which fridge to buy ?? Brisbane Camping Show.

[wartim]

The fridge I want to know about is the charcoal fridge brought in from China by Evakool and is branded 'Travelmate'....?   This fridge has an Italian compressor called a Domus which is a copy of the Danfoss and only 2 years warranty on cabinet and compressor.

They are currently around the $600 mark (at Brisbane caravan & camping show) for a 60 litre fridge/freezer with insulated cover which puts them at the bottom end of the market, but with better warranty and hopefully reliable after sales service from a major Aussie brand.

They seem to have a high power usage though - at 32 degrees ambient with the fridge running at +2 to -2 it draws andthey have an average power draw of 1.5 amps per hour over a 24 hour period which is 36 amps a day...?    I have been told the average for a Waceo/Engel or white fibreglass Everkool is under the 24 amps per day which makes these fridges 33% more efficient. 

This is a big thing when running off a limited power supply?

What is everyones thoughts or experience with these fridges?

Cheers

Wartim

Cheers

Wartim

[Kalebjarrod]

My experience with fridges......

I own a 7-8 year old 74lt Evakool from new and a second hand 47 lt evakool

Keep them in the shade, duhhh, I have had a mate ( not to bright) complain his fridge was using heaps of power, he had it next to him in the qld sun,38 deg day trying to keep the kids iceypoles frozen?....

Pack them cold, I even pack them frozen, If I am running the unit as a fridge I will put the meat in the unit frozen. Don't pack everything in warm then try to chill it at camp

Pack them full, empty fridges run more often

Keep out of them, keep the kiddies grubby hands out of the fridge every five seconds

When I do this I have never ran out of battery power, I have 2 x 95amp hr batteries, but but but no two trips have every been the same, different food, different weather, different everything so it's so hard to say the fridge runs at ..... Amps, it's relative

All I can say is got my second hand 47 lt fridge was cheap because is was not running right, probably 10 year old fridge, I bought it on a punt, got it home, opened up the compressed box, cleaned the layer of dust off the condenser fins, runs like new.

Buy something someone else has tested for you, evakool are great, I have heard engel run forever, I would hate to spend $600 to test a product that your then not happy with

[Dogsbreakfast]

i have a bushmaster and a 20 year old engel. Engel just powers along nicely, the bushmaster seems to have a large footprint for its internal space but a great fridge nontheless.

[Swaggie]

Evakool for the fridge mate, awesome stuff and Australian made on the sunny coast if there are dramas. {which I'm sure there won't be}

Yeah ive had an RF60 fridge for over four years...Brilliant fridge and over efficient sometimes...Get yourself a Wireless Thermometer too...So you can keep an eye on temperatures while your driving..

Put it on your camping table too etc etc

Goodluck

[2010banditsa]

brisvegas- depends which Paj, but i have the 57l white Evakool fits in my NT lengthwise.

[Mr Ploppy]

Our next fridge will the RF60 Evakool. As soon as the Waeco sells  .

[Barrabart]

Lachjake,

You'll be happy with your purchase.......... i love mine...... just took it out for a few day camping again last week........ removed the divider in the middle as i really didn't need anything frozen, had it running at 5 on the dial for the first day or so, had some bacon and corn meat down the freezer end and it started to freeze a little...... turned the bugger down to 3 on the dial and it was perfect........... had the temp sensor down the freezer end, and everytime i looked at it, the temp was reading somewhere around -5 deg c. Had lettuce and eggs etc at the fridge end, and they were just kept nice and cool as you'd want them to be......... had two kids and the Mrs on board with me, so the fridge got all the usual opening and closing etc.

Enjoy your new purchase.

[BrisVegasGolfer]

brisvegas- depends which Paj, but i have the 57l white Evakool fits in my NT lengthwise.

Thanks mate.  Sorry for the slow reply.