Thetford 3 way fridge.


That's one of the best information vids I've watched for a while.
Kudos to that man, he's good at explaining stuff and doesn't waffle or pad out (y)

I know he's American, but I've got his channel bookmarked now for a browse through...
 
There is also a balance of product and asthetics.
The fridge in my Camper works brilliantly. It was £170, 94L and does the job. But it is a domestic (not Dometic, domestic) fridge and I've added a catch to it, added tape to the shelves to stop them shifting around when on the move, etc).
The fridge in the Motorhome also works well, although it is very inefficient in comparision. It would cost over £1,000 to replace like for like. But it looks great and and is nicely integrated into the layout and design.

Something you tend to see from the likes of Bob Wells - and this is not a critisism, but just an observation - is that what he generally promotes has, to be blunt, zero style. I saw that video when it originally was posted and the fridge looks good, but you have to faff with the cover, have a lump of a fridge in a corner and not the easiest way to access your food and drink (there is a reason why fridges with doors are much more common than top-loaders).
It is a bit like his toilet solution. How many people doing a self-build here would fit a Thetford cassette toilet instead of the Bob Wells preferred solution - which is quite literally a bag in a bucket?

Like I said, it is, In my opinion anyway, a matter of balance - product specs, asthetics and budget.
 
There is also a balance of product and asthetics.
The fridge in my Camper works brilliantly. It was £170, 94L and does the job. But it is a domestic (not Dometic, domestic) fridge and I've added a catch to it, added tape to the shelves to stop them shifting around when on the move, etc).
The fridge in the Motorhome also works well, although it is very inefficient in comparision. It would cost over £1,000 to replace like for like. But it looks great and and is nicely integrated into the layout and design.

Something you tend to see from the likes of Bob Wells - and this is not a critisism, but just an observation - is that what he generally promotes has, to be blunt, zero style. I saw that video when it originally was posted and the fridge looks good, but you have to faff with the cover, have a lump of a fridge in a corner and not the easiest way to access your food and drink (there is a reason why fridges with doors are much more common than top-loaders).
It is a bit like his toilet solution. How many people doing a self-build here would fit a Thetford cassette toilet instead of the Bob Wells preferred solution - which is quite literally a bag in a bucket?

Like I said, it is, In my opinion anyway, a matter of balance - product specs, asthetics and budget.
To be fair Dave,
1, The insulated cover. He is in Arizona, not Accrington ( other places beginning with A are available lol)
2, The toilet situation. The clue is in the channels title. CheapRVliving. He’s helping the homeless get on the road as cheaply as possible.
Horses for courses. He doesn’t recommend the Sprinter either. Not because it’s not a good van, but because of the price of servicing compared to American simple engines.
If anyone has the time, or interest, check out the HOWA channel.
In the past, during the McCarthy era, he’d be banged up as a communist 😬
 
To be fair Dave,
1, The insulated cover. He is in Arizona, not Accrington ( other places beginning with A are available lol)
2, The toilet situation. The clue is in the channels title. CheapRVliving. He’s helping the homeless get on the road as cheaply as possible.
Horses for courses. He doesn’t recommend the Sprinter either. Not because it’s not a good van, but because of the price of servicing compared to American simple engines.
If anyone has the time, or interest, check out the HOWA channel.
In the past, during the McCarthy era, he’d be banged up as a communist 😬
Indeed - as I said, it is not a critisism of Bob Wells, but an observation.

(if you look at Self-builds on US channels, they tend to be more, shall we say, rustic. I guess it is a different mindset in many ways).
 
Indeed - as I said, it is not a critisism of Bob Wells, but an observation.

(if you look at Self-builds on US channels, they tend to be more, shall we say, rustic. I guess it is a different mindset in many ways).
If we had that amount of land we could wildcamp that they do, BLM and the like, maybe we wouldn’t need to cover all bets.
To be able to live year round in temperatures around 25 c without leaving the country, by driving north the the summer and south in the winter, would be great.
Just think what it could be like if we had something like a United States of Europe 😳 Oh well, that boat’s sailed
 
If we had that amount of land we could wildcamp that they do, BLM and the like, maybe we wouldn’t need to cover all bets.
To be able to live year round in temperatures around 25 c without leaving the country, by driving north the the summer and south in the winter, would be great.
Just think what it could be like if we had something like a United States of Europe 😳 Oh well, that boat’s sailed
trouble is, with a united states of Europe, you end up being stuck with the French :(
 
I can't wait for our three way fridge to go pop.... Need to look into a direct replacement that's a compressor type.

Be nice to get back to just forgetting about turning gas on to it and lighting it etc.
 
trouble is, with a united states of Europe, you end up being stuck with the French :(
Saw a book in the library . Now we’re out, we can’t annoy them so much.
We needed to educate them about the joys of being British. Education,education,education 🤯
 

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I fitted a 230v comp fridge and run a smart soft start inverter, fridge draws half an amp, but remember its only working part time, runs happy for 2 days on 2 90ah batteries bench test before I have to recharge, now in the van with solar its causes no discharge at all.
fridge c.jpg
fridge a.jpg
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Our van is similar and I'd swap for a compressor fridge when the day comes. We have a single 95Ah AGM battery, the fridge runs through the inverter when its SoC above 80+ %. If it drops below that it reverts to LPG.

I've just looked at the code and the inverter runs until the battery discharges to below 87%, it then stays off until the SoC exceeds 90%. On good sunny days the solar can contribute a large proportion of the required energy, the battery helping out should a cloud come along. With only one battery of limited capacity a lower limit of 87% ensures there is enough energy stored in the battery to power the lights that evening.
 
I've just looked at the code and the inverter runs until the battery discharges to below 87%, it then stays off until the SoC exceeds 90%. On good sunny days the solar can contribute a large proportion of the required energy, the battery helping out should a cloud come along. With only one battery of limited capacity a lower limit of 87% ensures there is enough energy stored in the battery to power the lights that evening.
Can you give a link to this piece of kit ? Sounds interesting.
 

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