Don't Spoil the Vintage Look with a Modern Fridge! Try an Energy Efficient Fridge Alternative
We can think of about a million things that we love about vintage trailers, but the original "ice box" food storage solution in our 1957 Sportcraft, was not one of them. Designed for a simpler time, we appreciate both the minimalism and the sweet, mid-century hardware on this poorly insulated aluminum box. But, the original ice-to-food-storage ratio just wasn't going to cut it for longer than a weekend, let alone full-time living. During our 2011-12 remodel we considered a modern replacement -- 3-way fridge, 12V cooler, etc. We just couldn't find anything that would fit the space while keeping the vintage look and budget, and provide us with enough cold food storage. With our launch date to full-time living approaching and with no viable solutions on the horizon, we settled on a hasty compromise. We used the vintage ice box inside Hamlet as a dry-goods storage space and kept all of our cold food in a cooler out in our pick-up truck bed. This forced us to stick with the tried and true habit of picking up 10 lbs of ice every 3 to 4 days. Planning ahead to avoid being somewhere far off-the-grid with a melting bag of cold water instead of a robust block of ice, just became part of our routine.
Call it procrastination, call it just settling in to the way we did things, but the constant draining and cleaning, the sweaty cheeses, the partially liquified lettuces, the trips to the store -- it all finally got the better of us. We needed a different solution that would allow us to store enough food without having to compromise our inside space or vintage esthetic. We were not alone. With all the folks transitioning to life on the road in RVs, vans, and vintage rigs, the 12V product options just keep opening up!
We settled on the ICECO VL45 Single Zone Portable Fridge Freezer, with its simple design, very reasonable price tag, efficient compressor, low-profile but durable handles, as the perfect solution for our situation. Many 12V fridge options were either too bulky, not powerful enough, too expensive, or simply too large for the allocated storage area. When your whole life fits into a 72 sq ft camper and the utility box of a truck, reallocating space is, well…complicated. Note: It's also perfect for those families who need extra fridge/freezer space beyond what they store inside their trailer. We wanted to run our fridge off solar power to extend our boondocking adventures well beyond the lifespan of a block of ice. It also seemed like a wasted opportunity to not include an engine charging option into the mix, without draining the truck battery. The folks at Renogy thought so too, and created the Dual Input DC to DC Charger. We became aware of this product while installing a DC to DC charger between my parent's towing vehicle and RV and it really got us thinking. This ingenious device takes an engine charge input (via the starting battery) as well as a solar panel input. It allows us to run a 12V fridge off of our 12V-50Ah Lithium Iron Phosphate battery and be able to charge it while driving, or with our portable 100W Folding Solar Suitcase while camping off-grid.
One extra feature of the Dual Input charger is that when connected to solar and the service battery is full, the charger will trickle charge the starting battery in the engine. So, no matter how far out we might be, or for how long, we won't be stuck with a dead starting battery.
The installation was pretty straightforward and can be done with minimal tools, as you can see in our step-by-step video. We had to design some vehicle specific solutions for mounting and securing components, but with the truck bed topper providing a water-resistant shelter much of the challenge for this installation was already solved.
Click on "Read More", (below) right for the rest of this article, a downloadable pdf, video product review and coupon codes.
Download a printable pdf of this article.
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As of December 2021, we've lived with this new arrangement for 8 months. Here are our overall thoughts about the performance of each component.
ICECO VL45 Single Zone Portable Fridge Freezer Simply put, we love this product. The novelty of being able to reach into the fridge and withdraw food or beverages that are at a uniform temperature has not worn off.
Dual Input DC to DC Charger
Simple, efficient, and well worth the price and effort to install it!
50Ah Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery
The 50Ah LiFePo battery is small, lightweight and provides plenty of watt hours to run the fridge and then some.
DC to DC Charger Monitoring Screen
This remote monitoring system is a great addition to the Dual Input DC to DC Charger as it makes monitoring the charge of both batteries a cinch.
100W Folding Solar Suitcase
We've had this portable panel for nearly 3.5 years, and relied on this workhorse as our primary panel for most of that time.
It's All Very Cool!
We needed a different solution than our old cooler and this one is awesome! While we have certainly saved money by not needing to purchase ice, it's going to be a while until this pays for itself outright. However, the joy of grabbing a cold beverage on a hot day and keeping food from spoiling is significant. With that alone, it's been worth its weight in gold. This easy solution should be a part of every camper's plan, whether you drive a vintage rig like ours, or you're starting the van or bus build of your dreams. If you would like to take advantage of our affiliate discount with Renogy (10% off) or ICECO (12% off), click on these links and use "CANLIFE" as your promo code at checkout.
In 2012, Shari Galiardi & David Hutchison left behind careers and a comfortable home in North Carolina to travel with the vintage camper trailer they lovingly restored, outfitted with solar, and named "Hamlet." What began as a short break from careers and responsibility quickly turned into a love affair with roadlife. They have parlayed their higher education backgrounds, desire for life-long learning, and thirst for adventure travel into writing, photography, video production, and public speaking gigs from coast to coast. Known to their friends as simply Shari & Hutch, you can learn more about their full-time, solar-powered adventures on their website at freedominacan.com. Or, follow them on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube as "Freedom in a Can, LLC."
3 Comments
Ray
12/14/2021 08:38:19 am
Did I miss something? You stated at the beginning of the video that sometimes a "Smart Charger" might be needed. From what I saw, I would think one would be needed, but you didn't use one. How do you keep the lithium battery from overcharging?
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Jiminy Cricket
12/14/2021 09:15:24 am
Beautiful review and fine craftsmanship. Thanks for the details on how cold and how long that cold lasts. Thanks for the education.
Reply
Aaron
12/14/2021 09:19:03 am
So for those who are in the below 32F weather regularly, there are a few companies that do make internally managed heated batteries to keep them at temp needed for charging and discharging (if you get THAT cold where even discharge isn't going to happen). For example from Bartle Born Batteries
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