Hi All!
Thanks for the suggestions so far.
Please keep them coming! They are appreciated
Hi FittFly!
The thermoelectric is a little different than the camper unit you described. Our was one that could use 115VAC/12VDC/ propane.
We had that type in our camper as well… it was nice because it would automatically transition how it used the available power it had to choose from..
First choice was 115VAC, the when traveling on the road it would use 12VDC and then when disconnected from the tow vehicle it would use propane & run the minimal control circuitry from the trailer onboard batteries.
It was nice while it lasted but after a decade parts wore out and replacements weren’t available anymore.
At that time we opted to get a 115VAC dorm refrigerator with a top freezer compartment as a replacement from ‘Top Chef’ that was on sale at Costco. While it couldn’t run while in transit down the road most of the camp grounds we used had electric power so it was ‘goodenough’ for our purposes. It’s insulation was great and kept things cold and frozen even after a day of traveling through the summer deserts. (That was back in 1987. Now after 10s of thousands of miles bounced along the highways and byways followed by a stint in the garage as a beverage fridge followed by two separate multi year sojourns out of state at our daughters colleges only to be returned home to be transited down from NH to SC to resume garage duty but then when the original to the house house SC fridge gave up came back into daily use for several months while a new full sized house fridge was finally delivered which then promptly crapped out it’s fancy linear compressor for several more months while the manufacturer service folks fiddled about and now resides in the house kitchen as our overflow refrigerator/freezer. It has never skipped a beat even with all the moves, bounces, jolts, drops, storage & etc that it was never designed to endure yet still it does!
)
The old thermoelectric we are looking to replace now utilizes a solid state electronic (no moving parts) device that utilizes a phenomena that when provided with 12 VDC power will heat one side of the device while simultaneously cooling the other side of the device. Pretty nifty!
We got our at a garage sale 5 years ago (and it was at least 10 years old at the time) for a $20 bill. It pretty much ran constant while the boat was in the slip and on our numerous car trips but it finally wore out. The downside was that the 12VDC power draw was a bit high and the fans to circulate the air inside & outside the unit could be a bit noisy.
Meanwhile time moved on and it appears that the newer 12VDC compressor type units have come a long long way and now appear to have lower power consumption and equal/better durability. Many now are even capable of having actual freezers that can make ice! Our problem is there seem to be so many to chose from with reviews all over the place such that it’s hard to determine which ones have stood up to a marine environment. That’s where we need some help from our community members.
There’s no point in going it alone when others have the experience and expertise to share.
Best Regards,
Over Easy
