Cost of having a fridge

[schmik]

Trust me.. it was chukle in a good way!   Having little ones (3, 6 and and only an ice box I would have to make an ice run after 4 days or go to a van park.   Usually it is a van park to recharge the cameras, lanterns etc and to wash clothes.

Could i afford a fridge? probably... but there are other toys i want more.

And as stated above, beer chilled in ice is unbeatable.

[oldmate]

The cost of the setup, is little compared to the convenience of cold food a drinks anywhere, anytime.
My fridge lives in my tug, 24x7. I am currently doing Lite n Easy (diet stuff) and I can put a whole weeks worth of food in the fridge and does not matter where work sends me, Hunter Valley, Wollongong, Southern Highlands, all I need is a hotel with a microwave and I am all good, no breaking the diet, no un explained expenses.

For this little black duck, convenience over cost wins for me...

Totally agree with ya cobber!!

[2010banditsa]

seriously, life's too short to drink warm beer.... i have a 3 way in the current van which sucks arse, but my new one i have on order has a 12v i can totally dedicate to food.... therefore my 60l fiberglass Evakool is 100% for beer. Including battery, cable to charge, box etc its a $1600+ exercise, but when im drinking ice cold beer in the middle of nowhere, id pay double that for the set up. I used to buy beer at highly inflated prices, drive backwards and forwards to civilisation to buy crappy half melted ice and on the second day it was basically coolish water.... know what id prefer....

[jnik]

I'm tight ...

Fridge ~$500 (*1)
80w solar panel $105 (*2)
105AH AGM deep cycle battery $199 (*3)
12A regulator $20
Cable $65 (*4)

(*1) seems I got quite a deal when I bought mine about three years ago (same seller) not as fancy as some, but only had two problems; first time I turned it on I thought something was wrong as it took a few minutes to start up, and the dog chewed the power cable - which is weird as we don't have a dog

(*2) enough for us ... extraordinary laptop use flattened the battery to the point that the camper lights (wired via the regulator) wouldn't turn on, but the battery was charged (solely by solar) by the end of the next day

(*3) actually, I'm so tight I'm currently using the old battery out of SWMBO's Commodore ... works well enough, but this is what I'll be getting when we kill the Commodore battery

(*4) sure there are some other bits, but given the use of these bits is shared with lights etc, the $65 is more than the fridge's share

[chisel]

I have a fridge, isolator, batteries etc.  Not cheap.  If you get an auto sparky to do the wiring it is even more expensive. 
When occasional campers ask me about fridges I tell them to add it all up before committing.  The fridge might be $900 but the extra stuff could easily cost $1000-1500.
Fridge slide is $250-300 as well.

[ozbogwam]

I have a fridge in the back of the patrol, that's it no dual battery, solar. Total investment $800 for the fridge and no problems for 8 years.

[bobnrob]

Bobnrob, just wondering why you won`t run your fridge on gas?    Robyn.

Hi,

 I'm curious to know why.

Call it paranoia, but I've seen a few gas appliances catch fire over the years, and gas lines/fittings can fail...I don't like the idea of being asleep if something goes wrong!

[chriso57]

it is like we are trying to replicate everything we have at home but we go camping to get away from the big smoke and back to basics.
What happened to a sleeping bag in a 4 man tent with a single burner on the gas bottle and jaffle iron or banger sangers whilst sitting on a log around a fire.

Wife and kids, thats what happened....

[bert56]

I've been using my small 12 volt fridge as a drinks fridge.

I can't put hot cans in for more than 4 hours, they start to freeze.

It is unbelievable just how good it works when you have a decent battery. I'm only running it off the battery which I charge at night for 3-4 hours.

Bert

[Lori]

We have just spent $1500 on our complete 12volt setup (not including the fridge, we have had one of those for the past 5 years)

This includes

2x 90amp hour batteries
A battery charger
Fuse box
4 x double 12v outlets
All wire (about 50mtrs)
2 x fridge outlets
Tv and tv brackets
Switches
20 mtrs flexi LED lighting
All other little bits and pieces that go with putting a 12v system together.
Changing plumbing around to better suit the setup
Inline water filter.

We are yet to take the camper out, but everything seems to working well.