I bought a cheapish 12v fridge from Jaycar, and its so nice have a day on the water and a nice cold drink on the way home.

Somehow I feel like the biggest waster of energy, just for a cold drink, but somehow I can justify it. I guess I burn so much fuel just getting to the beach, that just a little more shouldn't matter It's jaycar's fault for making fridges too cheap!

I got one from Aldi I installed it today.
till now I have used my workmates fridge he has mounted in his Ute lunchtime on-site we have a cook up. One of us will shop once a week if compared to buying lunch every day the fridge has paid for itself many Times over. He runs a solar panel on the roof of his Ute to keep duel batteries charged. I think there are a lot bigger energy wasters around the home you can cut back in first the tv on standby the internet left running when on holiday checking Seabreeze funny image thread ever 20 min ect... don't feel guilty just use your fridge to the vary end of its life and don't waste the resources to make one every year.

I have one in my trailer for cold beer, it only draws 4 amp. Sips power from the solar panel

I wonder if the people saying the world will end in ten years because of our actions and human induced climate change, feel guilty about boarding a jet plane to take them somewhere else in the world?

They probably don't feel guilty as they don't associate their own actions with their own words.

Guys,
it's the plastic and shipping, then the replacement of cheap products that is way worse than the energy used to run the fridge. ultimately it's it's f all compared to the immense waste of our society, so enjoy the coldie

tv standby, modem running etc will have such minuscule impact it's not worth considering, leaving them on for a year would equate to the AC compressor running for a minute.

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w8ingforwind said..
don't feel guilty just use your fridge to the vary end of its life and don't waste the resources to make one every year.

But the newer model will be lighter , cool faster , lid will open easier and the hinges have been completely redesigned using cad technology and incorporating a totally new composite eco friendly manufacturing process with beefed up pins moved outwards 5 mm for better lid stability while maintaining user friendly control .

Does a car fridge burn fuel?

doesn't it use batteries power, which are charged of the alternator, which is always spinning when the car is?
so isn't this the one thing that you needn't feel guilty about? Unless you are just driving to spin the alternator to charge the battery to power the fridge.

Don't they make eskies any more?

When I was a kid, if you wanted a cold drink on summer sports afternoons, you froze a bottle of cordial and carried it round wrapped in a towel in your schoolbag.

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Imax1 said..

w8ingforwind said..
don't feel guilty just use your fridge to the vary end of its life and don't waste the resources to make one every year.

But the newer model will be lighter , cool faster , lid will open easier and the hinges have been completely redesigned using cad technology and incorporating a totally new composite eco friendly manufacturing process with beefed up pins moved outwards 5 mm for better lid stability while maintaining user friendly control .

I'll have the old one thanks

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DunkO said..
Does a car fridge burn fuel?

doesn't it use batteries power, which are charged of the alternator, which is always spinning when the car is?
so isn't this the one thing that you needn't feel guilty about? Unless you are just driving to spin the alternator to charge the battery to power the fridge.

Well, I have always assumed that extra load on the electrical system uses slightly more fuel. It should as otherwise, where all that energy going to if you weren't using it?

I guess you could have a system where it only loaded the alternator when you were braking or going down a hill, but I don't think anyone cares about regenerative braking for fridges just yet

When I go sailing, I wrap in a beer in a tea towel with two freezer bricks, and place them in a small insulated bag in the foot well covered with a towel. Does the job perfectly.

If the Aldi one you are talking about is one of the compressor models they've been selling, they are about 4 times more efficient than the cheap Jaycar peltier effect devices, and can achieve up to 50 degrees below ambient, compared to peltier which can achieve about 20 degrees below ambient.

I'm curious how the cheap Jaycar one performs in a car sitting in the sun, or did you get a compressor model from Jaycar?

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Harrow said..
When I go sailing, I wrap in a beer in a tea towel with two freezer bricks, and place them in small insulated bag in the foot well covered with a towel. Does the job perfectly.

If the Aldi one you are talking about is one of the compressor models they've been selling, they are about 4 times more efficient than the cheap Jaycar peltier effect devices, and can achieve up to 50 degrees below ambient, compared to peltier which can achieve about 20 degrees below ambient.

I'm curious how the cheap Jaycar one performs in a car sitting in the sun, or did you get a compressor model from Jaycar?

$399 sitting steady at -2c
I did want to get a trailblazer but the $1600 price tag was out of my budget and now I don't have a Ute it doesn't have to live in the rain I'm a little concerned about it wearing out prematurely living in a hot 4x4 but next year I'll get a work trailer for it to live in I need more space.

^^^ Looks like a rebadged WAECO? If so, they are great. Mine draws 4 amps, but on a 25% duty cycle, so 24 amp-hours per day means you can comfortably get a long weekend out of it on the 105Ah deep-cycle lead-acid I have in my camper trailer.

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Harrow said..
If the Aldi one you are talking about is one of the compressor models they've been selling, they are about 4 times more efficient than the cheap Jaycar peltier effect devices, and can achieve up to 50 degrees below ambient, compared to peltier which can achieve about 20 degrees below ambient.

I'm curious how the cheap Jaycar one performs in a car sitting in the sun, or did you get a compressor model from Jaycar?

The fridge I bought is one of the 'brass monkey' ones that they now sell. They are compressor fridges. These same models seem to be sold at other places like auto1 and some other camping place.

I also have a Jaycar cooler(warmer) that I got years ago. They are pretty ordinary at keeping things cold, but I guess as you say they are limited to a max of 20 degrees below ambient. I think even this is optimistic as I have had it in the car with the ambient down at 23 and I doubt it got close to 20 below. As a test, I loaded it with a bag of ice and it couldn't even keep that from melting, but I was probably asking too much.

The brass money fridge can go down to -20, but it no doubt runs a lot more keeping anything that low. I ran it off mains power to test that and it oscillated between about -19 and -17, but I didn't measure the time the compressor would run for.

After reading a lot on compressor fridges lately, I think they are all almost equal, with the exception of the amount of insulation they have. The compressors are not that different, the current draw is not that different, and better insulation seems to make the difference.

I have a 104AH battery in the Elgrand as well, so it will run this fine as well as lighting when camping.

the fridge was build in China (or similar country) where they don't have as strict enviromental regulations as we do, then it was shipped here on a ship with an engine like this (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%A4rtsil%C3%A4-Sulzer_RTA96-C) burning few tons of fuel (very low grade oil) per hour creating shi!tload of polution only for the fridge to break in few monts and end up either being shipped to China (if they still take our rubbish, and probably be burned) or end up in landfill.

so yeah I think you should feel bad. I feel sad everytime I go to Bunnings/KMart/BigW etc 'cause most of the crap there follows the same path.

My theory is this happens at the same rate it goes out the shop door - everytime someone goes thru check out, someone else throws similar item in the bin

PS: maybe I had few too many brewkis to be posting on the interweb :-)

when you go to Bunnings check the label, I prefer to buy Australian Made and pay a bit more. Mainly because the Made in China seem to have less standards in the manufacturing process.

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FormulaNova said..

The brass money fridge can go down to -20, but it no doubt runs a lot more keeping anything that low. I ran it off mains power to test that and it oscillated between about -19 and -17, but I didn't measure the time the compressor would run for.

After reading a lot on compressor fridges lately, I think they are all almost equal, with the exception of the amount of insulation they have. The compressors are not that different, the current draw is not that different, and better insulation seems to make the difference.

I have a 104AH battery in the Elgrand as well, so it will run this fine as well as lighting when camping.

They are not all equal . If you want the best then EVAKOOL and Engel are simply the only two brands to look at . Evakool are 100% made in australia with insulation that would put all other brands to shame . and they last like engel's for donkey's years

If it is a rebadged waeco design it should have a danfoss compressor which is a very reliable unit .

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Foghorn said..
If it is a rebadged waeco design it should have a danfoss compressor which is a very reliable unit .

Sorry to say WAECO now have a chinese compressor. Not sure when they swapped over, probably once they achieved enough market share from advertising the German danfoss. Apparently it's still reliable.

That's what mine has. 15 yrs old but.

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dusta said..
They are not all equal . If you want the best then EVAKOOL and Engel are simply the only two brands to look at . Evakool are 100% made in australia with insulation that would put all other brands to shame . and they last like engel's for donkey's years

I inherited an Engel a few years back that was already 15 years old I think. It didn't last long after I got it and died within 6 months. I think it must have been from not being used often enough as it would have rarely been used. I took it to the repair centre and its pretty much replace the whole modular unit, or scrap it, and the cost was on par with a new one.

I agree on the insulation and I think this is what sets apart one fridge from another. It also adds size/reduces capacity, so there is a tradeoff.

I think though that compressor efficiency is not going to be that different between brands as there are only so many ways to skin a cat.

Ultimately though, I paid $280 for a 30L fridge that has a 3 year warranty that allows you to replace the unit at any Jaycar around the country. Even if it fails once, I am still okay with that. I can't justify the price of a top brand name one for what I intend to use it for. The only problem I had was choosing between the 40L or 30L for the space I had, and of course I 'should have' bought the 40L!

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Harrow said..

Foghorn said..
If it is a rebadged waeco design it should have a danfoss compressor which is a very reliable unit .

Sorry to say WAECO now have a chinese compressor. Not sure when they swapped over, probably once they achieved enough market share from advertising the German danfoss. Apparently it's still reliable.

I think even Danfoss or whatever they have rebranded themselves as are making the compressors in China, but that said, a 'Chinese' compressor does not mean that the quality is equal between Chinese suppliers. One could have great QC and the other terrible QC.