ARB fridge, new model released, old model discounted

[BroncoAZ]

I have been commuting with one of these fridges for 2.5 years now and don’t know how I could function without it. They just released a new model, so the old ones just dropped $200+ on Amazon. For perspective, the 37 quart fits in the trunk of my Passat, the lid pulls off to the front so it works in my car. The 50 quart I had before fit well in the back of my SUV and my pickup. The old ones are blue and gray, the new are black and gray. I would recommend the transit bag to keep it nice.

37 quart $688.76
50 quart $772.19

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B004P9C032/ref=dp_olp_new_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=new

https://camelcamelcamel.com/ARB-10800352-Fridge-Freezer-Quart/product/B004P9C032

 

[berrmich]

Must have gone quickly.... Back up to 688. Or is 688 the sale price?

 

[BroncoAZ]

$688 is the sale price, they were $890 earlier this week.

 

[mike93lx]

Curious, what about commuting necessitates a refrigerator?

 

[joseywales]

Curious, what about commuting necessitates a refrigerator?

He's in AZ. Long, hot, dry roads perhaps. Honestly, I drive PA and NJ and sometimes wish I had a fridge. Going to diners, which I love, gets old and fast good *****. A fridge in my truck would probably take 10 pounds of my waist.

 

[BroncoAZ]

I travel for work away from home 40+ weeks per year, staying in Airbnb or hotel rooms usually Tuesday to Friday. The fridge allows me to take wife made meals for the week instead of spending money on restaurants. I save $700-800 per month and eat better quality food.

 

[mike93lx]

I travel for work away from home 40+ weeks per year, staying in Airbnb or hotel rooms usually Tuesday to Friday. The fridge allows me to take wife made meals for the week instead of spending money on restaurants. I save $700-800 per month and eat better quality food.

Sure makes sense. That's a very atypical commuting pattern, hense my question.

 

[timdgsr]

ARB is a pretty popular brand for overlanding as well.

That's a great price. Probably won't last long at this price.

 

[04chase]

i have a small dometic 12v fridge behind the seat of my 5500 ram and its a life saver in the heat. holds 7-8 drinks and keeps them cold in the 110 temps in so cal. will stay on for about 2 days before batteries die.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

My dad and I both have Dometic's, and they are awesome.

-Pack your food days before you go camping and never worry about buying ice or soggy food.
-If you have little kids, they are awesome for road trips or keeping milk cold for babies.
-If you have a party at your house, put all the drinks in the portable fridge and put it in a convenient place.
-Great for extra fridge or freezer room during the holidays.
-Great for tailgating.
-Makes for a convenient office fridge.

They are a lot of money up front, but I can say if mine **** the bed I'd buy another one right away. This is a great deal for an ARB.

 

[joseywales]

Anyone know of a model that is 16" or less in height? These are 16.85 and wouldn't fit under my truck bed cover.

 

[mAd mOrdigan]

Ahh I’ve been looking for this but the timing is so wrong!!

 

[slow]

They also work as a freezer. Imagine pulling out ice cream sandwiches 4 hours into a trail ride!

Thanks for the info, might have to finally grab one of these.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

They also work as a freezer. Imagine pulling out ice cream sandwiches 4 hours into a trail ride!

Thanks for the info, might have to finally grab one of these.

It's nice.....

 

[BroncoAZ]

They also work as a freezer. Imagine pulling out ice cream sandwiches 4 hours into a trail ride!

Thanks for the info, might have to finally grab one of these.

I frequently go to Costco on Thursday night and buy frozen stuff for my trip home Friday. Crank the temp down to 0 degrees F and it keeps everything frozen. I’ve gone a couple days frozen before. Stuff near the lid will run a little less cold than the bottom.

Game changer.

 

[velillen01]

Anyone know of a model that is 16" or less in height? These are 16.85 and wouldn't fit under my truck bed cover.

Indel B makes a few models that would fit. Norcold also has a model that is under 16" (NRF-30 i think it is). Both are good brands more in the RV world. But i own one of each and they have performed perfectly

 

[PoorOwner]

How long will the contents stay cold with the power off?

 

[BroncoAZ]

How long will the contents stay cold with the power off?

The fridge continues to run off the car battery. I don’t know how it would work as a cooler only. It doesn’t seem as well insulated as a typical igloo cooler. I have the transit bag which adds an additional 1/4” of insulation (and protects the fridge).

Battery life is very subjective based on your battery size/ capacity and wiring. With the second battery in my car, a group 31 Optima yellow top, it can run for 3-5 days without killing the battery when the car isn’t driven. I left the fridge on for a 5 day trip with the car parked at the PHX airport in the spring (probably mid 80’s temps and the car in the shade), the battery was very low but the fridge was still at 34 degrees. On a 115 degree day in Phoenix in my SUV with the stock battery it hit the battery cutoff (set for medium) by 4pm, the contents were still cool enough at about 55 degrees, as soon as I ran the SUV it cooled back down to 34 degrees. In my wife’s Subaru with their ****** 350 CCA battery I was having cutoff issues by mid day at 80 degrees, swapped the battery for a group 34 yellow top and it would run fine all day. On my Dodge diesel truck with 2 group 65 AGM batteries I’ve never had an issue.

The fridge draws about 3 amps. On the SUV and Subaru the stock wiring to the rear 12v outlet is only 18 gauge, insufficient for the load. My car has 8 gauge wire direct from the battery to the fridge plug. The ARB wiring kit comes with 10 gauge wire. The fridge has an adjustable protection circuit, it should be 11.5 volts for the medium setting, but in my SUV and Subaru it shut off the fridge at about 12.2 volts on the car battery. I think the tiny wiring was making the protection circuit see less voltage and activate prematurely. If wired properly off a decent battery it’s fine day to day if the car is being driven. With just a single battery I used to carry an extension cord and my Ctek charger in the car just in case. Sometimes I drive to a location and then drive less than 10 miles a day while on site, not enough to charge the battery in my SUV or Subaru.

The fridge also runs off 110v. If the fridge is warm I’ll usually plug it in to an extension cord for the initial cooldown rather than just let my car battery do it. It cools fine off the car battery, but a little faster off mains power.

 

[joseywales]

Indel B makes a few models that would fit. Norcold also has a model that is under 16" (NRF-30 i think it is). Both are good brands more in the RV world. But i own one of each and they have performed perfectly

Thanks! I'll check them out.

 

[mAd mOrdigan]

Ahh I’ve been looking for this but the timing is so wrong!!

Idk why I even complained about the timing. I sure did hit the 1-click buy button the next morning lol.

 

[joseywales]

Idk why I even complained about the timing. I sure did hit the 1-click buy button the next morning lol.

Haha. I’m trying to figure out just how much material I can shave off the bottom to make one fit, before I hit the button!

 

[PoorOwner]

The fridge continues to run off the car battery. I don’t know how it would work as a cooler only. It doesn’t seem as well insulated as a typical igloo cooler. I have the transit bag which adds an additional 1/4” of insulation (and protects the fridge).

Battery life is very subjective based on your battery size/ capacity and wiring. With the second battery in my car, a group 31 Optima yellow top, it can run for 3-5 days without killing the battery when the car isn’t driven. I left the fridge on for a 5 day trip with the car parked at the PHX airport in the spring (probably mid 80’s temps and the car in the shade), the battery was very low but the fridge was still at 34 degrees. On a 115 degree day in Phoenix in my SUV with the stock battery it hit the battery cutoff (set for medium) by 4pm, the contents were still cool enough at about 55 degrees, as soon as I ran the SUV it cooled back down to 34 degrees. In my wife’s Subaru with their ****** 350 CCA battery I was having cutoff issues by mid day at 80 degrees, swapped the battery for a group 34 yellow top and it would run fine all day. On my Dodge diesel truck with 2 group 65 AGM batteries I’ve never had an issue.

The fridge draws about 3 amps. On the SUV and Subaru the stock wiring to the rear 12v outlet is only 18 gauge, insufficient for the load. My car has 8 gauge wire direct from the battery to the fridge plug. The ARB wiring kit comes with 10 gauge wire. The fridge has an adjustable protection circuit, it should be 11.5 volts for the medium setting, but in my SUV and Subaru it shut off the fridge at about 12.2 volts on the car battery. I think the tiny wiring was making the protection circuit see less voltage and activate prematurely. If wired properly off a decent battery it’s fine day to day if the car is being driven. With just a single battery I used to carry an extension cord and my Ctek charger in the car just in case. Sometimes I drive to a location and then drive less than 10 miles a day while on site, not enough to charge the battery in my SUV or Subaru.

The fridge also runs off 110v. If the fridge is warm I’ll usually plug it in to an extension cord for the initial cooldown rather than just let my car battery do it. It cools fine off the car battery, but a little faster off mains power.

Thanks for the info. Somehow I read draw of 1 amp for the 37 qt model.
Most of my vehicles don’t supply power to the cigarette lighter unless the key is on and turned. So, custom wiring is needed for constant on.

Also the fuse is 15A so I am not sure why it would be inadequate to supply the 3 amps. But I do see your point on the voltage drop.

 

[BroncoAZ]

Thanks for the info. Somehow I read draw of 1 amp for the 37 qt model.
Most of my vehicles don’t supply power to the cigarette lighter unless the key is on and turned. So, custom wiring is needed for constant on.

Also the fuse is 15A so I am not sure why it would be inadequate to supply the 3 amps. But I do see your point on the voltage drop.

It’s very simple to use an add a tap fuse in the box to jump power to the rear 12v outlet from an always hot circuit. I did that in my Touareg and the Outback. I think the 1 amp draw is an overall average, but the draw on compressor startup is 2.8 or something close to 3 amps. I currently have the voltage protection circuit set to low from when I had it in my Subaru January to April this year. The wiring issues combined with the tiny OEM battery were particularly terrible in that car, but I didn’t want to fix it as I was just driving the car to finish the mileage on a lease so we could get rid of it. I set the cutoff to low and carried one of those lithium ion jump packs in case I killed the battery, it never killed the battery but made it work much better.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

I also did a fuse tap jumper in my truck for power. The only time I had mine kill a battery with the setting on low, the battery ended up being defective.

 

[95m3ltw]

Very handy but still spendy. A good friend who is into "overlanding" = convert vehicle into survival lunacy vehicle, went through a couple of the ARB and other brands every few years (he was rough with them) He decided to convert a small 120v home freezer to a 12 volt frig/freezer. He modified the temp settings that switch the compressor on/off with a additional controller, used a inverter for power, added a dedicated deep cycle battery and was all in about $300 for a cooler/freezer with much better insulation, though larger capacity. The smaller freezers are actually fairly low draw. I was bored and thought about doing the same for a cooler in our Suburban, I found a couple websites doing the exact same, with Amazon listings for parts used etc.

Not suggesting this is a better choice but for those on a budget, and/or wanting a bit more capacity or longer freeze time, it could be a option.

 

[BroncoAZ]

Here is mine in the car. It's propped open as I'm not traveling this week.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

I don't have the cover like BroncoAZ. But I wish I did.

 

[BroncoAZ]

I don't have the cover like BroncoAZ. But I wish I did.

Fortunately ARB had a free transit cover deal going when I purchased this 37 quart fridge, the topo map look was the special promo at the time. On my old 50 quart I purchased the all blue transit cover for like $125.

 

[mAd mOrdigan]

Now do those covers offer more than protection like help keeping temperatures cooler and therefore making the fridge run more efficiently or are they only to keep them nice during transit?

 

[BroncoAZ]

There is about 1/4” of insulation in the transit cover, they should help the fridge work more efficiently.

 

[mAd mOrdigan]

Got mine a couple days ago. Can’t wait to take it camping but it may end up living in my vehicle with cold drinks