12-volt Fridge Knowledge

‘Explore the cool world of 12-volt camping & Caravan Fridge Knowledge. Your go to destination for all things related to travel refrigeration.’

What’s the best 12-volt camping & caravan fridge design?

We break down into simple terms, how to choose a user friendly designed 12-volt camping & caravan fridge, suited for your unique needs, wants & desires!

Pro’s & Con’s of a 12-volt Chest Style Camping Fridge

Top-loading 12-volt fridges have earned a reputation for their popularity among Camping and 4WD adventure enthusiasts. Among the most common reasons for their appeal are:
Compact Height: These fridges typically have a lower profile, making them a perfect fit for compact recreational vehicles such as low-set camper trailers, hybrid caravans, and 4WDs with restricted height canopies.
Enhanced Power Efficiency: Thanks to their top-loading design, Top Loading Fridges minimise the loss of pre-chilled air when the lid is opened regularly (cold air drops, and stays trapped inside). Consequently, they operate with greater energy efficiency, as they require less power to maintain their cold temperature compared to other types of fridge designs.
Additionally: It's worth noting that top-loading fridges are well-suited for mounting onto fridge slides, facilitating smooth sliding in and out of camper trailers and 4WD canopies. This feature adds to their practicality and ease of use in outdoor adventures.
Top-loading 12-volt fridges, also known as 'chest' style fridges, offer a significant advantage: they retain cold energy more effectively compared to front-loading fridges when accessed frequently.
The reason behind this is simple: Cold air naturally descends (while hot air rises). When you open a top-loading fridge, the pre-chilled air remains largely settled at the bottom, resulting in minimal loss of cool air (cold energy). The less pre-chilled air that escapes from the fridge, the more efficient it operates (i.e it doesn’t need to reproduce & replace the lost cold energy). This efficiency translates to better preservation of your food, consistent cooling of the fridge, and ultimately reduced power consumption.
Additionally: Top-loading fridges are particularly well-suited in design, for travelling on rough terrain while keeping your food locked in place and secure. Their design allows for items to be packed tightly and securely into place, minimising the risk of items falling over and causing food loss during the journey. Believe it or not, it's not too uncommon for adventurers using top-loading camping fridges to pack them with the likes of scrunched-up paper when traveling on extremely rough roads. This additional padding helps absorb some shock / vibration, and limits food items rubbing together vigorously, further safeguarding the contents of the fridge from being damaged with the vibrations.
One of the most notable Con’s (drawbacks) of a top-loading 12-volt camping fridge is its lack of user-friendliness when it comes to accessing food.
Accessibility Challenges: Due to their chest-style design with the lid on top, retrieving items from the bottom of the fridge can be cumbersome. Users often find themselves needing to remove everything on top to reach what they require from the bottom. This can be particularly challenging for families with children, adding pressure on parents to assist with accessing items.
Organisational Demands: To mitigate the frustration of constantly rummaging to find items, meticulous organisation becomes essential. Planning and arranging food items in advance can help alleviate the need for frequent deep dives into the fridge. It's worth noting that some manufacturers, such as BUSHMAN camping Fridges, offer solutions like lift-in-and-out layered basket systems to aid in food segregation.
Hard To Reach: When installed inside the canopy of a ute, top-loading fridges may pose accessibility issues for shorter individuals who struggle to see, and reach up and into the fridge (They sit high up). One potential remedy for this is the use of a slide-out, drop-down fridge slide. However, it's important to note that over time, these mechanisms may develop rattling noises, detracting from the overall experience.
Wasted Space: Another drawback is the potential for wasted canopy storage space surrounding the fridge. The lower height of top-loading fridges often leaves valuable unused space between the top of the fridge and the canopy roof, resulting in inefficient storage utilisation. To utilise full canopy storage space, a fridge surrounding cage or cargo barrier is often also required.

Pro’s & Con’s of a 12-volt Upright Caravan & Camping Fridge

Front-loading fridges are ideally suited for a variety of applications, including caravans, boats, and the rapidly growing market for 4WD canopies. Similar to traditional home fridges, they offer user-friendly features:
Choose the perfect fit: Front-loading 12-volt fridges are available in a wide range of shapes, and sizes. This provides significant flexibility for fitting into a wide range of varied shaped caravans, boats, and 4WD vehicles. As you can imagine, this makes them highly advantageous when it comes to varied bench, canopy, hull, and cupboard dimensions.
Ease of use for the whole family: Just like a front-loading fridge at home, these units allow easy access to everything you need. This accessibility is especially convenient for families, eliminating the need for parents to constantly get up whenever the kids require a drink or a snack.
Front-loading refrigerators are undeniably easier to use, catering to the needs of the entire family!
Enhanced Accessibility: The front-loading design ensures effortless access to items, with everything readily reachable, and visible at a glance, minimising the need for extensive rummaging.
Efficient Packing and Organisation: Front loading refrigerators feature easy-to-pack compartments, shelves, and drawers, allowing for efficient segregation and organisation of food items. They are great to pack and make it easy to access the food you want, when you want it!
Ample Storage Capacity: Front-loading refrigerators often boast a larger internal storage area (volume is measured in litres), making them suitable for applications where height restrictions are less stringent, thereby accommodating much larger units.
Complement 4WD Canopies: Mounting a front-loading refrigerator inside a ute canopy is a rapidly growing trend. As the fridges sit quite high off the ground, they are easily accessible at torso height (Ideal for those of us that are slightly shorter).
Food Storage: One drawback of Front Loading fridges is the risk that food items are more likely to tip over inside. While many brands provide sturdy shelves, drawers, and bottle holders, this issue is amplified when the fridges are installed in vehicles navigating rough excessive off-road terrain, such as corrugated roads.
Ventilation: Most Front Loading 12-volt fridges used in outdoor recreation, typically found in caravans, require proper ventilation to dissipate heat from the condenser system (condenser is basically like a radiator in a vehicle - it removes heat). Usually located at the back of the fridge and vented outside the caravan, this setup efficiently removes heat. However, frequent travel on dusty, unsealed roads can lead to dust accumulation on the compressor (motor) and condenser (radiator), hindering cooling efficiency and increasing power consumption. Regular cleaning and upkeep are necessary to address this issue

What’s the best 12-volt Camping & Caravan fridge for keeping cold?

When choosing a 12-volt camping and caravan fridge, smart build design is essential to ensure consistent cooling performance in Australia's diverse climate conditions. Here are three key components necessary for maintaining a consistently cold 12-volt fridge:

12-Fridge Knowldge

Well Insulated

Consider a 12-volt travel fridge as being like a traditional icebox or eski. Once the icebox has been pre chilled & brought down to cooling temperature, the icebox with superior insulation will maintain colder temperatures for an extended period. Similarly, for a 12-volt travel fridge!

Removes Heat

The efficiency of a 12-volt fridge keeping consistently cold, in part depends on how effectively it dissipates the heat generated by its condenser (i.e. radiator).

Seals Tight

When a 12-volt travel fridge's lid is closed and running, the cooling air inside contracts, potentially creating a vacuum if the fridge has a good lid seal. A tight seal prevents external hot air from entering the fridge, stay colder and reducing the copressor workload.

Reviews

Checking reviews is crucial when choosing the best 12-volt caravan or camping fridge because it gives you real-world insights from other users. Reviews can highlight how well a fridge performs in different conditions, its durability, energy efficiency, and any potential issues.

How do reduce the power consumption of my 12-volt caravan or camping fridge?

Reducing the amount of power your 12 volt camping & caravan travel fridge uses, can be achieved with smarter simple use!

Cooler Environment

The efficiency of 12-volt camping and caravan fridges is significantly affected by the ambient temperature surrounding them. Just like any cooli….

The efficiency of 12-volt camping and caravan fridges is significantly affected by the ambient temperature surrounding them. Just like any cooling system (i.e. Car air-conditioner), these fridges work harder and consume more power when the external temperature is hotter.
Ensuring proper ventilation and keeping the fridge in a cool environment can indeed improve its efficiency and reduce power consumption. This can be especially crucial in hot climates or when using the fridge in enclosed spaces like a locked room, car, ute canopy, or caravan without adequate airflow.
Taking these precautions not only helps in conserving power but also extends the lifespan of the fridge by reducing the strain on its components. So, it's a win-win situation for both energy efficiency and the longevity of your camping or caravan fridge.

Be More Organised

Every time we open and close the door or lid of a 12-volt camping or caravan fridge, we release some or most of the pre-chilled ai….

Every time we open and close the door or lid of a 12-volt camping or caravan fridge, we release some or most of the pre-chilled air inside. Consequently, the newly introduced hot air must be cooled down, a process regulated by a thermostat sensor. As a result, the fridge kicks into gear, running until the new air is cooled. Therefore, the more frequently you access your fridge, the longer it runs, and the more power it consumes.
The key to maximising efficiency is to minimise the frequency of opening the fridge. When you do need to access it, being organized is crucial. Arrange the contents in a manner you're familiar with, know exactly what you want and need, grab as many items as possible in one go, and swiftly close the lid or door to minimize the loss of chilled air. By adopting these practices, you can optimise the performance of your fridge and reduce power usage.
Quite simply... put cold food, into a pre chilled fridge! If your food is warm, or your fridge is not pre chilled prior to use, then it will have to run harder & longer to pull the temperature down, & this intern uses a lot of extra power.

Pre Chill Fridge

When powering up a 12-volt camping or caravan fridge after a period of disuse, it demands a substantial amount of energy to cool down. This process invol….

When powering up a 12-volt camping or caravan fridge after a period of disuse, it demands a substantial amount of energy to cool down. This process involves cooling the air inside, and the insulation, which can further worsen when cold food is introduced straight into a hot fridge (or vice versa), increasing the workload for cooling. Consequently, connecting a hot 12-volt travel fridge to a 12-volt battery and cooling it down consumes a significant amount of power from the get go.
Here are three key points to optimize fridge efficiency:
Pre-chill your fridge on 240 volts main power prior
Only introduce cold food into a pre-chilled fridge.
If your fridge isn’t fully stocked, consider filling it with water bottles. An empty fridge runs more frequently and consumes more power.

Refrigerate Only

If you have the option to operate your 12-volt camping or caravan travel fridge solely as a refrigerator, I highly recommend doing so. Typically, using it as a….

If you have the option to operate your 12-volt camping or caravan travel fridge solely as a refrigerator, I highly recommend doing so. Typically, using it as a refrigerator consumes about a third of the power compared to using it as a freezer, which tends to consume excessive power.
Unless you specifically need ice for your afternoon happy hour beverage, many food items can now be vacuum-sealed, reducing the necessity for a freezer. Vacuum sealing items like meat dramatically extends their shelf life in a refrigerator, leading to a significant decrease in power consumption. It's certainly something to consider!

How long will a 12-volt Camping or Caravan fridge run from a battery?

We’re simply going to explain how long a 12-volt fridge will run from both a 100amp, AGM deep-cycle 12-volt battery & a 100amp LITHIUM deep-cycle 12-volt battery.

What’s the best battery to run a 12-volt Caravan, Camping or 4WD fridge?

The 2 most common 12-volt deep-cycle batteries used to run a 12-volt fridge are either an AGM & Lithium. To make the battery comparison fair, we’re using the same brand of 12-volt battery - AMP-TECH. Here’s some differences between the 2 options

AMP-TECH 100amp 12-volt battery weight comparison:
- AGM: 34 Kgs (Approx.)
- Lithium: 15 Kgs (Approx.)
The life span of a 12-volt AGM or LITHIUM battery is actually determined by the amount of charge cycles.
Charge Cycle description: ‘A 12-volt battery charge cycle entails the process of charging the battery to full capacity, utilising its stored energy to power devices, and then recharging it again for subsequent use.’
However, to cut through all the technical talk & to break it down into an approximate. The life span of an AGM & LITHIUM battery that is looked after & maintained correctly is:
- AGM: 3 to 4 years (approx.)
- LITHIUM: 7 - 10 years (Approx.)
Note: Maintaining a healthy 12-volt battery involves regular inspections for corrosion, ensuring proper connections, keeping the battery clean and secure, and adhering to a charging regimen that includes occasional deep cycling to prevent sulphation and maintain optimal performance and longevity.
Whilst both of the batteries in discussion are rated at 100 amp hours each, that doesn’t mean there are 100 amps of usable power. Here is an approx. guide on the usable power in both the AGM & LITHIUM deep-cycle batteries:
- AGM: Approx. 50% of the power in a 100amp hour AGM deep cycle battery is usable. (i.e. 50 amp hours)
- LITHIUM: Approx. 80% of the power in a 100amp hour LITHIUM deep cycle battery is usable (i.e 80 amps)
Note: 160 amp hour AGM has the same usable power as a 100 amp hou Lithium

How long will a 12-Volt caravan, camping or 4WD fridge run from a battery?

The fairest way to explain how long a fridge will run from a battery is to compare the same sized 12 volt batteries (In this case it’s a 100 amp hour AGM versus LITHIUM), and the same particular fridge (in this case, it’s a BUSHMAN SC35-52 litre.)

Running the BUSHMAN 35-52 litre as a REFRIGERATOR only, at 25 degrees celsius outside temperature, here’s the ‘APPROX’ run time you will expect to get from an AMP-TECH:
- AGM - 100amp deep-cycle: Between 42 to 50 hours
- LITHIUM - 100amp deep cycle: Between 66 - 80 hours
Disclaimer: The run times of BUSHMAN fridges from a 12-volt battery are approximate and may vary depending on various factors including ambient temperature, fridge settings, battery condition, usage patterns, and load. Actual run times may differ from stated estimates and users are encouraged to monitor their battery levels regularly and adjust usage accordingly to ensure optimal performance
Running the BUSHMAN 35-52 litre as a FREEZER only, at 25 degrees celsius outside temperature here’s the ‘Average’ run time you will get from AMP-TECH:
- AGM - 100amp deep-cycle: Between 11 - 12.5 hours
- LITHIUM - 100amp deep cycle: Between 17 - 20 hours
Disclaimer: The run times of BUSHMAN fridges from a 12-volt battery are approximate and may vary depending on various factors including ambient temperature, fridge settings, battery condition, usage patterns, and load. Actual run times may differ from stated estimates and users are encouraged to monitor their battery levels regularly and adjust usage accordingly to ensure optimal performance

How to extend the life of your 12-volt camping & Caravan fridge

12-volt camping and caravan travel fridges are a significant investment, so maximizing their longevity is a wise decision. Here are a few helpful tips to ensure you get the most out of your investment in the long term!

Never Turn It Off

12-volt camping & caravan fridges left unused, and or not run for long periods of time, die quicker (believe it or not!). If you want your 12-volt travel fridge to last longer, never turn it off. For Top Loading camping fridges, either keep them running at home, in the shed or in your work truck etc… all the time. In the case of your caravan fridge, keep it connected to 240volt mains power when in storage.

Disclaimer: This is for compressor driven 12-volt fridge freezers only.

Dust Free

Ensure the external compressor and condenser cooling vents of your 12-volt fridge are kept clean from layers of dust. (Fine bull-dust can be an issue when camping or caravanning in outback Australia). By keeping your fridge clean from fine heat trapping dust, it helps to prevent excessive run times, and power use - which can also cause overheating (And ultimately damage your fridge).

Safe Transport

Securing your fridge down properly to a solid base during transport, is paramount! Adjustable webbing straps make for a noiseless / rattle-free tightening option, and some fridges even come with built in anchor points to make it easier for you. Keeping them upright as much as possible is also best practice.

Note: In previous years, many fridges needed to be mounted to spring suspension bases - this is pretty much now a thing of the past!

Like to see more 12-volt Fridge options?

Did you know that we stock 3 different brands of Travel Fridge Freezers? Bushman - Engel & Brass Monkey. To view these together, click on the SEE FRIDGES link.

See 12-volt Fridges