Chescold 3 way fridge lifespan?

Hi Young_codger,
We have a 50lt Chescold that's about, at a guess over ten years old now, it's the grey one. Just recently had the jet and thermostat replaced and it works like a new one. Might have to replace the door seal soon, it's gone a bit hard. On gas, give it 36 hours and it will freeze a two lt jug of water solid. We've had ours for about two years now. Brought at a garage sale for $250 and spent close to $400 on it now. That's still half of what they are new.
It keeps two adults and three kids going for well over a week, that's about as long as we go for,we're very happy with it.
Hope to get quite a few more years out of it yet.
Hope this helps.

Hi Young _codger
I am not able to give any advise on how long the Chestcold will last.
Like anything that is man made, there will always be even the best product made that will suffer from some sort of problem. Where I work, we have had customers come in with Engel fridges that are over 30 years old and still running as they have just been purchased.
The only reason why they have updated is for a larger fridge.When asked what they will be doing with their old fridge, they say that they would not part with them for all the money in the world. I will not get into the debate about brand X is better than brand Y, but like I have said before, you don't survive for over 40 years on the Australian market if you are not the best and you only get what you pay for.

Cheers

Stephen

Gooday to you and we had one for around 18 years and had to replace the 240 volt element at around the 15 year mark. In the end it just slowly became inefficient.

not a chescold but a finch 3 way. (pretty similar)
ours lasted over 20 years. it ran 24x7 eiher on 12v, gas or 240 at home.
it finally died due to my stupidity of having it on gas at to large an angle in the back of a ute. it got reserected several times with the invert and shake method but eventually succombed :(

they are different to a compressor fridge and require that you think and plan what you are doing.
i modified ours years ago by using the 240v thermostat to switch a relay on 12V ( basically used 240v socket ( not a plug ) to connect to the 240v lead from the fridge and used the 240v circuit via a transistor to switch a relay for the 12v ). it did make a difference to current consumption on 12v but it still chewed the power.
also made a cover from 1" styrene around the sides and a lid. often in a vehicle i'd place a pillow over the lid to provide further insulation. you could feel the temperature difference between the lid and the pillow.
also had a 12v fan for when it was on 240 or 12v ( small 12v transformer for the fan when on 240v ).

i paid nearly two weeks wages when i bought it but an engel was more than double the price of the finch and i couldn't afford it.
i think i got my money's worth :)

I have purchased 4 engels over the last 18 years..All are still working perfectly and two of them (the other 2 are recent purchases) have been bush and bounced over the roughest terrain in the hottest and harshest conditions and performed flawlessly

I wont make any negative comment on the Chescold other than to pass the observation that you are not comparing "apples with apples" and that comment refers to the fact that the chescold being a 3 way fridge works on a different cooling principle

In other words on 12 volt their power consumption is significantly higher than the Engel and that is a very important point to take into account when away for extended periods and relying on 12 volt...........That issue pertains to all 3 way fridges not simply the Chescold

Decide your operating conditions and where you may use the fridge in the future...how much battery capacity you have now or may need to have if relying on 12 v.......they all have their positives and negatives...horses for courses

cheers

Bought our Chescold 3 way new in 1992. Still working fine. Have had it regassed 2 or 3 times and replaced an element once. It has been very heavily used, under some pretty tough conditions. Has travelled in back of vehicle for approx 200,000km. However, we do not use it on 12V, just on gas or 240.

My old man has had his for about 20 years.

I have had one for approx 20yrs still as new sits on rear deck at home in rain and sun.

As you asked how long engles last i dont know ,BUT my everkool has been repaired 4 times in about 7 years including new compressor ,new electrics etc but what is really scary is that when i droipped it into repairers,once in Alice and twice in sydney each repairer had a MASSIVE number of compressor fridges of various types that had failed.

had mine for 20 years ,

replaced the 12V plug with something more substantial