Got a new to me van to convert - going for a day/Camping van this time as its much smaller than the last unfortunately - and I've more passengers so space and adaptability is premium.
Would like a compressor fridge this time round for easy of mounting / moving as i wont be having a permanent kitchen , going for anchored cubes that i can slot in what i need so a compressor fridge makes that easier.
saw from a search - the halfords one came highly recomended - hows it held up ? seems to be about 1/3rd the price an equivalent Dometic.
or theres an outwell one about mid way between the two.
Recommend what you have...
Dometic compressor here. Used in the van and doubles as a beer fridge indoors on the mains. relatively simple without an app to control the temperature. Has a big range so can work as a freezer through to a chiller. Several years old, still works, nothings fallen off and the plastic coated wire baskets and dividers haven't gone rusty from the inside. Chose compresor over induction cooling for power consumption reasons. Bought new as an end of line model. Plenty come up on Marketplace or eBay small items....
I bought a 42 litre one as more space was just a bit dearer than a smaller one as the cooling gubbins are the same.... If I'm honest, for us it's too big. Loads of tests on YouTube....
fair point hadn't considered a used one !
Dometic do seem to be the king but thats the guts of 600 quid.
Current van has a large 3 way gas/240v/12v/ which works really well (from refillable LPG) but its a permanent install and that's just not going to work this time round.
I bought an Alpicool (Chinese brand) fridge years ago for a fraction of the price of a Dometic one and it's been great!
I think some of the Halfords ones are re-branded Alpicools?
I have a decades old Waeco (became Dometic), it was expensive but it’s proven and paid for itself…….apart from the 240v AC power supply board shat itself a few years ago so it only works on 12v nowadays.
Work colleague has an Alpicool and it seems a direct copy of my Waeco/Dometic but for a 1/10th of the cost.
Engel are the rolls Royce of portable fridges but were more expensive than our Waeco back in the day. Their swing compressors are more efficient than the domestic style Waeco/Alpicool compressors.
Avoid any Peltier cell fridges and go for the compressor fridge. They work at far lower temperatures and use less power.
I bought an Alpicool (Chinese brand) fridge years ago for a fraction of the price of a Dometic one and it's been great!
Same here. Great price. Works really well. Two compartments with independent temperature control. We have the small compartment as a freezer and the large one as a fridge. Only got it last year so can't vouch for lifetime but was perfect on a trip down to Italy.
Dometic CoolFun CK 40D, £200, 38L. Works great as a fridge off 240v or 12v, also works brilliantly as a freezer off 240v. We use it camping on hook-up to refreeze our icepacks to keep a passive toolbox fridge cool. Also bonus for multipacks of ice creams/ice lollies from supermarkets when on holiday.
Not sure on it's efficiency and how well it lasts solely on 12v as we tend to have 240v hook-up almost all the time.
Just about to buy an Alpicool so good to hear some positive feedback
I’ve just, as in this week, bought the Halfords 32L compressor cool box / fridge. I didn’t want a vertical proper fridge, no permanent install, I’m using my Caravelle as a day van.
The Halfords ones came recommended. A colleague has the 50L one, it’s been perfect for over a year, but in hindsight he said that it was too big really.
They are on offer at the moment £210 down to £170 for the 32L, £250 down to £200 for the 50L. Through a combination of a £20 gift voucher, Blue Light Card discount, and then an employer voucher scheme I ended up paying £114.
Live full time in the van and have a second hand 60 litre Weaco chest fridge-freezer.
Uses relatively little power. Even less so if only on fridge mode.
It died on me a couple of years ago, but there's a network of registered workshops that repair them. Dealing with Domestic was good despite me not being the original owner.
Would replace it if it totally died, but Domestic have changed the dimensions and the new ones so would be tricky to fit.
Anyone know what the power consumption is on 12v of these compressor fridges 40l or so ?.
Currently got the large Halfords 'Peltier' cool box which uses about 60-65w on 12v - can happily run it via the Anker battery on solar, and still charge the battery with 85w going in via sunshine. Works great off grid for a long weekend, although not as cool as a compressor fridge, it does the job. Will upgrade at some point.
Alot less than a peltier while being a fridge(or a freezer) as well.
12v on the old fridge was a peltier and it wasnt even good at maintaining on the move. Where as on gas it would near freeze the milk.
Another recommendation for Alpicool here. We’ve had one since 2022 - used it for a two month road trip that year (working well with outside temperatures in the high 30s C) and for shorter camping holidays since.
We had a Peltier coolbox before and that couldn’t cope when the outside temperature got higher. It was also had a little fan, which was annoyingly noisy.
Bit of digging says 45w in eco mode, 60w for fast cooling for the Alpicool 40. Decent energy saving if on battery.
Anyone know what the power consumption is on 12v of these compressor fridges 40l or so ?
My Weaco currently draws about 3.5ah (or ~40w) for 15 mins every hour. That's running at -18°C. Ambient temp inside the van is around 16-18°C.
In summer the compressor might run more often, but that is generally offset by the increase in solar, although the fridge is usually half filled up with beers so running at 4-5°C and this not kicking in as often not for as long.
For some reason I've two of the things: a little Dometic which is about 11L and sits between the front seats and a huge Halfords 40L that occasionally goes in the boot, but more recently goes behind the driver's seat. the Dometic's definitely better made - the outer casing of the Halfords is quite bendy and occasionally the lid catch doesn't latch, but both work really well otherwise.
They sip electricity and will run for three or four days off the leisure battery. They've both got battery protection circuits so you don't deplete the car battery, this isn't such an issue for me as I always run them off the leisure batt. They both come with mains leads, the Halfords has a transformer about the size of a laptop PSU while the Dometic has that built in. I can run either as proper freezers down to -17. I reckon they're far better than a Peltier fridge.
The halfords is 4 years old and the dometic about 6. Both have been in regular use with no real issues apart from the software that runs the halfords very occasionally forgets its a fridge or there's sufficient electricity there on first start-up.
I lash both down to the rails in the 'velle via some eye bolts that I made. There's good lashing points on both fridges.
Got a dometic in our big van that gets used regularly but I recently picked up a smaller alpicool for when I’m in the small van and husband is away in the big van. Only used it once so far but it did the job admirably but I’d say they don’t keep cool when they’re not on as they aren’t built to particularly retain the temperature unlike other non powered ones. So make sure you have the power supply to keep it plugged in constantly I’d say.
I got the Makita cool box a couple of years ago and ifs fab. Will even freeze down to -18C. Runs for most of a day on a couple of 5Ah batteries and you can hot swap them any time for longer runs (also does mains and 12v power).
Less than £300 and if you are already in the Makita LXT ecosystem then I heavily recommend