I am thinking of putting a bar fridge in the van as we only use powered sites, and we have a 12v fridge in the car for use when traveling. Does anyone know the durability of a bar fridge when used this way.
Dave,I know the feeling of shaken up accumalated up gases even moreso when they are dislodged and start circulating.LOL.Cheers Ibbo.Ok Chris back to Grubby.
Point to note is the compressor mountings are not designed to rock and roll and the rigid gas piping may crack, if you know a fridgie you can fit a flexible coupling in the line to take absorb the shock . At the price they are you can buy four for the price of a van rated one .
Often taken one camping and after traveling in a box trailer into tiger country it worked just fine there and when I got back home but I did do the above mods .
Worth fitting an additional thermo fan to keep the motor cool, they don't like heat.
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Unless mitch59 is going of roading in a serious way i still cant see his fridge having any problems. My curent caravan I have fitted a waeco CR80 upright fridge & its compressor mounts are exactly the same as a bar fridge. Looking at a cutaway view of a 12V Danfos compressor the internal mechanicals are the same as a domestic 240V fridge compressor. I think he can afford to try it ( waeco CR80 cost me $1200 compared to some bar fridges around $200 or less new).
even with serious off roading the mounts would not stretch far enough to damage the lines, lot of other stuff would fail before fridge mounts, I've never seen it do that and i have seen a few (not a hell of a lot) mounted in off road campers and seemingly no problems
the main difference between a "portable" compressor and a conventional "stationary"one is the initial power draw, because we deal with low currents with twelve volt the initial "start" of a conventional fridge would blow the fuse, so to over come this the manufacturers make the compressor "soft start" or in other words start with half a stroke and slowly working up to full stroke thereby not having full compression at the beginning
this saves the initial power draw and fuse destruction, all else is basically the same
May have put it wrong. My concern was with regard the movement of the compressor unit , most van or camper designed fridges have a swing mount to ensure the compressor remains fairly flat while in transit . The conventional house fridge is designed to sit still with the compressor mounted on either rubber or spring mounts to absorb the motion of the motor compressor on start up and shut down , which can be quite violent. As the gas lines are fairly ridge at the point of connection to the compressor that's where the possible leak will occur first.
We removed that potential for failure with a flex coupling and a re-gas and traveled all over NT and WA without a problem, (some of the holes where so large they had gift shops at the bottom)
You are absolutely right at less that $100 at Big W bar fridges and freezers are a very good option if the primary 240 Volt supply is available in a park or by genny but if running on an inverter it will drain a good battery bank in no time flat .
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Pets are welcome but children must be leashed at all times
