Explorer 12v Fridge. Does anyone know how to operate them?

[alittlebitconcerned]

Hi Folks.

I've just this morning bought a mint 12v Explorer Fridge.
The previous owner did not know much about its operation other than it gets cold and stays cold.

I'm asking the forum because it has individual temperature controls for both the freezer and the fridge section and yet it only has one Danfross compressor.

In my limited understanding I would have thought two compressor would have been required to gain individual temperature controls. Am I missing something?
How do you think this thing works?

[Lotz-A-Landies]

Do you not have a fridge freezer at home with two controls or a car with dual temp zones. Same deal with the fridge.

It the compressor only compresses the refrigerant, it doesn't care where it ends up or how it gets back. That is all done by valves and thermostats downstream. It merely means that the refrigerant goes to the evaporators or plates until the thermostat in that zone reaches the required temperature and then shuts off the respective valve and refrigerant no longer flows to that section. If both sections are at or below the various settings, the compressor turns off also.

[roverrescue]

Good fridges, excellent insulation, super quiet.
You will find the explorer requires a fair bit of finesse to set temps
Unfortunately, changing the freezer setting will change the fridge temp. Once you have settings for a full load it will not need much altering but you will muck around a little to get it right.

I would invest in a thermometer in each compartment to allow you to finesse the settings with some level of temperatures.

s

[The ho har's]

We have one in our slide on camper, very quite and works very well. We have 2 thermometers to regulate the temperatures in each compartment. Yes it took a while to get it right :)

Mrs hh:angel:

[alittlebitconcerned]

Do you guys find them power hungry?

I couldnt find much intormation on them but thought they would draw very little in the way of amps because of all the insulation. Having said that it seems to cycle quite a bit even inside on a mild day. To be fair, it is a 90ltr and has next to nothing in it atm

[loanrangie]

Any fridge that also freezes will use a lot more power than fridge alone especially if mostly empty, maybe stick a slab in there.

[alittlebitconcerned]

That works on several fronts. Brilliant

[Lotz-A-Landies]

A full fridge is more efficient than an empty fridge, that is because it is hard to cool air and every time you open up the fridge you lose all the cold air. Even if you have water bottles filling the space in the fridge (or as has been said beer), the bottles/cans will retain their temp for the moments the fridge is open and then the compressor has less cold to recover.

[The ho har's]

We have 120watt solar panel on the roof. longest we have been away was 6 weeks in the Kimberly, didn't plug into power once and the fridge never stoped working, all our lighting is LED's. I would say it doesn't draw much power, however, we did have it loaded the whole time. I find the freezer works brilliantly.

Mrs hh:angel:

[alittlebitconcerned]

Thanks Mrs Ho Har.
How big is your explorer fridge?
Mines a 90ltr abd cycles about 50%

[The ho har's]

70 Litre. They all have the same footprint, they just get taller. Just got the instructions out to see size, we have had ours for just over 7 years:)

Mrs hh:angel:

[alittlebitconcerned]

In the interest of more efficiency (and being lazy while camping) I've decided to fit a couple of Digital thermostats in place of the temperature dials. This way the fridge automatically adjusts to keep a constant temperature regardless of temperature fluctuations outdide the fridge. The digital thermostat aldo gives me high/low temp alarms, adjustable on/off delay etc.

They are quality thermostats that are surprisingly cheap off ebay.

If anyone is interested I can post my results.