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Home > Australia & New Zealand > Fridge replaces ice box

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Lightwater

Member Since: 21 Aug 2014
Location: Sydney Northern Beaches
Posts: 4970

2013 Freelander 2 2.0T SE Auto Fuji White

Fridge replaces ice box

Replaced my 22 litre ice box with a 28 litre fridge. The custom built ice box was made out of discarded foam boxes to build up approximately 75mm of wall thickness. The ice box was for my previous car & was made to fit exactly. Ice would last 7 to 8 days in summer but the ice took up 2/5 of the internal volume. We didn't need a lot of space as we are pretty lazy campers. We can easily survive without meat & we could not be bothered with washing up. So basically boil or heat things up. Quite happy using powdered milk etc. Just really have the fridge for fresh veggies, cheese etc that will not last.

I did a torture test to see the energy consumption of the fridge. I heated a room to 35�C, it took two 1500 & a 2400 watt heater to get the room up to temperature & about 24 hours to stabilise.

I will just provide relative figures. The fridge was running off 240 volts & the fridge set to 2�C. I did one test off a battery running at 12.7 volts to compare with 240 volts. The fridge had six 800 gram ice bricks inside to add thermal mass. The fridge was sitting on a piece of 50mm XPS extruded foam for all tests.

Ambient 35�C, Fridge 2�C
0.0140 kWh The uncovered fridge.
0.0132 kWh Standard cover.
0.0116 kWh 30mm XPS foam.
0.0082 kWh 60mm XPS foam.

This was an extreme test like in a hot car which gets even hotter, up to 60�C. I think most people would be less likely to leave the fridge in this situation than their kids!

After days of massive heatwave with hugh electricity bill! I have decided to go with the standard cover at this stage & line it with a bit of additional insulation. Mainly that I have had enough but I have kept the XPS foam templates which I can attach later to replace the standard cover.

Due to the tight location, keeping the fridge to the left in the car, the compressor cooling fan intake is a little compromised so I swapped it for a larger & more efficient fan. The new fan moves more air & uses less power. Also added a baffle stopping air simply circulating within the compressor area (would add $0.02 to manufacturing costs). I have ordered another fan which will be even better.

Old ice box.

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Old & new.

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35�C torture test.

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Covered in 30mm XPS extruded foam.

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I removed the fridge handles, the one facing the back of the car had to go for clearance. I took the other one off anyway. Also removed the corner mouldings as they aren't necessary. Even if you need to carry this fridge a short distance it is bearable without handles. I may come up with some low profile idea but for our situation handles are not necessary.

Custom positioning bracket. I did buy the proper bracket to get ideas but the fridge is too tall when mounted on the standard mounting, 25mm extra height. I have bolted the fridge from under the floor board. I did actually want some form of quick release but with lack of height still finalising a few ideas.

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3.7 kg of thermal mass in the fridge, at this stage I will run the fridge very cold while driving & off while parked as we tend to move most days. But I do have 34 ah of battery power backup if needed.

Click image to enlarge

Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

7th Jun 2017 12:17 pm

Lightwater

Member Since: 21 Aug 2014
Location: Sydney Northern Beaches
Posts: 4970

New low profile mounting bracket, now 13mm instead of 25mm high so the fridge will fit under the boot cover. Bracket is lower & also reduced the height of the nylon spacers, which needed to be taller for the bought bracket.

Still a work in progress. The back needs a larger locating guide so the back of the fridge can be located first then the front. It is difficult to locate all 4 corners at the same time.

Click image to enlarge

A pretty poor design fault but easy to fix. The protective/insulation cover does not sit smack up next to the body of the fridge. So warm air from the compressor is fed up between the body & the cover. So what is the point of an insulation cover if it is trapping heat & the compressor having to work harder. Pointlessly wasted battery resources! So I attached velcro to seal off the compressor ventilation, both sides of the fridge, in & out, from the cool part of the fridge.

Also exacerbating the problem, which I previously mentioned is that a reasonable amount of air recirculates on the intake side because there is no baffle. The baffle plus the velcro have made a vast improvement keeping the cool area cooler, & with better air flow the hot compressor area is not as hot as it was. Waiting for another fan to turn up to replace the one I have already put in there, will photograph the baffle when I swap the fan.

Click image to enlarge

13th Jun 2017 12:38 pm

Lightwater

Member Since: 21 Aug 2014
Location: Sydney Northern Beaches
Posts: 4970

I'm leaving the current new fan in place, the second new fan is good but a bit noisy even though it is a quiet fan. So not pulling the case apart again. In the photo you can see the light reflecting off the baffle I installed. This has stopped a good portion of the intake air circulating locally around the fan!

Click image to enlarge

The low profile fixing bracket now works well. I have added stainless steel guides which make all the difference. They are tapered underneath, so I don't have to push down on the fridge. The back of the fridge keys in first 15mm ahead of the front, this also helps a lot. Still have to come up with a locking mechanism, the first version was not easy to use.

Click image to enlarge

14th Jun 2017 12:38 pm

Lightwater

Member Since: 21 Aug 2014
Location: Sydney Northern Beaches
Posts: 4970

Bracket with locking works well considering the lack of space. The extra bits of stainless steel guides make location & sliding in the fridge really easy.

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There is 0.5mm teflon washers between the metal moving parts.

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Enough room for intake ventilation.

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With insulation cover

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With insulation cover & an extra layer of 10mm foam which I managed to get in grey from that NZ camping store. Druring the thermal tests there was another few degrees improvement in temperature with the extra foam stuffed between the fridge & cover. I was also surprised how cool the handles were, so removing them & covering the holes with foam all helps. Throw as much insulation at your fridge as you can.

Click image to enlarge

Finally that's over, now I need a holiday! Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

15th Jun 2017 7:14 am

Stuartc

Member Since: 01 Dec 2014
Location: Perth, Australia
Posts: 2292

2015 Freelander 2 SD4 HSE Auto Aintree Green

Some pretty impressive engineering there......well done MY15
Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS)
Surround Camera System
InControl Apps soon to be replaced with CarPlay (WIP)
Meridian Premium Surround Sound
Digital Audio Broadcast
Timed Climate
Cruise ECO Data
Follow Me Home Reverse
Extra Features Menu
Picture In Motion
4x4i screen (WIP)
Digital Broadcast TV
Meridian Rear Media with WIFI
Factory Powered Tailgate
Blind Spot Monitoring (BSM)
Reverse Cross Traffic Alert (RCTA)
Electrochromatic Wing Mirrors (WIP)

15th Jun 2017 8:32 am

Yorky Bob

Member Since: 28 Apr 2015
Location: Yorkshire
Posts: 4561

2013 Freelander 2 TD4 GS Manual Firenze Red

Shock Horror. It's OZ, its a fridge and not a single picture of any beers. FL2 MY10 TD4 GS traded in at 2 years
FL2 MY13 TD4 GS Current

15th Jun 2017 8:45 am

Stuartc

Member Since: 01 Dec 2014
Location: Perth, Australia
Posts: 2292

BBQ is yet to be installed on the other side of the boot......
Then the beers can be introduced...... MY15
Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS)
Surround Camera System
InControl Apps soon to be replaced with CarPlay (WIP)
Meridian Premium Surround Sound
Digital Audio Broadcast
Timed Climate
Cruise ECO Data
Follow Me Home Reverse
Extra Features Menu
Picture In Motion
4x4i screen (WIP)
Digital Broadcast TV
Meridian Rear Media with WIFI
Factory Powered Tailgate
Blind Spot Monitoring (BSM)
Reverse Cross Traffic Alert (RCTA)
Electrochromatic Wing Mirrors (WIP)

Last edited by Stuartc on 15th Jun 2017 11:39 am. Edited 1 time in total

15th Jun 2017 9:41 am

Yorky Bob

Member Since: 28 Apr 2015
Location: Yorkshire
Posts: 4561

FL2 MY10 TD4 GS traded in at 2 years
FL2 MY13 TD4 GS Current

15th Jun 2017 11:06 am

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