ARB's revised Series II fridge

The 37-quart size is big enough for a couple and a week’s worth of food, and fits in smaller vehicles.

As so often happens with any consumer product, 12V fridges—the item many overland travelers put on their shopping list before any other accessory—have blossomed in sophistication, features, size, and of course price. It’s now easy to spend close to $2,000 on a dual-compartment, dual-lid, dual-control, 110-liter fridge/freezer.

But what if you just want a reliable, moderately sized fridge from a trusted brand, with easy-to-use controls, a digital temperature readout, and perhaps remote monitoring capability, but none of the polished stainless-steel bling?

ARB, after introducing their own top-end unit, the superb, weatherproof Elements (see here), has slightly revised their tried-and-true basic fridge, now called the Classic Series II. I have one of the first ARB fridges made (after they stopped rebranding Engel fridges), and it has worked perfectly for ten years. So I expect the new one to be just as reliable and durable.

As with my original, I specified the smallest, 37-quart size for the new one. Why? First, because it fits in my FJ40 and many other compact 4x4 vehicles. And second, because the beauty of a fridge in contrast to an ice chest is that you don’t have to load everything you want chilled at the begining of the trip. You can keep just a day’s worth of drinks in the fridge and reload every evening or even in the morning; the fridge will easily cool them by lunch. If you use UHT milk cartons, as we do, you can do the same with that. Thus there’s plenty of room for a good week’s worth of food. 

In tweaking the Series I into the II, ARB wisely retained the reliable Secop (formerly Danfoss) compressor. The dimensions and shapes of all the different capacities are the same, as are the faired-in handles that double as stout and versatile tie-down bars. The cabinet is still durable, powder-coated steel. So what’s new? The control panel buttons are now backlit, making them easier to read, and a 12V input display has been added to help monitor battery condition. There is a new, gunmetal gray color scheme, and while this might not sound like a big deal, I think it makes the fridge look hundreds of dollars more expensive than the previous blue scheme. The optional and desirable insulated transit cover carries the same handsome tones. Very stylish. 

The big news, however, is the Bluetooth transmitter that allows remote monitoring and control via a free app. While personally this has limited appeal (I can count the apps I have on my iPhone on one hand), if you’re a fan the app will do everything for you short of loading the fridge—including sending you a notice if your friend leaves the lid open after stealing a beer.

In use there’s not much different to report compared to my old ARB fridge—and that’s a good thing. I like the reversible basket, which can either separate the top “crisper” shelf from the rest of the cavity, or provide a really long area on top for . . . a leg of lamb, maybe?. The center divider also helps keep cartons and bottles upright. An LED lamp illuminates the contents well.

Crisper shelf at upper right is good for vegetables or other things you don’t want as cold as the rest of the contents.

To be picky, I would have wished for a hold-open strut of some sort. I’d complain that the latch feels just as brittle as the one on mine always has, but then mine has never broken, so I’ll refrain.

The ARB Classic Series II is $950, and I think its quality and reliability justifies the price. The fridge carries a generous three-year warranty. ARB USA is here.

Happy Hour with National Luna

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Look closely at the photo above. Aside from the obvious bit of magic we now blithely accept as normal—I’m downloading and viewing photographs in the middle of the Simpson Desert—note the cocktail. It’s a refreshing warm-weather concoction called a dark’n stormy: dark rum, lime juice, simple syrup, and ginger beer, served over ice.

Wait a minute. Ice cubes, six days from Anywhere, Australia? Yes, thanks to the National Luna 50 Twin Weekender fridge/freezer we had along. 

Just as with digital photography and laptop computers, we now take for granted the sorcery of the Engel 12V fridge and its descendants, which forever eliminated that three-days-out semi-cool swill in the bottoms of our old Coleman coolers (note I’m referring to proper fridges employing proper compressors, not the ineffective thermoelectric coolboxes). I don’t predict ice chests will go the way of 35mm film and typewriters any time soon—a fridge is still a wince-inducing investment—but increasingly an Engel/ARB/Dometic/Waeco etc. is becoming one of the first accessories added to a new overlanding vehicle. (When we were stopped at state border agricultural checkpoints in Australia, the officers automatically said, “Need to check your fridge.” They assumed anyone in a Land Cruiser had one.) 

Recently National Luna upped the ante, and gave us fridges with a separate freezer compartment. No longer do we have to struggle along with just cold beer, milk, and cheese; now we can add to that frozen meats, ice cream—and the means to keep a cocktail properly chilled. (Of course 12V fridges have always had the ability to freeze, but you had to choose one function or the other—fridge or freezer—or bring two units. We’ve done that on group safaris but it’s a bit much for a single vehicle.)

There are several quality brands of 12VDC/120VAC fridges on the market. We’ve had both an Engel and an ARB for years, and each has performed perfectly. With the exception of Engel, which has stuck with their tried and true Sawafuji swing motor compressor, and Waeco, which uses a branded compressor, virtually all fridge makers use the identical SECOP BD35 compressor in their smaller units, and the SECOP BD50 for larger fridges. (These were formerly known as Danfoss, but that company was bought out in 2010.)

Since the compressor is the heart of the fridge, you might think there wouldn’t be much difference in performance between brands using the same one, and continue to wonder why there is such a price disparity between those brands. Indeed, in general all work well and are reliable in harsh conditions. But the thickness and quality of insulation has an obvious impact on how often the compressor has to cycle (and thus use power) to maintain a set temperature, as does, to a lesser extent, the lid seal. Also, the thermostat can simply turn the compressor on or off, or the manufacturer can incorporate a sophisticated electronic control that varies the output in response to several parameters, further conserving energy. Inexpensive fridges use plastic exterior and interior cladding; more expensive models use aluminum or even stainless steel. In some fridges the evaporator plate is exposed in the interior, where it is susceptible to damage; in others it’s enclosed. Some fridges use plastic latches, others stainless steel.

Finally there are the ergonomic factors. Does the lid open only one way, or can it be switched to hinge sideways? Is there a useful interior light? Is the interior simply one big space, or are there baskets for organizing and securing contents? Does the control panel have an actual thermometer, or just a dial with numbers? What about a voltage monitor and adjustable low-voltage cutout? And since I’ve already written “finally,” a postscript that might or might not be important to you: You’ve spent a lot of money—does the fridge look like it’s worth it?

National Luna justifies its premium pricing by handily checking off all these factors. Particularly in the category of performance, in the fridge comparison tests in which I’ve been involved it consistently manages to both cool contents the quickest and keep them that way while using less power overall—an impressive trick. In fact, the one beef I have with this fridge is the name: “Weekender?” Not sure what NL was thinking, because the 50 Twin combines a 40-liter fridge with a 10-liter freezer—enough capacity for a far longer trip than one weekend. Not only is the capacity generous, but an easy-to-miss additional advantage of fridges over ice chests is that you don’t have to load all the contents at the beginning of the trip; the fridge will easily chill stuff added en route. We had more than enough room for all our refrigerated goods for ten days between supply sources. 

And the ice cubes just kept coming, every evening . . .

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The NL fridge temporarily lashed down next to the Kanz kitchen. The fridge will be moved to a permanent position at the back of the Troopy once we have the cabinetry installed.

National Luna is here. North American distributor Equipt is here, offering free shipping as of this writing—or you can pick one up at the Overland Expo. If you have a family and need more room than the 50 Weekender, NL makes several larger models.