Ideas on fridge/freezer

[Touring4]

I could only find a pic when we emptied out for cleaning

https://photos.app.goo.gl/gpvxzjvDDpofa1AW8

[Oldyeller]

I was just in a Home Depot yesterday and was looking at the small refrigerators.

Like you, I've been contemplating which way to go on refrigeration. I see the advantages in just about everybody's suggestions. For me I think the decision has been made. I'm going with one of the small top freezer uprights. I believe folks are right when they point out that chest style are better at holding in the cold air when you're rummaging through it for tonight's meal - but - for me the deciding factor was I'm not going to bend over double everytime I want to get in the fridge and I don't want to end up having to pull out everything else to find that one item I want that made it's way to the bottom of the chest.

[Lisab]

What a cutie!

[Rucker]

Originally Posted by Oldyeller

I was just in a Home Depot yesterday and was looking at the small refrigerators.

Like you, I've been contemplating which way to go on refrigeration. I see the advantages in just about everybody's suggestions. For me I think the decision has been made. I'm going with one of the small top freezer uprights. I believe folks are right when they point out that chest style are better at holding in the cold air when you're rummaging through it for tonight's meal - but - for me the deciding factor was I'm not going to bend over double everytime I want to get in the fridge and I don't want to end up having to pull out everything else to find that one item I want that made it's way to the bottom of the chest.

I might have mentioned this elsewhere but I bought a 115v dorm size fridge, no freezer, and mounted it on top of a low stand. It's done very well energy-wise-I enclosed it with a couple of inches of rigid foam board (save for the compressor area to let that vent).

I'm only using the rig for a few days at a time so it seems like the right size for that.

[jbeech]

A dorm size fridge is where I had been leaning. We do little more than camp in ours for a few days at a stretch. Shower stall and loveable loo type potty, so gray water only. Been getting by with a cooler and ice for drinks and another for sandwich meats and mayo. Figure to keep using the cooler for drinks and the fridge for the food stuff. When we're at a model flying event there are usually food vendors, and often the model club hosts an evening meal and often breakfast, too. Modest donation is expected but no more than you'd pay a vendor, anyway and it's good company as we're one amongst many modelers. Add to it, we're near-ish to civilization. Probably totally different from what typical RV type use is for most folks using one of these things. I read about those of you who go off grid for weeks at a time and marvel but that's not really our thing. For me it's a mobile base of operations. A place to get out of the sun during the day and into the cool air, maybe rest a bit when the sun is at its worst. This photo is of a popular model event which attracts a few hundred RVs and a few thousand modelers.

[Rucker]

Makes sense.

I devised a whole subcircuit that bypasses the fridge thermostat and turns on the inverter only when it is needed to run the fridge (complete with a delay start to the compressor to allow the inverter to spin up), but the actual power consumption of the fridge is low enough I don't need to get that complex.

Maybe in my spare time I'll do a module and test it out anyway...

[Veloc]

Since you're looking for ideas...

https://www.newlifeonahomestead.com/...-fridge-solar/

Convert a chest freezer into a fridge, use a lot less energy than a regular fridge. Had an idea to make a a slide-up rack that would lift out as the top was opened to make using the whole thing easier, but never got off the ground with it. When closed, the top of the freezer fridge can be a countertop.

[jbeech]

Interesting idea but nope, my back won't take that! Getting too old.

[jofred99]

Understand that this is not the inexpensive route, but it will fit wherever that you are creative enough build.


Nova Kool makes a 12v unit that is both energy efficient and durable. I used one of the LT201 RT4 units in a 10 cf fridge that I built for my off grid house. I would still be using the fridge if I had not made a poor choice of interior materials. It was not the fault of the Nova Kool unit.



These are very popular with the boat crowd.


https://www.novakool.com/conversion-units-info

[Tejon7]

Originally Posted by jbeech

Interesting idea but nope, my back won't take that! Getting too old.

A bit off topic, but I'll share my limited experience with the chest fridge/freezer route in case it helps anyone. We (my wife mostly) thought that chest freezers were going to be horrible, but after testing out the concept in our house, we're both now convinced that it's actually not any worse than a standard top-freezer residential unit. We got a 5 cu. ft. cheap chest freezer to use as the buses' fridge, and a 2.5 cu. ft. model for a freezer. We took everything out of our normal household fridge/freezer combo and put it in the chests and tested it out for two weeks.

The thing that surprised me about chest freezers is just how much more efficiently the space is utilized. Our residential upright is ~11 cu. ft. and is usually pretty full. All of those contents fit into the combined ~7.5 cu. ft. of our chest freezers and don't seem any more 'full' than the upright did.

The second thing that surprised me was how the chest freezer isn't nearly as uncomfortable to use as I expected. Yes, you have to lean way down into it and move stuff aside to get to the bottom level, but I expected that. What I didn't fully realize was how uncomfortable it is to get stuff out of my 'regular' refrigerator. Top-freezer model in our house's kitchen means I have to squat down to get anything out of the bottom Fridge section. If something is in the back of the fridge, I have to both squat and stretch awkwardly to get it. So yeah, chest freezers (and I assume the cooler-style 12v models as well) aren't super user friendly, but I now realize that regular upright's aren't that great either.

[Oldyeller]

Originally Posted by Tejon7

A bit off topic, but I'll share my limited experience with the chest fridge/freezer route in case it helps anyone. We (my wife mostly) thought that chest freezers were going to be horrible, but after testing out the concept in our house, we're both now convinced that it's actually not any worse than a standard top-freezer residential unit. We got a 5 cu. ft. cheap chest freezer to use as the buses' fridge, and a 2.5 cu. ft. model for a freezer. We took everything out of our normal household fridge/freezer combo and put it in the chests and tested it out for two weeks.

The thing that surprised me about chest freezers is just how much more efficiently the space is utilized. Our residential upright is ~11 cu. ft. and is usually pretty full. All of those contents fit into the combined ~7.5 cu. ft. of our chest freezers and don't seem any more 'full' than the upright did.

The second thing that surprised me was how the chest freezer isn't nearly as uncomfortable to use as I expected. Yes, you have to lean way down into it and move stuff aside to get to the bottom level, but I expected that. What I didn't fully realize was how uncomfortable it is to get stuff out of my 'regular' refrigerator. Top-freezer model in our house's kitchen means I have to squat down to get anything out of the bottom Fridge section. If something is in the back of the fridge, I have to both squat and stretch awkwardly to get it. So yeah, chest freezers (and I assume the cooler-style 12v models as well) aren't super user friendly, but I now realize that regular upright's aren't that great either.

I have an old 18 cu. ft. top freezer in my house and, at 6'6" I hate trying to find anything in the refrigerator. My intention is to buy a 5 to 7 cu. ft. upright and put it on some kind of stand so 'low down' isn't so low down. The space in the low down stand can be utilized for something I don't need often or at all. I have no intention of having to bend over and stick my head into a chest refrigerator to find something . . . even if it's more efficient, I'm just to old and cranky to deal with it. There, I said it, I'M CRANKY!

[magnakansas]

you're not cranky.... as far as I can tell, just old.... hell, its in your name...old yeller....

just another crazy haired grandpa I am, william

[Rwnielsen]

Originally Posted by jofred99

Understand that this is not the inexpensive route, but it will fit wherever that you are creative enough build.

These are very popular with the boat crowd.


https://www.novakool.com/conversion-units-info

I just sent their distributor an email request for pricing on the 9.2 cf unit at 24vdc. I want to compare it to the Norcold 12v model.