Aldi fridge.

[KevinE]

Just bought one as a 2nd car fridge. Seems OK so far. Looks identical to a Waeco CF40. Got the fridge, baskets & cover for $499. More to follow.................

[Boogieboots]

Gee that sounds like great value! Will be interested to see how long it lasts and power draw, though I imagine they will only stock them for a short while. What is the warranty like?

[Old.Tony]

It's a Secop (Danfoss) BD35 compressor so that part's reliable and power consumption is typically around 4A when cycling. We bought one during early summer and have been using it as a freezer while the 60L Engel spends its life as a fridge. When you live 50km from the nearest large chain food store and your days are 40+, you need something to keep frozen stuff frozen!

And that it did. Performs flawlessly. Worth every cent. I have a small issue with ciggy plugs falling out but that's easy enough to fix by changing them over to Andersons. I set the freezer's digital temperature control to -20 and let it go - it always brings the stuff home in a nicely frozen state no matter the heat of the day.

[KevinE]

Originally Posted by Boogieboots

Gee that sounds like great value! Will be interested to see how long it lasts and power draw, though I imagine they will only stock them for a short while. What is the warranty like?

They have the power draw as 4.4amps, but I reckon that's on the max cool down mode.

2 years warranty.

[KevinE]

Originally Posted by Old.Tony

It's a Secop (Danfoss) BD35 compressor so that part's reliable and power consumption is typically around 4A when cycling. We bought one during early summer and have been using it as a freezer while the 60L Engel spends its life as a fridge. When you live 50km from the nearest large chain food store and your days are 40+, you need something to keep frozen stuff frozen!

And that it did. Performs flawlessly. Worth every cent. I have a small issue with ciggy plugs falling out but that's easy enough to fix by changing them over to Andersons. I set the freezer's digital temperature control to -20 and let it go - it always brings the stuff home in a nicely frozen state no matter the heat of the day.

Music to my ears Tony! :)

An Anderson will go on the 12V cord soon like yours. I plug our other fridge into a battery box via an Anderson & it works well.

I think ours will get used as a freezer on some trips too.

[KevinE]

OK, 20 months on here's a quick summary;

It does use more power than our other fridge does.

North of the tropic of Capricorn, it actually failed in the car, in the heat (40c+) We've owned 4 car fridges & have never had a fridge do that before. It had the beers in it at the time, so nothing was spoiled. Got it going again with a re-boot.

[Old.Tony]

Two years for ours, used as a freezer most of the time and it only gives us grief when the battery gets low but that's not the fridge's fault.


It may soon see some use as a fridge in my bike trailer. I've got 4x 35Ah AGM batteries to put in the bottom and that should last me a while, if I can nab a solar panel and charge controller I'll be right for a few days on the bike.

[KevinE]

More on the Aldi fridge:

We camped at Wongulla over the Australia day w/e & the fridge worked well (the weather was HOT!).

Went camping in the Flinders 2 weeks ago & took a trip out to the old Nuccaleena Mine - the road was low range 1st -2nd -3rd all the way (very bumpy!) It's a 14KM trip in & it took us an hour each way to travel it. The fridge kept everything nice & cool!

NB: we have now clocked up 2 dozen trips together in the Flinders and still haven't seen it all yet!

[Old.Tony]

The Flinders are lovely. Did you do the flight over Wilpena Pound? We did and it was awesome. We stayed at Rawnsley Station but I think if I was to do it again we'd go to Wilpena Pound Resort a little further up the road.


Our Aldi (Stirling) fridge is still going strong but we still use it as a freezer not a fridge. I've decided against using it on the bike trailer, and have bought a 70L Esky instead. I even have a pic of that somewhere around here ...

[KevinE]

Looking good there Tony, is that a Gold Wing?

I did my 1st trip up there at Easter in 1978, two up (2 blokes) on a Suzuki GS1000. We camped in an on site caravan at Wilpena. We just lobbed & the caravan was available, can you imagine trying that these days lol. I remember Hawker on that trip was very much outback, not at all like these days. My next trip up there was in 1980 on the same bike, but with 2 mates on bikes too. It was the middle of winter & freezing, I was wearing racing leathers, but I still froze! We camped at Wilpena again that time. We've been up there another 22 times since - went back to Wilpena with my wife early on & stayed in rooms there twice, we've stayed at Rawnsley a number of times, in cabins & the caravan park, Both caravan parks + the motel in Hawker, a free camp out at Hookina Creek, Quorn, Wilmington, Arkaroola.......

We've driven up/down Parachilna gorge in a 1991 Ford Laser & a BA Falcon wagon and in 4x4 along Moralana a few times, Brachina/Aroona/Bunyaroo several times, out to the Woolwash, Martins Well, Glass gorge a couple of times, Warraweena/Sliding Rock, Sacred Canyon, the Holowilena track............

The road up from Wilpena to Blinman was still dirt until 2006/2007. I enjoyed it more then.

We still haven't done any flights up there. Probably should one day!