Danfoss refrig... truck frig or vitrifrigo or ??

[ForestLass]

I have a Vitrifrigo DP150IBD4-S 5.3 cf AC/DC fridge, use it primarily boondocking using solar power system and am very pleased. No problems (so far).

https://www.vanlifeoutfitters.com/ca...refrigerators/

[NW Lady]

Forest Lass, thank you... nice to hear about real use experiences. Vitrigrigo seems to be one of the best. Sure wish it had the handles in the upper corner rather than in the middle. Have read a couple of comments about it being a little difficult to open.
Take care, mary

[booster]

Originally Posted by NW Lady

Forest Lass, thank you... nice to hear about real use experiences. Vitrigrigo seems to be one of the best. Sure wish it had the handles in the upper corner rather than in the middle. Have read a couple of comments about it being a little difficult to open.
Take care, mary

We have come up with a very easy way to get around the hard to open door on our Cruise 85 Isotherm. If you get the frig and the door is too hard to open, or if it takes you two hands to do it, PM me and I can get you up to speed on how to take care of it.

[NW Lady]

thank you, Booster

[N147JK]

The Nova Kool fridge in my van is going on 22 years old and still runs like new. It gets so cold I have to keep it turned way down!

[NW Lady]

Wow... that is impressive.

[themexicandoctor]

Novakool - Simple Engineering, Bulletproof, made in North America.

And for your application, having the compressor at the bottom that creates the heat (?),you have a natural Venturi effect.

Rod spent his whole career working on high end mega yachts in Refrigeration & AC & was the North America Consultant for Isotherm - he said the biggest problems on boats is no ventilation but our Class B's with the shorter fridges, no problem at all.

[NW Lady]

I have a novakool R3800 on order. Very excited! No more leveling!! Better performance in warmer temps!

Thank you one and all for sharing your knowledge and experience!!

Decided on Novakool for reputation, easy swap measurements for my Dometic 2354, bigger freezer than some other similar sized brands, handle on upper edge of door... not in the middle. Manufacturer and distributor just a few hours away.

[themexicandoctor]

Congratulations!

[themexicandoctor]

Something screwed up in my last post, this is what I intended;

Congratulations & IF (and its a small IF), you have any issues with your Electrical System being inefficient, it will show up in the first day/week of your ownership.

But I doubt it as you have an abundance of 400 Lithium ah in your bank & the van was probably retrofitted in the last couple of years.

Looking at your beginning posts I see you will have some inches of free space on the top of your fridge - if that is correct that is one place you want to block the air from traveling into your interior - this is where Booster's Genius will be of value in terms if adding Reflectix, etc but I do not know how much inefficiency is lost through the top.

Or maybe you misread the measurements because here they are are;

R3100 H 28 & 3/8 W 16 & 3/4 D 19 & 1/2
R3800 H 28 & 3/8 W 20 & 1/4 D 18
R4500 H 28 & 3/8 W 20 & 1/4 D 21

Please note they are the Cut Out dimensions

Your words; Would this be enough ventilation for a novakool or isotherm of about 3cf? Or... since I would have an extra 5" between my current cutout and the height of a new refrig, would it be better to block and insulate the existing vents and leave a roughly 2" space above and below the new refrig that would vent from and back into the interior living space of the van?

Simply want you to have the best experience and the efficiency Booster & other Guru's get

[NW Lady]

Yes... you are right! Is is the 3000 that is about 25" high. Looking at too many brands and units!! lol

The dometic 2354 is still installed so a little difficult to get exact measurements but... looks like I will have about 1 - 1.5 " in height to fill for the 3800. My son-in-law (custom furniture/wood worker) says no problem to fill. Filling any extra space on top or sides with reflex or the rigid insulation booster used seems like an excellent idea. Seems a little difficult as would have to be added from the outside vents after unit is in place.

My current cutout with is approx 20.5 so that gives about 1/4 to fill. Again... son-in-law says no problem to fill with hardwood glued/screwed) strip if needed to give screws good wood to bite into.

Again... I REALLY appreciate your help in making sure I am not making a BIG mistake. !!!

[themexicandoctor]

Our pleasure - I went through the same madness myself with guidance from everyone here.

And it was the same Offender, the Dometic RM2354.*

Having an In House Carpenter, Priceless!

If I had one, I would have chosen the Vitrifrigo.

*DO NOT junk the Dometic, the moment you take it out, have it burped for 24-48 hours & it will be brand new & you can probably sell it on Ebay/Craigslist/etc or give it someone local who needs a propane fridge in a Stationary, Level environment

Enjoy!

[NW Lady]

I have seen the term "burping" on this site before. I am guessing it means getting air trapped by being unlevel at some point to flow up and out??? I get burping babies... refrigs... not so much. but I am sure I can find that info somewhere on the youtube.

I may use keep it as a backup when electricity goes out. I used to live up in the Santa Cruz mountains of Calif. and electricity would go out for many days at a time many times each winter. I was great to the an RV around with a propane refrig. Where I live now electricity seldom goes out for more than a few hours but still....

[themexicandoctor]

Originally Posted by NW Lady

I have seen the term "burping" on this site before. I am guessing it means getting air trapped by being unlevel at some point to flow up and out??? I get burping babies... refrigs... not so much. but I am sure I can find that info somewhere on the youtube.

I may use keep it as a backup when electricity goes out. I used to live up in the Santa Cruz mountains of Calif. and electricity would go out for many days at a time many times each winter. I was great to the an RV around with a propane refrig. Where I live now electricity seldom goes out for more than a few hours but still....

I must refer you to Booster & some of the other Technical Guru's here as from reading these forums over the years, the DC/AC efficiency is lower than when on Propane.

Why I do not know.

Propane would be great but I think you would need your big tank taken out of the truck as a hook up - the corresponding van's weight reduction would be great but it might be difficult to lift & refill when needed & I don't know if some States will allow it.

BUT then again, you won't take it out because you need Cooking & Heating in your rig.

Someone who has a need for a 3 Way but not $1200 for another Dometic would gladly take it off your hands for $200.

That would be a person who doesn't use thier rig a lot & or, has no Solar.

Maybe someone here in the For Sale section would buy it or on the Facebook Roadtrek page.

Burping is simple, your fridge guy can do it for you when he does the install. Over time, with uneven parking, the chemical needed to help with the cooling,, gets stuck/lodged & doesn't return to use (this is the non technical answer.

Others can expand on the process far more intelligently & accurately.

Once burped, efficiency returns to almost brand new.

If you have been religious about parking level, all of a sudden the relief of being able to park almost freely is as liberating as moving from the experience of a hotel room to an RV.

[NW Lady]

It is nice to dream about replacing all propane usage in the van but will probably never happen. Cooking.... hot water.... space heating. I am VERY thankful to be able to replace the refrig.

I have read about some very interesting non-propane hot water options that involve one or two heat exchangers...... and of course, there are the webasto diesel heaters. Cooking would be the easiest. I see lots of folks to use induction burners built-in or just plug-in.

Will LOVE not having to worring about leveling. Since I got my dc to dc charger and lithium, I have been using DC to power the dometic 2354 refrig when driving. THAT was nice! That will be even easier now as the Novakool isn't the power hog that the dometic is.

I am REALLY looking forward to this upgrade. My son-in-law and my son, who did the entire lithium conversion for me, will be putting in the novakool refrig. My son, who did the conversion to lithium, is no Booster but he is pretty smart about electrical stuff in general ... AC and DC.

LUCKY ME!!

[NW Lady]

I have been really careful about parking level and the Dometic has always worked perfectly. It was just the last two days of my last trip that I couldn't keep the temp low enough. ....and I was camping with my daughter and family and they have a 4x4 lifted van so the last night or two were pretty marginal for level. BUT... the weather was 80+ to 90+ the last two days.

So... could be the dometic is just fine. It is so cold up here now it is not a good test. I will just burp it when it is removed from the van and it will probably be just fine.

I know I said this before but.... I AM GOING TO BE SO HAPPY TO NOT HAVE TO BOTHER WITH LEVELING!!!

[Davydd]

There are propaneless vans. I have had one for 7 years but it is probably not worth converting an existing Class B.

As for leveling, when I had an absorption refrigerator I leveled for sleeping comfort and that was almost dead level which was well within tolerances obviously so I never thought about it for the refrigerator.

[NW Lady]

Level definitely feels good!! For me... seems like my refrig is pickier than I am! LOL... Soon I will only have to worry about what feels good to me.

Yes, I agree. Not worth converting an old (1999) class be to non-propane. Already spent more than I should have on an old van for converting to lithium, my did all the work, but still.... and now .... a danfoss compressor refrig.

[themexicandoctor]

Originally Posted by NW Lady

I have seen the term "burping" on this site before. I am guessing it means getting air trapped by being unlevel at some point to flow up and out??? I get burping babies... refrigs... not so much. but I am sure I can find that info somewhere on the youtube.

I may use keep it as a backup when electricity goes out. I used to live up in the Santa Cruz mountains of Calif. and electricity would go out for many days at a time many times each winter. I was great to the an RV around with a propane refrig. Where I live now electricity seldom goes out for more than a few hours but still....

Originally Posted by NW Lady

Level definitely feels good!! For me... seems like my refrig is pickier than I am! LOL... Soon I will only have to worry about what feels good to me.

Yes, I agree. Not worth converting an old (1999) class be to non-propane. Already spent more than I should have on an old van for converting to lithium, my did all the work, but still.... and now .... a danfoss compressor refrig.

I sent you a pm a couple of days ago - now I know we are talking about an RM2354, you have the option of buying the more expensive but 20% bigger fridge & freezer Novakool 4500 (if you can use the extra volume).

If you don't need the larger unit you save money & have even more venting space behind.

My pm talks about the 2.2ah rating of the R3800 versus the R4500 4.4ah rating but as many have pointed out, that is mostly meaningless in real use.

Plus you have an abundance of 400ahs of Lithium.

[NW Lady]

Mexican Doc... Thank you for all the details in the PM you sent. I thoughts I had responded but maybe it took me so long to type my response that I was "kicked off" by the the time I clicked "send" and I didn't notice.

The novakool 3800 is more than enough space for me. Even the 3100 would have been ok but the measurements of the 3800 look like an easy install. The 3800 is about .5 cf bigger than the current dometic 2354 and I have been very happy with that space.

I really do appreciate you helping me with my options as it is a big decision and there are soooo many options and several worthwhile brands.

Now I am just waiting..... waiting..... waiting.... for the unit to be delivered to the Seattle distributor.