Chinese made fridges

We bought a three way fridge from ALDI..... Love it. Watch for the specials.

I have a 25l Evacool RV that I bought from BCF - the insulation is a bit thin so the compressor runs a fair bit - as a result the current draw is a bit more than my 55 litre Ebay Fridge Freezer. I bought the Rv to use on weekends rather than long trips where I use the larger ebay cheapy.

If you have the ability to provide adequate power then they are Ok but my cheap ebay fridge is better and matches Engels an Weacos for a third of the price.

Garry

Gday Derek
If you are in Melbourne, go and look at the fridges in the show room of Patterson Cheneye , Kirkham rd West. Truck division.
I am not connected with them in any way , but i do buy parts from them.

Hi Deejay. Can't speak of experience with Evacool but can tell you if you are in Melbourne we have a 39 litre Autofridge going for $750. It's a cracker of a fridge (proven capability in the outback) and I'm happy to answer any questions on it if you aren't familiar with the brand. We have changed all of our off road accessories and replaced the 39 litre with an 80 litre Engel. It's around 10 years old but still works as good as the day we bought it.

Hi Derek,

Before you get any second fridge make sure that you have the battery and recharging capacity to run it without flattening your batteries.

I think I would be considering a decent esky/ice box to carry those items that just need to be kept cool, rather than really cold. You could freeze bottles of water in your freezer, use the freezers at camp kitchens, and rotate food and drinks between your fridge and esky to achieve a satisfactory result.

Cheers,

Val

We have 2 of these fridges , both 30 litre , one is Evakool branded and is being used as a freezer...can connect to 12v and 240v at the same time. The other we got from Techni Ice and is being used as a drinks fridge...it has a 240v to 12v switching supply...they both look very much like a Waeco. Power usage is about 2amps and they run very, very quietly and are not to heavy...we are very pleased with the both of them...cheers

if you live in Darwin you can borrow my 40L fridge. I don't use it much since purchasing the 60L.
Regards Matthew

hi deejay
imho having had over 30yrs of trouble free use from engels I would buy a s/hand 40ltr
fr/frzr and use that they have low power draw and are reliable
then after the trip if you don't need it
it would still be a very sale-able item
cheers

I bought a 55 litre from Aussie Direct for less than $700, basically to back up the useless 3 way (Dometic RM7851)fitted in my van from new.

Whilst the Waeco, Engle etc purists won't like it this fridge has performed brilliantly as either a freezer (maintaining -18'C in 36' ambient) and around 2'C at 40'C ambient.

Sure the temp varies about 3-4'C but so what?

I run it off a 100AH battery charged via a 160 watt dedicated solar and it has never got less than 60% charge.

I'm not sure if this is the same fridge as you refer to as the 'RV" sold by Evacool but the fridge is fully covered by Evacool guarantee and service network so i guess it is.

I'm familiar with a lot of the fridges the guys & gals are talking about but can't make a specific recommendation as have not used them. I have something else.

But I make this point . . . . . if you by something too cheap it's going to have shortcomings of some kind and it'll be a pain in the proverbial and cause more problems than it solves. If you want to sell it when you get back you'll probable get stuck with it as nobody wants a dog.

However with something with a bit more quality should have the converse to the above. If you buy second hand you could probably get all your money back. Maybe even a bit more.

The big secret with good fridge power management is getting rid of the heat they produce, by what ever means.

I must say I liked Val's comments also. That's experience talking.


Ciao
Cocka

what size engle do u have r really going to have to put that much food in the fridge