Date:         Sun, 26 Jul 2009 22:04:33 -0400
Reply-To:     Ken Wilford <kenwilfy@COMCAST.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Ken Wilford <kenwilfy@COMCAST.NET>
Subject:      Vitrfrigio install report
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

I had a customer contact me a few months ago about installing a
Vitrifrigio 12/110 volt fridge in his Vanagon Westy along with a
secondary battery.  I did the install about two weeks ago.  I want to
say I was very impressed by this fridge.  It is made in Italy and it
looks very nice in a Westy.  It runs off of 12 volts or 110 but either
way it gets super cold, enough to make ice in the freezer section and it
is super efficient so that you can run it off of a battery for almost a
week without a charge.  If you have a solar setup it could last even
longer.  Here is a link to Karl Mulendore's site where he talks about
the fridge:
http://www.westyventures.com/parts.html

I was very impressed.  I installed a secondary battery setup as Karl
describes on this page as well and it seemed to work very well.  We also
installed a Sure Power smart solenoid for the 2nd Battery so that it
would not take a charge until the main battery was fully charged.  It
also has a feature that allows you to jump start the van automatically
if your main battery is low.  The Solenoid senses this and automatically
pulls juice from the 2nd Battery for the jump start.  All in all it took
me about 6 hours to do the install of the fridge and the battery setup
but it turned out very stealthy.  I hooked the 2nd battery up to the
cigarette lighter and interior lights so that they will now run off of
the 2nd Battery and not drain the main battery when camping.  If you are
thinking about spending some money to get your fridge overhauled I
recommend looking into the Vitrifrigio instead.  They are not cheap
(around $600) but they work very well and should last for a long time to
come (even has a light inside the fridge when you open the door!).

Just thought I would share.

Ken Wilford
John 3:16
www.vanagain.com