Chescold Fridge/Freezer

Tony Shaw replied:

Hi there,

The Three way fridges are great if your going to stay in one spot for a while but are heavy on 12V so don't leave it running on the battery for too long.

If you take the divider out it won't normally freeze the whole box. (it may do in cool weather but that's it)

Cheers, ToNy! Thumbs UpThanks 0

Member - TonyG (Qld) replied:

Hi Becs,

A friend has one of these fridges, and we did a series of tests to see how good it is.

We found on gas it is a very good unit, and freezer section works really well.

On 240 volt, the same.

On 12 volt, it drained hi 2nd battery in about 5hrs.

So we concluded that it is a good fridge if you pre-cool the fridge at home using 240volt, then run in vehicle on 12 volts only to get you to your destination, and straight onto gas once you are at the campsite.

Definately no good if you want to use 12 volt running off 2nd battery overnight

Hope this helps

TonyG Thumbs UpThanks 0

Member -Dodger replied:

Chescold are good when you intend to camp in the one place for any length of time as they are good on gas and 240 but very hard on any 12v battery.
If you intend to travel and just stop over night then the compressor type fridg is the better option. Thumbs UpThanks 0

JW replied:

Becs,
We have used ours as a freezer (divider out) on both 240v and gas. It has performed faultlessly over the last 5 years and continues to do so. We only use 12v when on the move. When using 12v, we try to ensure that the contents are already cold and the 12v seems able to maintain this during the day.
When we arrive at our night location, the fridge goes onto gas or 240v as soon as possible, ie almost immediately. Sometimes, on gas, it is too efficient.
We have found the biggest enemies to be opening it too much and direct morning sunlight. I always position it so that it is in shade for most of the morning.
I have no hesitation in recommending it.
Regards
Jon W
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Greg1952 replied:

Bec,

We have this very fridge and have had no trouble at all with it. We tend to camp in 1 spot for extended periods and we normally get 13 days out of a 9kg gas cylinder.

We always run it for a couple of days on 240v before leaving home and get it on the gas as soon as we arrive at the camp.

We've never tried taking out the divider for an "all freezer" but I know the kids think it's absolute luxury to have ice cream on a camping trip!

Regards,

Greg.. Thumbs UpThanks 0

Boo replied:

Hi Becs,

We have this exact same fridge/freezer, we always run at home for about 24hrs prior to leaving and load everything into it either cold or frozen. We have just returned from a weeks trip away and found that the frozen items were still frozen after 8 days, we had removed the divider to give us more room and packed the frozen items in that end and just used the remainder for fridge items. As the weather wasn't extremely hot, however the days were a balmy 20ish so not bad, we had to keep the fridge set on minimum the whole time otherwise it would freeze everything.

On 240v or gas with the divider removed the whole thing will act as a freezer if turned up too high.

We are currently in the process of deciding do we buy a second chescold to act as a dedicated freezer and use our existing one as the fridge, as we are planning a month long trip mid next year and want to be able to take more frozen items with us. Alternatively we would buy a Waeco (price being the deciding factor over the Engel), however we are concerned that on other future trips where we stay in one place for a long period the draw on our 12v system may be too much, still have to do some calculations before we decide.

Anyway, if your looking for a good fridge/freezer and intend to mainly stay in one place for at least a few days then the Chescold is in my opinion the best way to go.

Just my opinion.

Regards,

Kerrie Thumbs UpThanks 0