Dual Zone vs single zone Mobile fridges

I have had a chezcold fridge/freezer three way for 20 years

luv it

used it as all fridge during the Xmas season at home

used it a fridge/ freezer when camping

Get a National Luna dual zone and you will never have to worry abou tthe combination of zones ever again. I have a 74l firdge with a 34l and a 40 l compartment with seperate doors, and it is the best fridge I have ever owned or seen. It uses about 60% of the power of a Engel 40l or Waeco 50l and I can independently set the temperature of the two zones. I use one at 1 degree for icy beer and drinks and some meat, and the other at 7 degrees for fresh vegies and general food / cheese etc. Though you can set the 2 zones in any combination of temps inc freeze and fridge or even off.

The problem with most 2 zones is that you need to have one zone as a freezer which uses 3 times the power and forces you to plan at the beginning of the day. ( and it is hard to pack / unpack) and hard to tell what the frozen food is. Cryovac food with non freezing is the best option for any trip up to about 2 months duration.

Also IMHO avoid the 80l Waeco at all costs as it sucks an average of 3.5A of power and will never properly cool the far end.

I have a 40L Engels with Two Zone and am now happy after modifying it with a fan. Here is a link to my original Two Zone thread that describes the temperature differences with and without the modification.

Here is a pic of the fan in the Two Zone.

Cheers

Captain

Got one of the older 80lt Waeco,s, now coming onto 5yrs , running as freezer + fridge , avg power usage over the 5 yrs = out at 63 amp hrs per 24 hrs . freezer temp -18c to -15c gives a fridge section temp of +2c to + 4c , dairy section at those temps = + 5c to + 8c ,,,, if I was to replace I would go for 2x fridges in the 40/50lt range and run 1 as freezer and the other as fridge ,would give a greater flexabillity ,,,,
one of the quirks of the Big Waeco 80/110 lts is that even more power per 24hrs is required when run as all fridge.

Mel,

Have a look at the Bushman. 35 litre that comes with two "collars" that allow it to extend up to 45 or 52 litres.

Cheers,

Jim.

Re my question about pros and cons of single and dual zone fridges; Thanks to all who responded with their experiences and advice. After thinking through our setup and needs and looking carefully at the optional models we settled in favour of the Waeco CF60 which had a much larger heat exchange surface in the fridge chest than the dual zone CF50DZ. We felt this ought to be more efficient at heat exchange. We reasoned on long trips we would best run the Waeco as a freezer and we could use an existing coolbox chilled with ice packs frozen in the Waeco for fruit & veg & beer. On short trips we would use it as a fridge.