You review is excellent, those visual graphs are perfect for novice like me trying to decide which way to go, is a no brainer. Hope to see more videos from you Happy Travels.🎉❤😊
Hi Craig, installing it was a bit of an issue because of course it was quite a bit wider than the Dometic 3 way I removed. This is in part because the insulation is quite a bit thicker in this Fridge. so after removing the old fridge and its gas and drain plumbing and replacing the 9mm plywood base with 12mm. I set about making the opening in the cabinetry wider and higher. Its all a bit of a task and of course every van is different. Had to dismantle the overhead cupboard cut everything to a small size and reassemble it. Cutting the fridge opening to make it wider and higher was a challenge and I found the only successful tool to use was a reciprocating saw as there is so little room. The mounting kit has to be screwed to the fridge frame and then after you have pushed the fridge into position you screw the installation kit frame to the panel. It all came up reasonably well but it was an extremely tight fit. Cheers Tim
Tim, you do realize that the BD50F in this fridge is running at about 3000 rpm whereas the max motor speed is 3500 rpm. I suspect that this is do with obtaining an optimum performance , a balance between power consumption and maintaining an acceptable temperature within the cabinet. I have this unit and measured the resistor value at about 675 ohms, which according to the Secop compressor speed chart is close to the 692 ohms for 3000 rpm. A tip: I have found it helpful is to smear a little silicone grease on the seal especially on hinge side seal where the seal may fold in a little when closing. After doing this my seals remain square to the cabinet.
Thanks for your comments Jill. Yes they seem to have it optimised and in the past 18 months it has been working without issue. I did disconnect the small fan and that makes the fridge virtually silent when running. I asked Bushman about this small fan and they advised that it really wasnt necessary and if anything they should probably just have fitted a thermostat to control it if operating in excessively high ambient temperatures. I have monitored the compressor to see if there was any issue without the fan and there isnt. The compressor doesnt get excessively hot.
It looks like their finished product had some overheating problems (probably when installed in a recessed area with inadequate air flow), and they just bodged that little fan on as a quick fix. The compressor normally gets sufficient cooling from the refrigerant.
No, I asked Bushman what it was there for but its not really required and only to create some airflow across the compressor. These compressors to get quite hot but they are designed to take pretty severe conditions so its not really required.
Your last comment is spot on. $3.5k for a poor performing absorption fridge? No thanks. RTM has a smaller 138l Brass Monkey 12v fridge for $900 - I'd rather buy that and put the $2600 I saved into more solar and batteries to power the thing.
You are correct. The 3 way fridge was a necessity to some extent in the past prior to the lack of availability of larger upright fridges like this with efficient 12V compressors high capacity low weight high energy density lithium batteries and low cost highly efficient solar panels all at quite reasonable cost these days. The case for the expensive and largely unrepairable 3 way fridge is no longer viable and therefore the end of the 3-way fridge is nigh!!! Cheers Tim
Another great video, you make everthing very easy to understand, so thankyou for that, now you have convinced me to replace my dometic fridge for a Bushman, i will get the 130 litre one and i saw your owners manual for the Bushman on the wiring size that suits but as i have seen your other videos you often state that the recommended wiring is never really right. i will be connecting straight to the battery and the run will be no more than 4 metres, so what size cable do you recommend, thanks, Grant
Hi Grant, and thanks for your feedback. You dont need very large cable size for a compressor fridge as the current draw is minimal compared to the 12V requirements with an absorption fridge. This Bushman fridge only draws approx 4.5amps and that is an intermittent load (say 50% duty cycle) as opposed to the heater element in an absorption fridge which is between approx 15-24 amps (depending on the model) and a continuous load (100%). Bushman have used 6mm² cable and they supply about 2 mtrs or so with the fridge. I would still probably run the same over 4 mtrs if that gets you to the battery supply or 8mm² if longer. Yep a bit bigger is better usually as the kick in current is about 95 watts so about 7.5 amps but thats only an issue when the battery gets very low really. Cheers Tim
No, I removed the fan altogether as its noisy and not required. I did speak to Bushman about this. The Danfoss compressor will run hot in hot weather but they are designed to do this. The conditions they operate in boats and vehicle mounted 12V car fridges with little or no ventilation at high ambient temperatures would surprise you. But they not only work for years in these conditions but manage to maintain the internal temperature correctly. Mine has worked seamlessly for the past couple of years and I have no doubt it will continue to do so.
Excellent video mate. Looking at getting one to replace my waeco rpd 215. Unfortunately they don't make any fridges lime that with only 500mm depth on the bottom anymore (where my invertor and electrics are stored ) the top is 600/thou. Very frustrating. Anyway mate is there any chance you could put a take measure on the front door to the back and also tape measure from fridge seal to back and reply. Cheers
Hi Cory, thanks for the feedback. The overall depth is 580mm including the door and the front to back without the door on is 505mm approx. I think that is what you want
Great video, was wondering now 9 months down the track how have you found the fridge. Is it efficient as they say.? How noisy is in inside with the fan? Did things move on those glass shelves? Does the black fridge show finger marks easily or any other marks/grim? More so than a white fridge? Any other feedback would be great. Thanks
The fridge has performed well since installation and power consumption seems low and no problem running it off grid. We were away at Easter (off grid) with no solar - for 3 nights - and I ran a 3Kw inverter for the coffee machine making quite a few coffees each day and on the 4th day we still had about 25% battery (200A/hr Lithium). So given I had had no solar recharge due to a faulty connection I was impressed. Its completely quite at nite so no compressor noise to speak of. The colour does show hand prints. Very happy with this fridge.
Oh and no havent had an issue with stuff falling off the shelves as we put baskets on the shelves and that makes much better use of the storage area and obviously helps contain stuff.
