trailblazer,autofridge or reefer

Ive got a trailblazer & its the best acc money could buy for your 4x4 dont waste money on over seas plastic crap

Have had an Autofridge for over 12 years (Australian made by the way) and it's been just about everywhere without letting us down once. It's different to all the other fridges, but works a treat. Years ago was tested in one of the 4x4 mags and came out as the most durable and low current draw fridge of all. Haven't seen it compared for some time.

i built a copy Trailblazer...7yrs old and still going
I am a fridgie so i was able to do it...would have gone plastic skin (outside) except that i couldnt get a plastic skin blown at a good price so i used alloy instead.

That said there does not seem to be anything wrong with plastic skin ...waeco?.

reefer use too much energy so beware

engel are good also

autofridge...dont know enough about

anything with 'DANFOSS' compressor should be good.
that means trailblaza and waeco..... Engel use their own. reefer use a 240v comp which must use a 12 to 240 inverter to get it going and which is inefficient

I have had my AUTOFRIDGE for approx 12years .The fridge freezer has been fantastic [ Danfross compressor] and only has to be run 2hrs morning 2hrs night depending on how much you open it .Regettably I am about to sell mine but situations change.Thay are a pretty expensive fridge ,thay are AUSTRLIAN made by QUIRKS and thay are worth it.

Hi HILLI! I owned a Trailblazer for a few years & it was great in the tropics.
Chilled stuff within the hour. Later models have more bells & whistles.
Nudenut was right about the same motors in both!
But he was wrong on the casings. The alloy case in the trailblazer needs to be ventilated reasonbly well as it dissipates the heat thru the alloy whereas the Waeco
can have stuff packed tighly around it except for the fan vents. The Trailblazer did not have a fan as the case was the condensor!
It became a bit too heavy & bulky for me on my own so I went to the much more compact & lighter waeco 45 which works very well & have now encased most of it in 2" soft foam to help it.
Cases sees quite strong but some had lid troubles.

Both the Trailblazer & the Autofridge are great. TB would suit a permanent installation where you have plenty of room as they are quite bulky.They are however almost bomb proof. The Auto F is more compact and is the most efficient fridge on the market. It's eutetitic (spelling) coolant makes it equally good in the car or for base camping with solar panels.
Both need space around the sides to dissapate the heat but it's that design feature that helps them be so economical.
Cheers Craig........
HZJ105
70 L Autofridge

Trailblaza was my choice of fridge, we own a 70 litre, although we paid I think $1600 for the standard 70L with 240v power pack and a dual battery solenoid thingy and it is great for what we want... they are big, they are heavy, they are also good and reliable. The extra "body" is due to the insulation, because of this they don't need a "jacket" to keep the cold in! The backup service from Norcoast is very good as well, though you probably won't need it. Like Nudenut, I am a fridgie as well, and have seen the factory and impressed by their standards. Also our fridge slide/storage drawer built by us in the back yard had an error in that we didn't leave enough "breathing space" around the alloy case which as said above doubles as the condensor, but this has NOT affected the operation of the unit in any way.
And it's an Australian made product that IS worth the money.....

73l autofridge-excellent-low power useage
could use without dual batteries when moving

Have you had a look at the Explorer range of fridge/freezers, very similar to the trailblazer but come with a separate freezer section. They are also made in Queensland. From memory the 95ltr was around $2200 the 78ltr was just over $2000 and the 70ltr one just under $2000. Check their website www.explorerfridgefreezer.aunz.com

We've had a Trailblazer for a few years now and have never had a problem with it in terms of reliability and/or battery drain.

Has been used in High Country and outback conditions (as well as drink fridge at home on 240v) and has never missed a beat.

Had a plastic evacool/supacool in the past and didn't last thru the first trip - stick with something that can handle real 4wd'ing!!! Buy a Trailblazer.

Liemack or Reefer are a dog of a fridge that you need a power station to power them
it does not matter what they go down to or how quickly as long as they get there efficiently
stay well away from Reefer
if ya going to buy a Reefer save your money and buy a Waeco with a decent warranty

I use an 80L Engel Combi and I accidentally froze everything in it last trip away. That was everything in the freezer as well as the fridge section. Never had an issue with it. Cost my work $1900. Cost me nothing hahaha.

Utemad

the neighbour bought new a reefer went across the anne beadell and the copper hose split no cold beer. alot of money 1800 whenm you can get two engels for that

Ozyguy tell the truth not lies
The Amps Test
Unit followed by Average Amps
Autofridge 2.4
Bush Boy 2.8
Bushman 1.6
Evakool 1.9
Engel 1.6
Explorer 2.4
REEFER/LIEMACK 5.6
Vitrifrigo 2.3
Waeco 2.0
I have been reading this forum for a while and have noticed all the misinformation and untruths you post

ADI test

Question;
The test was conducted before Reefer was involved in portable fridges, so how is the name Reefer involved in the test report results, who and more importantly, why, has someone changed the original test report?

Fact;
Due to the number of fridges tested they actually ran out of amp accumulators, so the test numbers were averaged out, (refer table below)

Fact;
They took the highest power load and lowest and used the half way point as the average.

Fact;
the Liemack fridge uses an initial power surge for approximately 2 seconds at start up, the method of averaging the power figures is not an accurate method of collecting power consumption data when the results are then going to be averaged out to get a test result for any fridge.

Fact;
The Liemack with its 300 watt inverter is considerably worse off than the others simply because the initial inverter power surge is also calculated by the amp accumulator as a number, eg; 27 amps, for only 2 seconds, then the running of the fridge at ~6 amps for only 20 minutes per hour, gives an unreasonably high number when it is averaged out. You do the maths.

This can be confirmed by comparing the test result numbers with any of the power numbers stated by the fridge manufacturers and you will see the numbers are different, simply because the averaging method used in the test is not an accurate method of testing fridge power consumption.

Everkool claim: 3.80 amp not 1.90 amp as averaged tested
Waeco claim: 3.75 amp not 2.00 amp as averaged tested
Engel claim: 2.70 amp not 1.60 amp as averaged tested
ARB claim: 2.70 amp not 1.60 amp as averaged tested
Explorer claim: 3.00 amp not 2.40 amp as averaged tested
Autofridge claim: 24.00 amp not 16.25 amp as averaged tested


Are the ADI averaging test methods .... wrong?
or
are all the fridge Manufacturers .... wrong?

How can any test result be considered true, when it differs so drasticly from the recognised manufacturers own power consumption figures?

ADI Test results

I take it that no one including;
Nudenut, Mad Dog (Victoria), Scott_G, Wommy and Solar Panel

can explain WHY the ADI test report, in the Mad Dog (Victoria) posted link above, on fridge power consumption, are in some cases almost half the fridge manufactures own nominated power figures?

How can these test results be taken seriously, when there is such a huge difference in the numbers?

Everkool ......claim: 3.80 amp ....not... 1.90 amp as ADI averaged tested
Waeco ........claim: 3.75 amp ....not... 2.00 amp as ADI averaged tested
Engel ..........claim: 2.70 amp ....not... 1.60 amp as ADI averaged tested
ARB ............claim: 2.70 amp ....not... 1.60 amp as ADI averaged tested
Explorer ......claim: 3.00 amp ....not... 2.40 amp as ADI averaged tested
AutoFRIDGE claim: 24.00 amp ...not.. 16.25 amp as ADI averaged tested

I again restate the question:

Is the ADI test report .... wrong?
or
are ALL the FRIDGE Manufacturers .... wrong?

.

I own the 73 ltr Auto fridge, I think from memory similar in size to the 60 ltr Trailblazer. Lives in the back of the 100 series and use it on average once a fortnight for around 8-10hrs for shopping etc. Never had any problems thus far, have a friend with the 40ltr loves it.

Does take a while to cool down but when it is it's easy to keep cold, you might find you need to run it 3hrs in the morning and 3hrs in the afternoon depending on use in the top end. That said I find it a good fridge.

Regards Rob