Which fridge? I'm researching but a lot options out there!

[Ducky's Dad]

I bought my first fridge a couple of years ago, and went with the Indel B 50. I'm completely happy with it, and if I had more space and took longer trips, I'd have a pair of these, with one as a freezer and one as a fridge. Mine is used an lot in the desert summers, and last August/September it maintained a pretty steady -20C with ambients between 115 and 128F.

 

[Abe Froman]

Zero complaints with our ARB 50q
I had an issue (my fault/didn't understand process) during initial setup and called arb USA and spoke to an actual human in their engineering department, issue quickly sorted out....that's worth something in this day and age.

I ordered from a fellow forum member that actively posts in the jeep section. Rin from ok4wd in NJ. Same price as Amazon, but an actual business with inventory and expiernce with the product.

The truckfridge cabinet fridges have very good reputations in the sprinter and vw camper van world, like Herbie said.

 

[Sikocycles]

Yep, I'd say so. Danfoss compressor, just like the other "good" brands, just in a different shape. I built a vertical stack cabinet for mine. Fridge on top, and a drawer and a big drop-front cabinet below to hold the porta-potti. It sits just behind the driver's seat and has been running great since I installed it in October of last year. Obviously with a chest fridge gravity does most of the job of keeping all the food down in the "box", so once or twice I've had things shift and want to tumble out a bit when I open the door - but more experience with packing and adding the sliding "organizers" kind of like drawers in the photo below has helped keep everything corralled.

The TF-49 is a popular choice for the VW guys because it's a drop-in replacement for the old Dometic 3-way absorption fridges in the Westy vanagons, etc. Some guys have done a cabinet hack to make room for the larger TF-62 also. Their positive experiences with them was what convinced me to bite the bulled.

EDIT: Another plus is now I have a little freezer section - just big enough for a tray of ice for my whiskey and any dinner ingredients that need to stay frozen as long as possible.

What kind of venting is needed for that fridge? I am in the process of designing my teardrop and thinking of one of these

 

[1MK]

We have 3 Dometic/Waeco CF-50 fridges in our group and haven't had one single issue. They've worked great and have endured thousands of off-road miles being rattled and banged around. My fridge lives in the back of my truck nearly half the year. It's been rained on, covered in mud, spend the night outside in 0* weather and packed full of dust. If it died tomorrow I wouldn't blame it and would purchase another with no hesitation.

What sold me is Dometic/Waeco is the manufacturer for the ARB fridges.

 

[captwoody]

I have an Indel B 51 qt cost about $575 delivered, its quiet and since no ice 51 qts is pretty big. I take it in our California, Arizona deserts in the summer has no problems keeping things cold with ambient temps of 90-110f inside truck probably 150 plus heres a linc if you want to take a look
http://www.equipt1.com/i/fridges/indel-b

 

[Herbie]

What kind of venting is needed for that fridge? I am in the process of designing my teardrop and thinking of one of these

The installation manual shows a pretty minimal amount of venting. The folks who have retrofitted these into Westy VWs re-use the original vent plates, usually.

For my cabinet, I used a 120mm PC fan grill on the side of the cabinet, at the top-rear, and this seems to be working fine so far:

For more efficient operation, I'm probably going to add a matching one on the other side, so there's a bit more "flow through" across the upper back of the unit. Here's the fridge outside of a cabinet so you can see the parts that need cooling:

 

[mlmeans]

Thanks everyone. Cost dependability customer service steered me to Arb 63. Hopefully not too small for my family. We have a pelican cooler to use as back up if need be maybe for cold drinks where melted ice water not a big deal.

 

[pugslyyy]

Thanks everyone. Cost dependability customer service steered me to Arb 63. Hopefully not too small for my family. We have a pelican cooler to use as back up if need be maybe for cold drinks where melted ice water not a big deal.

Good luck and let us know how it goes. I don't think you can go wrong with an ARB or an Engel, just comes down to personal preference.

 

[TwinStick]

We have both an 82 & a 50 qt ARB. Absolutely LOVE them. They have been plugged into 120v since we got them. Have used them on 2 camping trips & when visiting relatives. They simply work awesome. In 95* heat the 82 qt is our fridge @ 34*F & the 50 qt is our freezer @ -1*F. I have run them in the truck when traveling. Both on 12v & 120 v from inverter. Once you get one, you will wonder how you ever got along without one.

NO ICE EVER AGAIN---UNLESS I WANT TO MAKE SOME !!!!

Even for shopping far from home---awesome because you don't have to rush home with the cold stuff. AWESOME !!!

Can't beat the special @ http://ok4wd.com/ right now either. I bought mine there last year, same deal, x 2 for me.

 

[Outside somewhere]

Another vote for ARB. Had an engel on my boat that was installed new when the boat was new in '11 It died two months out of warranty and engel wouldn't do anything to help. Not that they had to but after talking to people with arb and dometic about their customer service, going above and beyond, I knew that I would never go back to engel. Which is why I own an arb 50qt now.

 

[hoser]

I have the ARB 63 and it has worked flawlessly. Had to recalibrate the temp though as it was off by 4 degrees or so. I never liked the orientation of the door (swings, the long way). Young kids could have a hard time using it as well.

 

[Guitarsail1]

I seem to be one of the few that chose to go with a front open fridge instead of the chest type everyone runs here. My wife is short and the 4R tall, so a flip top lid chest style just didn't work for her, and kids, forget about it. I went with an Engel 48qt front open (same compressor etc as the chest) but easier to get into and out of. They have a 70qt version as well

https://www.buyengelcoolers.com/SB70F-DC-Only-front-open-fridge-freezer-p/sb70f.htm

 

[zchan88]

We had a 16qt engel that fit between the driver and passenger seat. It was just the right amount of fridge space for two people, and actually acted as a nice table surface to boot.

http://www.anywherethatswild.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/P1040019-640x480.jpg

 

[ChadHahn]

I received my Engel B a couple days ago from the Truck Fridge Tacoma group buy and used it yesterday to go to Costco. It's the 51QT model and has a slightly smaller foot print than my Waeco 51 and is slightly taller. It worked fine, keeping my food frozen in the 110 degree weather. Build wise it seems comparable to my my Waeco and the controls are similar so there's no learning curve. Instead of waiting for a scratch and dent to show up you can get a good fridge delivered fairly cheaply.

Chad

 

[Ducky's Dad]

I received my Engel B a couple days ago from the Truck Fridge

Indel B?
FWIW I plugged mine into the truck yesterday after leaving it sitting for weeks in 100+ temperatures on the back seat. With a few bottles of water in it, the bottles at the bottom were starting to freeze after about 6 hours. And the bottles were warm when they went in.