Relating to this thread... does anyone have any experience/review of DFG Offroad's dual fridge/freezers? Thinking of picking one up as a combo set - can't beat the price...

As long as they've taken care of some of the initial niggles with the 500X (which they appear to have with the units that shipped out starting July) then it looks like a good piece of equipment despite its higher price compared t something like a Jackery 500. The regulated 12V, USB-C and an optional 10 Amp car charger are probably why someone should consider it though the biggest plus I see is its size and weight compared to the Jackery 500 or some of the other 2019 competition. The size makes it really easy to take it away from the vehicle and use it in a tent for example. I intend to use it (unless Jackery updates its models in the same class with some of the same features) along with a Group 27 Battery and plan to have one single 100 or 160 Watt solar panel that would be capable of topping off both my starter and the Goal Zero 500X. For my use case, I consider the portability as a great feature compared to a hard wired dual battery setup which on the T4R only gets about 30-35 Ah of usable capacity.

Having said that, if you are only looking to power the fridge (and not the portability factor) then possibly also consider just a pure lithium battery box paired to a decent dc to dc charger. For around the same cost, or slightly more, you could probably build yourself a nice 50 Ah set up using a reputable LIFEPO4 battery and a Victron DC to DC. The advantage there is that a dedicated DC to DC would be able to charge at 30 Amps which means you can use a much smaller batter compared to one that only charges at 10 Amps max (Goal Zero 500X).

Here's a video that just got posted by a YouTuber named Jasonoid that discusses 11 portable refridgerators and issues to be aware of when using them:

12v Compressor Fridge Comparison - ICECO, Alpicool, Engel, Ausranvik, and more! - YouTube

If the lid opened sideways (hinge) instead of straight out, do you think there would be enough room in this set up to access the fridge without tilting it out? Both of my shortlisted fridges are 20” tall though the Luna has the option of orienting the lid to open either straight up or hinged on either side. Just wondering if I can save money on buying my a tilt slide even if they means we won’t be able to completely open the lid and remove the trays out completely once tied down without moving the fridge.

With drawers I don’t think there is enough height to open a side hinged lid. You would need a fridge slide or a tilting fridge slide. The National Luna that opens longways would work but you probably won’t be able to utilize the top basket (I think it has 2 layers of baskets - I know my National Luna 90L Twin does).

I’m a huge NL fan, and I would have gotten one of the. If they would have had an option that works. That being said NL fridges are super back ordered right now, it might be January or February before you could get one.

Another option is the low profile fridges from SnoMaster, I likely would have went with one of them if it had of been in stock, though I would have mocked it up first with cardboard to verify that I can open it. All in all, I really do feel that the ARB is the best option if you want to forego a slide. It is very convenient to get into and out of just by popping the lid off.

That all being said, I have a send or Decked drawers in my tundra and a camper shell on it. I just ordered a tilting fridge slide for it, I’m going to mount my National Luna 90L in the Tundra.

Thanks for the help. Both of the fridges I want are on back-order. Engel has a new MTV line that they've launched in Australia but is probably not coming to the US till late fall or even early next year. I guess Covid has thrown all the plans off for both them and NL. I'm willing to wait a few months if that is what it takes to either get my hands on an Engel MTV (or a MT45 Combi) or NL Legacy 50 with their in-house compressor. I guess I'll have to buy the slide and it'll have to sit idle for a while as I sort out the fridge situation. It looks like it'll be running an ice box this summer

We've taken a lot of long trips with the 4runner. VA to TX twice, VA to Maine, VA to OH, and VA to FL twice. For all those trips I would freeze water bottles and put them in one of those styrofoam collapsible coolers. For tripa where we did not have an overnight stay it worked ok, drinks we wanted for the trip stayed cold, the frozen water bottles thawed during the trip so we had cold water at our destination. One problem was that on the trip back we could not do the same unless we had access to a freezer and lots of water bottles. One trip I brought an actual cooler filled with ice and re-filled it when we left the hotel for home.

Last June we planned a trip from VA to SD. We knew the way up would have one stop, and the way back two stops. I knew that we would be doing a lot of driving once at SD, so I wanted to get a fridge.

I did not have a lot of time once I made the decision, so Amazon was my go to place. I would up buying this:

Amazon.com: Kalamera 26 Quarts Portable Refrigerator Freezer Compact Compressor Electric Cooler DC Mini Fridge for Car, Office and Camping: Automotive

I was really happy with the decision to buy a fridge. Way more convenient than a cooler. We had ice cold drinks everywhere we went. I did not have to deal with buying ice or draining water. I wish I had more time to research the fridges before I bought mine, but I'll just have to see how it holds up in the long run.

If you take a lot of road trips I would say it is well worth the investment.

Looks like Dometic’s are back in stock.

Just thought of something. I run a voltage booster so my AGM battery gets around 13.5 - 13.8v while running. Would this harm the fridge? I believe without the voltage booster, it’s around 12.6v

Sigh... my 2 year old LG home fridge just died... freezer and fridge compartments are sitting at 67F right now.

Guess where I ended up putting everything I wanted to save. Didn't fit everything, but the ARB saved a bunch of good food from the trash can.

Anyone running with the Dometic CFX3 series? Thinking about giving the 46L version a try despite its inability to have both AC and DC sources plugged in together. Given the reliability of the Engel and National Luna, I'm just a little nervous about trying something that is this new to the market and has already gone through a recall..

I don't consider Dometic a new player... it's a good fridge with a good compressor, they just have an issue with the control board.

I would wait for a post recall fixed version... I think that feature is pretty useful.

We had some rolling blackouts and I was using the fridge at home with AC input, but I kept a DC battery connected to it so it would fail over when the power went out.

Wait for an official recall fix. I forgot where I saw it, IG maybe, but one of those vanlife folks had an electrical issue with a CFX3 and it burned his van down.

I realize that Dometic has been doing this for a while. I was referring to the CFX3 lineup being new on the market compared to something like the Engel which has basically not fundamentally changed for decades so it's easy to predict what the long term reliability is going to be (positives and warts are basically known)..very similar to the 4runner

Yes that is a very useful feature and I would like the flexibility of using it in a similar manner to you. But the current CFX3 won't allow for that and I'm not sure whether Dometic has come out and said that they are re-introducing the CFX3 line to correct that design flaw. There response was to basically issue a warning sticker.

Found what I was mentioning in my previous post.

WARNING :: Dometic CFX3 cooler units | IH8MUD Forum