The Lumina 3 way fridge at Aldi for $299 , any info , any one know whether good or bad. Love your knowledge or comments   ?

Hi Chalky,
We were there this morning and looked at it, but weren't sure enough to buy it, so look forward to any replies as well. It looks OK, says it reduces by 25 degrees from ambient...
We bought the folding bucket and the clothes line. They seemed good value.

-- Edited by PeterH on Saturday 14th of March 2009 03:29:24 PM

Chalky wrote:

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The Lumina 3 way fridge at Aldi for $299 , any info , any one know whether good or bad. Love your knowledge or comments ?

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G'day Chalky,

Not had any experience with the Aldi 3 way but as it is a 3 way I assume it is an absobtion fridge therefore I reckon it wouldn't be much good in the hot weather, around 35 degrees, food and drinks would be about 10 degrees, not really good, I am assuming it is not tropical rated at that price. 

Personally I would go for a compressor type fridge, such as the Waeco or Engel.

Hope this is of some help.

John

 

thanks John , that tells me what to look for as we tend to travel north

if you are "dinkum" about a GOOD fridge and really need something that you can rely on then the 3 way is probably not your best option, if you head north and are expecting an ambient temp of in excess of 35 degs then you must choose a "T" rated (tropical) the absorption fridge MUST be perfectly level both ways or it wont work and must not travel or rest with an incline angle of greater than 5 degs either way, the circulation of the ammonia depends on being perfectly level to do its job (circulate) efficiently I have heard that a fan in the back of them helps a great deal, we had a jackaroo fridge for about to weeks, one trip up to wilpena and all our meat was off as well as the milk and the temp was only 32degs, we sold it back through the camping shop and bought the engel which was on special at the time saving $150, I think it was about the $1100 mark, not cheap but once purchased it will last forever I would not consider anything else other than an engel, we have the 40 which we find for two is perfect, it has the lowest power draw of any 2 way fridge running at roughly 2 amp hours, it can run as a very efficient freezer as well as an excellent and very reliable fridge, we have been out many times in temps above 40 degs and the beer, meat and milk are always fresh and cold, we run ours at 2.5 degrees and have NEVER had a problem with it

can't beat the engel .worst that's happened to us in 5 years is the battery for the temp gauge went flat.expensive but worth every cent. rocan

well roy that is in all truthfullness only the second time I have heard of an engel having ANY problems, we have had ours for probably about the same and took it everywhere, with no problems, may I also recommend the insulating cover, this cuts down on running time by another 10 percentage points

Got to agree about the Engel.  Ours is only 10yrs old now and runs 24/7.  I use it as a bar fridge at home & fixed in the Patrol when traveling.

Made a cover for $3.50, the price of a meter of canvas. 
I got a couple of sq meters of reflective coated bubble wrap for free from the local servo.  It had been used to cover a spare pile of party ice over XMAS.  Put 3 layers of it inside the protective canvas cover. 
The hardest part of the exercise was fixing the sewing machine.  Some DIY person (wonder who) had sewed through adhesive backed velcro on a previous project.  First had to work out how the machine worked, re assemble the thread tensioner (same DIY person had put it together wrongly a few years ago) and then deduct that glue from the velcro was occasionally fouling the thread as it looped the bobbin assembly!


The only problem with my Engel was a lightning strike when at The Entrance.  Power supply unit was replaced by the Insurance mob.  The repairer wouldn't give me the old one  .. I suspect it was just blown rectifiers in the input stage.


Had a look at the Aldi 3 way ...  I think that it was rated to cool to 20 below ambient .... not enough with 35 degree temp.


What Dave says about the importance of having absorption coolers level is spot on.  It's amazing how just a slight out of level effects them.  I have installed a 2 way level on my van calibrated to the fridge position to ensure that I get it right.

Funny though that a sailing friend says that they work OK with gas on yachts.  Maybe someone of a nautical persuasion could enlighten me?

I'd get one. ALDI will give you a complete refund if it does not work as required for a fridge, remember this is a fridge, not a freezer. That's OK unless you have to travel a distance to Aldi to get a refund.

the reason, I suspect that they work ok on yachts is that they are not in the same position for long, rolling seas and all that, and they probably average out to be reasonably level, the problem comes when they are out of level for a length of time and the ammonia cant get back to the heating element and get recirculated not sure what is in the insulated cover but I am sure that bubble wrap inside a sandwich of canvas would possibly work better, after all the insulating properties comes from the "air gaps" and the bubble wrap would probably have more air space than the insulating cover that I bought for mine at an enormous cost cupie this bloke who keeps "fixing" your machine needs a jolly good talking to

Basil Faulty wrote:

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PeterH wrote:

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Hi Chalky,
We were there this morning and looked at it, but weren't sure enough to buy it, so look forward to any replies as well. It looks OK, says it reduces by 25 degrees from ambient...
We bought the folding bucket and the clothes line. They seemed good value.

-- Edited by PeterH on Saturday 14th of March 2009 03:29:24 PM

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 Yep the bucket is excellent value as is the clothes line. We saw similar items at the Supershow last year @ Rosehill, the bucket was around $30 and the clothes line was a "special" at about $110.....

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Basil,
We bought two of the canvas buckets. They say they are water proof, but I haven't filled either with anything wet yet.....ice and beer to test...that comes later.....

 

Basil Faulty wrote:

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I'd get one. ALDI will give you a complete refund if it does not work as required for a fridge, remember this is a fridge, not a freezer. That's OK unless you have to travel a distance to Aldi to get a refund.

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G'day Basil,

If the ALDI fridge cools to 20 to 25 degrees below ambient temperature then it would definately be of little use in 35+ temps. as the food and drinks will be around 10 degrees celcius, ok if you don't mind food going off.  Stay in the cooler climes and probably would be ok.

John

 

When I was getting set up for my travels I looked at the fridges like the Waeco and Engel and came across the Fridgemate made by Ezykool in Qld. Can't remember the exact figures, but a Waeco or Engel 35 litre is around about $1200 and I bought the 70 litre Fridgemate for $1100 It has a 5 year warranty and at double the capacity for less money, seemed to be the go. I have been EXTREMELY happy with it. It is only 12V (Ranger threw in the 240V to 12V converter for nothing). I use the Fridgemate solely as a freezer for meat, emergency milk and freezing the 4 1.25L bottles of water for the esky each day, this means that all I need the van fridge for is milk, butter, eggs, lettuce, tomatoes, apples etc. I would suggest that anything which advertises a 25 degree below ambient would be a waste of time in any ambient above 30 degrees which means cool weather use only

the fridgemate fridge is a very good fridge/freezer from all accounts, but I have heard that it is heavier on power than the engel, but if one has the power storage then I cant see a problem