Thought maybe this could be a sticky and people could add to it as they go along i did search but could not find anything similar
Product - Primus Mammoth 65 Litre Double Door Compressor Fridge
Price - $1199.00 (Annaconda xmas special including travel bag)
Whats in the box Fridge, 240 volt lead 12 volt lead instructions, baskets for each side
First impressions metal construction for unit and latches seems to be sturdy enough 12 volt plug is that one with the collar that will go in either a cigarette socket or merrit socket
Background
Well come boxing day I planned to have a few people over to relax so threw 2 cartons of beer in the Waeco 80 litre and yep you guessed it the thermistor has gone for the third time so 2 frozen cartons of beer in the bloody fridge. As this is the 3rd time the thermistor has gone on the damn thing and it costs me 300 bucks to get it fixed I have no more faith in the fridge so started to shop around. I like the convenience of a fridge freezer and even more liked the idea of 2 individual doors if I could get it. This really narrows the choise down between Engle 60litre, National Luma 75 litre double door Evacool 60 litre of 70 litre, Ironman 2 door 65 and Pimus 2 door 65.
Engle got ruled out quick cause according to product support you can’t use it all as a big fridge the freezer bit must be a freezer for the rest to work so it was out. National Luna went next cause I have it on a drawer in the back of the ute and it was to tall to get the doors open also the price will make you weep. Eva cool went next causethe missus did not like it and if we eva went back to a wagon you would not fit the 70 litre in cause of its length. Basically then down to Primus and Iron man I looked at both and they appear to come from the same factory so primus won out with the Anaconda deal.
The Pimus Mammoth 65 is a double door fridge freezer running duel controls and the larger danfoss BD50 compressor (smaller fridges I thing run the Danfoss BD35)
The Pimus 65 has a 40 litre bin (left bin) and a 25litre bin (right bin) the right bin is a bit of an unusual shape as it has a kind of stepdown due to the compressor and other mechanicals being situated under the right bin
First use well it is the same as most other fridges get it out of the box plug in 12 volt or 240 and hit the power button. You then set the temps for each bin with its own control panel. The only caveat is that because of the gas bias or something you must set the right bin as cold as or colder than the left bin. This combo fridge also has the benefit of turning the left bin completely off so you just have a 25 litre right bin for day trips and quick cool down if so desired
So basically for its first test I stuck a few frozen dinners and a 10 litre container in the right bin and set it to -12C and threw a new carton of beer and some mineral water in the left bin and set it to 5C and let it go overnight The next day I then used my wired thermometer to check the temps as compared to the readouts. The right bin I had sent on -12C, temps in this bin ranged from -10C at the top of the bin to -14C right at the bottom so I would assume the thermostat is somewhere in the middle. I did not have the freezer section completely full (about 50% so I would expect a more even temp when full. I checked the left bin which I had set on 5C and temps ranged from 5.5C at the top of the bin to 3C at the bottom and once again this section was only 50% full. So being happy with myself I sat down and cracked a cold non frozen beer
The learnings are as follows now from having this thing running for a week
1.It is heavier than the waeco so even with the missus help it needs to be thrown in the ute empty then loaded
2.You need to put the same amounts in both bins this then allows the bins to Sync up. What I mean is even though it is duel control it still runs off the same compressor so what this means if you have a empty fridge it will cycle more as the freezer section will finish its cycle then it will start up again straight away as the fridge bit wants to cycle. Once the freezer section got down to temp this then stoped because there is a common wall between the 2 bins coldness from the frezzer bin then bleeds through to the fridge side greatly reducing the fridge side cycle time. It drops to about a 4 to 1 ratio meaning the freezer side cycles 4 times to the fridge 1 and even this 1 cycle on the fridge is then at the same time as the freezer making the unit quite efficient once it gets going
3.The unit is very power hungry bringing things down to temp as both fridge and freezer sections are demanding compressor time (see point 2) so it really is a get it running at home on 240 for a couple of days before you throw it in the car once it gets down to temp it seemed to cycle quite reasonably
4.I threw it in the car about 50% full as a above and wanted to see how long it would run for. The car was in the car port with a temp of about 28 to 32 degrees during the day dropping down to about 19 overnight. I managed to get a full night, the next day, another full night and then most of the second day before the low voltage cut out was activated so that is about 36 hours run time once again only half full and all the windows were up so I am not sure of the actual temp in the car I would guess around 40C. In fridge and freezer temps were the same as above. So as we drive and tour most days when away this is suitable for us but if camped for a week I would be looking at a solar panel
Hope this helps time will tell as to longevity i am going camping for 2 weeks this weekend so i will report futher when i get back
