Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire DC Freezers or Refrigerators?

Does anyone use a DC freezer or fridge? If so, pros and cons please. TIA.

Never heard of any? Interesting.

Evening-
Assume you are referring to the free standing type, and not the ones most have in their campers, which run either DC or gas.
I have seen the freestanding at REI, a couple of years ago, but haven't ever used one personally. We thought about it but the pricing was pretty much out there.
Believe the prices ran about $700-800 for a small one and $1100-1200 for the larger divided unit that had a freezer and a frig section. Neither was really large--just about the size of a large cooler. Prices may have come down, as they often do as a product "matures" in the market.
Check them out at REI. Link here... https://www.rei.com/search?q=Camp+refrigerator
Doesn't look like they have come down.

I used to live on a large sailboat that had DC Refrigeration.

Basically it was a freezer box with super thick insulation and a DC cold plate. I could pack it with frozen meat and block ice...

I had to run it sparingly or else train down the house batteries when I was under sail and not using the engine.

But if well prepared at time of departure frozen food and block ice would run out on day 10.

We also had a propane-fired refrigerator at Bear Camp in Maine.

As for 2021 technology I have no idea.

This is one I'm looking at. Way less energy use than AC apparently.


https://shop.c4pinc.com/collections...-solar-dc-powered-chest-freezer-21-cu-ft

Interesting.

It's a lot of power required to run one if you found yourself in a window of poor weather and were solar dependent.

The DC/propane appliances are pretty dependable, less of a power drain and been proven for years.

Can't find any user reviews on C4P.inc products, they've been incorporated since 2011.
There is one complaint that was filed with the BBB, it isn't pretty but it's just one, things happen.

https://www.bbb.org/ca/on/mississauga/profile/solar-energy-products/c4p-inc-0107-1369267

C4P.inc reveals their competitors here.

http://www.c4pinc.com/voltray-sunstar-vs-competitor-14-13-cuft-chest-freezers/#comments

I didn't research the competitors making similar products and that could be interesting.

It's a lot of money for a guinea pig test with DC/Propane products being so proven.

I think I could match the energy consumption with any cheap AC freezer if I enhanced the insulation value with a wrap of 2 inch high density styrofoam.

They have 4 1/2 inch walls on that bugger and a double lid gasket.

It may be what they had to do to even make their concept work?

Cool...It appears there all but the same thing as the Engers/DometicCFX/ARB and overland DC compressor fridges..I did a lot of research before I bought my Engel DC fridge/freezer and chose Engel for being the best for power consumption..While the Engel pulls 33 watts while the compressor is engaged this draws around 100 watts,which isn't that bad comparing size...This one uses 75(900WH) amp hours a day which is basically one 100ah lithium battery to roughly 20%..The other DC fridges pull around 45-50 watts running making this one pretty good for it's size in my opinion..

If you had atleast two 100ah lithium batteries(2-7000 cycles) and a big solar bank(400 watts)or a high amp charger,this would work great it appears, on paper atleast...

Thanks for posting..Didn't know they made them like this..


Jayco

The BBB link JeffA Posted is pretty ugly.
It does make me think that they do not have a network of repair people who will come out to do warranty work.
What kind of company lets the homeowner work on a brand new unit themselves instead of sending out a repair tech who has all the specs for the unit and should actually know how to diagnose & fix the repairs?

June of 2017, we received a new C4P Model: C4P11.1SRVR refrigerator/freezer. When plugged in, it did not run. Our brand new refrigerator was dead on arrival. I spent many weeks troubleshooting the unit. The company finally supplied me with a control module and the unit ran.

The RV DC fridges are ammonia type refrigeration, nothing complex. They suck power and don't work well in low ambient temperatures.

Mennonites\Amish around herelove those things, even though they don’t believe in that evil lectomogricity stuff. Maybe The Debble only travels on A-C.

A fridge's compressor is what eats the power and it requires a/c. RV types have no compressor. Here's a short article about how they work. A DC heater works like a flame but it takes a lot of juice. In an RV, you need to use propane when you don't have the vehicle running to keep the batteries charged.

The only power they consume is what it takes to for a tiny solenoid to hold the gas valve open when it's called on to burn.

I had a half dozen of these at my hunting base camp in the Great Bear Wilderness, no power required but it took a few men to pick one up.
A little basic maintenance and they worked great.

You can own this 1929 model Servel for $2,250.00 if ya jump on it quick at Ebay. They were always spendy when you could find them but damn, this boy is proud.

The linked DC refer/freezer is a 12V compressor freezer not an absorbtion refer like RV's have... Infact, it is exactly like the now popular mini versions used in vans or overlanding... It even has the option of dual zone aka refer on one side and freezer on the other... The freezer obviously uses more juice than the refer...

Here is my Engel 12v compressor refer I use sometimes when I go to a spot I can't get level.. These operate just fine at 30 degrees off level.




Jayco👍

Here is the SunStar dual zone DC frig/freezer

Dual zone version

24 hour 12v Performance test @ 70 F Ambient, 38 F (fridge) = 218 watt hours
24 hour 12v Performance test @ 90 F Ambient, 38 F (fridge) = 435 watt hours
24 hour 12v Performance test @ 70 F Ambient, 0 F (Freezer) = 605 watt hours
24 hour 12v Performance test @ 90 F Ambient, 0 F (Freezer) = 894 watt hours


Jayco👍