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Date:         Wed, 15 Sep 2004 09:28:50 -0700
Reply-To:     Vince S <gipsyflies@COMCAST.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Vince S <gipsyflies@COMCAST.NET>
Subject:      Top-Load Fridge for Westy
Comments: cc: Doug in Calif <vanagon@astound.net>
In-Reply-To:  <BAY9-DAV116tdqVvPdL00066af2@hotmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

There has been some recent discussions on the ideal fridge set up for Westy/Vanagon. Many expressed the desired to have a top load as the cold air does not drop out when you open the door. I was interest in how to improve the fridge performance while able to maintain the stock appearance and floor plan of the Westy.

Here is the good news from my recent research for a good portable fridge/freezer. Without substantially changing the Westy floor plan you can install a 35-45 quart units made by Engel or Waeco.

Waeco's Coolmatic series are based on the German Danfoss DF35 compressor very widely used in marine and high end vehicles as OEM cooler fridge. Coolmatic also make a line of high end cooler/freezer for truckers. You can read up on all this at Waeco's website.

Engel in addition to selling under their own brand also makes most if not all of the DC fridge for Norcold as well as a series of portable fridge/freezers. Engel also makes all the MRFT series portable units for Norcold. Engel is unique in the compressor technology with their own swing compressor which they have used for over 35 years. It is an electro mechanical design with take advantage of resonance characteristic instead of the common reciprocal design (piston) driven rotary motor.

Here is the skinnies: Waeco and Engel portable units in the 1 to 2 cu ft are around 14" wide with varied height and width. Most of these model will fit in the space of the cabinet adjacent to the bench seat. The depth (horizontal depth) of these space inside the cabinetry is between 15" at the bottom and 16" at the top due to the curvature of the body. You will have to relocate the fresh water tank to make room for the fridge. The obvious location would be to take out the Dometic as you won't need it. Better yet you should be able to accommodate a real deep cycle battery in it's vacancy. If planned carefully you would be able to maintain the stock appearance of the Westy cabinetry. You might have to slight alter the two cubby hole doors for better fridge access.

The costs of the Engel and Coolmatic ac/dc units are very close while the dc only Coolmatic are much cheaper. Both manufacturers products are very good and will keep the internal temperature below freezing (able to keep ice cream frozen) if you choose to. Judging from their spec and user feedback/reviews they seems quite comparable though Engel appears to have a slight edge. The Coolmatic unit has the unique battery monitor function which you can set to automatically stop drawing the current when the battery voltage gets too low.

Am I ready to do this conversion? It is a hard question. My Dometic has been trouble free all these years. My only complaint is the heat it throw into the cabin and the lack of freezer space to keep meat and seafood from spoiling. I like the fact that it draw so little dc current that I can run it days on end. I also hate to butcher the nice Westy cabinet. I am leaning solving the cabin heat gain from the Dometic fridge and modifying the cold plate to hold the meat better. After I have a chance to test out my planned purchase of the Engel 35 for used in my other vehicle it might change my mind.

Here are some links to the products:

http://www.i-m-d.com/engel/1products.htm http://www.coolmatic.net http://www.norcold.com/acdc_mrft440.cfm

There are also many other links in my other recent threads on refrigeration.

- Vince

http://gipsyflies.home.comcast.net 1989 Vanagon GL Camper 1993 Mazda Miata (for sale) 1996 Land Rover Discovery 2005 Mini Cooper S


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