I have installed a Dometic CD-30 drawer fridge in my Toyota FJ Cruiser, and wanted to share the experience of installing and using it in case it helps others interested in doing the same type of thing. I put this in a sleeping platform/galley system I installed in the vehicle. You may see the description of that here: https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/galley-and-sleeping-platform-system.221283/
Most people that use fridges in their vehicles get large fridges of 50L or so. A fridge that big may be necessary for big familes or long trips. In my case, I do mostly solo trips or with other 2-3 people, and I did not want to take so much space in the vehicle for a giant fridge. Besides, through careful food planning and storage and if you don’t need to have lots of cold canned drinks that take a huge amount of space, a small fridge is ideal. The Dometic drawer fridge has a capacity of 30 liters, and to me that is enough.
In the galley system I have a pull out kitchen system with stove and storage on one side, and left an opening on the other side for the drawer fridge:
The plan was to install the fridge in there and possibly a small drawer above it, but I will likely not do the extra drawer. Installing the fridge in there would have been trivial if I had taken the structure out of the trunk, mounted the fridge onto the frame, and put the entire frame with the fridge already mounted back in the trunk. But that would have taken two people (due to size, as it’s not really that heavy), but I was by myself and was impatient, so I decided to mount the fridge with the frame in place. This posed a problem because even though the fridge could easily slide in through the opening in the front, with the frame in place I no longer had the room to maneuver on either side to mount the brackets. That meant I had to mount the brackets on the fridge, but then I could no longer slide in from the front! Aaaargh!
Well, I disassembled the center/top frame to make room, and through some careful maneuvering I was able to lower the fridge with the brackets pre-mounted into position from above. But this posed a new challenge, because to bolt the four fridge mounts onto the frame I had very little space on either side, as you can see in these pictures taken from above, on either side:
Getting my hand in there to reach the bolt with an allen wrench was not fun, but I managed. The fridge is solidly attached to the frame now, and it’s great.
From the front, it looks like this:
In terms of using it, the fridge is great. What you see above it is half of the sleeping platform, but once deployed and with the mattress above you can barely hear the compressor when it comes on below. Also, the fridge is very efficient and obviously the compressor is not on all the time, and this is especially true at night when the ambient temperature is typically lower and thus the fridge rarely turns on to keep things cool during that time.
This also means it’s very efficient in terms of energy consumption. It only consumes 40 w/H, which means that on a 500w/H battery it could (theoretically) run for about 12 hours if the compressor was running all the time, which of course it doesn’t so the effective duration of the battery would be much longer.
Regarding build quality, I think it’s excellent. Everything works very well. The compressor in the back can be removed and installed on the side, or even somewhere else, affording excellent installation flexibility. I left it in the back as I designed the frame deep enough to hold the whole fridge and compressor that way, but if you want to consider a drawer fridge like this you have installation options. In terms of criticisms, in reality the only thing I would have done differently had I been the designer of this fridge is to put the thermostat somewhere else. Where they put it at first glance is very convenient, but in reality is wastes space all along the top part of the drawer on the right side, as you cannot put anything all the way to the top as it would bump with the thermostat box.
Leaving that aside, I got these modular plastic containers that fit in there very nicely, and stack very well. By using these things you can organize your food very rationally and efficiently, thus maximizing space. Obviouse this would change all the time depending on what you carry, but here’s an example:
You can see there that the thermostat is on the way and what’s on the top left of the drawer in these photos could not be on the right. So, that’s wasted space. But, overall, I think the fridge is great and if you are good at arranging the food in the drawer you can actually pack quite a bit in there. Also, the fridge is more efficient the fuller it is, so you actually want to pack it as full as possible.
Lastly, regarding the space above, I don’t think I will install another drawer there for now, as I can use the space for a couple of collapsible wash basins:
Well, that’s it! I love the setup and it works very well. If anyone has any questions on the installation or the fridge let me know.
Most people that use fridges in their vehicles get large fridges of 50L or so. A fridge that big may be necessary for big familes or long trips. In my case, I do mostly solo trips or with other 2-3 people, and I did not want to take so much space in the vehicle for a giant fridge. Besides, through careful food planning and storage and if you don’t need to have lots of cold canned drinks that take a huge amount of space, a small fridge is ideal. The Dometic drawer fridge has a capacity of 30 liters, and to me that is enough.
In the galley system I have a pull out kitchen system with stove and storage on one side, and left an opening on the other side for the drawer fridge:
The plan was to install the fridge in there and possibly a small drawer above it, but I will likely not do the extra drawer. Installing the fridge in there would have been trivial if I had taken the structure out of the trunk, mounted the fridge onto the frame, and put the entire frame with the fridge already mounted back in the trunk. But that would have taken two people (due to size, as it’s not really that heavy), but I was by myself and was impatient, so I decided to mount the fridge with the frame in place. This posed a problem because even though the fridge could easily slide in through the opening in the front, with the frame in place I no longer had the room to maneuver on either side to mount the brackets. That meant I had to mount the brackets on the fridge, but then I could no longer slide in from the front! Aaaargh!
Well, I disassembled the center/top frame to make room, and through some careful maneuvering I was able to lower the fridge with the brackets pre-mounted into position from above. But this posed a new challenge, because to bolt the four fridge mounts onto the frame I had very little space on either side, as you can see in these pictures taken from above, on either side:
Getting my hand in there to reach the bolt with an allen wrench was not fun, but I managed. The fridge is solidly attached to the frame now, and it’s great.
From the front, it looks like this:
In terms of using it, the fridge is great. What you see above it is half of the sleeping platform, but once deployed and with the mattress above you can barely hear the compressor when it comes on below. Also, the fridge is very efficient and obviously the compressor is not on all the time, and this is especially true at night when the ambient temperature is typically lower and thus the fridge rarely turns on to keep things cool during that time.
This also means it’s very efficient in terms of energy consumption. It only consumes 40 w/H, which means that on a 500w/H battery it could (theoretically) run for about 12 hours if the compressor was running all the time, which of course it doesn’t so the effective duration of the battery would be much longer.
Regarding build quality, I think it’s excellent. Everything works very well. The compressor in the back can be removed and installed on the side, or even somewhere else, affording excellent installation flexibility. I left it in the back as I designed the frame deep enough to hold the whole fridge and compressor that way, but if you want to consider a drawer fridge like this you have installation options. In terms of criticisms, in reality the only thing I would have done differently had I been the designer of this fridge is to put the thermostat somewhere else. Where they put it at first glance is very convenient, but in reality is wastes space all along the top part of the drawer on the right side, as you cannot put anything all the way to the top as it would bump with the thermostat box.
Leaving that aside, I got these modular plastic containers that fit in there very nicely, and stack very well. By using these things you can organize your food very rationally and efficiently, thus maximizing space. Obviouse this would change all the time depending on what you carry, but here’s an example:
You can see there that the thermostat is on the way and what’s on the top left of the drawer in these photos could not be on the right. So, that’s wasted space. But, overall, I think the fridge is great and if you are good at arranging the food in the drawer you can actually pack quite a bit in there. Also, the fridge is more efficient the fuller it is, so you actually want to pack it as full as possible.
Lastly, regarding the space above, I don’t think I will install another drawer there for now, as I can use the space for a couple of collapsible wash basins:
Well, that’s it! I love the setup and it works very well. If anyone has any questions on the installation or the fridge let me know.
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