Drover

Well-Known Member
Nov 7, 2013
12,719
19,437
113
QLD
Gee, I feel guilty as mine just taps into the light wire before the light switch, blows to the rear, no iced lettuce or toms even though some mornings its 0, so must work. I used a small CPU fan so yours might blow the door open...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Crusty181 and Bluey

Bluey

Well-Known Member
Mar 31, 2014
2,651
3,817
113
Australia
My fridge is not full all the time it emptys as our trip comes to.its end and when im home its emptyed and door left open a bit with that plastic thing that clips into door and i put a heap of paper towel to keep freezer open too
I dont hate your buckets but have you thought how too keep cold air in them once taken out to get food out you have to open lid hence air loss all that air in there has to be cooled again mmmmmm
Just grab what you want and close door
It will be a never ending problem once door is opened but thats how it is
Im a fan of your fan i need a better one behind my fridge im sure the jayco one has never turned on
Are you haveing dramas with your fridge if it aint broke dont change it they work really good for what they are
Or allways run it on gas as thats better isnt it
 
  • Like
Reactions: Drover

Crusty181

Well-Known Member
Feb 7, 2010
6,854
13,971
113
Mentone, VIC
The LPG gas alarm has been faithfully protecting us for over 3 years now, and as a treat for all its hard work I decided to actually wire it in today :o

I read somewhere that LPG alarms have a finite life span, so I installed a switch so I can turn it off when its not required like when we leave the door open, or when the bottles are turned off etc

20170706_163323 copy.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bluey

Crusty181

Well-Known Member
Feb 7, 2010
6,854
13,971
113
Mentone, VIC
My fridge is not full all the time it emptys as our trip comes to.its end and when im home its emptyed and door left open a bit with that plastic thing that clips into door and i put a heap of paper towel to keep freezer open too
I dont hate your buckets but have you thought how too keep cold air in them once taken out to get food out you have to open lid hence air loss all that air in there has to be cooled again mmmmmm
Just grab what you want and close door
It will be a never ending problem once door is opened but thats how it is
Im a fan of your fan i need a better one behind my fridge im sure the jayco one has never turned on
Are you haveing dramas with your fridge if it aint broke dont change it they work really good for what they are
Or allways run it on gas as thats better isnt it
Holy crap @Bluey theres no lids on the buckets, how much of an absolute pain in the bum would that be. I get now why you are so against it. No lids, see through and relatively shallow at only 120mm high. We tried them on the long weekend, and most of the contents I could get to without removing the buckets. Its just to give the fridge a little leg up.

Ive kept the lids so if its more convenient, when we really load up the fridge, to pack the fridge without the buckets we will do that, then introduce the buckets as required but only if its hot. I can also use the empty buckets (with the lids on) to fill the empty space in the dwindling fridge contents when its really hot to give the fridge a bit of a leg up. Like the vent fans I fitted, the buckets are only really for those times when it suffocatingly hot and pushing the fridge to its limits.

We have no issues with the fridge except icing up, but hopefully the internal fan will resolve that. The Dometic fridge performs exceptionally well even in continuous 45deg days, but like all 3 way fridges you need to keep the door shut, and we use that Engel for day use anyway.

Youll have to show me how those damn door clips work, I have no friggin idea what to do with it.
 

Crusty181

Well-Known Member
Feb 7, 2010
6,854
13,971
113
Mentone, VIC
Im testing the theory that plastic containers in the fridge will "trap" the cold air and help the fridge to cope with higher, constant ambient temperatures. It was quite warm over the Labour Day long weekend, but its a little hard to make a judgement call without a long test period

I have the Dometic 150ltr single door fridge. For what its worth after much searching the best fit containers are Sistema 5ltr and 3ltr containers which are sold in Woolworths and Big W. The Sistema containers are almost designed to fit. 2 x 3ltr containers on the top shelf because of the element at the rear, and 2 x 5ltr containers on the other 3 shelves.

One benefit of the Sistema containers are there are see through which is vital, and only just over 100mm high. If you cant see into the containers, and they are too high and difficult to get into the extra time friggin around with the fridge door open would negate any advantage, assuming containers make a difference. The Princess is highly skeptical. Regardless of the results the Sistema 5ltr containers are a better option for the crisper tray area.

View attachment 59754 View attachment 59753 View attachment 59755
After way too much time and effort (and cost), the results of the plastic fridge bucket experiment are in.

Laborortory Controls. 8 plastic Sistema kitchen /pantry tubs which virtually fill the fridge horizontal space quite well and around 2/3 of the shelf heights, and using my new internal fridge fan to move the air around to get get a more uniform cabinet temp. I turned off the fan prior to opening and whilst the door was open. The ambient temps varied around 5deg of so, and the start cabinet temps also varied upto 3 deg. The varying temps would have some baring on the results. Each test was done at least 24hrs apart

First test was the door left fully open for 5 minutes, and then the internal temp monitored for an hour with the fan on to establish which recovered better. The overall temp increase difference between buckets and no buckets was negligible.

Second test was the door opened and closed for 30sec cycles for 5 minutes, then monitored for an hour with the fan on. The overall temp increase difference between buckets and no buckets was not significant. The temp difference was in favour of the buckets, but the start cabinet temp with no buckets was much lower to start with so would probably raise quicker anyway.

One thing I noticed was the temperature increases were close enough between the door left open for 5 min, and the door pulled open 4 times for a total open time of 2 minutes. I presume opening the door creates a repeated pressure drop and actively pulls the cold air out each time
 

Drover

Well-Known Member
Nov 7, 2013
12,719
19,437
113
QLD
Must be a boring weekend then ...... :biggrin-new:........ so I gather that the containers just stop stuff falling off the shelf, that saves me buying some, I nearly have a couple of times but forgot the sizes I wanted.......................I have found by carrying out testing over 7 weeks that the internal fans does save lettuce, eggs and tomatoes from becoming solid projectiles but sadly cannot record temps as my fridge temp unit did a few laps of the drip tray and drowned.....I would love to see what the temps are of the household fridge when the kids are around......:clap2:
 

Crusty181

Well-Known Member
Feb 7, 2010
6,854
13,971
113
Mentone, VIC
Must be a boring weekend then ...... :biggrin-new:........ so I gather that the containers just stop stuff falling off the shelf, that saves me buying some, I nearly have a couple of times but forgot the sizes I wanted.......................I have found by carrying out testing over 7 weeks that the internal fans does save lettuce, eggs and tomatoes from becoming solid projectiles but sadly cannot record temps as my fridge temp unit did a few laps of the drip tray and drowned.....I would love to see what the temps are of the household fridge when the kids are around......:clap2:
The internal fridge fan's original hopes was world peace and to stop the element from icing up. World peace didnt get a show in, and I couldnt get the fan close enough to the element without the fan getting in the way, so its on the back underneath.

On the plus side the fridge is absolutely definitely colder in identical pre fan conditions according to the wireless thermometer.

Have no clue if thats only because Im just spreading the cold love around the cabinet and making it more uniform, but the dial is definitely 1 or 2 numbers lower .... so what you loose in the straights you pick up in the corners

Anyone want to buy some pre loved Sistema tubs???
 
Last edited:

Crusty181

Well-Known Member
Feb 7, 2010
6,854
13,971
113
Mentone, VIC
A cheap garden hose and this thing should be enough to provide an endless supply of water for my portable free camp shower from creeks/rivers/other peoples caravans. Its specs promise 3 mtr head and 45 litres per minute. I might mount it on the tool box. Its Seaflo brand so it should be ok for a while and should pump through a filter

20180529_204845-resized-1920.jpg
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: G Daddy

Bluey

Well-Known Member
Mar 31, 2014
2,651
3,817
113
Australia
Mite go the way of your fridge boxes ....
But hay good idea
You can allways get the wife to tip a bucket slowly over you
 

G Daddy

Well-Known Member
Dec 6, 2015
276
374
63
Toowoomba
Apr 24, 2015
#23



I know how insulting it is to invent a great idea, only to have some smuck (after the fact) pretend to have made it sooooooo much better.

Oh well; Im going to do it anyway.

Ive stolen @Shane Norwell fantastic drop jack extension idea. I measured the legs internal at about 34mm, but the next size down steel SHS was 30mm ext leaving it a little rattly. The first idea was to tack 30mm angle together which would add 2mm to the overall 30mm dimension, but I discovered that aluminium for some odd reason has slightly different dimensions to steel .... and in the case of the drop jack, a 32mm x 3mm alum SHS is a nice snug fit, and very light.

Im hoping that the pins won't flog out the holes in the alum over time. The length of the extended drop jack is now 900mm.

Hi @Crusty181 How are the Alum leg extensions holding up?
 

Crusty181

Well-Known Member
Feb 7, 2010
6,854
13,971
113
Mentone, VIC
Mite go the way of your fridge boxes ....
But hay good idea
You can allways get the wife to tip a bucket slowly over you
This one slipped through you sneaky bustard ( Bustard, that's a bird. A sneaky bastard of a bird)

I don't have a wife, she cant marry me her being a Commoner and all
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bluey

Crusty181

Well-Known Member
Feb 7, 2010
6,854
13,971
113
Mentone, VIC
Apr 24, 2015
#23



I know how insulting it is to invent a great idea, only to have some smuck (after the fact) pretend to have made it sooooooo much better.

Oh well; Im going to do it anyway.

Ive stolen @Shane Norwell fantastic drop jack extension idea. I measured the legs internal at about 34mm, but the next size down steel SHS was 30mm ext leaving it a little rattly. The first idea was to tack 30mm angle together which would add 2mm to the overall 30mm dimension, but I discovered that aluminium for some odd reason has slightly different dimensions to steel .... and in the case of the drop jack, a 32mm x 3mm alum SHS is a nice snug fit, and very light.

Im hoping that the pins won't flog out the holes in the alum over time. The length of the extended drop jack is now 900mm.

Hi @Crusty181 How are the Alum leg extensions holding up?
Really good, use them regularly. 50k km and well over 400+ camping nights and theyre are just like the day they went on. Not flogged out at all. The lynch pins corrode after a year or so; they work fine just the rough pin surface needs a little extra to flick the spring over. (clearly not enough for me to replace them)
 
  • Like
Reactions: G Daddy

Crusty181

Well-Known Member
Feb 7, 2010
6,854
13,971
113
Mentone, VIC
I retired the blue mesh privacy screen that served us very over the last 4 years, and despite vocal opposition from the Princess, today i made and fitted a "stone" coloured replacement in a feeble effort to reduce the contrast and coordinate the mesh colour closer to the white van. Thoughts? (If you dont support my choice keep ya pie hole shut, im fielding enough negativity here)

20180914_145837.jpg