Traveler III
Drawer fridge
- Thread starter Two Sheds
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Yes. I just got the C40 chest fridge freezer. The first one arrive damaged inside the shipping box. Amazon took care of that within 3 days, and I had a new one. I cooled it down overnight to 25, then took it out for a night camping. I ran it off and on directly from the car until dark, maintaning a fridge temp of 34. At bedtime, about 10pm I hooked it to a 12ah agm battery box I made. It ran all night on that until 8:15am when i pugged it back to the car. The battery box still had 63% at 12.6v. I took the fridge home and repeated the test. I cooled it down then ran it on the box (indoors ~68*) and it ran for 11 hours on a 12ah battery before the fridge cut itself off due to the battery protection circuit which I had set for 11.5V.
This means that indoors, it used not even one amp per hour to maintain 34*. Not bad at all. It will benefit from an insulation blanket in the summer but i am very impressed on its efficiency so far.
This means that indoors, it used not even one amp per hour to maintain 34*. Not bad at all. It will benefit from an insulation blanket in the summer but i am very impressed on its efficiency so far.
Traveler III
Thank you for the review. Did you happen to notice how quickly the internal temp rose from 34* to 40* in the ~68* environment? (either Empty or Full) This gives an idea for how well insulated the box is and how long it can go w/o power and stil keep food in the safe zone. (IE: be used as a cooler)
Boort
You know, that is something I didnt look at. I will test it today, empty, indoors and report back. I think the lid and lid seal are the weakest part of the fridge that i see. The seal itself doesnt feel substantial enough, and I did notice a bit of moisture/frost form around the top of the inside. The lid seems thin. I would love to see someone cut into one of these, I am gonna guess the actual insulation is very thin. I had it wrapped in a moving blanket overnight in the car on Friday. I think the extra insulation a blanket or even some custom cut foam could offer will substantially aid it.
Influencer III
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I didn’t know anyone but Dometic made a drawer. It looks like alibaba is the only source?
Trail Blazer III
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From my experience, none of the drawer fridges maintain temperature for long when the power shuts off. We looked at the Dometic CD30 which also has a little brother the CD20 (Same same width and height, just not as long), but ended up with the Engel SB30G (which is almost the exact same size as the CD30, which is good since we had already built the cabinet based on the Dometic.) So far we are very happy with the Engel, we spend two weeks in Montana this summer and we could easily freeze water on a 100 degree day (with the car parked and ac off the temp at the back of the fridge was reaching over 120 degrees (Fridge is inside a Jeep Grand Cherokee). Current draw seems to average about 2.5 to 2.9 amps when running (30 to 45 Watts). Gets cold fast (we turn it on when leaving the house to go grocery shopping and its in the 40 degree range by the time we load groceries) we were getting just under 20 hours run time in the summer with just the standard jeep starting battery. Planning on adding a Jackery or second battery to ensure car starts after camping. We have installed the fridge in a wooden box, and made openings per the installation instructions for ventilation. Also installed a temperature probe in the back of the box to monitor how hot it gets behind the unit. The Engel does allow for the compressor to be relocated to either side of the unit or up to about 3 feet away which could be good for tight spaces. It is fairly quiet, cant hear it when driving. A couple of things I preferred on the Engel over the Dometic; the Egnel has a couple of air ducts that help draw air in from the front as well as the back, and has a high quality Japanese compressor. These drawer fridges were designed for use in boats and semi trucks, and are no where near as insulated as a chest style fridge, but we have found it is really nice to be able to just pull open the drawer at a rest stop and get lunch without unloading or moving anything in the rig. would defiantly buy one again. Pictures below of the fridge installed in the cabinet we built. Controls above the fridge are switches for overhead lighting, Voltage gauge, and usb/cigarette lighter.
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Influencer III
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I didn’t see one there either, but...
Well how about that...
So Yesterday I ran some more tests as per above.. cooled the *empty* fridge to 34 and let it soak for several hours indoors, then watched how long it took to for the temps to climb back to 40.
39 minutes. I was a bit shocked thinking, maybe it needed a longer soak time, so I let it run all night, still empty, and repeated the process. Again, 38 minutes.
Not great. Not great at all. I know I will be sewing/acquiring/building an insulated cover for it this winter in prep for summer temps.
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Influencer III
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Holy carp! I wonder how that compares to a chest fridge? I've been eyeing a drawer for a while, but not if it doesn't have any "ride through" capacity.
Trail Blazer III
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It defiantly makes a difference how much 'stuff' is in the fridge when looking at temperature rise and overall stability of temperature as the outdoor temps vary. The more food, the more thermal mass there is to resist change. We also avoid placing more than two warm water bottles in at a time, as we take cold ones out. The drawer fridges just don't have that much overall insulation, and some of the cold spills over the sides of the drawer when you open it, more so than a chest style, but they are damn convenient on day trips and weekend camps.
I just want to clarify- this was the Alpicool C40 chest fridge, empty. Not a drawer.
Thank you for the analysis. I wonder how this compares to the similar Sized ARB, Dometic, or even to a 40qt Yeti cooler.
Reason that I was asking was that a while back I filled my 70qt Igloo Sportsman with blocks of ice overnight and after removing the ice it took 109 mins to go from 34* to 40* in shade with ~75-78* ambient temps.
May I suggest a fabric or tyvek cover with a layer of Double Bubble Reflective Foil Insulation (or 2 layers of regular single bubble foil) on the inside. You will need to have a way to seal the edge around the fridge exhaust (industrial Velcro would be my choice) to keep any heat from the exhaust/radiant from getting between the fridge and insulation.
I've used bubble foil insulation for a large number of camping uses from sleeping bag wrapper for winter camping to window light / heat blocks when camping in the bed of the truck in the high deserts, and cooler wraps. It is one of the insulation methods used by delivery companies like HelloFresh to deliver perishables. (They also have a formed board of recyclable cellulose peanuts and a foil lined Styrofoam board insulation; They appear to switch between the 3 methods depending on the expected weather conditions between the dist. center and the customer.)
Boort
I just received the smallest alpicool I could find (the C9) chest style, and was going to test it before trying to buy the Alpicool drawer fridge (D30) you're talking about, OP. Comments:
1. The C9 cooled from 86 F down to 34 F in 15 minutes, and then down to 10F in another 15 or so minutes (in 86 ambient garage). Awesome compared to previous thermo-couple-style cooler.
2. I don't have much experience with Alibaba, but tried and failed with 3 vendors to purchase a D30 (seems like it's all B2B and no B2C).
3. haven't found a retail source for the D30. The Dometic looks so similar, but the analog temp control seems annoying already (in terms of precision around freezing, and also limiting internal space, per amazon review).
1. The C9 cooled from 86 F down to 34 F in 15 minutes, and then down to 10F in another 15 or so minutes (in 86 ambient garage). Awesome compared to previous thermo-couple-style cooler.
2. I don't have much experience with Alibaba, but tried and failed with 3 vendors to purchase a D30 (seems like it's all B2B and no B2C).
3. haven't found a retail source for the D30. The Dometic looks so similar, but the analog temp control seems annoying already (in terms of precision around freezing, and also limiting internal space, per amazon review).
I managed to buy a few this summer, ten to be exact. We used two in camp kitchen builds (one LC100, one 5th gen 4 runner). They are awesome, and work beautifully. The bluetooth control / monitor is super handy too. We are selling the extra units we have locally in Calgary, Canada for $500 cdn.
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