Yep, I just needed to prove it to myself before dropping money on a fridge and battery backup!As suspected- but thanks for double checking.
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Yep, I just needed to prove it to myself before dropping money on a fridge and battery backup!As suspected- but thanks for double checking.
You bring up a good point that I get the impression a lot of folks do not consider, durability. Here's my two cents based on my experience. The fridge in your kitchen was never meant to go down the road, or really even be moved in general. I have a Makita fridge, but I imagine some of the features and benefits I will discuss, apply to other expensive fridges such as ARB.Anyone have a good refrigerator recommendation for the bed - just for drinks ? It doesn’t need to run 24/7, just for camping / road trips to have ice cold drinks without the ice. I know there’s plenty of baby fridges but was wondering if there’s a good recommending for our beds / something robust that can handle some bumps etc
You bring up a good point that I get the impression a lot of folks do not consider, durability. Here's my two cents based on my experience. The fridge in your kitchen was never meant to go down the road, or really even be moved in general. I have a Makita fridge, but I imagine some of the features and benefits I will discuss, apply to other expensive fridges such as ARB.
If the fridge is tipped too far, it will pause refrigeration until a short time period after the fridge is returned to an acceptable angle to operate properly. You don't have to reset or restart, does it automatically.
The lid and latch are robust feeling, with the latch spring loaded to keep secured. There is a nice gasket, with the ever so slight gap in the back of the lid. This is so that it does not vacuum lock shut after you open it, like some RV fridges do.
There is an LED light inside. I don't think this is an absolute necessity, but none of my more expensive yeti coolers have one. It's nice to have a light inside when grabbing something out at night.
It accepts two Makita 18v batteries, and will run off of one and then the other, allowing for hot swapping without shutting down. When running off batteries, and the cooler is set to 30 F, and already to temperature, I average one hour of use per amp-hour of battery. This means that with two 6.0ah batteries, I average twelve hours of runtime, in the cab of the truck. In the bed of the truck, slightly less. I imagine this is mainly to cover one full work day, and it does.
It also has 120vac adapter, as well as 12vdc adapter. It automatically prioritizes these over the 18v batteries. It will not charge the batteries from either ac or dc sources, however. What this means in use is, that you have it plugged into the vehicle, when the vehicle is on, it runs off the vehicle; when you shut off the vehicle, it automatically switches to the 18v batteries. Start the vehicle again, automatically switches back to 12vdc.
Other features - it has a USB port for charging devices, bottle opener on the side, wheels and a handle that nests against the side when not in use. Fan is very quiet, cannot hear it when it is sitting behind me on the rear seat. I tried a cheaper option ( Alpicool C12PT) from amazon, and the fan was loud and annoying to listen to; I returned it the same day.
Bottom line for me, the Makita fridge was designed to survive on jobsites, and seems durable enough for off-road conditions in my opinion. I've had the Makita fridge since 2021, and it still works like new. Ive taken it on lots of camping trips, all sorts of road trips, and during two summers, used it every single day in the northern CA heat, no issues. Only surprise I've ever had with it, was under the black BakFlip MX4 tonneau cover, in the 105+ F heat in Sacramento, it burned two 6.0ah batteries in about 4 hours trying to keep gatorade at 30 F. Extreme example, but moving the fridge into the backseat doubled the runtime after that.