We decided to upgrade to a much larger fridge and just purchased a Dometic CFX-75DZW. We have owned an ARB 37 and Indel B 51 previously.
This is a true dual zone fridge. Either side can be a freezer or fridge or a side can be turned off when not needed.
For such a large fridge it is very energy efficient. With a watt meter hooked up we have run a variety of tests in the 4XOA Lab (hot garage where the temps varied from around 85 degrees to over 100.)
On the 24 hour test with the fridge pre-cooled on 110 power for about 12 hours and set at 36 on the large side and 20 on smaller side the fridge average a mere .60 Amps per hour. For a total of 14.61 amps consumed over a 24 hour period. Really impressive. We are going to do a few more tests with both sides set at 36f and 20f and will post those results when we have them. When running the fridge draws between 5.0A and as low as 3.5A. Seeing 4-5-5.o amps on startup is common but after a few minutes it drops to well below 4,
For testing the fridge is only has water bottles in it and is only about half full.
Yes it takes up a lot of room but it will be nice for long trips to be able to truly freeze food and have extra food on hand for group meals. Since we lead group trips with meals this larger fridge will make life easy.
These should definitely be considered if you are thinking about getting a fridge. Our 100 watt solar setup keeps the battery charged up without any voltage cutoff issues.
We just need to purchase a large fridge slide for this and will hopefully be picking one up at the Overland Expo West this weekend. The hack of my old one doesn’t allow the fridge to slide out of the FJ far enough.
New vs old. Our 2 year old Indel B 51
A new platform for my FJ is being built. We just need the new fridge slide to finish it.
The dogs aren’t impressed.
Phase I of the new platform
