What Fridge do YOU use in the Tractor?

who do you drive for?





American Trucker

 

LCL Bulk Transport

 

I have a 1500 watt inverter and a black and decker fridge (compressor one) paid $99 for it at walmart. No problems with it at all.

 

I bit the bullet and bought a WAECO. it's made to fit and hook up directly in a KW or Pete. I think it fits FL also and may some others. It has a small freezer, plus the refer part. Works great. 12/24/120/240v.

 

I got a 1500 watt RoadPro inverter, the one that you can find in any Pilot. I bought a mini fridge at Target for 89.99 it has plenty of room and even a freezer. It doesn't use much. Maybe 120 watts when it runs. I also have a 700 watt microwave and a crock pot.

 

same policy here at Bhandal. If the truck doesn't have an inverter, bring yours to the shop and they will install it. My truck already had one..

 

I have this Emerson I bought at Target. Best little fridge I ever owned.
Compressor uses 120 watts when it first kicks in. Then it drops to 70 watts. It seems like it only comes on 2-3 times an hour. It's very quiet. Freezer holds about 10 TV dinners plus the door space for 1-2 more. I took out the lower cabinet behind the drivers seat to put it in. I have the microwave on top of it. Very convenient set up.

http://www.target.com/Emerson-CR500-2-Door-Compact-Refrigerator/dp/B0014E448U/ref=br_1_6?ie=UTF8&id=Emerson%20CR500%202-Door%20Compact%20Refrigerator&node=10835351&searchSize=30&searchView=list&searchPage=2&sr=1-6&qid=1283071300&rh=&searchBinNameList=subjectbin%2Cprice%2Ctarget_com_primary_color-bin%2Ctarget_com_size-bin%2Ctarget_com_brand-bin&searchRank=pmrank&frombrowse=1

 

I had a norcold in both of mine, worked great.

 

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Personally what I use is an igloo brand 12v thermoelectric. They cool/heat to 40deg from the air temperature that's pulled in.
During winter I'll put it on the floor cubbyhole with the inlet facing the sleeper wall. During summer, I'll position it with the inlet facing an A/C duct. With something to insulate it, the setup works fine. To keep the igloo going just in case, I run it off of a deep cell battery. I wired it into the main batteries so it's continually charged, and if I have to shut off the engine/APU.. I just have to flip the disconnect switch and it's isolated from the rest.
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Buying a compressor type of fridge designed for a big-rig will be your best, but most expensive bet. There's pro/con tradeoff's to the other choices you should consider.

A regular type fridge will need a modest inverter. The wattage listed won't include the compressor's startup surge. The power spike could trip the inverter's protection circuits and render it useless. (Other appliances like microwaves/T.V.'s/etc. hooked into it will only make the problem worse)

Large inverters can supply high wattage, but they also draw high AMPERAGE. This can quickly drain or permanently damage your rig's batteries. If the truck's shut off, you'll need to shut off the inverter too.

Large wattage inverters aren't allowed at many companies, and others require professional installation. It's because they can blow fuses, or cause a fire if installed wrong. The most common rule I've come across is that if it's too much for a 12v outlet... it's not allowed.

The 12v thermoelectric coolers are fairly safe to use, but don't work as well as a compressor type fridge. There's a safety cutoff in most trucks that will prevent the cooler from stranding you... But this can also mean that your groceries go bad. (same thing goes with the other options though.)

 

Several years ago I bought an Engels Fridge Freeze portable refrigerator. In the past I have used 12 V thermoelectric coolers with mediocre results, ruined food, frozen pop, etc. I decided to go with something more like a real refrigerator, compressor and all the stuff that comes with one. A built-in was not an option. I settled on the Engels fridge freeze even though it was extremely pricey. I like the portability factor. The unit itself is too heavy and bulky to be tossing it out of the truck, however it has a nice wire basket that fits in and is easily taken at out to transfer food. Being as it is a real refrigerator he keeps a constant temperature, somewhere between 0° and 40° or whatever you decide to set it it will stay at regardless of ambient temperature. Also it is easily removable from the truck and runs on household current which is nice when I take it on vacation up to the Lake. I also bought a 1500 W inverter and a cheap microwave at Wally world. The whole setup ran me about $850. A conservative guess on money saved was $50-$75 a week or more. The time saved by not having to dedicate time to pulling over for a meal at a truck stop saved me even more. Time spent loading and unloading could now be used for mealtime, enhancing productivity. It's a lot quicker to pull off the road into a pickle Park and prepare the equivalent of what you would get at the truck stop. The point being while the initial investment is quite high the payback period is quite low, two or three months at the most. Another side benefit to this kind of unit is the quiet operation. Even without the truck running you cannot hear the unit it all. That's one thing I noticed about the thermoelectric units, they were quite noisy. All in all I'm quite happy with the setup.