Fridges: Upright or chest style?

[jonchilds]

Hi all. I have been searching Google for answers but none have solidified my thoughts.
I am in the process of converting my LWB Kombi to a light use camper and I’m trying to decide on whether to fit an upright fridge with a front door (50 litre LG Alpicool R50 12v compressor Fridge), or a chest style (35 litre Alpicool TWW35).

If anyone has any thoughts I’d like to hear them.

Thanks.

 

[Paynewright]

I’m following with interest. Our conversion is probably 18 months away (when both kids can drive). I’m pondering the same.

A slight hijack - I’ve wondered about noise from the fridge, particularly at night. With the upright version at least you can chuck in the awning tent if you have one.

My other consideration is that we want 4 seats so will likely keep the middle shuttle seat (purchased extra) and LHS single (came with van). This will mean we’ll likely have a reverse U shape set up with the long run on the drivers side and no deep fridge unit.

 

[Shaun Witts]

My van has an Indel B TB31A fridge (chest style) fitted inside a low level cabinet/bench seat.
Pros - it’s compact, neat and out of the way. It can be removed easily and run from mains if need be.
Cons - it can be awkward sometimes to access as we sometimes use that cabinet top for things like kettle/toaster/coffee machine (if they are not in the awning) so it means lots of shuffling things around. Also, on one particularly hot period when camping, the cabinet was getting rather hot inside although the fridge internal temp was still fine, so we felt we had to move it outside into the awning (which was where the mains input came in handy).

However, we have never noticed any noise from it, and it has worked reliably for the last 5 or so years.

With an upright one, I suppose you would need to keep the floor space in front of it clear, whereas we need to keep the surface above ours clear. So swings and roundabouts…

 

[Bav]

Hi all. I have been searching Google for answers but none have solidified my thoughts.
I am in the process of converting my LWB Kombi to a light use camper and I’m trying to decide on whether to fit an upright fridge with a front door (50 litre LG Alpicool R50 12v compressor Fridge), or a chest style (35 litre Alpicool TWW35).

If anyone has any thoughts I’d like to hear them.

Thanks.

Have you considered an upright fridge with a drawer front, as opposed to a traditional hinged-door arrangement? Avoids the issue @Shaun Witts highlights with a top-loader, plus you don't lose your cold air and things don't fall out when you open the door.

 

[Rioja John]

I have the Alpicool TWW35 fridge which sits on the sliding tray under our Van King bed so it’s very easy access for us.

John.

 

[Farnorthsurfer]

We fitted a chest style fridge in our LWB and have been very happy with it. Its not huge but has been big enough and we can fit a lot into it. You can see more in my build thread. One of the benefits is the very low power draw, I get away with running the fridge 24/7 in the summer even when the van is home and doesn't get a run for over a week.
The 160w solar seems to be enough to keep on top of the power demand.
We do have to be a bit more organised in getting stuff out of the fridge before prepping a meal as the lid is worktop.
There is no ice box but if you crank it up a bit it will freeze a plastic bottle of milk! Caught me out a couple of times before we got used to it.
So recommend a chest style.

 

[MikeWillmott]

We fitted a chest style fridge in our LWB and have been very happy with it. Its not huge but has been big enough and we can fit a lot into it. You can see more in my build thread. One of the benefits is the very low power draw, I get away with running the fridge 24/7 in the summer even when the van is home and doesn't get a run for over a week.
The 160w solar seems to be enough to keep on top of the power demand.
We do have to be a bit more organised in getting stuff out of the fridge before prepping a meal as the lid is worktop.
There is no ice box but if you crank it up a bit it will freeze a plastic bottle of milk! Caught me out a couple of times before we got used to it.
So recommend a chest style.

Agreed!
We have a Dometic 40ltr compressor chest fridge the temperature knob goes from 1 o’clock to 9 o’clock and the 3 o’clock position is fridge temperature get 6 o’clock and everything freezes.
Very quiet and we have no worries about leaving it on 24/7 with 150W solar.

 

[RosscoPCole]

We had a drawer fridge in our last camper and a now have an upright in or Cali. The upright is so much better. It holds a lot more compared to the drawer fridge and we love that you can just open it up and get something when you are driving. Also you can mount it further back in your conversion without having to worry about doors opening into the floor space. This also means you can have extra cupboards or drawers where the upright fridge is traditionally fitted.

 

[ginkster]

We have a Dometic 40L chest fridge too. Very efficient, quiet and holds a huge amount. Can be used as a freezer or fridge. The efficiency is helped as you don’t lose loads of the cold air each time you open the door. The only disadvantage I can see is there is always stuff on the lid if you are not organised. We just get everything we need out before starting to cook.

 

[Bav]

We had a drawer fridge in our last camper and a now have an upright in or Cali. The upright is so much better. It holds a lot more compared to the drawer fridge and we love that you can just open it up and get something when you are driving. Also you can mount it further back in your conversion without having to worry about doors opening into the floor space. This also means you can have extra cupboards or drawers where the upright fridge is traditionally fitted.

A little confused by your distinction between a drawer fridge and an upright fridge. We have a drawer fridge and it is upright - the 2 terms aren't mutually exclusive. By drawer do you actually mean a chest fridge?

 

[RosscoPCole]

A little confused by your distinction between a drawer fridge and an upright fridge. We have a drawer fridge and it is upright - the 2 terms aren't mutually exclusive. By drawer do you actually mean a chest fridge?

By drawer I mean a fridge that pulled out like a drawer like the picture below.

 

[Bav]

Ah, okay. Ours sits where a standard fridge would go and has the same form-factor, just with a sliding rather than a hinged door.

 

[Farnorthsurfer]

I like the look of the drawer fridges like the one in the photo above but its just a fact that the drawer and mechanism takes up space inside the cooled volume. Therefore your using energy to cool the parts and have less space in the same volume for stuff you want to keep cool. At least that was my thinking when we chose the the chest fridge.
The drawers do look good and are probably quite practical for boats where you don't want stuff to fall out.

 

[Ayjay]

I’ve wondered about noise from the fridge, particularly at night.

For what it's worth our Dometic CRX50 doesn't bother us at night. The said, after half a lifetime of gunfire, I'm quite death and therefore not much of a reference point but my wife can hear pins drop on a carpet!