3 WAY vs COMPRESSOR FRIDGE

[BUSH PALACE]

Hi all in the past year we ve had nothing but trouble with our 150lt dometic 3 way - new burners 2 new rotary switches and after the l/week end was the icing on the cake it only ran on AC expensive way of bush camping !!
What i want to know is does anybody run a compressor fridge ?
are they the same as running an engel / waeco ?
Ive got solar / batteries all the wa wa needed
any advice would be appreciated ....

Russell:drama:

 

[macca]

My friend has an evakool. He swears they are heaps better than 3 way. So far my 3 way 150 has been fantastic on gas and 240. Not much to them really.

Geoff

 

[Newcastle Knight]

They are the same as running a compressor fridge however, I am not sure how much extra juice you need with the fridge models. You would need to check out how much it draws etc to see if you need extra battery/charging capacity.

 

[greggels]

Hi Russell,
I was involved in refrigeration and air-conditioning service, personally I like the 3 way in caravan/motor home set up as they are very simple, I realise you have had some issues with yours but this is probably more unusual than usual, have a think about how 3 way fridges work and they are silent, all you need for it to work is a heat source, 150 lt fridges normally run about 175 watt element, thermostat controlled on 240 direct on 12 volt, no moving parts other than the controls, attached how they work http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_refrigerator

Compressor fridges only run on 12/24/or 240 volt transformer, and has a reciprocating compressor, (moving internal parts and noise) if you don't have enough power it wont run!
specs for the Waeco attached http://www.waeco.com.au/products5.asp?id=508&catId=57&subCatId=61&subCatId2=72

Waeco have a BD50 Danfoss compressor, which is really the only compressor to have, stay away from fridges that run a 240 volt compressor with built in inverter, they aren't designed for mobile use, the springing in the compressor mounts are weak and will fail in time requiring compressor replacement

If you can keep the power up compressor fridges they will maintain set temp in all climatic conditions, but remember manufacturers quote power usage usually at 32 ambient, if the temp is above this it will draw a lot more current than quoted,

I hope this helps you decide what to do to find a solution to your problems

Cheers Greg

 

[achjimmy]

This is a tough one and one I wrestled with before ordering. I think by memory the compressor fridge in simalar shape was a 135 litre? There is many advantages and a few disadvantages. I was eventually swayed to sticking with an absorption fridge. The biggest thing for me is the compressor fridges are noiser, not noisey but given you sleep next to the damn thing enough. I also had visions of free camping and solar and with the existing Engel I would need 300 watts of solar. As it was now I just take the Benny and make do with the 90 watts and I do like the benefit of being able to run the fridge of gas. I thing if I was to travel the tropics I would favour a compressor fridge.

My 2c