Thread: Gas Absorption Coolers - what do you think ?

If you mean the typical 3 way lpg/ 12v/ 240v fridges then they really struggle on 12V to cool at all, i have 1 and its good on 240V and better on lpg but rarely cools on 12V. I have heard from a few people that by fitting a couple of PC cpu fans to blow air over the cooling fins this will dramatically increase their efficiency when on 12V - i will be doing this soon and i'll let you know the results.

I have just a 35lt repco 3 way.They are great on gas, down to -2 or so on 30C days.Insulating with a moist towel and liniting opening and sun will improve performance on hot days.
We found that on 12v they do eat a fair bit of amps compared to compressor type.I tested it at home on a 40amphr battery pack and it lasted around 3 1/2 hours on 12v and got down to -1,ambient was around 28C.
Still working out setup for 12v when in car, so not sure of that yet.Might even go with a 21lt waeco for in car and then just transfer to 3 way.

cheers,
Paul

My Trayon camper is fitted with a 3 way Electrolux about 80 or 90 litres.
It works really well on gas.
It works well on 240V.
On 12V the thermostat is bypassed and it simply runs flat out all the time, so it's obviously not very effective. It doesn't do much more than maintain the temp it has achieved on gas.
In fact I am pretty sure I achieve just as much by ensuring that the freezer is pretty much full of frozen water bottles and leaving the 12V turned off.

A friend of mine has an interesting alternative.
He has a very small, very efficient compressor fridge and a large Esky.
He generally just uses the fridge to produce ice to put into the Esky. He reckons the system works well and gives him quite a bit of flexibility in terms of cold storage capacity.

Originally Posted by vnx205

My Trayon camper is fitted with a 3 way Electrolux about 80 or 90 litres.
It works really well on gas.
It works well on 240V.
On 12V the thermostat is bypassed and it simply runs flat out all the time, so it's obviously not very effective. It doesn't do much more than maintain the temp it has achieved on gas.
In fact I am pretty sure I achieve just as much by ensuring that the freezer is pretty much full of frozen water bottles and leaving the 12V turned off.

A friend of mine has an interesting alternative.
He has a very small, very efficient compressor fridge and a large Esky.
He generally just uses the fridge to produce ice to put into the Esky. He reckons the system works well and gives him quite a bit of flexibility in terms of cold storage capacity.

I have also done this and it works a treat and you keep your frozen meat in the fridge frozen all the time and just keep swapping over 1.25ltr bottles of water from the esky to the fridge and Vise versa.

The heat exchange fridges are a cheap way to keep stuff cool if you want to run gas but we found in the caravans that we never bothered with the 12v system on them as it never worked as most vehical wiring cant handle the Amps required to run them.

We did convert one to 24v for a truckie and that was a different story all together, it worked as good as on 240v/ac.

By the way Im talking Finch chest and standard door type 3 way fridges as found in most caravans but im going back 11 years so things may have changed a bit by now.

I had a gas absorbtion fridge (Chescold RC1180) back in 2001 when I spend 4 months 4WDriving around Oz. I owned it from new at but it was not very successful:

* Drew about 10A on 12V
* Struggled to get cold on 240V or Gas when ambient was above 30 degrees despite me being pedantic about it being level and experimenting with muffin fans on the evaporator coils

I have since bought a Danfoss compressor based fridge/freezer.

Since that time, two lots of friends have bought a newer model RC1180 (smoother plastic outer and darker blue) and they have had much better results which is good to see.

I still do believe they are not suitable for touring as they don't like the refrigerant bumping around offroad or on corrugations. They like it flat and still like at a campsite for a day or so on Gas/240V. That's when they seem to be in their element (pun not intentional).

Absorption type refrigerators have one major advantage - they can run on gas. But the cycle they use is very inefficient compared to a compressor type, and they need to be kept level and relatively vibration free.

The only place I see for them is in a van or campsite that is in one spot for some time, where the fact that you do not need to run the generator much is a really big advantage. I have one in the van I lived in while building - and it was ideal there (no 240, ran on gas), but would not consider one for travelling (use an Engel).

John

Good for bush camping in the southern zones, if you plan on setting up camp for a little while and won't be doing much driving to recharge batteries. Compressor fridges are much better if you only plan on doing weekends and such, or you still do plenty of driving to keep the batteries up to charge.

Exploreoz has some good threads on getting more out of a 3 way fridge. Mostly putting in fat wire to the battery for 12v, also computer fans, extra insulation...

I took an ancient Chescold away last week, didn't get to putting fat wire so ran it off inverter, worked a treat, but I'm sure that's gotta be the most inefficient way to go.

I think that keeping the pipe stuff at the back clean helps, too.

Mine was free, which always helps.

Cheers
Simon