Was defrosting our Waeco fridge this morning and remembered the problem we had when we first started out. The fridge used to leak water from "somewhere" when travelling, onto the floor. I realised that it didn't defrost itself like the one at home, and if I keep defrosting it weekly there's no problem. Its also necessary to empty the little water tray regularly too. No more leaking!.
Maybe some caravan fridges are self-defrosting, but it takes a lot more electricity and if you are on batteries, that's a waste.
Dunmowin said
10:27 PM Oct 7, 2014
When we started out back in 2011, I was totally used to a self defrosting fridge, and it came as a bit of a shock to me that I had to defrost about every 10 days. In fact, the further north, the more humid, the more defrosting required. Colder weather, less defrosting. Have not had problem with water tray. My trusty hair dryer is used when we need to defrost, freezer contents go in car engle, fridge contents in kitchen sink.
Whole process takes Mr Dunmowin less than 30 minutes!
GaryKelly said
08:29 AM Oct 10, 2014
Regular defrosting improves the efficiency of the fridge too!
eddieandjulie said
01:06 PM Dec 30, 2014
Hi guys.
Must agree with all the above. Gary certainly is right about efficiency. We have been freedom camping continuously for two years and noticed that we saved about 3 to 4 days gas per 9 kg bottle in our upright Dometic 2 door fridge and freezer with a defrost required every two - two and a half weeks in humid North Qld summer (about 18 days instead of 10 -15 ). Now in South Aus where the climate is cooler and not humid, and still haven't had to defrost after 3 weeks (still no build up!).
To digress a little, we also have self-installed a 12 volt upright 90 litre freezer which runs on our batteries 24/7 and has only had to be defrosted once in 6 months. It pulls only 3 to 4 amp/hr. Awesome. We haven't had to run our generator for 4 months now except to deliberately blow the cobwebs out. And no, we don't got to bed at 6.00 pm, more like 10 to 11 pm., with a light, laptop, tv running. Everything, including our twin tub, runs on our roof solar power except for the hot water and fridge. At daylight, our batteries have never been below 12.6 V for six months. Sorry to digress even further, but we have also busted the myth that solar power is better in North Oz, with our early morning daylight power being no less then 12.7 V in all kinds of weather over the last 5 weeks.
Back on track, we consistently defrost as soon as the ice build up reaches 2 ml thickness, exactly as recommended in the fridge manual, and this has proven to run both the fridge/freezer and Engel freezer efficiently and more cost effectively without a doubt, as we have logged our gas/battery power useage for 2 years to develop the efficiency of our off the grid power resources. Another hint, which you are probably aware of, is that the metal ribs in the fridge compartment should only have frozen droplets on them, and not build up whatsoever, to indicate most efficient running.
Was defrosting our Waeco fridge this morning and remembered the problem we had when we first started out. The fridge used to leak water from "somewhere" when travelling, onto the floor. I realised that it didn't defrost itself like the one at home, and if I keep defrosting it weekly there's no problem. Its also necessary to empty the little water tray regularly too. No more leaking!.
Maybe some caravan fridges are self-defrosting, but it takes a lot more electricity and if you are on batteries, that's a waste.
When we started out back in 2011, I was totally used to a self defrosting fridge, and it came as a bit of a shock to me that I had to defrost about every 10 days. In fact, the further north, the more humid, the more defrosting required. Colder weather, less defrosting. Have not had problem with water tray. My trusty hair dryer is used when we need to defrost, freezer contents go in car engle, fridge contents in kitchen sink.
Whole process takes Mr Dunmowin less than 30 minutes!
Hi guys.
Must agree with all the above. Gary certainly is right about efficiency. We have been freedom camping continuously for two years and noticed that we saved about 3 to 4 days gas per 9 kg bottle in our upright Dometic 2 door fridge and freezer with a defrost required every two - two and a half weeks in humid North Qld summer (about 18 days instead of 10 -15 ). Now in South Aus where the climate is cooler and not humid, and still haven't had to defrost after 3 weeks (still no build up!).
To digress a little, we also have self-installed a 12 volt upright 90 litre freezer which runs on our batteries 24/7 and has only had to be defrosted once in 6 months. It pulls only 3 to 4 amp/hr. Awesome. We haven't had to run our generator for 4 months now except to deliberately blow the cobwebs out. And no, we don't got to bed at 6.00 pm, more like 10 to 11 pm., with a light, laptop, tv running. Everything, including our twin tub, runs on our roof solar power except for the hot water and fridge. At daylight, our batteries have never been below 12.6 V for six months. Sorry to digress even further, but we have also busted the myth that solar power is better in North Oz, with our early morning daylight power being no less then 12.7 V in all kinds of weather over the last 5 weeks.
Back on track, we consistently defrost as soon as the ice build up reaches 2 ml thickness, exactly as recommended in the fridge manual, and this has proven to run both the fridge/freezer and Engel freezer efficiently and more cost effectively without a doubt, as we have logged our gas/battery power useage for 2 years to develop the efficiency of our off the grid power resources. Another hint, which you are probably aware of, is that the metal ribs in the fridge compartment should only have frozen droplets on them, and not build up whatsoever, to indicate most efficient running.
Regards to you all, have a happy New Year,
Eddie