A new Fridge!

The first coolbox I bought was a Waeco Tropicool TC14 -

I got it very cheaply on eBay - because it was broken. I don't quite know what happened it, but the seller said that it blew the fuses on his car, and that was it. The supplier did not want it back, so maybe it's a know fault. Opened it up and sure enough a part of the PCB track had vapourised and the top had blown of the 12V regulator. I bridged the track, and bypassed the regulator, since I had a nice 12V supply. Sweet - the lights all came on. After that I replaced a few more transistors and the box was in full working order. Unfortunately there wa no 12V lead, which go for £20+ on eBay, but a bit of hunting around found I found these for less than £4 from Qfonic

 This coolbox is great - it will quite happily cool to 30 deg below ambient and at 14 litres it's big enough to keep 2 or 3 days food fresh. I used a wireless meat thermometer to test out the coolbox, and left it in the box so I could always see what was going on.
However there were some issues. Firstly because the is no aircon in the van - temperatures can easily be 35 deg when parked up for the day. Coupled with the fact that the box was only powered during hookup or when the engine was running, and the setup became marginal. If we were at a site and going out for the day, I could unhook and leave the box behind - again not ideal.

So after our first year out, to simplify things, I decided to get a proper fridge.
When I was building the cabinets last year I had contemplated getting a proper fridge, but decided it was too expensive and too much work. I was probably right, but at the time I had made sure that the I could fit a fridge if I needed too. Space as usual was tight but I knew that I could fit a compressor fridge Waeco CR40. The main feature is that the bulky compressor bits can unhook and be stored elsewhere.

This is the kitchen area before

The compressor mounted on top of the subwoofer amp, and hooked on to the rear partition.
The partition also has a hole cutout for ventilation. The flexible pipe felt really fragile but it can be  cooiled quite tightly if you take your time.

Everything but the floor had to dismantled.

Fridge finally in position

These fridges are very expensive due to the cost of the 12V compressor & electronics, but the upshot is that the power consumption should be a lot less than the peltier type coolboxes.
Initial tests (in the UK winter) show a typical draw of 3A - I'm hoping that this will equate to about  an amp an hour in normal use. However, now that intend to run the fridge when away from hookup, it means that I'll need a second battery, which then lead on to getting a solar panel & controller. More expense.