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1988M5 Samba Member
Joined: January 23, 2016 Posts: 674 Location: Santa Cruz, CA
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1988M5 Samba Member
Joined: January 23, 2016 Posts: 674 Location: Santa Cruz, CA
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jimf909 Samba Member
Joined: April 03, 2014 Posts: 7479 Location: WA/ID
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Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2020 11:03 pm Post subject: Re: Interesting mid priced fridge |
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Cheap Chinese heaters. Cheap Chinese fridges. I'm holding out for the cheap Chinese Vanagon Westy Camper! I figure it'll sell for about $8,500 and will have 250 hp with a trans that can handle it. _________________ - Jim
Abscate wrote: |
Do not get killed, do not kill others.
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Current: 1990 Westy Camper - Bostig RG4, 2wd, manual trans w/Peloquin, NAHT high-top, 280 ah LFP battery, 160 watts solar, Flash Silver, seam rust, bondo, etc., etc.
Past: 1985 Westy Camper - 1.9 wbx, 2wd, manual trans, Merian Brown, (sold after 17 years to Northwesty who converted it to a Syncro). |
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dabaron Samba Member
Joined: June 21, 2018 Posts: 2561 Location: Philly, mang
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Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2020 6:20 am Post subject: Re: Interesting mid priced fridge |
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jimf909 wrote: |
Cheap Chinese heaters. Cheap Chinese fridges. I'm holding out for the cheap Chinese Vanagon Westy Camper! I figure it'll sell for about $8,500 and will have 250 hp with a trans that can handle it. |
Behringer presents "Vanagon" - an exact clone of the original, warts and all. _________________ 1991 Vanagon GL Camper
i had no idea i wanted to be a mechanic
"burnin oil and cookin coils" -- Destructo
BiWerks Design, LLC |
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dobryan Samba Member
Joined: March 24, 2006 Posts: 16508 Location: Brookeville, MD
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old_man Samba Member
Joined: June 19, 2018 Posts: 1382 Location: Newfoundland
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Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2020 6:54 am Post subject: Re: Interesting mid priced fridge |
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jimf909 wrote: |
Cheap Chinese heaters. Cheap Chinese fridges. I'm holding out for the cheap Chinese Vanagon Westy Camper! I figure it'll sell for about $8,500 and will have 250 hp with a trans that can handle it. |
Cough cough |
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Igeo Samba Member
Joined: September 25, 2018 Posts: 888 Location: Oakland, CA
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Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2020 9:24 am Post subject: Re: Interesting mid priced fridge |
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I have this fridge. It works very well. _________________ 1987 Westfalia 2.1 WBX Manual |
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Vanlife Geek Samba Member
Joined: September 19, 2014 Posts: 285 Location: CO
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Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2020 9:40 am Post subject: Re: Interesting mid priced fridge |
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Both of the linked units above are variations on Alpicool made fridges, which are available under a variety of brand names, including Alpicool itself, Smittybilt, Costway, XtremepowerUS, Ausranvik and others. Alpicool is a huge Chinese manufacturer of fridges and the warranty varies depending on who is selling it and which "re-badged" brand name is on it. They are available with different compressors, too. Most are Chinese made Danfoss/Secop knockoffs like mine, but many are now LG and some are even Secop. Some are even coming with built-in batteries, like the second one linked above. I did a lot of research on these more affordable Chinese fridges before I made my purchase, which ended up being the relatively new Alpicool T50 Dual Zone. It can be both fridge and freezer, or the divider can be removed and it can be one big fridge or one big freezer. It came with an Amazon backed 30 day "no reason" return, so I ran it for 30 days continuously to make sure it was all good, and it worked flawlessly. It also came with a one year compressor warranty, which obviously isn't as good as the more known brand names, but still not bad considering the price.
There was a "Lightning Deal" on Amazon and I was able to pick it up for $254.15. I noticed Amazon is currently out of stock on that particular unit, which is normally available in 36L (in stock), 50L & 60L sizes. They will probably be back in stock soon and are sold directly from Alpicool.
I know the Chinese fridges get a bad rap on many of the forums, including The Samba, but I think the price/value makes them worth a serious look. The Dometic Dual Zone fridge is over $1,200, so I could have purchased nearly five of the Alpicool units for the same price. Are they as good? Absolutely not, but they are probably good enough, at least for my purposes and especially budget. I was replacing a huge Pelican 45 qt. cooler, which is a really nice one, but is gigantic and no matter how good a cooler it is, it won't hold ice for more than 5 or 6 days, not to mention the melty mess. I now like to camp for 2 weeks at a time, so it really wasn't practical anymore.
If anyone is interested, I will share my research information. It covers many of the 12V fridges available and includes pricing (probably out of date since I stopped updating the prices when I got mine on Nov. 3, 2019), size/weight/watt charts, graphs, photos and a lot of other geeky stuff: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Yj5Gli-uIZCpIiXrFqpsfHghO7wfA3-I6JpSVrY_6-E/edit?usp=sharing _________________ Vanlife Geek
Current:
1986 Syncro Westy
Previous:
1983 Westy
1981 Westy
1972 Bug (Last year you could buy a new one for under $2,000)
1965/66 Bug (2 bugs from a junk yard combined to make 1 functional bug)
1959 Bug (Pre Gas Gauge Era) |
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Andymon Samba Member
Joined: February 24, 2015 Posts: 314 Location: Medford, OR
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Jake de Villiers Samba Member
Joined: October 24, 2007 Posts: 5911 Location: Tsawwassen, BC
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Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2020 11:56 am Post subject: Re: Interesting mid priced fridge |
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dabaron wrote: |
Behringer presents "Vanagon" - an exact clone of the original, warts and all. |
Nice! "Look, it even catches on fire like the original!" _________________ '84 Vanagon GL 1.9 WBX
'86 Westy Weekender Poptop/2.5 Subaru/5 Speed Posi/Audi Front Brakes/16 x 7 Mercedes Wheels - answers to 'Dixie'
@jakedevilliersmusic1
http://sites.google.com/site/subyjake/mydixiedarlin%27
www.crescentbeachguitar.com
www.thebassspa.com |
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dobryan Samba Member
Joined: March 24, 2006 Posts: 16508 Location: Brookeville, MD
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vanis13 Samba Member
Joined: August 15, 2010 Posts: 3100 Location: ABQ NM USA.... Except when not
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Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2020 10:44 am Post subject: Re: Interesting mid priced fridge |
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WOW! you blow my mind! this is AMAZING! what is your day job? Want to keep you in my rolodex! Wow! Amazing! _________________ 83.5 Westy with Subaru 2.5, 4 spd manual, center seat, COLD A/C on 134a!, Winter camp heated with an Espar B4 gasoline furnace
www.SuperVanagon.com - some stuff I make |
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Irishcalifornian Samba Member
Joined: September 08, 2016 Posts: 167 Location: CaliWestyfornia
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Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2020 11:02 am Post subject: Re: Interesting mid priced fridge |
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ARB is the workhorse.
Mine is been running 24/7 for 4 years. |
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vanis13 Samba Member
Joined: August 15, 2010 Posts: 3100 Location: ABQ NM USA.... Except when not
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Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2020 11:29 am Post subject: Re: Interesting mid priced fridge |
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vanis13 wrote: |
WOW! you blow my mind! this is AMAZING! what is your day job? Want to keep you in my rolodex! Wow! Amazing! |
this is so cool....
_________________ 83.5 Westy with Subaru 2.5, 4 spd manual, center seat, COLD A/C on 134a!, Winter camp heated with an Espar B4 gasoline furnace
www.SuperVanagon.com - some stuff I make |
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Vanlife Geek Samba Member
Joined: September 19, 2014 Posts: 285 Location: CO
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Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2020 12:10 pm Post subject: Re: Interesting mid priced fridge |
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vanis13 wrote: |
vanis13 wrote: |
WOW! you blow my mind! this is AMAZING! what is your day job? Want to keep you in my rolodex! Wow! Amazing! |
this is so cool....
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Glad you like my geeky behavior! I'm a semi-retired photographer, so I have some time on my hands. Actually, I like doing the research and sometimes I might go a little overboard. I plan on moving into my van full-time in the next year or two and am trying to get everything sorted out. Replacing my big cooler for a fridge was high on my list so I spent quite a bit of time on the web trying to make an informed decision. In the above photo, I just photoshopped in my top contenders to see how they would fit in a Westy. _________________ Vanlife Geek
Current:
1986 Syncro Westy
Previous:
1983 Westy
1981 Westy
1972 Bug (Last year you could buy a new one for under $2,000)
1965/66 Bug (2 bugs from a junk yard combined to make 1 functional bug)
1959 Bug (Pre Gas Gauge Era) |
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campism Samba Member
Joined: September 07, 2007 Posts: 4492 Location: Richmond VA
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Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2020 4:47 pm Post subject: Re: Interesting mid-priced fridge |
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Relieved to know you don't really have four Westies with a different fridge in each. _________________ '87 Westy in Wolfram Grey Metallic |
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Vanlife Geek Samba Member
Joined: September 19, 2014 Posts: 285 Location: CO
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Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2020 5:57 pm Post subject: Re: Interesting mid-priced fridge |
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campism wrote: |
Relieved to know you don't really have four Westies with a different fridge in each. |
And, that's not even my Westy! _________________ Vanlife Geek
Current:
1986 Syncro Westy
Previous:
1983 Westy
1981 Westy
1972 Bug (Last year you could buy a new one for under $2,000)
1965/66 Bug (2 bugs from a junk yard combined to make 1 functional bug)
1959 Bug (Pre Gas Gauge Era) |
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vanis13 Samba Member
Joined: August 15, 2010 Posts: 3100 Location: ABQ NM USA.... Except when not
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Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2020 11:39 am Post subject: Re: Interesting mid-priced fridge |
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maybe I should have you "optimize" my on line dating photo _________________ 83.5 Westy with Subaru 2.5, 4 spd manual, center seat, COLD A/C on 134a!, Winter camp heated with an Espar B4 gasoline furnace
www.SuperVanagon.com - some stuff I make |
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kamzcab86 Samba Moderator
Joined: July 26, 2008 Posts: 7925 Location: Arizona
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Vanlife Geek Samba Member
Joined: September 19, 2014 Posts: 285 Location: CO
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Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2020 12:46 pm Post subject: Re: Interesting mid-priced fridge |
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vanis13 wrote: |
maybe I should have you "optimize" my on line dating photo |
Send me a pic and let me know what you want to look like, lol. _________________ Vanlife Geek
Current:
1986 Syncro Westy
Previous:
1983 Westy
1981 Westy
1972 Bug (Last year you could buy a new one for under $2,000)
1965/66 Bug (2 bugs from a junk yard combined to make 1 functional bug)
1959 Bug (Pre Gas Gauge Era) |
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