My New Fridge

Well my new ARB 78L Fridge turned up yesterday, I had to reorganize a later delivery date from the 10th of Jan due to my Mum ending up in hospital and being put in an enduced Coma, She is a lot better now, Thank God,

Anyways I have started the testing and so far this thing is Awesome having the bigger compressor and it has a huge capacity, I will update when I have done some of the tests.

So far although it has the bigger compressor it seems to be working less and cools down faster than the 47L or the 60L, But from what I have seen because it has the bigger pump does not really make it power hungry, So all good there.

This thing is huge, I bought the 78L because it is the same height as the 47L but it has the same foot print as the 60L,

Anyways more to follow,

RR.

Sounds pretty good. I've recently bought an Aldi 41L fridge $350 on sale. Had it going none stop for 3 weeks in temps 24-43 degrees and it sat on -3 the whole time. Im happy with that.

You can't complain about that, Sounds like a good deal, I wanted a bigger fridge than my 47L So I could either use one as a fridge and the other as a freezer or just eliminate one or the other when not needed, Due to the extra mass I give the edge to the 78L vs the 47L when it comes to power usage when in freezer mode. And the testing continues.

RR.

I guess money is a contributing factor and space would be another. I mainly travel light, but if I were to do a long trip around Aus I'd get set up with a 70L
Fridges are like sheds,, you soon fill them with stuff!

Skip said:

I guess money is a contributing factor and space would be another. I mainly travel light, but if I were to do a long trip around Aus I'd get set up with a 70L
Fridges are like sheds,, you soon fill them with stuff!

Click to expand...

Just because your fridge came from Aldi's does not mean it's not good, Aldi's sell some brilliant products, and they often have a great warranty.

Your right there, If I pack the 47L carefully as a freezer I can pack enough in there for 41/43 meals maybe more, But with this monster I ran out of frozen food to put in there to test it with, Just before Christmas I bought some food containers and they would not quite fit the 47L, I put them in the 78L and it swallowed the lot with about a 1/3rd to 40% room to spare,

There is a lot in how you pack these things, If you over fill them it bumps up the run time and the cold Air does not flow properly enough to cool the Dairy Area or the Centre of the fridge which means some things won't be cooled correctly, If you leave a slight gap around the edges and through were the basket divider is they will work much better and you will get a more even temp throughout, You can change the Duty cycle of how the fridge operates depending on how you pack them, meaning you can make a Good fridge Chew up the power or you can make a big fridge Sip the power, So it is worth doing about a weeks worth of testing/packing before you head off on your travels.

RR.

i have 17lt engel and find if i tetras it in the fridge works best , but i can see why a bigger fridge needs to move air around

Gday John,
I hope all continue's to go with your mum's and yourself's recovery.
At least your having a pretty cool distraction mate.
Cheers

stoyve said:

Gday John,
I hope all continue's to go with your mum's and yourself's recovery.
At least your having a pretty cool distraction mate.
Cheers

Click to expand...

Thanks Steve, Mums doing Ok, How on earth She is still here lord only knows, Lucky Skilled hands were in the room, but it was as bad as it gets,

This Big fridge defies normal thinking, Being bigger I thought more power but because of that bigger compressor it uses a bit more power but due to the size of the cooling side of things in the main box it stays colder longer so it doesn't turn on as often so in the long run as in 24hr period or more it actually is using less power than the smaller one which is nuts because I got the 47L set at -10*c and the 78L set to -12*c.

The down side is the weight of this monster @ 27.1kgs /59.74 Lbs and it just fits in the back of the Shogun/Challenger with enough room so I can sleep along side it, I still really rate the 47L but this beast is something else, But it's going to need the Slide and at around 500 bucks I might have to wait a while coz I need to build up my reserves after buying the fridge, I might have to get a bank loan to cover the cost of the beer to fill it, 120 Cans that's a bit of a Sip in anyone's language, Lol :beer: erfect:

Had a devil of a job getting it's box through the front door, lifting out of the box had me using some choice words, Stupid I know coz I am not meant to be lifting anything yet, but I was like a kid on Christmas morning :inlove:

Been testing it ever since I got it indoors for the past 24hrs, and I was impressed with the 47 but this Big Un is in a league of it's own.

John.

ctxkid said:

i have 17lt engel and find if i tetras it in the fridge works best , but i can see why a bigger fridge needs to move air around

Click to expand...

I don't think you can go wrong with anything Engel makes, My original intensions were to buy the Engels but the Guy who sells em didn't want to answer his phone or return my calls, And to be honest apart from style/features there is not much between ARB and Engel, they are both good Aussie Products, That little 47 saved my bacon in the early hours one night when the house fridge freezer had a fit,

That 17 is the perfect weekender for over the long weekends and sight easier to hump about than either of these two, Or maybe I'm just getting old, :zzz: layful:

One trick I learned with containers in fridges -

The obvious container you think of is the rectangular one that stacks well and if the right size will fit perfectly and uses as much space as possible.

But in truth the better fit for a portable fridge are the round stackable ones as they will allow air to circulate.

So stubbies and tinnies are already in the right space, lol. Well that's the reason (or as she puts it "excuse") I give my wife when stacking the Engel.

You too?!!

I found i cirvac most things my meat unfrozen ,frozen , veges it stacks good ,my old engle works better with air between items, but the newer one with fan force not so much

I'm not sure that fan forced fridges are a good idea because that's ok if you are using the fridge for drinks or all the same food items but if you carry milk cheeses and fruit etc they all require different temps, Storing tomatoes and fruit need to be kept at about 6 to 10*c where we all mostly like our drinks at around 1 to 2*c, Bread and the likes should not be placed in the fridge but it goes off too soon if you don't put it in there,

Playing around with the 47 I found that the dairy area works great for fruit and salad type thing when set to about 2 to 3*c and when set to -10/-12 is a good balance for frozen foods to be stored for a week or So, If you are storing them for a longer period then it really should be set at -18*c even more so with Chicken or Pork and of coarse Ice Cream, The trouble with Ice Cream is it has stuff in it that makes it soften when it's warmer than -15*c So if you are carry any of it you should keep it at -18*c, Classic example of this is when you buy a big tub of it and after a while where it has been opened a few times it starts to get Ice crystals form in it where it warms up so it must be kept colder than -15*c,

See Here.

https://www.idfa.org/news-views/media-kits/ice-cream/tips-on-storing-handling-ice-cream

This survey was done in 2016, however is still an interesting read.

https://www.whichcar.com.au/gear/electronics-gadgets/eight-way-fridge-comparison

For short trips I too cryovac meats, cooked meals etc, but for longer trips get them vacuum sealed.

Nightjar said:

This survey was done in 2016, however is still an interesting read.

https://www.whichcar.com.au/gear/electronics-gadgets/eight-way-fridge-comparison

Click to expand...

Yeah there are a couple of pointless comments regarding the ARB 47 where he says that it could use a basket for the dairy are, It's only 8"/200mm deep so it does not really need one, But more important he says that it could use the cooling element coming right to the top of the main box, Which I think is a stupid comment to make, ARB make the 35L and the 60L that has the element coming right to the Top and what that does is allow for a more even temperature throughout the box, But the 47L and the 78L has the same height element as the other two but they have the extended height that serves two purposes, One it allows more space and Two it allows for a wider range of temperatures which is more desirable if you load up with many different food types, So his comment is very misleading, the fact is the 47L and the 78L are more universal when it comes down to different types of food storage, The 47 and the 78 act more like your fridges at home where as the 35 and the 60 are more like the Engel set up,

I could of bought the 35 or the 60L but I wanted the temp range which is all about flexibility of the unit, If ARB had made the element come right to the top then I would of bought another brand because I am not storing just one type of food, The best all round fridge in the range is the 47L But the 78L has the power/economy and the capacity, And if I was only going to buy one fridge I would pick the 78L because it has the bigger compressor but because it has the power it actually uses less power in the long run because cools down faster but the shear size of it makes it retain the temperature better so over a 24hr period it can use even less power.

One thing to note is although the element does not come right to the top on the 47 and the 78 the temperature in that zone goes well below the maximum lowest setting so It just does not need it to go right to the top.

RR.

Redfin said:

For short trips I too cryovac meats, cooked meals etc, but for longer trips get them vacuum sealed.

Click to expand...

RF, How does that work and what are the better machines to buy, I have seen some for sale but I don't really understand how it works,

Thanks Mate,

John.

What is the difference Redfin ?

Duration of stint in the scrub is what usually dictates the fridge capacity I take. I like to eat well Usually an 80 and a smaller 30 . Use the 80 mainly as a freezer and the smaller one for milk,drinks and other often used item's as it saves having to open large fridge. Taking out freezed items for next nights meal and putting them in smaller fridge, they act as freeze block and reduce run time of smaller fridge = less battery power consumed.
Many run multiple batteries and panels where with wiser use a much smaller system would suffice .Refrigeration being the major consumer of stored power while camped up

One thing for sure the colder the ambient temp the less they cycle, This 78L shuts off for up to 5 hours at a time sometimes more and sometimes less depending if I put it in a cool place or not. Seems all these 4x4 fridges are way ahead of domestic fridges.