KickAss Portable 12v Compressor Fridge Freezers for Camping

[1leglance]

Hi it's Klaeton I am the owner of Australian Direct and the Founder of KickAss products. My fridges are not rebadged, I honestly worked for 5 months with my factory to build a fridge from the ground up. Yes the design had been based on other popular fridges but the attention to detail is what makes the KickAss difference. There are lots of similar looking fridges in the market but when you look closely you will see there is actually a massive difference as I have not designed the fridge to be cheap I designed it the way I wanted it to be if I was buying one so the attention to detail better quality and stainless everything, Anderson plugs, Bluetooth App, split cover lid etc. I am in California and it's my first time in the USA (love it) My son and I just went to Yosemite and Sequoia Park and did not see anybody using compressor fridges so I'm curious if there is a market in the USA. When I went to the shop to get a drink there were three people that came in looking for ice and they were sold out so I guess there is a market. KickAss is the only brand that does the whole package, Fridges, Solar, Portable Dual Battery Systems that charge from the vehicles alternator. I would love feedback from anyone as to what products USA campers would like to see here. If you were keen to help you could visit my website Australian Direct and give me some feedback. Thanks.

I have been running a fridge in my rigs 24/7 since 2007 and until 2yrs ago no one understood but now REI and Home Depot have fridges so they are really catching on in the US market.
The issue is the customer still needs a ton of education about wiring gauge to support the power draw, dual batteries or solar supplement to the main battery.
I just looked at your fridges, I will say they look alot like Snomaster so I can see why people would say what they do.
I will read some more as I am searching for my next fridge and want dual compartment, dual door.

 

[Scoutn79]

Hi it's Klaeton I am the owner of Australian Direct and the Founder of KickAss products. My fridges are not rebadged, I honestly worked for 5 months with my factory to build a fridge from the ground up. Yes the design had been based on other popular fridges but the attention to detail is what makes the KickAss difference. There are lots of similar looking fridges in the market but when you look closely you will see there is actually a massive difference as I have not designed the fridge to be cheap I designed it the way I wanted it to be if I was buying one so the attention to detail better quality and stainless everything, Anderson plugs, Bluetooth App, split cover lid etc. I am in California and it's my first time in the USA (love it) My son and I just went to Yosemite and Sequoia Park and did not see anybody using compressor fridges so I'm curious if there is a market in the USA. When I went to the shop to get a drink there were three people that came in looking for ice and they were sold out so I guess there is a market. KickAss is the only brand that does the whole package, Fridges, Solar, Portable Dual Battery Systems that charge from the vehicles alternator. I would love feedback from anyone as to what products USA campers would like to see here. If you were keen to help you could visit my website Australian Direct and give me some feedback. Thanks.

There is a market her it just isn't as big as in Aus. For one overlanding is relatively new, at least the term is. We just call it camping but it usually doesn't last a month at a time. Since the US doesn't have the vast open areas Aus does we are never really that far from ice. We can barely go 50 miles without being able to hit a town much less 300+. That being said quality fridges are catching on slowly. I think most people just figure 700-1000 bucks will buy a ton of ice and gas. I purchased my fridge in 2005 when there were only two on the market in the US and one was rebadged from the other. I'll never go back to a cooler. But as mentioned above people need to figure on dual batts and solar to go indefinitely and that isn't something that has caught on much either.

Darrell

 

[dwh]

On this site, all of the products you mentioned are quite popular. On the RV sites, not so much, except for solar and batteries/charging.

The owner of this site, and publisher of Overland Journal reckons the "overlanding" fad in the U.S. is just starting to really ramp up. I would suggest contacting Overland Journal as they probably have a much better feel for the market and demographics than many others.

 

[Christian P.]

Kleaton - Welcome to Expo. Thanks for reaching out, and hopefully you will get great feedback from this crowd!

 

[spressomon]

I would love a 60/30 (or even 75/30) liter split dual zone fridge freeze...all the others are nearly evenly split between the two compartments and we typically only need about 50% allocated for freezer space (or a little less).

 

[patoz]

Welcome to Expo Kleaton!

About nine months ago I discovered your website and went all through it. I loved the products you offer and contacted you on Facebook, I believe it was, to see if you shipped to the USA but you told me no, not at that time. So, I hope you do open a distributor here in the in the good old USA.

There is only one country I would like to visit and that is Australia, because you guys have all the cool toys when it comes to camping or off-roading!

 

[1leglance]

I would love a 60/30 (or even 75/30) liter split dual zone fridge freeze...all the others are nearly evenly split between the two compartments and we typically only need about 50% allocated for freezer space (or a little less).

Dude long time since I have seen you post....or maybe I have not been on the forum as much
It is funny you make this statement as I feel exactly the same, in my Tacoma I have a National Luna 52L Weekender which has a small freezer and I like that since I really only want to make ice, keep the ice cream cold and have the frozen meat I start the trip with. Once we are rolling I need more fridge space.
I have been wanting a dual door so I can run it freezer/fridge or beverage/food splits.
One the Australian Direct website they have this biased split I like

KickAss 75L Dual Zone Portable Camping Fridge/Freezer (2nd Generation)

The KickAss 12V Portable Camping Fridge Freezer range is back and better than ever, backed by a 5 Year Australian Warranty.

www.australiandirect.com.au

Spoke to Klaeton (sounds like Clayton) on the phone today and he seems like a legit guy making cool stuff.....might just consider this as my next fridge.

 

[67cj5]

Most of kickass products are just rebadged generic products from china So people need to be careful when buying their High Dollar Items, When it comes to Fridge Freezers, Engel, ARB, Dometic and National Luna are the safer bet,, Try getting parts or service for kickass products in a big Country like the US, It would cost you more in Shipping than the Fridge is worth, with high dollar items it is better to buy one of the Top Four Brands because no matter where you are there is nearly always a dealers near by.,

 

[1leglance]

Most of kickass products are just rebadged generic products from china So people need to be careful when buying their High Dollar Items, When it comes to Fridge Freezers, Engel, ARB, Dometic and National Luna are the safer bet,, Try getting parts or service for kickass products in a big Country like the US, It would cost you more in Shipping than the Fridge is worth, with high dollar items it is better to buy one of the Top Four Brands because no matter where you are there is nearly always a dealers near by.,

At first I thought the same thing...
Then I started looking closer and I haven't seen other fridges with Anderson plugs, with the magnetic fridge cover (so much nicer than zippers or velcro), stackable baskets and a few other things I noticed. Yeah they look like Snomaster but I remember with ARB was a different color Engel and such.
I do like the 5yr warranty on the fridges and while I agree they are new to the US. shipping these days isn't the hassle it used to be. Plus once they are setup in the US, which I hope happens as we need more companies, then I think parts will be less of a concern.
Oh and speaking of parts. I have been at this since 2007 (forever in US overlanding years) and owned Engel, National Luna (twice), ARB fridges.....never needed anything for any of them other than a handle from ARB (they sent it for free) and a seal for a National Luna (which Paul from Equipt placed in my hand personally)....so I don't worry too much about that.
Now I don't work for KickAss and I don't own their stuff....but I am liking what I see with the one stop shop that would get me a matched setup of solar, aux battery (box, controller, isolator, monitor, outlets), camp lights, fridge and other goodies....all made to work together and from the same company. Which I looked at product reviews for Oz I didn't see anyone complaining so that helps.....now to see what it will cost to ship a package deal to the states
I have a new build coming up so I am searching my options.....always nice to see what is out there.

 

[67cj5]

At first I thought the same thing...
Then I started looking closer and I haven't seen other fridges with Anderson plugs, with the magnetic fridge cover (so much nicer than zippers or velcro), stackable baskets and a few other things I noticed. Yeah they look like Snomaster but I remember with ARB was a different color Engel and such.
I do like the 5yr warranty on the fridges and while I agree they are new to the US. shipping these days isn't the hassle it used to be. Plus once they are setup in the US, which I hope happens as we need more companies, then I think parts will be less of a concern.
Oh and speaking of parts. I have been at this since 2007 (forever in US overlanding years) and owned Engel, National Luna (twice), ARB fridges.....never needed anything for any of them other than a handle from ARB (they sent it for free) and a seal for a National Luna (which Paul from Equipt placed in my hand personally)....so I don't worry too much about that.
Now I don't work for KickAss and I don't own their stuff....but I am liking what I see with the one stop shop that would get me a matched setup of solar, aux battery (box, controller, isolator, monitor, outlets), camp lights, fridge and other goodies....all made to work together and from the same company. Which I looked at product reviews for Oz I didn't see anyone complaining so that helps.....now to see what it will cost to ship a package deal to the states
I have a new build coming up so I am searching my options.....always nice to see what is out there.

An Anderson Plug is a 5 or 10 dollar Item that is hardly a reason to buy a generic branded product.
They just requested that the makers put the anderson plugs on them for them, Rest assured that companies like opposite lock and primus in Australia share many of the same feature, And kickass do not make anything them selves although in their videos they say "We Made" They don't make any thing 99% of their products are mass produced in Asia and share many brands/models with companies like opposite lock and supacheap auto s and the list goes on, The fact is they gave their company a rude-ish macho BS name to make it sound tough, when it is not,

Classic example on one of their videos they talked about how they built their compressors this way and that, When the truth is they did not even know what the parts were actually called or how they were used. and all they had done was ordered them with different plugs on as well and then tried to say that they made them, Their So called Kickass meters ?? I have owned one long before kickass was ever thought of, So how can it be a kickass meter just because they put a sticker on it ??

So don't get sucked in by all the sales hype because they make nothing, it's all ordered from China/Asia and any other company who allows them to add their stickers to it's products.

 

[67cj5]

At first I thought the same thing...
Then I started looking closer and I haven't seen other fridges with Anderson plugs, with the magnetic fridge cover (so much nicer than zippers or velcro), stackable baskets and a few other things I noticed. Yeah they look like Snomaster but I remember with ARB was a different color Engel and such.
I do like the 5yr warranty on the fridges and while I agree they are new to the US. shipping these days isn't the hassle it used to be. Plus once they are setup in the US, which I hope happens as we need more companies, then I think parts will be less of a concern.

Mate, One thing you need to be aware of about this fridge is that it has the wrong Danfos/Secop/Nidec Compressor in it, and their fridge is a Re Badged Opposite Lock / Primus branded fridge which were also rebranded fridges, Only difference is the kickass has got a new colour scheme, I know someone who had the primus version and it went back for repairs 3 times in 3 years and the 4th time it died the dealers could not get the parts in order to carry out the repairs as they stopped making them,

The Fridge it's self is a great design and has some great features, But the Compressor is the killer and Just because they claim that it has a Danfos etc Compressor "Which it does" doesn't mean a thing because it has got the "Wrong" Danfos Compressor In It. which is a shame because every thing else is well thought out.