Bushman 85lt upright fridge

[Craig Tomkinson]

Hi all, Any body got a Bushman upright 85lt fridge, whats your thoughts on them, Thanks, Craig

[wakychapmans]

Hi all, Any body got a Bushman upright 85lt fridge, whats your thoughts on them, Thanks, Craig

Hey Craig, no sorry... I don't have one.

but... when I was looking at replacement fridge options recently for our Supreme Getaway, I looked at them. I also looked at the Kick Ass uprights too...

The Bushman uprights (at least in the 85L and the 130L that I looked at) were 100% identical to the Kick Ass ones. (just a different logo on the handle)

Except that the Kick Ass one was $799 (in the 130L) and the Bushman was $1299

Sadly I procrastinated a little too long and the Kick Ass one sold out.

At $799... I was willing to "take a chance". But for $1299 I think I'd prefer to pay a little extra for a Waeco or an Engel.

Just my thoughts.

[Craig Tomkinson]

Thanks Wayne for that. I am still pondering what to do, As my mate Murray can get me one at trade price, buts its still $760 and the freezer in the top is the same size as the 55lt I have, the cheap 55lt upright fridge its great for the black top touring we have done but I am worried when we go up the Cape next year it mite not handle the Corrugation, Then we have the 100lt trailblazer chest freezer its great for extended stays but a bugger to get the lid open in the back of the 80 series, I Just thought maybe I just take a light weight work horse to pull the trailblazer out a bit and sit it on it, so we can open it, Yes I think I will do that as we can take all our meat and and snags and bacon and put a bit of ply half way up and still have enough room for drinks and milk and bread and unfrozen tucker, They look a good fridge, Oh mate mate had the new Engal 80 or 90lt up right at his shed in a Ally canopy he just finished it looked like all the control panel was moulded and not fixable and no fuses anywhere,  Thanks Craig 

[Bird]

Bushman have always had a great name and top quality...

You could easily do worse.

[Craig Tomkinson]

Nice one Bird, I will see, I love the ease of the upright in the 80. thanks Craig

[gronk]

I have a 130ltr Bushman upright in my Lifestyle Ultra and I find it seems to perform better than the Waeco 110ltr I had in my previous camper. Doesn't cycle as often, and a little bit quieter.
Freezer is small, but leaves more room for beer !!

[Craig Tomkinson]

Thats great gronk, I was after something around that 80 to 90 lts with a 20 to 30lt freezer in it, Craig

[gronk]

Thats great gronk, I was after something around that 80 to 90 lts with a 20 to 30lt freezer in it, Craig

The freezer in the 80 and 130ltr is 6 ltr. Even though it is small, you won't get a 20 or 30 ltr freezer in that size fridge.

[rags]

I will give you my observations on an alternate for balance.
When we were replacing our old  3 way fridge in our Jayco I did consider a Bushman along with the other suspects but in the end went with a domestic CRX110
Why
1 it was that it was a direct swap in size from the 3 way removed without mods to cabinet which was a key driver.
2 I didn’t need to buy a seperate 240v to 12v transformer as you do  with the others if you want to run it of 240v at any time
3 Service agent network if it fails

From what I can gather the new dometic fridges are an improvement over the previous generation. and have a tropical rating but also can be switch to a cold climate mode if operating in cold regions.

How has it been going? Fantastic it has been running constantly every day since I installed it in January, mostly powered by solar for that  period, It is super quite as well.

It has been the best mod to our van by far ( along with the 280 amps of batteries and 390 watts of solar). I can drive to camp and don’t have to do a thing as the fridge is running, doesn’t care if it is level or the power source, and works in plus 35 degree days.

In saying this if I could of got the Bushman or any other fridge cheap then my pocket would have swayed me.
In any case I would say do it and get what ever you think works best for budget.

[Craig Tomkinson]

Thanks for that appraisal Rags, are Domestic the same as Waco, Craig

[rags]

Thanks for that appraisal Rags, are Domestic the same as Waco, Craig

Yes but I think there has been a bit of rebranding going on with the Dometic name being more prominent than Waeco these days! Not sure if it the dometic rebranding was also the catalyst for updating and improving the range.