which fridge to buy--

well after looking around at all sorts of car fridges I decided to go with another 40L Engle to
supplement the existing one I have already got mainly due to the fact that the inside is a fully moulded piece of plastic and if something went wrong with the freezer side then with a lot of the others the blood or water would get between the seams in the bottom of the inside compartment and I didn't like the idea of trying to clean  in between the seams.

House hold fridges have fully moulded plastic inners so I don't know the idea of reinventing the wheel especially when
one has to give the unit a clean.

Has anyone else had a problem or could see a potential drama occurring..

Now all I have to do is get a couple of drop down slides for the fridges.

regards
oneday

The old motto rings true Ray. "Buy cheap buy twice."
One problem with my old faithful "yellow" Engel was soon after I bought it in the 80's.
The two tubes leading to the inside cooling plate had enough gap to allow maggots laid outside to crawl into the fridge.
If we didn't observe the blowies depositing their load we would probably have put it down to their entering when the lid was raised.
A simple application of silicon filled the gaps and never had the problem again.

Hi Oneday

I use the vacaum bags to seal all my meat prior to freezing, and if the freeza does happen to fail there in no mess at the bottom if it thaws.

Also good when you want to thaw the meat out as it keeps the annoying flies off.

Ian

Hi Ian
unfortunately for me sometimes I go bush on the spare of the moment or we go into town to stock up and straight back with fresh meat and straight into the freezer so vac bags aren't an option -- but good idea..

regards
oneday

Invest in some zip lock bags, they should do the same job.

 Wouldn`t you think that the fridge companies could make a tight fitting plastic liner that could be pulled out and cleaned?   

Hey Rege, Cleaning the Engel is easier than stuffing around with a liner.
After return from trip a couple of slops of vinegar and a splash of warm water rubbed around inside and then mopped up with a sponge and they are like new.   

Gday Ray
yeh, I use the vac sealer for all my engel stuff, works great. No blood, no chance for the flies. Why don't you ask your butcher to vac seal it all when you order it, pretty common for most of them to do it for nothing.
cheers
Brett

HI Brett
theres no butchers in ktown--everything comes directly from processors in Perth--no chopping no bandsaw straight onto the shelf.
They reckon the best meat to vac is boneless--no bugs hiding in the bones..

cheers
oneday

Is the butcher still in Roebourne ?  he might be able to do it for ya.
Or get into Kmart and look in their kitchen appliance section. you can also buy the vacuum sealers dirt cheap online thru Ebay or the following

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A 7 Kg Omo washing powder plastic bucket cut down to height and thoughly washed out will fit snuggly in 1/2 of 40l engel use for meat and any blood can be simply washed out. This leaves other 1/2 of engel for beer etc.

no commercial butchers up here.

brought another 40L Engle so that's 2 I've got.

One for food and the other for drinks and to keep stuff cool.

Now on the hunt for 2 drop down slide units...

regards
oneday

buy the vacuum sealer and store the meat in ya freezer for when you get the itch   
that way you are prepared.

Just bought vaccy sealer off e-bay.Looking forward to getting it now and using it for next trip,time left for getting ready is running out quick.

Cheers

Phil

Engel ONLY
Being a Fridgie, that's the advice I would give, can't beat them for durability

I dont own an engel or wacco fridge but use my good old 3 way caravan fridge. it seems from all reports i get if you want to go for a week or so and its hovering above 30 degrees then any 12v fridge will struggle to keep cool. you either have issues with keeping things frozen or you end up flattening batteries duel or not. just about everyone i know who uses them for long trips has issues. my old 3 way plugged in to the car when driving to the camp then running on gas from then on works a treat as long as you keep it out of the wind and the flame alight. can be run on car power, solar power, 240 inverter or from a gas bottle, you cant go wrong.

I agree Martin. We have a three way in the van and it's brilliant. Runs on gas forever out bush and the engel is used for meat only.
cheers
Brett

I agree with you fellas, but if you purely require a car fridge, then the Engel is the way to go :-)https://2img.net/i/fa/i/smiles/icon_biggrin.png

No mention of the National Luna's as yet ?
I talked fridges via PM with a member here who is often out in 40 + temps, they find the Evakools out perform the Engel's, shame they have the compressor hanging off the side and probably not as robust as the Engel.

Darren

during summer the fridges need to b out of yah vehicle to get a lot more access to flowing air to cool the working parts..and in a shady place.

regards
oneday

yep good point on the airflow Ray, thats what its all about. left in a car they suffer.

Yep,and a computer type fan running off 12volts strapped to it also helps.

Something I was thinking about, all the fridge manufacturers sell the protective bags as an added way of insulating the fridge to fudge their figures, but at the end of the day its all about functionality and not looks out in the bush so has anyone used thick Styrofoam with the necessary vents cut into it as a first layer of insulation ?

Darren

got a couple of puter fans --will also see if we can hot wire them in..if u fart these things will spin for a week..

regards
oneday

Goldstrijk knows the Engel has a better quality compressor, that's why he as a fridgie, owns one.

Oneday's right too, just like any fridge, the condensing unit needs to lose heat to be more efficient otherwise the compressor has to run on longer at higher head pressure to get the fridge to temp and uses more battery charge. Same goes for the ones which have a fan inside, don't block too much flow that an extra tinny that can be better left till the next re-stock. (the quicker the warm air gets sucked into the evaporator, the less time the compressor needs to run to transfer the heat to the outside)

If you add a fan to the clear hot air from the condenser it should be vented away so it doesn't recirculate with the cool air entering it...

The optional insulated cover helps stop radiant heat transferring back inside and worth the coin.
I've found buying a small bag of ice will help chill down a warm fridge and can help keep stuff frozen if the aux battery dies overnight as well as being handy with a glass of Jacks after a swing on a hot arvo.

Ive got the 80L fridge/freezer combo which is more than enough for me and the mutt, but I wish I got the 40L instead for the extra room sometimes.