Chescold 3 way fridges

Drew the issue is not the 12vDC, it is the bouncing up and down of the Chescold that causes the system to flood and consequently fails to cool.
240vAC, Gas and 12vDC all have the same cooling capacity. However, the thermostat is not operational on 12vDC

There is really no way to overcome this. This is not an issue on Electrolux fridges as the absorbtion units are higher and consequently don't flood. You may find, if you place a towel/similiar over the aluminium cooling fins, it will usually stay colder than running it on the 12vDC, dependent on how much you have in the Chescold. When the fridge is flooded, you are inclined to actually loose cold out through the aluminium cooling plates.
If you have a thermometer on the Chescold, pull it down to around 2C to 3C the night before the day you travel, and everything should stay cold enough during the day while travelling with no 12vDC connected and a towel tucked over the aluminium cooling fins.
Here is a demonstration on how absorbtion works and will give you a better insight into how your Chescold floods.
It is slow so watch it:
http://www.dometic.com/node882.asp

Drew you really need to double that 6mm cable to 12mm. 6mm is just not enough to cut it with battery charging and fridge. Even to charge the battery 6mm is a tad undersize.

Type in fridges in search on this forum,no need for dates,best way to increase performance on chescold on 12 volt is air flow / computer fan extracting hot air,simple and cheap,can increase performance so an all fridge actually freezes on the move in vehicle 40c ambient temp.

Drew..I have travelled with a Chescold freezer in the back of our wagon for some years now...I just plug it into the cig lighter socket...get it frozen first of course...works like a charm...some may say that this is the wrong way of doing it ..but it has worked o.k. for me and my auto electrician says its o.k....so...who am I to argue

Drew
We have a chescold 3 way fridge which we carry in the back of the Jackaroo rather than the trailer. I got the local TJM outlet to run a wire directly from the battery to the back of the vehicle which, of course, plugs straight into the fridge. I'm not technically minded so I can't tell you what size wire they ran but these particular blokes know their stuff so I believe it was of appropriate size.

We put frozen thermal ice packs in the fridge just as we leave and have no problems with keeping everything cold. Without the ice packs it does not operate efficiently. At the end of the day, I don't believe this sought of fridge is designed to run efficiently on 12V while on the move or stationery. Regardless of what the manufacturer says, I believe they are really 2 way fridges, 240v or gas.

Our first job at the end of a days travelling is to hook the fridge up to gas on which it works brilliantly.

Drew, I took a Chescold "explorer" (fridge/freezer model) away with me for 2 mths thru Alice etc and it worked very well on 12V in v. hot conditions.

I had a heavy duty wire direct off the battery ( as the book suggests) and it did the job whilst travelling on reasonable roads - had it open and closing over 8 hour days with a Tandy thermometer hooked up and it hovered around 2 degrees after that time in 35 degree temps - the wiring is important but if it is not the freezer model which draws 10A from memory, I believe they are not much value on either 12V or gas in temps greater than 35 degrees.

As for a bouncy trailer, I have not idea but my 4WD did a lot of bouncing on corrugated roads and the fridge actually performed better than expected.

Well despite all the crap being thrown around here, I would like to add my own experience to the pile. 5 years ago (August) I went to Cape York for 4 weeks in Vitara SWB. I owned a Chescold 38L Fridge at the time, which I took with me. Up till that time, I has very happy with the unit. It had performed well in most conditions.

In Carins, all my meat was cryovac'd, about 8 days worth. After driving for 2 days I came to the conclusion the fridge was not keeping anything cold during the day. In fact, my thermometer was showing the temperature getting up to 16C inside the fridge during the day. From this, you would have to conclude it was working at bit, but not enough. Despite running it on gas overnight each day (??) to bring the temp down again, next day it would get warm again. By the end of the 4th day, the rest of my meat had gone off, despite the cryovac.

After that trip, I sold the fridge and bought a 40L engel. Great fridge. Sold that 4 months ago because it wasd too heavy and bought a 25L Waeco. Also a great fridge.

Thats my experience.

MikeF

I had a chescold fridge/freezer that I tried to run on 12 volts with the vehicle moving but had no sucess at all. Running it on gas as a trial with the vehicle moving showed very little cooling effect too. In the evenings I would set up the fridge on the level ( using a spirit level!) By morning the beers and stuff would be icey cold. Running the unit about 12 hours a day was fine for me. Gas consumption was about 4kg a week.

and the conclusion is was ozi right or wrong

Yes, many interesting comments. I have an Explorer Chescold and you have all missed the most important thing.
Before heading off any where on a trip TURN THE FRIDGE UPSIDE DOWN TWO DAYS BEFORE YOU ARE LEAVING. Then turn it on and it works like a charm.
I have a Commodore Station Wagon and have it wired to the back with a cut off wired in the ignition (No more flat batteries). After the upside down trick the Chescold works great on 12V and extremely well on gas as well as 240V. The movement of the car does not worry it all and it stays nice and cold on the 12V while travelling (Sometimes up to 12 hours, including rest stops).
I went camping last weekend and each day was 44 Degrees and the Chescold never missed a beat. Admittedly it was on gas during this heat.
My unit is only three years old.
I am not knocking any of the others as I have not tried them but this fat duck is more than happy with his Chescold. (Don't forget to turn it upside down before each use).
Don't forget guys that free homebrewed beer still stands if you see the "Country Brewer" Station Wagon in your travels.

phone my camping shop and ask about the fridge and he tell me to phone service at dometci at melbourne and they say if to rough fridge will not get properly cold and try sit north south make better perhaps than sit east west
truckster thepublican egg and mud on face i think you make apology hey