed Evakool boxes (white fibreglass) in many of the 4WD tour buses.
 
Kevin said:
The Evakool model Dedman prefers has a Danfoss compressor which should be a safe bet. Probably the only difference to mine is the box itself.
Click to expand...

so do the waeco. Evakool box might be better though.
 
Yeah from what I can gather most of the non Chinese and some of the Chinese fridges run danfoss compressors (excluding engle who do their own thing) as most consumers wont but a non brand one.

Dulagarl said:
sorry did that on the run.

the fridge never runs all day. It effectively doesn't run at night.

Put it this way. I have dug in for over a week with the fridge running on just a single battery, and not gone flat. of course that is in summer when there is more than 12 hours per day.
Click to expand...

Yeah I can imagine with your fridge operating as a fridge then the solar panel would very close to keep up.
 
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