Chest Freezer.

[TomC]

I was going to order a new Engel chest freezer for my new truck conversion. I was having a bit of a hard time with the $1425 price on the split unit. I found Iceco freezers. Granted they are made in China, but the same size split using a Danfoss compressor is $559! Quite a bit difference. Good Luck, TomC

[Fred Mc]

And the Covid-19 virus comes free.

[dtcerrato]

We've been through four chest fridge/freezers since the 80s. The original Norcold lasted 13 years the next two Norcolds lasted 5 years combined so we got away from Norcold. We now have a Dometic & it ran well for 9 years until the thermistor pooped. We're still using it but stays in deep freeze. We found two different manufacturer's of a similar unit as our Dometic for almost half the price on Amazon & I think they're running Dan Foss or similar. I'll need to go to that account to get the names if you're interested

[richard5933]

Tom - I see a growing number of RV companies using 12vdc Danfoss type units in their builds, but most of them are going with cheaper Chinese imports. Saw a couple of them at the last RV show we attended. Most of these are going in units aimed at the boondocking community.

The move towards residential refrigerators is great for those that will be running the generator anyway, or those who will be plugged in most of the time, but we find that we are running on battery more often than not. So for use the 12vdc compressor unit is wonderful.

We went with a Vitrifrigo, and I had to do a lot of thinking before dropping the money on it. The same compressor and control box can be found on less expensive units, and they all have a similar set of problems. We went through three control boxes before we discovered that there is a problem with the internal switching mechanism which allows the unit to switch from 120vac to 12vdc. On the third control box, we didn't plug it into 120vac and only connected the 12vdc. It's been working fine ever since, and since any time we're plugged in we are running the 120vac-to-12vdc converter it makes no difference to use if the fridge plugs in or not.

If we ever need to replace the unit, I'd think seriously about just replacing the working bits and keeping the carcass. From what I've seen, the biggest difference between the $1,500 unit and the $600 unit isn't the compressor and control box, it's the carcass - how much insulation, how nice a layout, how handy the shelves are, etc. Even when comparing the high-end brands, the biggest thing that seemed to determine the efficiency was not the working bits, it was how well the box was insulated.

[windtrader]

This topic is lower in my list of considerations but an aspect that seems relevant isn't discussed much nor factored in.


Energy usage is discussed but primarily from the plug so to speak, not from the source. A freezer operates 24/7 and draws energy as needed to maintain the desired temperature. The bus has several places to draw that energy: from shore, battery, generator, and solar.


A freezer is an energy store, a fact generally overlooked. Adding mass to the freezer for holding extra energy in a frozen state, think an old school ice chest with a large block of ice. Over time the ice melts as it uses energy to maintain the cold.

Naturally, the "ice block" needs to be kept frozen and freezing ice blocks happens in bulk fashion. This pattern fits beautifully with energy produced via solar panels having sufficient production to keep the "ice battery" charged. A properly designed system should be fully independent of any other source of energy for the freezer.

Not having dug in the weeds on this as yet, not even napkin calc, maybe the number of panels required is more than can be placed on the bus, dunno. Of course, the panels need to charge the house batteries too, and maybe run an AC occasionally. There are design challenges.

One might think, well, just use the dang batteries to keep the freezer going, nothing to do except make sure the battery storage and charging is sufficient and balanced. Maybe, never calculated energy stored in ice and available for use. That said, the yellow labels on appliances offer general consumption rates and seem in range for this project.


One last comment is this scheme works on lithium based battery storage systems, not LA, due to unique charging capabilities.