loved the super scientific approach to this comparison, was spot on! think youve helped my decision to an upright. this is one of the best real world reviews on fridges. love the dual zone, have the same setup. almost worth thinking about putting a tap on the upright.
Thanks Cam, both fridges are great. I like the idea of using both as I would or could use the Engel for freezing for long term stays and upright for every day use. Cheers 🍻 love this type of content when your not travelling
Hey Cam, Love the videos. Would recommend pulling apart the spring loaded bar, separating and removing the spring. Then getting some larger plastic end stoppers from burnings, the bars fit perfectly into the fridge. You basically get two sets of bars from the original extendable one.
Hi Cam, informative video, well done.We really like those little grey plastic tubs with the holes in them. It's the perfect setup really, an 85L upright for day to day, and a 40 - 50L chest for longer trips as an extra drinks fridge or freezer. Cheers, Tommy. BUSHMAN
Love your support of Australian made products Cam. We got to keep the money here. As you say the quality and after sales service is there to back it up... Cheers Mark...
Great video Cam I can agree with the upright best thing I did especially for a wagon I couldn’t go back to a chest fridge, the space saving the weight saving no need for a pull out slide it’s the best way to go.
Lov your style buddy, straight up genuine, I was against the uprights but now I’m seeing the advantages and would change my Engels, was in your woods Friday & saw the beast, looking good 👍👍👍👍
Great video Cam, very interesting to hear your thoughts on these fridges vs. the traditional chest fridges. I think I'm going to make the move from my 60l ARB fridge to a Bushman upright fridge, but still tossing up whether to go the 65l or the 85l. It will be mounted in the back of a wagon so the physical size is a serious consideration, but the lack of a fridge slide is a huge bonus. Plus I've never had a freezer while camping and I'm excited to bring a few ice creams along for those hot nights haha.
Cam we have a Waeco 95 in our Aussie Swag. We use rectangular lock & lock containers which allow us to use the space in its entirety. Same as the rectangular suacepans
Great video Cam. A lot of great info. I’m keen as to switch to a upright as a main fridge and take the old chest fridge freezer for extended trips where needed.
They’re definitely handy. Will suck a bit of juice running it along side a chest freezer too, but if you’ve got the battery capacity then it’ll be unreal!
Awwsome video as always, we are still not completely sold on an upright, but we aren't looking at a new one yet... our dometic cfx95 has served us well in the back of the 200.... maybe next build 🍻🍻
A good thing about chest fridge/freezer’s are when you open them you loose a lot less cold air vs the up right I don’t think twice the power consumption is justified by being twice the size Great review though cheers mate👍
Great vid mate and I think the power consumption “test” was done well simply because it’s just the way average joe would use them. The ingesting thing is that my upright 95l Engel uses the exact same as my 40l chest Engel but the upright doesn’t have a freezer like the bushman does which I’d suggest eats a bit of extra power.
Have you tried using some goon bags to fill out the empty spaces to stop things moving about. Easy enough to inflate or deflate to desired size as you use the contents of the fridge and pack away to nothing when not needed.
I’ve got a Bushman 85ltr they hold nothing. I had a Kickass 75ltr dual zone and I’d put a 30 pack of cans in it and still have room for food plus a big freezer. The bushman freezer is lucky to fit a couple of steaks . And the other downside of the bushman is it only runs on 12volt
Great vid mate , i agree they are both great fridges ... For me personally i love my 40 litre engel , but its just for me , the upright would be great for 2 or more people ... tc :)
I have a 40 litre Engel, but to be honest, I use my 55 litre ice box more frequently, especially seeing most of my trips in reality are about 2 nights on average. I like being able to take it out of my canopy and plonk it right next to where I want. For longer trips, you can't beat a fridge with solar though.
I almost never put drinks in the fridge. It’s all for stuff that keeps us alive. Always run a cooler with 330ml frozen water bottles and just use the freezer to refreeze bottled water
Cheers Nathan, yeah I may do in the future. They are a great fridge mate, im totally sold on them. Use a little more power than a chest fridge, but theyre so convenient.
Fantastic review, we've been considering an upright, I'd love to see someone produce an upright without a freezer- I'm converting a Trailblaza 70lt to one so I'll see how that goes!
Gee, first thing I noticed about the Bushman is the tiny freezer space. There are quite a few different uprights around and we tend to look for ones with a decent bit of freezer room. We have used both types of fridge for literally decades and the one thing to note about uprights is, they are not built as strong as the chest style. Access is awesome but I would wonder how well they stand up to rough roads. Most are designed for on road use in caravans and motorhomes (which is where we use them). The absolute worst upright we have ever has was an Engel - surprisingly. The motor was fine but the cabinet was cheap and nasty and the door kept on falling off - and that was just in a caravan on normal gravel roads. Now we use the chest style in the 4x4 and a combination of chest and upright (Waeco) in the motorhome.
I’ll let ya know how it stands up to the rough stuff long term. So far it’s been fantastic. But for convenience it’s a no brainer. There’s a reason why we all have upright fridges in our homes!
I have the MT45 with a clearview dropslide and even when I was lifting that in the car mounting it up the first time I was surprised with the weight, especially on one side of the vehicle so have to be vigilant how I pack the ute but it works well for my application. Weight saving would be a bonus for me but it doesn’t the job!
Great comparison video really make some clear and good points, was just wondering to add on where did you get the storage bag for the front of the fridge?
Nice comparison. Don't howl me down but some of the upright $1500 fridges I've looked at seem very similar to $300 upright bar fridges from Harvey Norman that can run off a 12v inverter. Surely not the case?
Great comprehensive vid Cam. We have a similar setup with the upright 75L fridge inside the Hybrid with a engel in the back of the wagon. I think usability wise, staking food containers (square shape or things that stack even) the engel chest style fridge/freezer is awesome. if you have a mixture of cylinder things (cans, stubbies, sauces and condiments) plus rectangle things such as left overs meat ect the upright fridge comes into its own! personally, ive run chest fridges my whole life and when I got the upright fridge it was a game changer for usability! Great video though you have really nailed it!
Yeah totally agree. I’ll never sell the Engel, they are a brilliant fridge. But like you said- for drinks/condiments/leftovers of random shapes and sizes the uprights are fantastic. I guess that’s why we all have upright fridges at home in the kitchen! Cheers guys 👍🏼
Have seen that. So disappointing too see them steal another Australian companies design. But I guess that’s the risk of getting things manufactured in china! Kings gear has its place in the market. It’s affordable gear that will get you out there. But it never lasts long if it’s used regularly. it might look the same, it may even be sourced from the same factory! But over time they will substitute as many components as they can to make it cheaper.
Cam I've mentioned this before. I have had the Bushman 85L for about 18 months and it has been awsome. I also bought another one for a project build I did (which I sold). So I've spent $3k with Bushman. Kings have now released a fridge which looks almost identical and has the same brand of compressor (SECOP BD35F) and all specs appear to be the same. I suspect it comes out of the same factory. Dimensions are identical. The only differences I can see is that the Kings has a surround around the freezer which would help prevent things that are close to it from freezing and it is $949 versus $1495. Is it just badge engineering? Is it a rip off, or do they both source from same manufacturer and just apply badges? Or is Bushman selling to Kings? I would love to hear from Bushman about this. A 35% price difference is substantial if it is the same product. Brass Monkey also have some very good value upright fridges with LG compressors, the 85L is $829. I love my Bushman but can't help feeling they're overpriced.
I generally try to reserve comment on this stuff, I don’t like to rip a company. But there’s a few around that profit from stealing ideas, copying products and then undercutting the businesses they’ve stolen IP from. It’s pretty unaustralian. In a nutshell, this sort of business model is to find popular gear and either send it back to China for reverse engineering OR find the manufacturer over there and screw them down in price by buying in volume. Even if it is the same fridge from the same factory, i guarantee you those greedy bastards will continue to cut corners and cheap out on components until their fridges are falling apart. And there’s no after sales support or warranty. I have no affiliation with bushman, I paid for my fridge. But I’m glad I went with them, they’re fantastic to deal with and I’d rather support an Australian business that’s made their own mark by being innovative. At least Brass Monkey have come up with a few of their own ideas/designs! Price is right but their reviews are terrible.
@@WildTouring I just watched a comparison on the "Too far south offroad 4wd club" RU-vid channel. According to them the Kings has 5yr warranty versus Bushman 3yr and has Anderson plug fitted and defrost tray. Conclusion - same fridge. Interesting.
52amps in a 24 hour period is insane. Even people running lithiums would have a hard time with that. A few days of shit weather and no solar and that thing will drain even a 150ah lithium flat.
Lightly sandpapered the surface of the fridge door, used a sellers vertical adhesive, glued the carpet backing to the fridge. The organiser has Velcro backing so it sticks to that.
Great well rounded info Cam 👍👌I've been looking at an upright for a while now but can't quite justify the outlay just yet. So many pros and cons for each but the upright is definitely a winner. You should get yourself a small digital thermometer - $10 from Jaycar. I've found them handy to get an idea of the temps in my Engel and my home fridge and also have one in the car for cabin temp. I like all your styles of vid mate 👍 Do you think the mounting brackets the bushman comes with would do the job . . . Or better off with something like you have?
Cheers Ben. The mounting kit would do the job. But I’d be much happier using a fridge cage. These fridges were probably originally designed to be built into cabinetry in motor homes or similar, so the sides and the back are just soft insulated panel. They wouldn’t fare well with things banging into them. Cage also protects the compressor/coil/fan ect.
Hey mate good vid! Going from my 40l combi Engel to a bushman what’s it’s like volume wise like I know it’s double the size but how much more stuff if packed in proper baskets? Not double surely
Cheers Dean. Nah wouldn't be getting double the amount of stuff into the upright. But certainly a decent amount more. Just did 10 days living out of it and had enough spare room in there to stick a small keg in 🤣
@@nnoddy8161 Bushman make a solid fridge, they’ve been around for 40 years. Australian owned (father and son operation). The compressor and coil are serviceable/repairable (not built into the fridge walls like most brands, which renders them disposable if they leak). They have a great reputation, for good reason. Engel are also good, for the same reasons. They’re a reputable fridge manufacturer with great aftermarket support/ spare part availability. Which is why I own both.
Nah no reason. I only really looked at the bushman, know heaps of people running them that were happy and the dimensions were bang on for what I needed.
Hi i am thinking of buying a Bushman fridge i have spoken to about 6 people that own them they have all said the icebox ices up often and you have to defrost the freezer, where other fridge brands dont have that problem is there any other faults
I haven’t had that issue, and I’ve had it running continuously for months at a time. May have to do with humidity in certain parts of the country. I can’t fault it, I reckon it’s a brilliant fridge.
You don’t have to use a surround at all, the fridges are supplied with some angle to mount them. But these fridges were originally designed for motor homes/caravans/camper vans were they would have been built into cabinetry. For that reason the sides and back of the fridge are exposed insulation (soft panels). Keeps the weight down but I wouldn’t want the contents of my canopy smashing into it. The cages offer heaps of protection to the panels and motor/compressor/condenser. As welll as making it easy to mount 👍🏼
Beers have been cold and zooper doopers frozen on 40degree days here (had a few of them lately in Perth). Definitely cycles a lot more but havnt been monitoring temps.
The insulation on the bushman is nowhere near as good as an Engel. I’ve added too layers of air cell insulation on the door of the bushman and the canopy doors and now it’s Arnhem Land, Kimberly, Pilbara and Ningaloo proof on 40 c days. Just have to keep the sun of the fridge door and it works perfectly
Eddie I’ve used the Selleys Kwik Grip Gel Vertical Contact Adhesive from Bunnings 👍🏼 Gave the fridge door a little rough up with sand paper, then wipe down with spirits. Glue smeared across back of carpet and door and left to go tacky for a few mins. And then stuck it on 👍🏼
These fridges have soft exposed insulated sides. They were originally designed for being built into cabinetry in campers/motor homes/caravans ect. An aluminium cage protects the soft sides and the condenser/compressor/fan from damage. Also makes it easier to mount. I could make one from plywood, but I don’t have the payload capacity. And I definitely don’t have the skills to make my own aluminium one. So I’ve bought one from a local WA fabricator. The problem with the whole car scene in general is that people are too judgmental of other peoples stuff. Just do you Jack.
Interesting video. I reckon the upright wouldn't hold much more than the Engel because you simply can't stack the upright chockas full. For example a bottle sitting on a shelf, none of the space around the top half can be effectively used. Also if you open the door on the upright, all the cold (heavier denser) air spills out and it has to work much harder to cool down again. While your test showed double the power use, if you open the door every half hr it's likely to go 3x the power use. Always looking to save weight though!
85 litters for upright fridge doesn’t mean anything . About 50% of that space is unusable ! Chest fridge you can cram to the top with nothing falling out
Upright fridges are the best! Easier to store food and nothing gets frozen at the bottom like a chest. Half the weight and half the price of a chest with slider or drop down...
Regarding the 12/24 v problem with the Bushman: As far as I know, the entire Dometic range supports 240v as well and up to and including the 85l model, the freezer compartment is removable. If, like me (and Cam) you have a similar setup, (upright fridge,chest freezer) this has the bonus of increasing fridge space markedly. Those reasons were enough for me and after 3 years, no complaints so far.
Excellent video Cam. I swapped out my Engel 45l for a bushman's 85l, and absolutely love it. Have it going 24/7 now, so cold drinks anytime. So so easy to access, and the misso is very happy with it also, and you know what that means!!!!
what would your thoughts be if the evakool drawer fridge was part of the equation? im thinking about getting one in the back of my wagon that way i can have a flat rear drawer set up in the rear of my wagon and still have decent boot space
Yeah,I'm going upright in the next canopy build. Does my f'n head in when my drinks fall to thr bottom, the butter and vege is on top at 5pm and shouldn't be lol.
