I guess it all depends on the kind of camping you do. I usually park for 3-10 straight days in a warm region without moving my Camper at all. Hard to make a 12 volt fridge work for that type of use. My Westy fridge will usually run on propane for the whole time without fail but has gotten less reliable lately. I just pulled it and cleaned the combustion chamber and jet today in anticipation of another long camping trip. I also ran a cotton strip from a rag through the intake and exhaust passages with a coat hanger and then blew them out with compressed air. Huge rust flakes came out of the heating section. It is from an 81 and has seen at least 300 days of use on propane since I got it 10 years ago. If I can't get it back to normal functioning I will replace it with another used Westy fridge. Mine sees more use on propane in a year than many of them do in their lifetime so a used one will be like new to me. Over the years I have cleaned it and replaced the fan a few times, and the propane regulator a couple times too. The fridge used to always freeze up the fins in 100 degree weather but this year it has not been doing it as reliably. Mark Ty Graham wrote: > > I really want to like propane fridges. They're quiet when they're > running right and the gas seems to last forever. The Electrolux I used > in France this summer lasted for 2 weeks straight on 1 mid sized bottle > of gaz. I've just never been able to get things cold enough to suit me. > I'm going to look some more. > > With the ARB, I get all the cold I want, too much many times. I trade > that for sweating battery life and deep cycle iterations and let's take > my van to the store since I need to charge up and all that other 12v > junk. It's the compromise that works best for me now, but I don't feel > anywhere near my ultimate. > |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.