First time post so please be nice.
It seems BCF is matching the upcoming ALDI deal here, so grab one if you are in the market w/o having to fight for one from ALDI.
Don't forget 3.5% cash back if you want to save more.
Enjoy.
Be careful - 1 x GC allowed per online transaction.
I just stitched myself up terribly in a rush to by 5 x 100, and am now stuck with 4 x 100.
Lame.
Also
$17.47 tracked through Shopback.
Also DM for giftcards lol.
I think Shop Back won't work if you use gift cards. Not sure about Cash Rewards.
As per their FAQ, it says that you're able to use more than one: "bcf.com.au can currently process more then one gift card per online transaction. Multiple redemption of gift cards are accepted at the cart as a payment type."
It let me use 2 a month or so back but wouldn't take a 3rd.
Just give them a chat. I had 3 gift cards, and they merged it into 1 for online use
Too expensive. Overprice for such a small 43.5L Fridge Freezer. Not worth $499.
Comparing to everything else around this size it's on point with price. Depends on your needs and available space, this looks perfect for all I'm needing (for now) and it's the same price as the king's one and being a good quality fridge I think it's a deal.
Relative to what? This is a good fridge and if I didn't already have a dometic fridge I'd buy this one for sure. In fact, I'm tempted to buy it anyway and have a fridge and freezer.
Lol, perfect size vs power consumption.
For the 2 of us it's plenty for a week and that's not skimping or trying to stretch it out.
what goes in it when you are away?
beer
What is better priced in your opinion?
You must not have much experience with camping fridge/freezers. This is a great price, for a dometic no less.
Where does the battery go - I could not see a hatch for it.
Will they be selling a solar panel to power it?
Will they be selling a solar panel to power it?
And a portable sun to keep the solar panels working when you need them…
Just add the solar sytem to it.
Put a wind turbine on the roof of your car
You'll need a battery to run this. I can run my similar fridge for a few days when it's not too hot off a 100Ah AGM battery without any need for charging.
If you run this in a vehicle, you can look at a DC-DC charger to charge your deep cycle battery off your alternator, or look at a portable solar setup when you're parked up for a while.
I personally have a 160w panel, 100Ah battery and fridge. It's game changing when camping for any extended period.
Ypu need to do some more googling on the product.
Will this be ok running off a 120w 12v socket?
Input on tech specs
12V DC, 5.2A | 24V DC, 2.6A | 100V AC, 0.6A | 240V AC, 0.47A | 50/60 Hz
Power (watts) = Voltage x Amps
The site says the fridge has a power draw of 12V DC, 5.2A (input power). so 12V (*) 5.2A = 62.4Watts
You should be fine
Thank you!
You should be fine
Depends on the battery your socket is connected to. Vehicles use cranking batteries designed for short high burst current, whereas appliances like a fridge should be connected to a deep cycle battery designed for long slow draw.
There is a reason that campervans have two batteries…
Thanks for the heads up. Was thinking of using it for long road trips. It's just a small 4WD. Maybe I should just avoid the risk and use a good esky
@Owl: on my 4wd I dont have a dc-dc charger or secondary battery connected so here is my way to do it:
Plug the fridge and make it cool overnight,
Keep the stuff you'd like to put in fridge
When you are riding plug the fridge to the car's socket .When the car running, cars alternator will cover up the consumption of the fridge. Also since the fridge is cool, stuff is cool fridge wont draw 5A in short time, it will just maintain the temperature.
Once you arrive to your destionation either plug it to a deep cycle battery or use it a esky on steroids.
Cheers.
@Cpt Archer: This is what we do in our Mazda 3 too.
Pre-chill.
Run from cig socket while in motion so as not to drain the starting battery.
Switch over to Deep Cycle and solar when at destination.
These fridges use hardly any energy when running as a fridge and only a bit more when running as a freezer as long as they are in the shade somewhere.
@9839002: Yep, it is nice to use it as beer fridge too. Mine is baby brother tc- 35L non compressor model but still does a good job in the garage 24/7.
I paid less than used gumtree price so I wont complain but when its dead, CF45 will be my go too.
@Owl: Nothing wrong with using it off the car battery. Just probably a good idea not to leave it running with the engine off. If it's a switched socket you're using then it'll turn off with the ignition in any case.
When it's off, the fridge is effectively an esky.
Was thinking of using it for long road trips
How long? Because a good esky should keep stuff cool at least 2 days. What some guys do is take two eskys, one for the food, drink and ice, the other just to supply more ice. ie transfer some ice to the food/drink esky, then after it finally melts, resupply fresh ice from the ice esky. If you use dry ice, you can get about a week out of it. No fridge required.
How long?
For "long" trips this fridge is rather small.
Notice the photo or go and check before buying.
My 55L "esky" is just too small for real "fridge" storage (ignoring ice). This one is 45L
It might work but just be aware of its size and limitations.
Some cars wiring is not up to the job and can give fault codes.
That's why this product exists
https://www.bcf.com.au/p/dometic-hwkdc-hard-wiring-kit/58927…
This is not really anywhere near 50% off, and is not a bargain.
Anaconda recently had the CF50 for $499 with $100 gift card
CF45 > CF50 I think
CF and CFF are different generations. The CFs are pretty good though, just an older design.
They were a discontinued model of old stock (shift from waeco to dometic). They also cancelled my order.
If you can't get one of these have a look at the range at Jaycar.
They're much better value imo. Especially the new range with bluetooth, built in battery and solar input.
power efficiency i think is a difference
**edit they also dont come with the insulation blanket so factor that in for the $$
What is the Bluetooth for?
remote monitoring fridge temps etc
Thanks for the prompt reply
Long term power requirement is more important than purchase price. There's not much point saving money on the initial purchase if you then have to produce 50% more power every day of its life to use it.
On that subject, does anyone know of a good comparison/review of different brands/models? And by that I mean lowest long term power requirements, long life, good build quality, high level of insulation so it's not losing heat and needing to run more often, etc. (Real world tests I mean, not the manufacturer's specs which are probably obtained by testing their units inside a freezer in their factory lol.)
It's for a motorhome, will run 24/7 off-grid as the main fridge, powered from solar/batteries. I really don't want to be fueling a generator daily or buying 9kg bottled gas every few days to run a caravan absorption fridge. So I want to design everything carefully so power needs are as low as possible, have great insulation so it doesn't leak the cool out needing to run constantly to replace it (though that can added manually around its body I guess), etc.
If you have the space for a compact 3 way fridge that you regularly see in motorhomes than they're fine and designed for purpose. Very energy conscious.
If you're looking more at something like the OP.
Then between 40-55lt is a sweet spot for size vs power consumption vs cost. Depending on your needs. Then power consumption/ size/ cost goes up pretty quickly from there.
But if you need the extra capacity then power is easy to address with selecting adequate battery capacity, solar, gas etc
The old version of these (cf40) which I have owned have examples that have been around for decades. Plenty of user reviews online too.
Thanks. Yeah I'm undecided. I do like the idea of a normal looking fridge but their walls are so thin, I've seen lots of motorhomes where the fridges have broken bits, and everything in motorhomes always seems built cheap and nasty… so I've always assumed they leak cold out/heat in more readily than a home fridge anyway (but maybe not), need to run more often, and I've heard more than a few stories about them catching on fire (though I know how to prevent it). I've got a lot of thinking and comparing to do.
One option I was considering is over-designing the solar/battery bank, then running an ice maker during the day from any excess solar, and using that ice in one of those thick insulated fishing type eskies. They can keep solid ice for several days, but hollow ice maker type ice melts faster so I think I'd get tired of the hassle, draining, changing the ice every 2-3 days.
I like the idea of the type of fridge in this deal, hidden into the kitchen cupboards, pulled out when needed, how the cold doesn't 'fall out' when you open the top door, can easily see everything inside by just looking down. But then there's the digging around to find things under other things, and the capacity. Then if you want to freeze anything, if it doesn't have a freezer zone, now you need 2x of them doubling power requirements.
Then there's normal house fridges.
Then something like these: https://www.solazone.com.au/solar-refrigerators
So yeah a lot of research and comparisons to do.
@[Deactivated]: If you want to compare the energy usage of a refrigerator the government is (sorta) got you covered.
https://reg.energyrating.gov.au/comparator/product_types/28/…
It'll have all mains powered upright refrigerators legally sold in Australia and their power figures as companies are required to put the data up. It won't have the 3 way refrigerators, 12V refrigerators and it won't have portables. Those aren't legally required to test or post their figures so there is no data to display.
Worth noting if you are trying to get the most efficient refrigerator possible a good modern compressor is the go. You don't buy 3 way refrigerators for efficiency (because they aren't) you buy one because they are able to run on 12VDC, mains power and also LPG and because they are absolutely silent which is one of the reasons they are popular when you are sleeping right next it.
@OrderInWrongWordsThe: Running on gas an absorption fridge (3 way) is extremely efficient and can run for weeks off one gas bottles.
@stickymoo: Hm, ok. I thought I'd read several times they last only a few days. Maybe it was small gas heaters I was thinking of. Even so I'd prefer to do without gas, do without another yearly fee for a gas check. It will depend on long term cost though, after I enter all the data into a spreadsheet.
@stickymoo: While I agree that is fantastic the run time has nothing to do with how efficient it is and everything to do with how much energy is in your 9kg Propane bottle.
That 9kg of propane is really energy dense having around 125kWh of energy in it, so around 13.88kWh/kg. If we compare this to a 100Ah Lead Acid battery which comes in at around 30kg we get a shockingly low 0.04kWh/kg. Things also get so much worse for the battery if we take voltage drop and maximum depth of draw into account but let's imagine those aren't things for now. Either way this is why people using 12V batteries instead of propane have such a short run time. To get the same amount of energy in a lead acid battery as 9kg of gas your lead acid battery would weigh around 3,125kg or around half that if you go Lithium.
So back to the question of is an absorption refrigerator efficient. Let's say that bottle lasts you for 4 solid weeks, that's 672 hours that means it's using ~186Wh to run over that time.
The SMEG FA720X a refrigerator with the dubious honour of being the most power hungry compressor refrigerator that the Australian government has ever seen uses 871 kWh per year. If we divide it's yearly power usage by how many hours there are in a year we get 99Wh. If we actually look at a good modern efficient refrigerator like the arbitrarily selected Hisense HR6BMFF519B it uses 216kWh per year for a 519L refrigerator. That works out to be 24.6Wh
For an absorption refrigerator to be more efficient than the worst compressor refrigerator ever sold in Australia it would need to run on a 9kg bottle for over 7 weeks. If we want it to beat that Hisense we are looking at it running for just over 14 weeks off a single 9kg bottle. That's before we even take into account the comparative capacity of the refrigerators as caravan and camping refrigerators are generally much smaller than domestic ones.
Absorption refrigerators definitely have their pros but sadly being more efficient than compressor refrigerators is not one of them.
@OrderInWrongWordsThe: LOL. Modern ones maybe. :-) I lived in a caravan park years ago. My bunk bed and pillow were right against the caravan absorption fridge. I'm a heavy sleeper but the stupid thing still kept me awake with this constant rattling/tinkling sound like a ball bearing rattling around inside a copper tube.
@[Deactivated]: The tech is actually really old and hasn't moved a lot in ages so the old one would likely have been silent too when built. Sadly nothing lasts forever and the comment that it sounded like a ball bearing rattling around inside the copper tube is probably an accurate description for exactly what was going in.
An absorption fridge this size will run a month on 9kg of gas based on running my 1970s dometic on those small green Colman lpg cylinders.
When I looked into Jaycar (Brass Monkey fridges) I was put off as their recommended angle they can operate on was inferior to other brands, went with a Kings instead
Interesting. I chose the Jaycar for the warranty.
3 years and staff that can actually help.
Any issues with Kings and its a battle to get them to correct.
Well that as another reason i went Kings, Secop is a proven compressor for car fridges. LG are a bit unknown in this space
Looks like the industry making these products are taking advantage of the market.
Whether its the going rate or not. Even $499 for this thing is a rip off!
They've always been at these rrp's. I've had an Engel in the car for more than 10 years. Bloody handy for 40+ deg at the beach, away games for cricket or when you live 50+km from a supermarket!
Not best offer there regularly $399 at anaconda for member offers.
Buy one 2nd hand for $200 ppl never usevem then sell them.
I'm an anaconda member and I've never seen the CFF for this cheap before. CF40, yes. But that's a different model.
Terrible advice.
Good luck buying a cff45 for $200. I sold my cf40 for more than I paid when they were clearing out.
Good luck finding a good condition "never usevem" cf40 for $399
I agree on some camping/ 4x4 gear being cheap second hand.
At this price you could use it with warranty and support around Australia and practically not lose money if you sold it in a year or two.
100% - camping gear is some of the most reliably available second hand that's both cheap and relatively new.
Buying secondhand is tempting but I wouldn't in most cases with this kind of thing. It might look great, say "It's hardly been used!"… but with no warranty I don't think it's a smart move. If you find the gas has leaked meaning it has to run 3x more often than a new one, you have to spend more $ to produce that power, and/or who's going to be able to service it. That expense will probably take it close to or more than the cost of a new one only you still have no warranty.
For example years ago Sunbeam released (maybe they still have one) an ice-cream making machine with it's own freezing compressor. Many of them struggled to make solid ice-cream from new. So after them sitting unused in a cupboard for months the second owner had no hope.
I suppose if you just want to cool 6x cans a little down from hot for a few hours on the weekend then sure. But in that case you may as well make your own block ice, a hammer, and an esky. But for people putting into their 4x4/boat/motorhome… There's exceptions of course. A mate might have bought it 3 months ago, you know how old it is, that it works fine, know he's not going to lie/cheat you, etc.
Thanks OP. Grabbed one :)
Does it draw much power? Like would I need a second battery or a battery box so it doesn't empty my main battery (Ranger)?
Edit: nm saw the replies above
Does anyone wanna buy one of my gift cards?
Please DM me if so
I have a $200 & $100
Didn't realise you can't use more than one at once :/
The FAQ on their site says the following, was this not your experience?
"bcf.com.au can currently process more then one gift card per online transaction. Multiple redemption of gift cards are accepted at the cart as a payment type."
Just give chat a try. I had 3 gift cards and they merged all three into 1.
Had one of these for a while (picked it up for $800) and is well worth the money.
It’s a huge step forward from the CF series that are normally around this price in terms of build quality. Notably the lid is much more robust versus the CF.
Unit is very energy efficient - averaging around 1 AH over 24 hours at 3c, 17-25c ambient in shade. Would still need to run off a 2nd battery as your crank battery is not designed for deep cycling (eg massive discharge).
10/10 good deal. Doesn’t have Bluetooth / USB / all the other fancy features that the CFX series or others (MyCoolman, Kickass) do but also do you really need it?
Cables in the box are 240V mains with onboard transformer and a 12V cigarette socket. Would recommend heading to jaycar and picking up the generic fridge to Anderson plug cable instead.
Thanks for the review, very helpful.
Wondering what the fridge to Anderson plug cable for? What would you connect to fridge other than mains or 12v cigarette socket?
So for me I’ve got a 2nd battery with an Anderson plug run to the back seat. Much more secure than a ciggie.
Generally when people are installing these in cars, they’re running a 2nd battery in some form. Even if you’re using a battery box (rather than fixed mount), I’d still go Anderson over ciggie.
Ohk, gotcha. I just do day trips and camping once in a while so thinking of just connecting to ciggie while travelling and when camping either a) keeping connected to ciggie while the car batterie is constantly charged using the Noco Genius 5 that i have or b) use solar panels.
Agree with this have ordered an anderson plug for mine as cigarette plug didn't fit well in my custom centre console with 2nd battery wired in.
Also, you say "had" did it break after a while? I wonder whats the average life of these fridges.
Have; still got it and so far so good after 6+ months with no issues.
Driving across the Nullarbor soon - this seems ideal. While the car is running I can hook it up to the car 12v socket, but what’s the best thing to do when we stop? Would hate to drain my battery out in the middle of the Nullarbor haha. Can we plug this into normal wall outlet (ie our accommodation) if needed?
We are thinking of buying a portable car battery jump starter too just in case.
Portable lithium might be easier
Anyone know any good bargains for portable lithium?
or Lead Crystal
half the price of Li-Ion with similar characteristics but the same weight as Lead Acid. Longer life but slightly bigger as well
They have a low voltage disconnect built in. The fridge can be set to turn off at 12.1 v or similar (which should still allow your car to start) A jumper pack is great insurance if you plan to use it this way.
I freeze a litre of milk before I leave to use as an ice pack (thawed milk is fine in coffee). Have the fridge turned down to 1 degree when travelling then set it to 6 when you stop. Open the fridge as little as possible when not turned on. You can run them for weeks like this. Middle of summer in a hot car becomes a lot more challenging.
Also wondering if a second battery fitted in the vehicle or a battery box is best? I like the neatness of having the 2nd battery installed but the flexibility of a battery box when you're at a walk in camp site and your tent is 100m away from your car…
Everyone says ‘oh I’ll carry it down the beach or to my tent’ but good luck lifting it in and out of a car easily when it’s full of food & beer.
As for battery mounting, I went the dual battery permanently installed route but it’s expensive; $1500-$2000 for everything professionally installed for a top end setup (Redarc charger, engine bay mount, solar input etc) however can be done much cheaper if you wanna DIY & can mount in the back of the car.
I thought about a portable battery but didn’t have anywhere good to secure it and also wanted to not think about charging it.
Yeah I’m weighing up the dual battery. I have space in my engine bay for one by the looks of other people’s setups on my vehicle. But if I went battery box I’d probably splurge on a lithium battery for lighter weight. In two minds.
I'm a fan of power station and have personally pledged a Ecoflow Delta Pro + 2 extra batteries. It's basically a portable Tesla Powerwall. While the Delta Pro is not quite portable (45kg), they also have a Delta Max model that's half the weight. There's another company called Bluetti with some pretty good power stations too. Since it's an AIO unit, you don't have to worry about mppt charge controller, AC-DC charger, inverter, battery monitor etc and you pretty much just need roof-mounted solar panels.
what was the pro cost and was it through their australian distributor?
also whats your use case?
they seem like a pretty good idea vs buying all the individual components
@abuch47: It's a Kickstarter by Ecoflow and they promised 10 years warranty as a perk. I paid US$2400 (tax shipping included) for the Delta Pro. This price is no Ionger available though. The battery costs US$1500 each. Total capacity 3.6x3=10.8kWh.
Initially I was gonna buy a battery or build a LiFePo4 bank to support my solar system. But the cheapest 10kWh option is still like 7K with quality hardware and sparky cost. With this, I can plug my panels directly to it or just wall charge it. Plus the app provides many features to integrate with solar/ToU tariff, you can even customise the charge rate. The inverter is powerful (3600W) so you can run just about anything. It also acts as an UPS and passes through AC. And while 45kg isn't exactly portable, it's manageable for me to bring to camp site (the wheels and telescopic handle help). I've seen reviews and teardown, the unit is actually quite well designed and built.
@rookie317: 45kg including the extra batteries?
thats heavy but not too bad a consideration in an overlander and can do so much more.
close to a powerwall 2 KWh for half the price
@abuch47: No the Delta Pro is 45kg. The battery is 38kg. Sorry I didn't make myself clear. My plan is to only take the Delta Pro on the RV or for a camp site.
You can run it on 240v as well. Drag it inside or run an extension cord from your accommodation.
If the fridge is full, it stays cooler for longer. The cover also helps big time.
Cool it down to 0 degrees while driving (stuff at the bottom might freeze), get everything you need out of it before you turn off the car and don't open the fridge after that. If it's not too warm during the night, the fridge will be around 2 to 6 in the morning. I did this with a Waeco 50ltr fridge when my second battery died during a trip. I ran the fridge from the starter battery only when driving for 10 days.
Yep, plugs straight into a normal household wall socket (240v)
Runs off 12v, 240v and Anderson.
Really handy
I read from the reviews that someone has this one running 24/7 at home as well. Are there better alternatives to this for this specific purpose? We live in an apartment and our built-in fridge is often completely full. Would be nice to have something that can keep a few beers cold and maybe a few other bottles, storing it in a cupboard (space is limited at our place - this one seems to be just under 600mm in width which is handy).
I leave one of these running 24/7 off mains when the cars not going anywhere purely for drinks. Works pretty well but if you don’t need portable lift then there are probably better cheaper options
Ours run 24/7 as second fridge while we're not camping. They are incredibly power efficient and been running for a couple of years no issues. Also 3 years warranty is solid and doesn't matter how often you use it.
As already mentioned there's probably better options if you are purely after a second fridge for home, but these do an excellent job well if you already have for camping and need a little extra space.
Just ordered one. Can't click and collect due to travel restrictions, unfortunately.
yeah thats what im wondering, the only one i could get to has no stock…
NSW or VIC? If VIC, you are allowed to travel outside the 5km for click and collect. I'm unsure what the rules are for NSW
up to 10% egift cards too