Club 80-90 Forums

Need a fridge for my campervan (just a space in the unit now!) and need some advice. I have seen some as low as £240 but the majority seem to be £400+. Do you get what you pay for or is £240 fine? I have also seen some say how quiet they are so are some really noisy? We want to buy a front door one, not a fridge box and want it to run on electric battery and hook up.
Any advice gratefully received.

Used Three way fridges are silent because there are no moving parts.
They use gas, 12v or 230v.
These are called absorption fridges and are the most common in campers.
At VW shows good ones fetch £60 or so.

unless you want new?

That's true, but if you don't want a gas one (because of vents, etc), then you need a compressor fridge, which runs off electric - 12 or 240v. Thing is, they are not cheap - those are the £400 ones you saw. They are a bit more mobile, mind - they can be lifted in and out of the van.

and the waeco and similar compressor fridges are the way to go...........................if you have the £££££
mm

metalmick8y wrote:and the waeco and similar compressor fridges are the way to go...........................if you have the £££££
mm

i'll second that, well worth the money and in reality not that disimilar to a new 3 way fridge in price.

I've used both but I have to say that ultimately I favour the 3 way absorption over the compressor type. Like the option of gas and the fact that they are absolutely silent.
Each to their own though.....

1664 wrote:I've used both but I have to say that ultimately I favour the 3 way absorption over the compressor type. Like the option of gas and the fact that they are absolutely silent.
Each to their own though.....

And from what I understand absorbtion fridges are quite power hungry needing either large battery capacity and/or stirling chargers etc if you intend to camp for more than a few days without hook up, which adds a lot more to the cost.

shepster wrote:

1664 wrote:I've used both but I have to say that ultimately I favour the 3 way absorption over the compressor type. Like the option of gas and the fact that they are absolutely silent.
Each to their own though.....

And from what I understand absorbtion fridges are quite power hungry needing either large battery capacity and/or stirling chargers etc if you intend to camp for more than a few days without hook up, which adds a lot more to the cost.

That's the point of the gas option; you're not meant to (or be able to) use the 12v operation unless the engine is running and the alternator is supplying the power. I think the power consumption of an absorption fridge is about 100W and the compressor is about 35W(??) so the compressor fridges still consume a fair amount of electric when running but switch in and out as required by the thermost. Dunno how long you can run them off a strandard leisure battery without starting the van or switching to 240v but they're not quite the god's gift to wild camping everybody thinks.
Gas consumption is next to nothing and leaves all your leisure battery for other equipment, which is one of the reasons it gets my vote

it's another one of those things isn't it, all depends on the users needs and wants. To answer your how long question.. i have 160AH of leisure battery. i have stayed in one spot for 3 days with the fridge plugged in and had no problems. that inc chargers for kids stuff, lights in the evening ect. With the ebber running that time will decrease obviously..
The 3 way fridge i had in my komet worked fine. Its just that when you visit warmer climes (which i do) the 3 way fridge does not perform that well and your food does not last. The compressor fridge will maintain a colder temp. They do make a noise though, basically the same as your fridge at home, so not too bad, but some people will be annoyed by it.
For me it was a no brainer, i had no fridge, or room for a fitted one. Coolbox was the only sensible option, and the only type i could leave plugged in all the time was a compressor coolbox. I did also get myself a sterling, to help with quick recharging..

My three way Dometic will make ice and maintain 0°c on all three modes with ambient temps in excess of 30°c

( obviously being a front opening fridge the more you open the door affects the temp rather than a chest type )
It costs almost nothing to run from the underfloor gas tank, absolutely nothing from the 12v and about £3 a night on HU .

As long as it is working as it should an absorbtion fridge will cope perfectly well in warmer climes. I've had to turn mine off because it froze salad veggie type shyte that wasn't even in the freezer compartment whilst driving on 12v. Both absorption and compressor types perform perfectly adequately; just your preference on the power supply that tips the balance in choice - I prefer gas since I'm no more likely to run out of that than petrol; leccy on the other hand is a bit more precious as my leisure is in essence a starter battery although that is still enough for my needs.

I fitted a Weaco compressor fridge in the T4 I had, didn't last a night and that was on a 110 amp leisure battery.

As the others have said, 3 way is fine, particularly on gas providing the vans fairly level cheap to run and the ice box on mine has never struggled on hot days.

New Kentish Campers wrote:As the others have said, 3 way is fine, particularly on gas providing the vans fairly level cheap to run and the ice box on mine has never struggled on hot days.

My 3 way isn't much cop on gas. Does anyone know of a place I could take it to be serviced and check? Live in east sussex.... near Brighton. Cheers.