Roamers: Fridge Decision

I have a an upright Novacool compressor fridge with Danfoss compressor. Doing it over again, I would go with a chest style fridge like National Luna or others, They use almost a 1/3 to 1/2 the power of my upright for same amount of space, so they are more efficient, the other is, and it may have to do with where mine is mounted but if I am driving off road bumpy roads or mountain twisty turning roads, all the contents seem to slide around and go all over the place unless the fridge is packed completely full.

Edit: also in the tropics I get a lot of frost build up with my upright fridge, and runs a lot too. I think a chest style fridge would be more efficient in that environment, with less frost build up. (I have a fridge/freezer combo)
 

Daystar

Member
Floor plan can accept either at this point. My wife likes the idea of upright because of the digging thing, but to me there is still a single row in the front that has to be moved to get to the back of the fridge stuff. Good point on the soft soft squish. Do any of the bigger chest style have lift out baskets?
Isotherm has baskets in their chest
 

DanAzon

Active member
Been watching the forum for several months. You all look like a great bunch that are willing to share ideas; and there are a lot of great ideas!

Read several strings on refrigerators and plenty of great input on brands, reliability, problems, installation, etc. Trying to decide between upright and chest style. Will probably have separate freezer and fridge because the smaller can be used either as a freezer or a wine cooler. Pretty sure the smaller will be chest type (as long as a wine bottle will stand up in it.) For the mainly used as fridge bigger we are undecided. Regardless of style, will probably be Engel or another higher end brand. I like the idea of not having to kneel to access a chest type (our design limits an upright to floor level).

For those that have chest type, why wouldn't you switch to upright? For those that have upright, why wouldn't you switch to chest style. For those that have used both, which do you prefer?

Thanks! Round 1 of many "Roamers Decision" strings! Followed by a build string that will be not nearly as good as many of yours.
Presently I don't have a fridge in my sprinter, I have not got that far in the build. I do like the ideas presented in this article; https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/12v-fridges.html
I am pretty sure I will be going with the dorm room fridge freezer up right. I don't plan on going bouncing down pot holed washed out dirt tracks. If the thing fails I will just roll down the the nearest wally world put my mask on and go in and get a replacement for a $150-$200, and if I'm lucky and my two or three year warranty has not run out the replacement will be FREE. I can do that 10+ times before I run up a $1400 bill for the 3 way or dual zone 12 volt outback models. Now if I was wandering in a third world country or downunder. I might think differently. My plans aren't to be too far afield and right here in what use to be the good old USA the land of plenty wally world should be well stocked. Come November if sleepy Joe and the squad take over I'm probably going to be preparing for end times so the third world or down under models might become more of a necessity. I'm a half full guy so there's that. Then there is the China trade war and none of these items will be in plentiful supply. Did I just say I was a half full guy?
 

Graphite Dave

Dave Orton
Before choosing whatever fridge model, find out where the compressor and more importantly the finned or coil condenser is located. Some upright fridges have the finned condenser at the bottom, some have the finned condenser on the top, some have the coil condenser covering the back of fridge.

Whatever the location, you'll want good airflow.

Also, decent access to vacuum/clean the condenser periodically. For finned condensers, many have a small fan to blow air onto the condenser or to pull air over the condenser. Finned condensers with a fan are more efficient in space than the coil type condensers.

Another consideration is easy access for repair. If the entire fridge is easily removable, that'd be a plus.
In Sprinter build I had a 80 liter Dometic with the coil condenser on the back of the refrigerator. For the current Transit build I bought a 85 liter Vitrifrigo because it had a better door latch, one additional door shelf and a much larger freezer compartment. The freezer compartment is larger because the compressor is located at the bottom back instead of at the top back so freezer compartment is much deeper.

The condenser is not a coil on the back but is a small radiator with a fan just like a chest type. Both refrigerators were installed with extra rigid insulation on sides, top and bottom. Vitrifrigo also has 2" of closed cell foam installed on the back of the refrigerator since it does not have a coil condenser on the back. Did have to provide a vent hole on left side of the cabinet where the radiator is located.

My builds both use 1% of my 255 amp-hr Lifeline AGM capacity overnight with the refrigerator off. Both build have the same battery. With the Dometic refrigerator my SOC in the morning was 93%. With the Vitrifrigo the SOC in the morning is 95%. Same size refrigerator, about the same extra insulation and same size and brand of compressor. Only difference is the type of condenser. So my conclusion is the reason a chest type is said to be more efficient is the condenser design and not due to a top or front opening door.

Besides easier access to the refrigerator contents with a front opener is the ability to add additional insulation around the refrigerator.

Believe the old theory of cold air falling out of the front opener was documented as false in a post somewhere on this site to prove that it is an old wives tale. If it was true I could put a bucket under the door to collect the cold air and pour it back in the top before closing the door.
 

Wrinkledpants

2017 144WB 4x4
I have a an upright Novacool compressor fridge with Danfoss compressor. Doing it over again, I would go with a chest style fridge like National Luna or others, They use almost a 1/3 to 1/2 the power of my upright for same amount of space, so they are more efficient, the other is, and it may have to do with where mine is mounted but if I am driving off road bumpy roads or mountain twisty turning roads, all the contents seem to slide around and go all over the place unless the fridge is packed completely full.

Edit: also in the tropics I get a lot of frost build up with my upright fridge, and runs a lot too. I think a chest style fridge would be more efficient in that environment, with less frost build up. (I have a fridge/freezer combo)
West Marine said that wasn't completely true if comparing a chest to upright from the same company. Re-cooling the air isn't nearly as power intensive as cooling down warm food placed inside, or keeping cool during a warm day. Condensation buildup or frost buildup is a function of what you have in the fridge, not the fridge itself. Not saying you wouldn't benefit from a drawer, but if those two things are you driving reason, I think you might be disappointed.
 

Midwestdrifter

Engineer In Residence
You would need to exchange all the air in the fridge some 50ish times to consume the same power as a room temperature water bottle.
 

Wrinkledpants

2017 144WB 4x4
Presently I don't have a fridge in my sprinter, I have not got that far in the build. I do like the ideas presented in this article; https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/12v-fridges.html
I am pretty sure I will be going with the dorm room fridge freezer up right. I don't plan on going bouncing down pot holed washed out dirt tracks. If the thing fails I will just roll down the the nearest wally world put my mask on and go in and get a replacement for a $150-$200, and if I'm lucky and my two or three year warranty has not run out the replacement will be FREE. I can do that 10+ times before I run up a $1400 bill for the 3 way or dual zone 12 volt outback models. Now if I was wandering in a third world country or downunder. I might think differently. My plans aren't to be too far afield and right here in what use to be the good old USA the land of plenty wally world should be well stocked. Come November if sleepy Joe and the squad take over I'm probably going to be preparing for end times so the third world or down under models might become more of a necessity. I'm a half full guy so there's that. Then there is the China trade war and none of these items will be in plentiful supply. Did I just say I was a half full guy?
Walmart fridges are all 110v, which means powering through the inverter. When we did the math on this, it came out to 2.5x as much power compared to a 12v fridge. This includes energy to power the inverter, inverter efficiency, and fridge efficiency. If you have structured your battery, solar, and alternator charging to account for this - great!
 

Wrinkledpants

2017 144WB 4x4
You would need to exchange all the air in the fridge some 50ish times to consume the same power as a room temperature water bottle.
Yep - so many factors that contribute to how much power a fridge uses in a day. Ambient temps, how full the fridge is, etc. We found our fan that came on the condenser was pointed in the wrong direction. We flipped this around so it pulls from the front of the fridge and exhausts towards the rear. We also wired up a second fan that pulls air from the fridge cabinet, and exhausts into the garage. At first, our fridge would cause our butcher block counter to feel warm to the touch. After flipping the fan and installing the exhaust fan - we get no heat felt on the counter. Our fridge runs quite a bit more efficient now as it cycles far less when hot in the van compared to before.

With our 160w solar, our lithium battery will stay topped year round as long as we're not parked in shade. I've never fully tested what the ah usage is through a 24 hour period, but our current setup works perfect as we wanted just enough solar to keep the fridge powered- summer or winter.
 

DanAzon

Active member
Walmart fridges are all 110v, which means powering through the inverter. When we did the math on this, it came out to 2.5x as much power compared to a 12v fridge. This includes energy to power the inverter, inverter efficiency, and fridge efficiency. If you have structured your battery, solar, and alternator charging to account for this - great!
I am planning 2x160 watt panels, MPPT Solar Charge Controller 40A 150V PV Solar Panel Controller Negative Ground W/ MT50 Remote Meter + Temperature Sensor, 2 X 100 Ah 12V LiFePO4 Deep Cycle Batteries, Pure Sine Wave Power Inverter 2200Watt DC 12volt to AC 120volt with Dual AC Outlets. I don't have a plan for alternator charging for the leisure batteries at this time. I do plan on starting the refrigerator with shore/grid power as the https://www.mobile-solarpower.com/12v-fridges.html article suggests. The three way Norco fridge in my 1999 VW Eurovan Winnebago camper also suggested pre-cooling the fridge this way. I'm am not versed in the calculations necessary to assess the power needs, I should familiarize myself soon.
 

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