❄️Compressor Fridges ❄️

[Pudsey Bear]

ref noise, it is very dependant on the fridge. The fridge in the house is annoyingly noisy. The 240V in the Motorhome is so quiet (aka totally silent) that initially for quite a while I was opening the door to check it still had power!

Which make and model do you have in the van David?

 

[Nabsim]

I don't think you will have a problem downsizing Julian, vans are for sleeping and cooking in, most of our time is spent outside. Our compressor fridge is without doubt the best item we ever bought for the van and it is left on 24/7 now keeping the beer chilled for the next trip.

That may be the case for fine weather campers or those going to warmer climes in the Winter but I think its a different thing if you use it all year round in the UK or colder countries lol

How some of my mates manage in a panel van over the dark nights baffles me, some hardly have a window or skylight, it's like going in a care when you enter. Could be part of the mental health problems a lot suffer from.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

When I did mine I was lucky to find two 1300x600 Seitz windows on ebay only £300, the only things Liz requested was plenty of light, opening windows, and a decent kitchen with enough worktop space,

Yes it is a total mess, I'd just bought it back from the chap I sold it to, it looked like he'd NEVER cleaned it inside or out

 

[trevskoda]

Thanks for all the replies, all interesting, I've just returned from a week away, Rutland Water, Norfolk and back via a visit to Bletchley Park (Brilliant!) half the time on EHU. I didn't notice much difference whether gas or electric on the fridge temp, a Thetford, which happily took it down to 3°c overnight. Van internally reached 42.5 °c max! in the day.
Fridge always fully filled with beer to help stabilise temp when opening and closing door. I'll be downsizing to a PVC later, when I can decide which one and accept the smaller living area and will certainly be going down the compressor route then.

These are good for smaller vans, compleatly sealed and low power 230v through a smart 600w inverter, just a alloy door catch to make.

 

[mistericeman]

When I did mine I was lucky to find two 1300x600 Seitz windows on ebay only £300, the only things Liz requested was plenty of light, opening windows, and a decent kitchen with enough worktop space, View attachment 144014 View attachment 144015 View attachment 144016 View attachment 144017

Yes it is a total mess, I'd just bought it back from the chap I sold it to, it looked like he'd NEVER cleaned it inside or out

View attachment 144013

Same here when we built the Transit... Wanted a light open airy feel to it...

We even built a large opening caravan window at the back of the bed...
So we could park with the rear doors open and listen to the sound of the sea through the open window

 

[Robmac]

That may be the case for fine weather campers or those going to warmer climes in the Winter but I think its a different thing if you use it all year round in the UK or colder countries lol

How some of my mates manage in a panel van over the dark nights baffles me, some hardly have a window or skylight, it's like going in a care when you enter. Could be part of the mental health problems a lot suffer from.

I put 6 Seitz windows in mine Neil so no worries on that score and the extra high top gives it more of a spacious feel inside.

it will be interesting to see how the solar performs over the winter and I will probably have to turn the fridge off between trips. We very rarely stay anywhere more than 2 or 3 nights so we will be charging from the alternator as well between stops.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I'd love to do another, I'd love to be able to do another

 

[Fisherman]

That may be the case for fine weather campers or those going to warmer climes in the Winter but I think its a different thing if you use it all year round in the UK or colder countries lol

How some of my mates manage in a panel van over the dark nights baffles me, some hardly have a window or skylight, it's like going in a care when you enter. Could be part of the mental health problems a lot suffer from.

When I stared I had a 100ah banner battery with about 40 usable amps without damaging the battery. Then on the last van I had 2 100ah AGM batteries with about 80 usable amps. I had to replace them after three years. I now have two 100ah lithium batteries with about 160usable amps.
If I chose to I could double this by fitting another two 100ah under the passenger seat giving me 320 usable amps. We travel all year round and if I was given the chance of replacing my 3 way fridge for free with the same size compressor I would jump at the chance. I don’t think we would have any issues travelling in the depths of winter with a compressor fridge if we upgraded our battery capacity. The new victron 50a B2B has also made a great difference when travelling, we rarely spend anymore than two nights anywhere before moving on.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I suppose both type of fridge are okay in winter, the compressor ones even will be using less amps due to it not having as much work to do, more maintaining than cooling.

Does anyone have a good temp display so you don't need to open the door? to check, perhaps a BT one, Merlin and I had a look at them, but we were less than happy, mine just didn't do it at all.

 

[r4dent]

It’s not so much the actual crossing, as you say that’s only 35 mins. But your gas has to be turned off well before departure, and then when you arrive at Calais you have the bother of finding somewhere to pull over to turn it back on again, so all in all it’s very handy not having to worry about it, until the next time you actually stop to put the kettle on.

We always travel with the gas turned off and the fridge on 12v so no need to do anything before /during/ after the crossing.

 

[mistericeman]

When I stared I had a 100ah banner battery with about 40 usable amps without damaging the battery. Then on the last van I had 2 100ah AGM batteries with about 80 usable amps. I had to replace them after three years. I now have two 100ah lithium batteries with about 160usable amps.
If I chose to I could double this by fitting another two 100ah under the passenger seat giving me 320 usable amps. We travel all year round and if I was given the chance of replacing my 3 way fridge for free with the same size compressor I would jump at the chance. I don’t think we would have any issues travelling in the depths of winter with a compressor fridge if we upgraded our battery capacity. The new victron 50a B2B has also made a great difference when travelling, we rarely spend anymore than two nights anywhere before moving on.

Similar here..... When we built the Transit all the cooking was electric


3 x 100ah flooded lead acids
2 X 100ah solar
Basic PWM solar controller
Durite VSR
(though we did have a high output alternator due to it being a ex mess bus)

Never struggled for power even in winter with the eberspacher running full tilt 24/7

And 12v Waeco coolbox...
Though we always moved on at least after 2 nights.

When we got the motorhome I was shocked how poor the available power was (obviously most folks spend their holidays on Umbilical power)

Fast forward to 400w of solar
3 x 100ah AGM
Victron mppt
Victron b2b
Compressor fridge
Refillable gas bottles
Etc etc

And now 300ah Ecoworthy lithium....

The only time we've ever come close to running short of power was last November when on a site for a week in cold weather with little solar harvest due to cloud cover
And not driving to allow engine charging.

 

[Robmac]

Similar here..... When we built the Transit all the cooking was electric


3 x 100ah flooded lead acids
2 X 100ah solar
Basic PWM solar controller
Durite VSR
(though we did have a high output alternator due to it being a ex mess bus)

Never struggled for power even in winter with the eberspacher running full tilt 24/7

And 12v Waeco coolbox...
Though we always moved on at least after 2 nights.

When we got the motorhome I was shocked how poor the available power was (obviously most folks spend their holidays on Umbilical power)

Fast forward to 400w of solar
3 x 100ah AGM
Victron mppt
Victron b2b
Compressor fridge
Refillable gas bottles
Etc etc

And now 300ah Ecoworthy lithium....

The only time we've ever come close to running short of power was last November when on a site for a week in cold weather with little solar harvest due to cloud cover
And not driving to allow engine charging.

I've also gone all electric with 2 x 300AH Fogstar Lithium batteries and 850W solar so your figures are very encouraging.

It will be my first time away in the van tomorrow since the new system went in, 3 nights in Suffolk and I will probably use the Remoska for cooking at 400W, I'm also having a Diesel heater fitted on July 1st plumbed into the main Diesel tank so no gas required at all now. I think the biggest drain will be the hot water boiler at 750W.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Maybe it's my updragging, but a clout was expected and usually given if you left a room empty and left the light on, and that was when electricery was comparatively cheap.


OMG
In the 1950s, the average price of electricity in Great Britain was approximately 0.563 pence per kWh. In the 1960s, it fluctuated around 0.678 pence per kWh

 

[Caz]

My Alpicool firdge has been fine all weekend, running off my Jackery 500 'cos it hasn't been "plumbed in" to the battery yet. Can barely hear it when it kicks in, even at night when it's quiet. Can see the temperature and volts at a glance on the display panel on the top.

 

[r4dent]

Maybe it's my updragging, but a clout was expected and usually given if you left a room empty and left the light on, and that was when electricery was comparatively cheap.

and people really said "Put Big Light off"

 

[mistericeman]

and people really said "Put Big Light off"

Our front room light is "the big light" as far as as alexa is concerned

"Alexa..... Put BIG light on"

Etc etc

 

[r4dent]

In the 1950s, the average price of electricity in Great Britain was approximately 0.563 pence per kWh.
In the 1960s, it fluctuated around 0.678 pence per kWh

In 1960, the average UK annual salary for manual workers was just over 700 pounds
I started work in the relatively new (and well paid !) computer industry in 1964. As a trainee programmer my gross weekly pay was £8.

 

[ProDave]

half the time on EHU.

Use of EHU for a motorhome is interesting.

Ours has 2 large solar panels charging the leisure battery, which also gets charged by the engine when driving. That sees to the running of the fridge and all lighting.

In our case space and water heating is by diesel (original owners choice) and cooking by gas.

We spend one night on EHU in our trip away last week. We stopped on a site that only had a pitch with EHU available so were in effect forced to pay for it, so out of sheer bloody mindedness I plugged in. About the only thing we could do with the mains electric was switch the water heater to mains. But it's use of diesel is so frugal that I doubt it saved more than a few pence. So I can't see us by choice wanting to pay for an EHU.

It did give us chance to test the Dometic roof mounted AC unit which only works on EHU. Yes it works, but it is damned noisy so it would have to really be incredably hot for us to want to put up with the noise, let alone the inconvenience of having to be on a site with EHU.

 

[RoaminRog]

Today was another really warm day, and the Shoreline didn’t let us down.

 

[Fisherman]

Use of EHU for a motorhome is interesting.

Ours has 2 large solar panels charging the leisure battery, which also gets charged by the engine when driving. That sees to the running of the fridge and all lighting.

In our case space and water heating is by diesel (original owners choice) and cooking by gas.

We spend one night on EHU in our trip away last week. We stopped on a site that only had a pitch with EHU available so were in effect forced to pay for it, so out of sheer bloody mindedness I plugged in. About the only thing we could do with the mains electric was switch the water heater to mains. But it's use of diesel is so frugal that I doubt it saved more than a few pence. So I can't see us by choice wanting to pay for an EHU.

It did give us chance to test the Dometic roof mounted AC unit which only works on EHU. Yes it works, but it is damned noisy so it would have to really be incredably hot for us to want to put up with the noise, let alone the inconvenience of having to be on a site with EHU.

EHU is on the way out for motorhomes. We never want it. Possibly it may be of limited use December - February, but even then we could probably get by without it. Some of the Aires up here have put in EHU, I always advise against it. The Aire at Fort Augustus must have spent thousands installing them it in all their 22 pitches, and it’s optional at only £5 a night if you want to use it. There were around 10 vans there and only one was using it. Lithium batteries, inverters, diesel heating, and induction hobs are changing the power set up for the future. The big clubs and most independent sites need to wake up and smell the coffee.