Official FRIDGE Thread (5 Viewers)
- Thread starter RoughOne
- Start date
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Anyone seen discounts on the NL, ARB or the like?
Rare, I trolled for 1.5 years and finally found a 2021 engel mt45 for 700 used but it was in great condition.
FWIW while waiting for an opportunity I purchased a $350 dollar aspenora 42 qt and it works, draws a hair more power and the lid & body are plastic so direct sun will wreck them, I had to heat and flatten the lid, lesson learned but the fridge works fine and is a third the cost or better.
FWIW while waiting for an opportunity I purchased a $350 dollar aspenora 42 qt and it works, draws a hair more power and the lid & body are plastic so direct sun will wreck them, I had to heat and flatten the lid, lesson learned but the fridge works fine and is a third the cost or better.
I'm looking to pick up a National Luna fridge. I've got a family of 3. My plan is to keep it in my vehicle full time in my Trekboxx. I've already got a second battery system wired up (100Ah LiFePO4 w/ DC-DC charger). It will be used for camping trips but mostly for around town (snacks, grocery shopping). I'm trying to decide on a 72L or a 90L, both dual compartment (my son asked for ice cream on the trail). Both have the same outer dimensions. Both are wildly overkill for my needs, but I have the space thanks to the Trekboxx. I currently have a Coleman ice chest strapped in there (62Qts/58L). It is just on the small side for grocery shopping and with ice, much less space.
- Does anyone have any thoughts on the 72 versus the 90?
- Any data showing that the decreased insulation (60mm vs 42mm) is a huge loss in cooling capability?
- I see that the fridge has an interesting 12V plug, but it looks like its standard Anderson PowerPoles? The rest of the plug looks to be the proprietary plastic mold, but am I correct on power plugs being PowerPoles? If so, I'd just fashion my own cable with PowerPoles and a spiral cord.
I have a 75L fridge, and even as a single person I could go bigger if I was off grid for more than a few days. Having said I lose one compartment to a freezer section, so the effective refrigeration section is only small.
Do you have panels to keep your battery topped up? If you have panels, then a lot of the discussion disappears because you dont have to worry about efficiency. You can go bigger fridge with thinner insulation, because the compressor will run more, but who cares. Yes the compressor may have a shorter life, but were talking years of life still, and the NL are very easy to do a compressor swap if I recall.
If you dont have panels, or an appetite to install panels, then I would go smaller because you want to minimise the compressor run time.
I wouldn't under estimate the convenience of having the fridge available full time. I use it on a nearly daily basis, and where I am for work now is a 1hr drive to do my big weekly shop. So it gets a constant workout. I was a bit hesitant to get a fridge at first since it was a decent amount of cash. So I got a cheapie Kickass fridge as a trial, and 2yrs later its been one of the best additions. It cops an absolute flogging in the tray, and on 24/7, but still marches on. It will die one day, and when it does I'll be spending proper money for a decent fridge because its that handy.
FrazzledHunter
SILVER Star
My $.02. We've tent camped for 3 years with a fridge/freezer and a 100Ah battery. If it's dual zone and you have the room and ability to keep your battery charged I'd go 90L for a family of 3. Make sure each zone is configurable in case you want the whole thing one giant fridge or freezer.
We have a Dometic 75L dual zone AND WE LOVE IT. My wife and I camp and we use every bit of 75L on a week long camping trip. It can be configured so a zone is either a freezer or a refrigerator. On average it takes 50 Wh/h so our 100Ah-1500W/h Goal zero 1500X can run it for 18-24 hrs - this is actual experience. (you don't ever want to run your battery flat) What we find particularly handy is the freezer and it surprised us. No more OMG the hamburger is going bad or OMG we have to eat all these hotdogs. We pack frozen stuff in a modular way so that only the minimum amount needs to be thawed. If the packages are flat they will thaw very quickly in the field.
E.g.
- Get a 2 or 4 lb package of burger, cut the meat in quarters or eighths while still in the package and on the styrofoam, flatten it, put it all in ziplocs and freeze it. Then at camp break off what you need and leave the rest frozen.
- Same with eggs: break eggs into a ziploc, lay them flat and freeze them either scrambled or whole.
- If scrambled, add diced onions, peppers and mushrooms for an instant omelet!
- Do not forget the Klondike bars. The envious looks from the other campers makes it worth it all by itself.
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whisky
SILVER Star
I picked up a new Igloo ICF 80DZ from Costco a few weeks ago prior to a trip to Big Bend NP. That left me scrambling for a battery setup which I also purchased through Costco.com. I just winged it and bought the EcoFlow River 2 Pro through the promotional deal for much less than what's listed on the EcoFlow site. I added a Renogy flexible 100 Watt panel to recharge the battery while I was backpacking. For the trip everything worked as anticipated. It would've been much better to have the panel installed on top of the truck in a semi-permanent fashion, but I was able to recharge via DC while driving and then pull the panel out when parked to top up the battery. Time will tell on the durability of the cooler. It's got Dometic guts so I expect that part will be fine. It isn't made as robustly as the CFX series Dometics or more overland focused brands. If I were in less of a rush I might have bought the battery/tri-fold panel bundle through Costco rather than mount one to the camper top on my Tacoma.
Eventually I plan to try and build a small drawer with a slide sitting on top that can be swapped from my FJ43 to my Tacoma bed if I want to cruise around with cold beverages when I'm not camping.
Costcoverlanding equipment list:
Igloo ICF 80DZ
Battery
Solar Panel
Extension Cables
Solar Adapter
Eventually I plan to try and build a small drawer with a slide sitting on top that can be swapped from my FJ43 to my Tacoma bed if I want to cruise around with cold beverages when I'm not camping.
Costcoverlanding equipment list:
Igloo ICF 80DZ
Battery
Solar Panel
Extension Cables
Solar Adapter
Two points:
1. If you are looking for a dometic, now is the time at REI with thier 30% off Memorial day sale.
2. I was concerned about camping in bear territory (hereafter known as "Bearritory") in a national forest with my dometic fridge in my LC, so I googled it. I found a national park service publicantion that says this is okay but you have to cover the fridge so a bear can't see it. I find this to be funny/awesome and helpful.
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5344052.pdf
1. If you are looking for a dometic, now is the time at REI with thier 30% off Memorial day sale.
2. I was concerned about camping in bear territory (hereafter known as "Bearritory") in a national forest with my dometic fridge in my LC, so I googled it. I found a national park service publicantion that says this is okay but you have to cover the fridge so a bear can't see it. I find this to be funny/awesome and helpful.
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5344052.pdf
I would not recommend dometic fridges, at least not their cfx3 line. Either spend the money for a premium brand like NL or engel, or just go cheap and save some cash.
FrazzledHunter
SILVER Star
I absolutely would recommend Dometic cfx3's. Have had great luck with our 75L dual zone.
I’m pretty happy with my Dometic 75 CFX3. (Though I wish I would have gone a size smaller).
But I don’t have any direct experience other than this one fridge freezer.
Why do you say Dometic is not recommendable?
Based on my own experience with their fridge. When it works it's a great fridge, but it does have a lot of bugs/glitches that make it unreliable. And these problems aren't uncommon but Dometic doesn't do anything to resolve them so the consumer is left to find their own solutions. What really turned me off was they had a known fire hazard with their fridge when plugging into 12V/120V and instead of providing a fix Dometics response was to slap a sticker on the fridge telling you not to do that.
WARNING :: Dometic CFX3 cooler units - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/warning-dometic-cfx3-cooler-units.1219723/
If it were a cheap fridge I could probably tolerate a lot of minor annoyances. If their customer support was better, or even existed, it might not be as frustrating. But when you have an unreliable fridge at a near premium price with no support, then I don't see a reason to stick with them. It's not like Dometic offers anything unique, there are plenty of competitors with a similar product. I just think for a little more money you could get a much better fridge or a lower quality fridge at a much cheaper price.
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See my post above somewhere. My kids use Dometic’s in those commercial food service business. They now have two CFX3 95’s, one CFX3 100, and one CFX3 55IM and have used them way harder then almost anyone will for camping/personal use. Their original 95 and 55 are going on six years old.
The CFX3 is rock solid in our experience.
I will admit that Iceco will not ship to Alaska and if they did (with free shipping) we probably would have initially went with iceco instead of Dometic due to cost.
In reading through this, the issue is when the fridge is connected to 120v and 12v at the same time. I’ve never had any of ours connected to both at the same time.
FrazzledHunter
SILVER Star
I forgot about this. But even though I would probably never connect 120AC and 12VDC it's pretty lame on Dometic's part to not have handled/anticipated this in their design. I mean, I can see how it could easily happen.
So I think that's valid point as far as that goes. Now as to whether Dometic has greater service issues relative to Engel or NL who knows. All I think you'll get is anecdotal evidence.
I called their tech support once and had great service.
I do it all the time with my ARB. Before a trip I like to pre cool the fridge overnight on 120, then unplug and drive away, 12V already plugged in and ready to roll. Never gave it a second thought.
I do the same with my National Luna to save the battery for the trip, except when the outside temp is below freezing. Stocking the fridge the night before leaving makes sense. Also plugging in both to use the 12v as a back up in other configurations that use shore power as the main source is not uncommon.
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I run the following fridges
National Luna 60 dual
Iceco 60 dual
Engel 45
IndelB 35
The National Luna is my favorite and lives in the 80 series. The Iceco is my least favorite and is in the trailer. Others in our daily drivers.
National Luna 60 dual
Iceco 60 dual
Engel 45
IndelB 35
The National Luna is my favorite and lives in the 80 series. The Iceco is my least favorite and is in the trailer. Others in our daily drivers.
I've done the same thing for all my other frides. Plug the fridge to 120 a few days or a week ahead to pre chill, then start packing food over the week so I'm not in a rush to pack everything right before I leave. I also plug into 120 after a trip when I'm just too tired to unpack so I can leave my stuff in the fridge indefinitely or until I'm not feeling lazy.
To make things easier I ran a "shore power" plug into the rear bumper area so I can have the fridge running off 120 without running the extension cord in the door. When I unplug it would automatically switch over to 12V.
It's possible that Dometic has a larger market share than the others which is why it seems they have more complaints. But from casual observation it does seem that ARB, Engel, or NL have above average customer service, whereas Dometic is hit or miss. I have e-mailed their support a couple times before and never received a reply, luckily it was an issue that was resolved through some searching.
I did use my Dometic this past weekend and it performed flawlessly over 3 days. If it continues to work as advertised I may eventually change my mind and begin recommending their products, although the whole 12V/120V switching is still an annoyance.
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Land Shark
SILVER Star
To pile on here. My ARB (14yo) and ICECO (1 yo) have lived in a vehicle and always connected to 12v and I periodically plug in to shore power to conserve running my house battery down and recharging. Never once had an issue with the ARB and to date (albeit a short time) the ICECO hasn't either. These fridges are and should be designed to not have that issue when using shore power while connected to 12v.
