fridge for camping 2way or 3?

Its a tough one......Its a cost now v cost in the future, If you are camping away from power of course you are going to need 12v or gas,

12v means you will need a second battery and a duel battery kit, so there is about $400 + about $1000 for a 50lt fridge 2way fridge

Gas, you can get a 3way for about $400 BUT they are no where near as efficient as a 2way, really need to put food in cold already and they have to be level to work on gas and I don't know how you go with fire bans and the pilot light on?

Gas is a cheap stop gap I think, and with kids open and shutting the fridge all day 12v is the way to go, its just the $$$$ that suck

Good luck

Hey Jude,

IMHO a lot of the decision on which system is better suited ( its a compromise) comes down to what style of camping/travelling you'll be doing, or see yourself doing.

I've got a 3 way in the cub, and 2 x 2ways (engel and an Evakool) I dont even take the 3 way unless I know I'm going to be in one place for several days.

I did a trip around the red centre 2 years ago, I took my time Stayed in all spots for 4-5 days, so the 3 way came into its own running on gas it was very cost effective.

I did a trip thru Qld from Bourke up to Longreach and back down from Emerald to St Goerge over 10 days not staying in the same place more then a night, My 2 ways worked well.

Its horses for courses.

Cheers Wilko

I don't want to get into the 2 way versus 3 way fridge argument. I am always camped in national parks or state forests away from power for a minimum of three days and so 3 way is my choice for running it on gas.
My latest fridge is a 3 way 45 litre that I purchased from EsiDirect for $330 delivered including hose and regulator. this is a really good price.
Have a look at http://www.esidirect.com.au/3-way-fridge-p/6131472668.htm
I haven't used it much yet but it seems to do the job nicely.
Enjoy !
Peter.

peter that 3way fridge is very cheap would be interested to see how it goes once you've used it more.

so I gather that for the go and stay for a week or so option gas is best and for the pack up and go frequently a 2nd battery options is easier.

Given that I drive a VP Commodore wagon at the moment and am not in the least mechanically minded - ok I do know how to check the oil/water and power steering fluid at least....so here are all the 'dumb' questions....

my understanding is that you hook a 'spare' battery up to the existing car battery and that it is charged as you drive. Where does the 'spare' battery go? are they easy to set up or is something I should get my mechanic mate to do?

without the cheapy version that Peter found - the 2 way may be the way to go in the short term it can get plugged in at caravan parks and in the car in transit and I can add the 2nd batter kit later.....I have time to think about it and without this forum I wouldn't have realised that a 2nd 12V battery was even an option - you guys are truly a wealth of information!

Jude

Hi Jude and the boys

I have a paranoia about gas fridges, and will not run a fridge on gas in a caravan or camper. The 12 v compressor fridges are economical, and can have the option of running on 240v for when mains power is available.

With our previous camper, we removed the 3 way and put in an upright Engel 12/240 the same size. You can't get that model now. It ran from one battery charged by an 80 w solar panel which we put out when we stopped.

Our current van has a Vitrifrigo, which are a 12/24 v fridge. They can have a rectifier fitted to run on 24 v from mains power. I think Waeco are the same arrangement. We fitted the rectifier and found problems with voltage loss as it had to be wired through the rectifier even if running on 12 v. It ran better on 12 v when we removed it. We still have the option of using a battery charger to top up the batteries if on mains power or generator if necessary.

We mainly bush camp and are independent.

Motherhen

I have an old Engel fridge which I was lucky enough to buy cheap on the second hand market; works a treat!
I have also an ALDI fridge (45lt) which runs best on gas but is useless on the 12V.The Aldi fridge was $500.00 and has been used on some rough tracks.
The thing to remember is that if you want to run it on gas it is advisable to have it cooled down on 240V prior in order to be most sufficient.
JS

3 way camping fridges rely on an absorption type system as it draws the hot air out of the cabinet to cool. 3 way fridges do not run a compressor like the 12v/24v/240v thus it takes about 24 hours to get the unit down to a working temp. 3 way fridges also need to be within 4 degrees of level in order to work effectively. you really need to way up how often and how long you will be going camping. the latest 12/24 and 240 volt fridges are really quite efficient on power consumption now. if they are run as a fridge they can draw as little as 1.5 amps an hour as they use a thermostat the fridge may not be running all day and it depends on how often you open the fridge .
the 12 volt side of the camping fridge basically draws 10 amps an hour as it normally has a 120 watt element fitted thus your battery would go flat if you tried running 12 volt while stopped for an extended period.
if it was my choice i would purchase the 12volt/24volt/240 volt fridge along with a 200 amp hour battery (second) which can be charged while driving and if you do intend camping for longer periods invest in a solar panel this can also give you power to run other items most of these fridges can be turned down to minus 18 degrees to become a freezer as well. i know slightly more expensive but a 60 litre camping fridge/freezer 3 way will cost about $1200-$1300 anyway. plus gas bottle, regulator, hose ..... i have found Eclipse Caravans to be very helpful www.eclipsecaravan.com they can be contacted by phone.

Hi Jude

Michael has given a good answer, both with details about power draw and about the need for being level.

My caravan fridge seems to run about 50% of the time - roughly three minutes on and three minutes off. Less on a cool night. We have travelled in the hotter areas more than in the cold.

When we camp, i am glad we don't have to worry about getting level. We see some other caravanners fiddling around trying to get level on sloping ground for their gas fridge. We just stop and our home is ready, and if only for one night(and we usually move every day), i don't care how much of a slope we are at so long as the pots don't slide off the stove and i don't fall out of bed.

Are you looking at an upright caravan fridge, or a 'car fridge' style such as an Engel? With top opening, the latter are more efficient that the upright fridges. If we were building a caravan from scratch, we would design two Engels on slide outs; one as a fridge and one as a freezer. The old Engels like we have are pretty well bomb proof, unlike modern caravan upright fridges with flimsy plastic internal fittings. We have one in the tow vehicle for lunches and drinks, or for when we camp away from the van, and another under the bed running as a freezer, as we only have a small caravan fridge with a next to useless flimsy little internal freezer box which i only use for light things like bread, and first aid ice pack.

Mh

Jude&theboys

Fridges are expensive to get working reliably in a car. Much more expensive than the posts on this forum often suggest. Some will tell you how cheap it is to do this and that and others will advise a list of "Must Have" gear that would bankrupt a millionaire. Like all things the truth is somewhere in between.

A dual battery setup (even if there is space for it in your wagon) can cost over $1,000. There is the battery, isolator, wiring and other stuff. It can be done cheaper but most people use an auto electrician to fit them and they do have to charge for their time. Doubt many auto electricians would charge much under $1,200.

Then there is the fridge. Prices range from under $1,000 to around $2,500 mostly under $1,500. So going this way you would be looking at $2,000 or more, half on the fridge and half on the dual battery setup.

A fridge with dual battery is only going to be good for a day or two if the vehicle is parked. Ice boxes can do that and more. It becomes prohibitively expensive to go down the route of solar panels, extra batteries and generators to get extra days out of the fridge. Much easier to plan to run out of fridge and have stuff that does not need refrigeration for those days.

I don't think gas powered fridges are at all suited to vehicle based camping - just my opinion.

You may well be better to get something like a Waeco 40 litre fridge (under $1,000 just) and a wiring upgrade in the vehicle ($200?) by an auto electrician but not the dual battery. Run it on 240 volt at the van parks. When gong away to National Parks for a few days leave the fridge behind and take an ice box instead, something like a Coleman 55L Cooler or similar at something under $200. Or just get the ice box and forget the fridge.

We have a 'normal' 3 way fridge in the van, plus an Engel in the vehicle. I really like the option to use gas when in standing camp away from power, so this seems to favour the 3-way absorption choice. However, our 3-way is totally incapable of lowering the temperature to a safe level when the ambient temperature is high. So, if the ambient is around the old century, and the inside of the van is in the 40's, then we can forget about holding the inside of the Electrolux/Dometic fridge below the mid teens!!
Reasons? often the fridge built in to a van is NOT a tropical rated unit, and so is not even desigbned for the job. Second, fridges are often not installed right. Third, they often need a sunshade for the outside (ie the back of the fridge). I don't know about free-standing 3-ways.
The Engel has the disavantages others have mentioned, and we have two storage batteries in parallel to cope with bush and desert camps (not with the van!!). The Engel seems to cope, full stop, as long as there's power, even when it's hot.
So, at Christmas, we had to abandon trying to use the van fridge, and rely on the Engel for all our frozen and cold food storage.
There are many threads on this site bemoaning the inability of many if not most absorption fridges to handle normal Oz summer conditions.
Hope this helps.