35l King's fridge or similar?

I have a 50L and 60L Brass Monkey, small as fridge, large as freezer. Paid less than $1,000 for the pair for the 2. They are sold all over Australia at Jaycar and RTM and come with 3 year warranty.

Hi Nicoloks,

Firstly, compressor fridge and light weight really do not go together if you want quality.

Secondly, where are you going to locate this second fridge, in the car, or in the caravan?

Thirdly, how are you going to supply power to this second fridge, auxiliary battery in the car, or from the caravan house battery?

Do you have enough battery and charging capacity to support the extra fridge?

From my perspective, a 35 Ltr Weaco or Engle would be a better choice. There are more Engle & Weaco fridges out there that have been going for more than 20 years, some as long as 40 years.

Macca.

G'day Nic,
Have had an Engel & Evacool that have been running for years.
They run 24/7 for months at a time.
Read Macca's reply regarding batteries to power the fridge.
I setup my own battery system & it runs my fridges for days. You need to budget for a good battery system which will cost more than the purchase of the fridge.
Things to consider regarding battery capacity, setup & charging.

1. Do you drive every few days or stay in one place?
2. Do you have access to regular 240v for charging
3. The surrounding temp which make the fridge run more often.
4. Do you open the fridge a lot & put warm items in? Again compressor will run longer.
5. Do you need to run a CPAP machine at night?

I just worked on a system that was totally under rated & the rather large upright 12v fridge had flattened the batteries by the morning!
Get someone that knows battery systems & asks lots of questions about your needs & type of travel to get it right!
Lastly if you consider a 3 way (not great option) then the all the power requirements completely change.

Cheers
Stu

Most fridges around 30-40L are going to be 20-25kg, Nico. Fill it with drinks & food & you’ll need to suck in the abs if you’re lifting it out of your vehicle.

We’ve got a 40L Engel & a 30L Ironman, which appears to be a re-badged Waeco. The Engel is good on power, but noisy if you’re within 3M of it. The Ironman is silent, but a little heavier on power so we only use it now on trips on the bitumen. It also has an ECO mode that would reduce power use. Both fridges can run as freezers easily but you would be using at least 50% more power than on the fridge setting.

In selecting a fridge you need to ask why most other fridges are 2-3 times the price of the Kings?

Bob

There is a lot more to a fridge that can break down other than the compressor.
I have had a CFX for 9 years and never missed a beat until the last 12 months where it has had a thermistor fail then one of the buttons on the controll panel, luckily I was not travelling when the thermister failed and I was capable of repairing both, would have been costly to have them repaired professionally.
The cheap brands with the secop compressors, who makes their control and mother boards?
Waeco make spare parts readily available.

BCF carry the old superseded Waeco 40 litre model which carries a decent warranty and often sells around the $409 to $500 mark which might be a better buy as it has been around for years and doesn’t have all the fancy electronic gadgetry

I actually spoke to a Waeco fridge technician about them to see if it was a knockoff or the same as the old model and it has the same internals as their higher range models

I bought a 15ltr Kings console fridge/freezer August 2021 it's a bit power hungry for it's size so check power consumption figures before purchasing Kings brand. Other than that it works well no other problems. As far as fridge weight goes my Evakool 2004 model RF47 is 18kg so lighter than some other models and better on power than the 15ltr kings.

Thanks all for the replies.

I ended up getting a 42l Brass Monkey fridge with a telescopic handle. Seemed to work well, however I returned it as soon as I realised the wheels along the long edge were going to be a PITA for getting it in and out of the back of my ute.

Ended up with a wheelbarrow style dual zone 45l Rovin for about the same price. From what I can tell these seem to be a Brass Monkey fridge with a different badge. Takes the same batteries and the Brass Monkey BT app even works with it. Ergonomics on this style are going to be a lot better I think.