07/11/2025
FREQUINTLY ASKED QUESTIONS AND FRIDGE COMPARISON
1) Which is the best make of fridge to bye
2) How to chouse the right size fridge
3) Danfoss Compressors
4) Why has the National Luna 90Lt having so many gas problems
5) Why don’t normal fridge tinctions work on 12-volt fridges
Let's talk fridges.
I get asked weekly about what is the "best brand" and realistically there are no really bad brands available, they all cool the same. Yes, if you buy off Temu or buy a 3-in-1 LPG gas-based (absorption fridge) , you're going to cry eventually but the rest, they're all much of a muchness. You can also bye a thermal cooler, this dose not have a compressor, it works on a palter plate system and is not a fridge it only cools a bit.
Now look at what type of camping you want to do or going to do. If you are going to go to places like, Namibia, Botswana and Mozambique or overlanding through Africa, I would consider a metal cabinet with a more established insulation. I do know that the SnoMaster Expedition range, has an 80mm thick insulation wall, with a 72 What compressor. These fridges get to temperature faster and stay switched off three times longer than most other fridges, yes, the ARB can do this but why spend that type of money. The National Luna Legacy range is another good range. Flex is a fantastic fridge for around South Africa as in the hotter climates and higher humidity the fridge will condensate on the walls.
What separates the cream from the sauce is two things, 1. Price and 2. After-sales service.
Now those who are going to comment about their 75-year-old Engel or NL fridge, well done most would last that long if it lived in a garage and only worked every leap year however fridges in daily use will eventually require a service, regas, new seals, new thermostat etc. SnoMaster, National Luna and Flex spars are freely available. Just be very careful who works on your fridge, as one needs to know what they are doing with 12-volt fridges, and there are only a hand foul of people in South Africa.
THINGS THAT OFTIN GO WRONG
1) Sensor probs will often get wet, coursing the fridge to give an incorrect reading and fridge may not switch off, and fridge products will frees (not good for bear.
2) Condenser fan not working, fridge will not cool properly.
3) If a fridge sits in your garage not working, it sits in under hi gas pressure, welding is pores so gas can leak out
4) Danfoss compressors have a 220/24/12-volt compressor electronic controller which does not like South Africa’s electricity supply, and blow, this is not a cheap repair.
5) The older National Luna 90Lt fridge has a problem of pipes bursting in the walls. If you have this problem, it cannot be repaired
Price, pricing is the key factor to most people, let’s be real, this lifestyle/hobby we call overlanding is not cheap and with the current economic outlook, it's fast becoming a rich person's game. So, decent more affordable brands are totally stealing the show at the moment, like Flex Adventures for example. A brand I recommend weekly, but why do I love their fridges so much? Simple, they work, just as good as the well-known veteran brands, especially in our hard South African conditions. They just keep going, literally staying cool under pressure. At this point, I currently have a TW75 which is a dual zone 75L and my close frend has a CF65 (upright 65L) and the single zone 40L, these are all Flex Adventures fridges. THE flex also has a backup battery that will last between three and five hours on it own. We have previously had the 55L from the same brand. Never a day's trouble, and in their class, I've not found any other brand to offer the same profile in terms of height, my drawer system doesn't allow the taller fridges and even the lower profile offered by Flex TW range is a tight fit to open a rear door with my setup.
The flex fridges are also fairly cheaper in comparison to other brands, which is great but it must be pointed out that in my research I've found their overall insulation to be less than the competition, resulting in excessive condensation in KZN in our summer period, this is exacerbated by the door seals not being as beefy as I'd like them to be. I do believe this has been rectified in the new range though but cannot confirm such.
Power draw is an overlooked factor with fridges, and it actually matters more than you think, as during our warmer months, an uneconomical dual zone fridge with compartment 1 set to 2°C and compartment 2 set to -15°C can consume as much as 70Ah in 12 hours. To put it into perspective, that is 70% of your 100Ah lithium battery used up purely on your fridge. This is without charging phones, using lights or fans etc. There are ways to reduce the draw, by keeping the unit closed as much as possible, keeping it as full as possible and adding fans or just allowing better ventilation overall. Our biggest cause of constant cycling during our testing was the fridge being in direct sunshine, which caused a whopping 50% loss of efficiency.
To wrap up, the size of the fridge will be the next biggest question and honestly, my advice is buy the biggest you can fit and afford. Dual zone fridges vary only slightly in Amp draw from 60L to 100L, my 95L will use 7.2A at start up then settle down to about 5A once at temp and after being on for a few hours will then drop to 3.6 to 4A. While my 50L single-zone SnoMaster uses 4A at startup and drops to about 2.1A once settled. The difference is the way the internal cooling system works between single and dual zones. Compressor type and size also play a part here, but that's a topic for another day.
Consider what type of slide you need, as this adds cost and weight as well as rattles if you're in an SUV. I swear by the Alu cab range of tilting slides, there isn't anything better that I've used.
Then lastly, please do not be tempted to connect your new fridge to the load output on your MPPT, rather go direct to your fuse box and have the wires as short as possible, this is becoming a common fault I'm fixing these days as more people buy fridges, what happens is the unit is supplied with a cable around 2 to 3m long, roughly 2.5mm² this is then plugged into a circuit that is also around 2m long due to battery location, once the fridge cycles the voltage drop is massive, these fridges have Voltage sensors built in AFTER the compressor so it reads available voltage after load reduction, a huge issue if you dont change your cutoff settings from H to L. Your fridge will start to turn off and eventually give an error message. Fridge cable should be as short as possible, no thinner than 4mm² over distances exceeding 5m and 2.5mm² over distances of
