Motorhome and Campervan Fridges and Freezers

Congratulations to Wellhouse Leisure, whose new Hyundai i800 motorhome, has just won Motorcaravan of the Year 2011, at the recent Stratford Motorhome Show.

Beating off stiff competition from other leading motorhome manufacturers, including VW and Fiat, the success of the Hyundai was attributed, in no small part, to its innovative, well equipped kitchen, which includes not just the usual sink and hob that you would expect to find on a vehicle of this size, but also an oven and grill.  To accommodate the oven, Wellhouse needed to find a lower height fridge than the standard solutions available.  Turning to Penguin Refrigeration for help, we suggested two 12 volt fridge options – the Vitrifrigo C47 or BRK35.  Looking for maximum volume Wellhouse opted for the larger 47 litre C47, with its easy access pull out drawer and adapted their design to suit.

The C47 is powered by a remote mounted Danfoss BD35 12/24 volt DC compressor with Vitrifrigo’s highly efficient aluminium finned condenser.  The Hyundai  i800 is fitted with a 90A/H battery providing enough power to run the fridge for 2 to 3 days without charging.  For more information on the C47 fridge go to www.penguinfrigo.co.uk/shop/#c47 or the smaller BRK35 www.penguinfrigo.co.uk/shop/#brk35

For details of the Wellhouse Leisure i800 Hyundai go to www.wellhouseleisure.com

Why Fit a Top Loading 12 Volt Fridge
Uberbus specialise in the design and production of bespoke campervan interiors for VW Transporters. When designing the layout for their latest VW T5 conversion they decided to opt for a top loading 12 Volt fridge. For Clough Jones of Uberbus there were two key advantages in using a top opening fridge over a conventional front opening one:
“First, we saw big advantages to our design by accessing the fridge through the top of the work surface. Space is real a premium in a T5 conversion, so moving the fridge from the more traditional under sink position frees up valuable space for food and other storage and the top opening fridge has the added benefit that you can always get to the fridge easily, even when the bed is down.
Second, a top loading fridge is a really secure way to store your chilled food. Unlike a front opening 12 Volt fridge there is no risk of driving off with the door open, or catch undone and distributing the contents of the fridge liberally around the inside of the campervan!
We chose the Vitrifrigo C40L because we believe it will be more efficient than other makes of 12 volt fridge due to its aluminium finned cooling unit. Plus, dimensionally, it fits neatly within the width of work top and to cap it all there even a small ice box in the top to make ice cubes – a real bonus in a top loading fridge.”

More About the 12 Volt Fridge Installation
What Penguin Refrigeration like about this installation, apart from the neat styling and appearance, is the detail of the lid hinging. Using sprung loaded hinges, the Uberbus design neatly holds the fridge lid open and then allows it shut completely flush to the work top when closed. Once the hinges were sourced the installation of the fridge was relatively straight forward, mounted to a flange just under the work top with the Danfoss BD35 12 volt compressor sited immediately below. Ventilation to the compressor and cooling unit was provided by vents in base of the cabinet with the warm air then encouraged to dissipate out behind the work top and through the wardrobe beside. The 12 Volt power is through an 110 amp hour battery charged using a Raw component intelligent charging system, which provides enough power to run the fridge (at a temperature of +4°C), and run all the interior LED lighting, for at least 4 days.
Vitrifrigo 12 volt fridges and freezers are manufactured exclusively by Vitrifrigo in Italy and distributed in the UK by Penguin Refrigeration Ltd. For more details on the Uberbus Conversion visit http://uberbus.co.uk/

Jerba Campervans, manufacturers of high quality campervan conversions in Edinburgh, have developed their 2011 range of VW and Mercedes Vito campervan conversions to run gas free using Vitrifrigo 12 volt fridges and diesel hobs and heating systems.

Combining a Vitrifrigo 12 volt dc fridge with diesel hob and heating allows Jerba Campervans to remove the requirement for gas completely from their conversions freeing up additional space for storage and avoiding the frustration of running out of gas when camping in the wilds. To run gas free Jerba Campervans needed to make their 12 volt electrical systems as efficient as possible.  In their experience the Vitrifrigo 12 volt fridges have proven to be very economical on power, using a 90 amp hour Varta leisure battery, the Vitrifrigo fridge will maintain a constant temperature (3°C in 25°C ambient), for up to three days without needing to recharge the battery.   For those wanting to be truly self sufficient Jerba Campervans offer the option of a 68 Watt solar panel providing enough charge to run the fridge indefinitely with no other source of power required.

“Jerba Campervans are clearly demonstrating how an efficient 12 volt fridge combined with good power management and charging systems will provide an ideal solution for continuous refrigeration when camping” Zeb Elliott, Commercial Director Penguin Refrigeration.

Vitrifrigo 12 volt fridges and freezers are manufactured exclusively by Vitrifrigo in Italy and distributed in the UK by Penguin Refrigeration Ltd.