Thread: About to buy a fridge...

I recently bought an Engel MR40F. Plastic body Engel so bit cheaper than the metal ones - came in at $900ish with some freebies thrown in after haggling. I am very happy with it.

ARB fridge for sure!

We baught one a few months ago and im extremely happy with it. It does a great job and seems to go well with the current draw side of things incomparison to another fridge we have. we got ours for a bargain price with the transit bag and slide, so far im not overly impressed with the slide as its clunks around a bit on the bumps but im going to fix that. You will also be supprised how much you can fit in them when you stack them well too, they dont look that big inside but actualy hold quite alot.

This may not suit your situation, but a friend of mine came up with a setup that suited him very well.

He wanted a fridge big enough for family camping trips, so it needed to be fairly big.

He also wanted to be able to put it in the boot of the car to bring icecream and meat home safely from the supermarket, so it needed to be fairly small to fit in the car.

Since he couldn't afford two fridges, he bought one that was small enough to fit in the car and on camping trips, he used it to create ice to put in the Esky where he kept all his food except the frozen items.

It worked well for him.

So the question is, do you really need something as big as 70 litres or would you rather have greater flexibility?

It sounds good Allan,,
but how long to create ice
ice cream container size??
or were they smaller?

and at what cost to the batt reserves?

lots of questions that way,,

We just bought a Bushman. Had an excellent writeup in 4X4 Action. For the price (we paid 1100) it also comes with a fridge bag, an additional lid and collar so you can have 35, 42, 45 or 55 litres. It also comes with additional baskets for the different sizes at no extra cost as well . So far, we have been happy with it.

Unfortunately, I don't know all the details, I just know that it worked for him.

I'm pretty sure that he was traveling a good distance each day, so battery drain wouldn't have been a problem. I can see that it wouldn't work if you were stationary for some time and had no way to top up the battery.

I seem to remember that when I borrowed a 15 litre Engel, it took me a few days to figure out how far I had to set the thermostat back to stop everything freezing, so I must have created more than a couple of litres of ice in one day's driving with a little 15 litre fridge.

I'm sure that if you drove five or six hours each day, an Engel (or similar) would create enough ice to do the job.

Originally Posted by vnx205

This may not suit your situation, but a friend of mine came up with a setup that suited him very well.

He wanted a fridge big enough for family camping trips, so it needed to be fairly big.

He also wanted to be able to put it in the boot of the car to bring icecream and meat home safely from the supermarket, so it needed to be fairly small to fit in the car.

Since he couldn't afford two fridges, he bought one that was small enough to fit in the car and on camping trips, he used it to create ice to put in the Esky where he kept all his food except the frozen items.

It worked well for him.

So the question is, do you really need something as big as 70 litres or would you rather have greater flexibility?

I know others who work that way - ice making in the freezer to transfer to the esky. They all swear by it.

The one thing that bothers me with that approach, and why I was thinking of going a fridge/freezer is the way things end up getting wet in an esky. In particular, you need to have food like meat very well sealed, or it has a nasty habit of ending up leaking causing "cross-contamination".

Still, that's part of the plan if I get an ARB - a bit more wieldy, and if need be I can always use it as an ice-maker. On the other hand, the fridgemate would be handy for parties and BBQs as a beer fridge.

Originally Posted by Armadillo

We just bought a Bushman. Had an excellent writeup in 4X4 Action. For the price (we paid 1100) it also comes with a fridge bag, an additional lid and collar so you can have 35, 42, 45 or 55 litres. It also comes with additional baskets for the different sizes at no extra cost as well . So far, we have been happy with it.

Hmmm... I had forgot about them! Definitely a fair competitor with the ARB. Now to find out how much they cost.