Paul replied:

I have a DC45, 30L fridge with 15L freezer and I love it. It has the Danfoss BD35F motor which my last Waeco had but with insulation to die for and a heat extraction fan. I have not used it a lot yet but in tests a couple days away and at home it has been excellent.

The freezer is a genuine freezer unit but be careful as it does not work as a domestic freezer as in your kitchen. Our kitchen ones work off blown air which means you have minus 18 degree air circulating around the freezer compartment which is how it freezes things so quickly. The freezer in the explorer is the same as the fridge section but with more cooling pipes round around the freezer section. But don't get me wrong, it will freeze what is inside it just takes a lot longer than the freezer attached to your fridge. And if you put frozen things in then they will stay frozen. Also, as it is all one cooling pipe, the freezer knob overrides the fridge knob so you need to fiddle around to get ideal settings for your conditions.

I have heard a couple unpleasant stories about the explorer and i believe any shortcomings have been rectified over the last couple years. With the fan I cannot believe how quickly it draws down to cycling temperature compared to the same compressor without a fan in my previous Waeco 30L. This i imagine translates to significantly reduced current draw. 4WD Monthly did an amazing test on fridges last year and the exlporer rated very highly which drew my attention to them, and the model used on the test did not have the extraction fan. I come from Brisbane and last summer we pretty much had a our hottest summer in my lifetime so i really appreciate the importance of decent insulation, and the insulation on the explorer is about as good as an evakool and more robust.

The fan is a little whinny which I intend to email them about but no so significant that i have got round to it yet.

Also it is fairly heavy but I don't intend to be taking it out of my wagon much and it is heavy because it is so strong and there is so much insulation.

If you are dead keen on power usage I can run tests this weekend if you want, can contact me direct at myredcar@hotmail.com if want any further info.

Paul replied:

Me again Steve, I'd also like to know what other fridge/freezers there are out there. The new Waeco CCF 50 has a separate compartment that is colder than the other but it is not a freezer and not advertised as such in the intructions brochure - and by the way has exactly the same motor as the Explorer. I know that Liemack from South Australia make a true fridge freezer but the cost and weight of their combination models was very scary - however, it may well be the domestic type I don't know which if money and weight was no object would be worth a look at.