3 Way Fridge

Gday Jim, good to hear you back, yes, they work well, a few years ago I bought one off an exploroz member down in your neck of the wood and you brought it up to the fwd /camping show at Penrith Panthers for me, it's still going strong.
Regards Keith.

Hi Jim. We had an 1180 way back in the 2000 s. Even with appropriate 12 V wiring it was a dog on 12 V but very efficient on 240 V and way too efficient on gas to the detriment of many a lettuce and tomato. Experience quickly taught us to shut it down overnight when using gas. We now have an Engel fridge/freezer combo which runs beautifully on 12 V and 240 V. We no longer require a gas option.
Happy camping. JW

My first fridge was a 3 way it done the job within reason but there a bit old school these days and as we know they just not good at maintaining a regular temp so you get items that freeze then thaw out and end up to warm so it can spoil before it's time. Your adjusting the thermostat a lot to suit where a compressor fridge is usually set and forget your food will stay fresher for longer kept at a consistent temp.

Fitting a few cheap solar panels to the roof of the canopy or using a fold up panel is usually enough to take care of power supply combined with a small 12v inline meter so you can check the battery level. Compressor fridges are also safer to sleep near with no need to worry about possible gas leaks for the bottle or hose in confined areas like a van or camper trailer so no need to spend extra for safety devices like a gas monitor or CO2 monitor. No need to prop up items around it to protect the flame from blowing out on windy days and no need to lift it out of the camper and set it up out side with it's gas bottle so you can sleep soundly at night.

If you stop somewhere and want to do some shopping or site seeing you have to put it back onto gas or risk flattening the battery if your away from the vehicle for to long so there is a lot more work involved in running a 3 way fridge which doesn't seam to add up when they are no where near as efficient at cooling.

Your set up looks good but I'm not sure why your compressor fridge was difficult to supply enough power to it. With it set up correctly you would have more time to relax and enjoy camping I have 2 fridges one running off a 170w panel the other on a 110w panel fixed to the canopy roof which takes care of my power needs. I have no need for a portable panel at the moment so I don't have anything extra to do but give the inside a clean out occasionally.

I have the same fridge and swear by it!

G’day Jim, it’s good of you to provide people with a suggestion for a viable alternative to the better known types of refrigeration. When I was driving company vehicles & couldn’t fit extra batteries etc, I used a 37 litre 3 way Finch fridge & it was great on gas, acceptable on 240v & just adequate on 12 volt.
Even now, not everybody can afford 12 volt fridges, extra batteries & isolators etc, etc.