Anyone Have Experience With Novakool

[MtnDon]

Does anyone here have any first hand experience with any of the Novakool refrigerators?

Thanks

http://www.backwoodssolar.com/novakool- ... model-4500

mfg website
http://www.novakool.com/products/single ... rators.htm

[Shadow Catcher]

I can't speak directly as we don't have one but the compressor is the same one used in the Waeco we do have. My concern is the same one I have with any front door refrigerator, every time you open the door all the cool falls out. Backwoods Solar is a good company to deal with and they don't sell junk. The Waeco can be had for less money.

[Esteban]

I looked into prices and features of chest type fridge/freezers and posted information in Camping Secrets Truckfridge AC/DC portable refrigerator/freezer about Truckfridges and other brands of ac/dc refrigerator/freezers. It has information and links to ones from Truckfridge, indelb, Dometic/Waeco, Ironman, EdgeStar and ARB. Equipt1, one of the suppliers, sells both the more affordable indelb and high end National Luna models of fridge/freezers.

truckfridge.com sells built-in and portable refrigerator/freezers. If you're looking for a front opening refrigerator that costs less than Nova Cool take a look at what they have to offer.

I added a link to Nova Cool to the information I previously posted. They're pretty high end $$$ and most of their refrigerators are sized for big RVs.

[MtnDon]

Thanks. I've looked at the truckfridges. For some reason they seem to be rated as using more watts than the novakool. Maybe NK id insulated better than TF? If that is the case the difference almost doesn't matter as the TF could be slid into a buildin hole that has extra insulation. Backwoods states that at 70 F ambient temperature and using 2 inches foam around the NK the power use can be as low as 240 watt hours daily. Pretty good for 4.5 cu ft.

[MtnDon]

I've done some more looking into the novakool and the truckfridge and conclude they are both rated to use the same amount of power over a 24 hour period. 480 watt hours. Backwoods claims that adding 2 inches of foam insulation can bring that down to 240 watt hours.

One big thing is to provide sufficient air cooling for the unit, just as with a propane fridge. I'm now leaning towards the TR130 truckfridge. 4.2 cu ft. We like using a "fridge" more than we like using a "cooler" style chest unit. I know it costs more energy but there is a convenience factor. We'll just have an extra battery instead of extra propane.

[bdosborn]

I have a 2.2 CF Tundra fridge with an additional 1" of the polyisocryante insulation. I think both the Tundra and the Nova Kool fridges use the same Danfoss type compressor. I run around 1 amp-hr usage at 70F. I would be very surprised if you could run a fridge twice as big at the same energy usage. Here's what I found when I measured my fridges energy use.

TJ22 Fridge Linky

I bet you'd use around twice as much energy as I do, but that's still a manageable usage with the appropriate battery and PV capacity.

Bruce

P.S. We can stuff quit a bit of food into our 2.2 CF fridge. It's good for a week's worth of food, but we keep the beer in another Waeco fridge that rides in the truck bed. We use around 1.5 amp-hrs running both fridges @ 70F.

P.P.S. I ran tests on energy sage when you open the door to the fridge every hour or so and there was only a negligible effect to energy usage. Which makes sense if you think about it. Air is a very poor conductor and most of the cold is in the contents of the fridge, not the air inside.

[Shadow Catcher]

One of the things that worked very well with our refrigerator was that because it is stratified, colder at the bottom that the top we were able to keep things that were frozen, well, frozen. This meant that during our eight-day stay up in Canada we were able to keep things like chicken sufficiently frozen to make it to eighth day. We did this on our trip out West last summer as well. So we will stick with the chest type refrigerator should ours need replacement.

[bdosborn]

The Tundra has an honest to goodness freezer so I don't have to worry about freezing stuff that doesn't want to be frozen just to make sure other stuff stays frozen. ( wow, that's an awkward sentence )



On the other hand, its not very convenient to move it out to the porch to serve as a drink cooler. Each style has it's advantages and the best one is the one that serves your purpose the best . But, FWIW, we did buy the Waeco chest style first and probably us it the most. It's pulling double duty and serving as our cabin refrigerator.

Bruce