Are 12 Volt fridges in vans noisey?

Thanks for the replies, I am sure we are doing the right thing.
Last Christmas we had 4 days of over 46 degree in a row, 3 way fridge was hopeless.
Thanks Hugh

I travelled round Oz for two years with a 3 way; camped out in the bush a reasonable amount of time and travelled some long distances.

The fridge did not miss a beat the whole time. I have a small partition under the cooling plates which freezes the odd meat pack.
When camping I used gas otherwise it was in the truck on the 2nd battery or on 240 in the parks.

Cost - Fridge $900. Gas - $14 plus $25 for the bottle. (lasts a fortnight if used all the time).

No solar panels, no additional batteries except for the van.

Don't understand the obsession with 12v/240v fridges.

bill

I had frozen meat in the van fridge as well.

bill

The problem with three way fridges is that are horribly inefficient on electricity.
On gas they a barely more efficient, the only reason they are viable at all is the high energy density of gas.

They are in general less efficient if not perfectly level

Then there are the issues with maintenance, dangerous good issues with carryng the gas, the legal requirement for a licenced gas fitter do do just about anything with them.

The maintenance issues.

cooling something by heating it, is bound to have limitations and that is how 3 way fridges work.

3 way fridges simply can not produce the temperature gradients that compressor fridges can.
The only reason they actually keep up is because they run pretty well continuously.

AND it goes on.

Compressor based fridges ARE far more efficient, no licenced worker required for install.

AND ya don't have to buy gas.....if you drive every day, a 12V DC fridge is an ongoing viability charged off the car alternator.
with a properly designed solar system in conjunction with vehicle charging a 12V DC electrc fridge is a long term ongoing viable thing that requires almost no attention at all.

It runs off the one power source all the time, there is no switching from one source of energy to the other every time you make and brake camp.

there is no requirement for outside ventilation for the fridge.

Compressor fridges have no risk of explosion from the fridge its self, and if the batteries are properly housed and maintained nearly no risk there either.

A good compressor fridge will make ice quickly, and freeze meat and fish as fast as your home freezer will.

The only advantage a three way fridge has is they are cheap.....well not that much cheaper.

In the past the 3 way fridge was only viable because we had nothing else......we gave up using absorption fridges in the home a long time ago, for the above reasons..its about time we gave them up for camping and caravaning too.

cheers

Just one thing you must do if you are getting a 12v fridge and that is to have 8mm cable back to the batteries, anything less is not going to cut the mustard. Cheers

our 3 way fridge in the current van works well except in extreme heat, I want to cover all bases and not have to depend on gas when camped in the bush for extended periods.
As said earlier, in temps of 46 degrees in the shade, the fridge was hopeless and we had this for about 4 days straight.
Don't want to go thru that again

We were in Home Valley Station with 36c days and humid and our fridge worked like a charm. These days the fridges don't use much gas. We did 2 months away with stove, Fridge and hot water service and only used 1 9kg bottle.

Be a bit careful about packing insulation around compressor fridges as some of them have the condenser coils mounted just inside the walls and any insulation on the outside of those walls will hamper the fridge's operation.

Only put on sides and top. Condensor is on the back on the Waeco 220.

Neil

That's good to hear, my Waeco 220 has the condenser coils enclosed inside the side walls.