Improving the effeciency of a Chescold 3way fridge

With a bit of thought and commonsense wildbill I think they are the best option for camping . I am very fussy person and always looking to improve everything where I can and the mods ive made to this fridge of mine are bloody fantastic. If you like investing in solar panels and aux batteries then fine ..........some of us enjoy the peace and quiet of camping and without the need for panels and extra stuff to run a fridge....ps they dont have a compressor

Wildbill,

I could not agree LESS
My three way has given excellent service including 5 weeks in SA deserts where it (the frideg) was never hotter than -10C on 12 V all day and gas each night.

Thing is you need to
1. Get it cold
2. Keep it as full as possible with COLD stuff
3. Dont be in and out of it every three seconds

Compressor fridges are great but the three way is a usefull alternative for those who wat to use gas

Disagree with you Wildbill... its been a fantastic fridge to date and as mentioned above its great to be able to run it on gas and not have to worry about power whether its 240 or 12v but its only weakness is the time it takes to drop the temp right down to where you want it.
But each to his own..

Hey Rosco.........the reason why I have endeavored to improve my fridge is that it does seem to drop off in performance at 30deg. After improving the insulation in particular it has definitely made a massive improvement. It appears to me that the main difference between the fridge and the freezer is the insulation. It wasn't hard to make an improvement . I was told the main difference between the finch fridge and the f400 freezer is the insulation and now have to agree. Until I seen the results for myself I wouldnt have believed using polystyrene to cover it on the outside would have had such a great effect.......guess it is all makes sense really

cheers

PM

Been there, done that, with both fan and extra insulation. All helps but at the end of the day there's no comparison. So I figure there's more to the freezer jobs than these aspects.

The old Gaselec had no additional add-ons in this regard and the insulation was no thicker, so I can only assume the system was different in some way.

Cheers

Evening Rosco .. thanks for the feedback. But the Chescold type is called a fridge / freezer with a divider you can slide in so you can seperate the fride area from the freezer area. We use it with out the divider so it keeps the liquid gold as cold as we dare with out freezing it (which I did last Xmas camping down at Potatoe point and had to thaw it back out before it burst - lost a couple ) . But we often find the milk and softdrink (only for the kids... honest ) often have a large portion of ice if w'ere not careful about how we pack it.

That's one of the sadest things I've ever heard...

Your quote > "... lost a couple"

I am sorry for your loss.

The sooner we get this fridge debarko sorted out the better for us all.

:-)

Boo, if there is anything I can do...

I find 12v just as good as 240v if you use heavy wire and get rid of the ciggy plug cheers

Hi pixiemops, OK on the heavy wiring and ciggy plugs. I have the wiring to the rear fused and direct from the dual battery, for the fridge etc, in some heavy duty clear covering cable that tricky dicky sells for speaker wiring. Not sure of the guage but it is huge. I use Arrid plugs and sockets for the fridge and any other things that go into the aux. wiring. They seem to offer no resistance, read heat build up, like the ordinary ciggy plug and socket.

I still had a problem when out bush on 12 volts with the Chescold with the battery voltage dropping to an unaceptable level overnight (flat ! !). The dual battery is only a 75AH deep cycle so at about 8 Amps for the Chescold with a fully charged battery you could only expect a bit over 9 hours running.

With the new engel at 2.5 intermittent draw I do not have a problem and can leave the fridge in the vehicle all the time.

GeeTee

true Colin like comparing apples and oranges ......they are both liked and disliked and both good in different situations......cheers .....