fridge freezer question . (1 Viewer)

[happytraveller123]

i am looking to upgrade from my campervan to a larger motorhome , i like the look of the ones with the rear fixed bed and tall fridge freezer. do they still run on 12v/240mains and gas like the smaller fridges with just a icebox ? also if you have this layout have you found any real downsides with it ? thanks for reading.

 

[madbluemad]

Hi
Yes the fridge and freezer work off 12V, 240V & Gas. I cant comment on the layout as I havent had one like this.

Well I did have one years ago but I would imagine that the build quality will be much improved since then. I had no problem with this layout at that time.

Jim

 

[hallii]

I have just moved up to a fixed bed Hymer 522 from a VW T4 Camper.

The layout is fine, you don't get as much lounge area as with other layouts but you can go and have a lie down on the bed!

Plus you get the garage space under the bed and that is a big plus.

Whatever you get, try and get as many extras in with the price as you can, they soon mount up to mega bucks.

My fridge freezer is just the normal size, but a lot bigger the in the VW, the freezer is big enough for a weeks supply of frozen stuff so I am happy with that.

Remember, the bigger the fridge the more gas it uses.

Yes, they all run on gas, 230v or 12v if the engine is running, you need to switch to gas when you turn the engine off. (unless you get one with an automatic changeover).

Hallii

Hallii

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[motorhomer]

Our van has a rear fixed transverse bed - over a garage - and a tall fridge freezer. The fridge works perfectly. It switches automatically between mains/12v/gas. The van is also designed for the gas to be left switched on when travelling , and to switch aotomatically between cylinders when one runs out, so there really is nothing to do!

We like the layout, it works well for us. I suppose there are 2 downsides, first it is a bit of a climb into bed, and second if the end sleeper has to get up during the night she has to climb over me! The solution might be an island bed, but this would mean a bigger van and possibly loss of the garage, so we like it as it is!

 

[madbluemad]

I have just moved up to a fixed bed Hymer 522 from a VW T4 Camper.

The layout is fine, you don't get as much lounge area as with other layouts but you can go and have a lie down on the bed!

Plus you get the garage space under the bed and that is a big plus.

Whatever you get, try and get as many extras in with the price as you can, they soon mount up to mega bucks.

My fridge freezer is just the normal size, but a lot bigger the in the VW, the freezer is big enough for a weeks supply of frozen stuff so I am happy with that.

Remember, the bigger the fridge the more gas it uses.

Yes, they all run on gas, 230v or 12v if the engine is running, you need to switch to gas when you turn the engine off. (unless you get one with an automatic changeover).

Hallii

Hallii

Just use the genny and annoy everyone

Jim

 

[vwalan]

you could have a compressor fridge fitted instead .either 12v ,24volt or 240v .i use a 240v through an inverter. you need solar panels to keep it running if you wild camp .genny is too noisy for me even the quiet ones . thats another story. think 12v use alot less power and could be changing soon. . cheers alan.

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[Minxy]

We used to have a Rimor Sailer 645TC, large rear transverse bed over garage, kitchen one side with the habitation door and then large AES (automatice energy selection) fridge freezer, on the opposite side was (from the rear) washroom with separate shower cubicle, and double dinette. It was nearly 24ft long so we've now changed to a smaller version (Chausson Flash 04). We've lost the separate shower and half of the dinette (swivel front seats this time), as well as a bit of kitchen worktop and in place of the large fridge freezer we've got a small sidefacing seat behind the driver's seat. We now have a standard type fridge freezer (90L) which we have to remember to turn to the appropriate power source (not easy when you've been spoiled by an AES one!:Blush.

There are 3 common types of 3-way fridges (that's what they are called when they work off gas, mains and 12v). They are:

standard mains/12v and manual gas ignition - the type where you turn it to the power source you want it to use, but for gas you have to hold the button in until it lights and then let go, often they have a means for you to view the pilot light to make sure it's lit;

standard mains/12v and auto gas ignition - again, you turn it to the power source you want, but if you select gas and it will ignite itself without you having to hold in the button;

AES (mains/12v/gas) - you just turn it to 'auto' and it will look after itself, changing from gas to 12v to mains etc depending on what you're doing/the power supply it has available to it.

We didn't find that the big fridge freezer was hungry for gas as modern fridge freezers only come on when they need to, if you listen carefully you can often hear it doing it's 'clicking' to ignight the burner when it is needed. I must admit I did like the big FF but that was the compromise I had to make to change the van to a smaller one and get a layout that suits us, must admit though that most of the grub in it used to have a lovely holiday and come back home uneaten!oh:

We haven't found any real downsides with the layout, which is why we've gone for a slightly smaller version of what we had previously. We've only had the Chausson since mid-April with a week plus a weekend away in it but are more than happy with it and it works even better for us internally than the larger Sailer did (although that worked well for us too) - losing 4ft makes it easier to park, and has a better turning circle.

The rear garage swallows 2 mountain bikes, 2 inflatable canoes (proper ones!), plus all the gear to go with them, 2 chairs, 2 tables, wind-break, lots of other bits of gear - oh, and a spare wheel which we bought (lots of vans don't come with them as standard now!!!). Internally there is a lot of storage although obviousy there's a bit less storage than we had before but the vast (low profile) overcab locker is a glory hole and swallows loads of stuff too.

Only downside really is that it hasn't got a rear window so we've just been putting in a rear-view camera, and I do have to clamber over hubby to get in/out of bed (the bed can be raised and lowered so you can have it at a height that suits you (obviousy depending on how much 'junk' you've got in the garage!:Blush.

Can't beat having a nice big comfy bed to sprawl out on with the mutts on an evening whilst watching TV and then just crawl under the covers when we've had enough, and if we want to be a bit more 'formal' we can sit in the swivelled cab chairs.

 

[gazz]

on the 12 volt fridge freezers.....

i have a shoreline DC compressor fridge freezer, it's something like a 90 litre fridge, and 30 litre freezer,
it uses the popular danfoss multi voltage compressors, mine can run on 12, 24 or 48 volts DC,

it pulls around 9 amps on 12 volts, and runs for around 20 minutes in the hour, which dosent sound too bad, untill you count up all those minutes in a 24 hour period it's running for,

i'm bad at maths so i hooked it upto my solar charge controller which has an amp hour counter, and it told me the fridge freezer uses an average of 80 amp hours a day

yes it's lovely to never have to worry about the fridge not working like i did with the thetford 3 way fridge i had before (stopped working properly at 25 degrees ambient, useless in south france then) but you do need a big battery bank and solar panels. and even then, a couple of cloudy days in a row and you need to run the genny.

i would like to have a 3 way fridge freezer of the same size i have now, but it'd have to be one that will work properly in summer temps, and cost less than the grand or so they cost, the shorleine compressor fridge freezer cost me 500 quid,