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Choosing the best campervan fridge for you is a daunting task! You don’t want to get something that’s too big, taking up more space than needed, or that’s too small for your actual vanlife fridge needs.
When researching the best campervan fridge, we repeatedly saw the Dometic campervan fridge brand come up. But honestly, we quickly new that wasn’t the best campervan fridge for us after seeing the high price point. In all honesty, price plays a major factor in deciding what van life fridge you’ll choose, as you certainly don’t want to go over budget with your campervan fridge.
Now, price is a major deciding factor with van fridges, seeing how the cost of van life fridges ranges from a few hundred bucks to upwards of 1,000 USD, but that’s certainly not the only deciding factor in the best portable fridge for you. In this post, we’re going to dive into different campervan fridge options, look at what you need to consider before buying a fridge, and tell you what fridge we chose for our minivan campervan conversion.
CHOOSING THE BEST CAMPERVAN FRIDGE | things to consider
Size of Campervan Fridge
This may sound obvious to some, but you really need to consider the exterior dimensions of your van fridge. Just because a 12v fridge is the best camper van fridge for someone else, doesn’t mean that it’s perfect for you if your van conversion is different than someone else’s. You have to consider the exterior dimensions of your van fridge to determine if it will fit into your van build.
When converting our campervan, we wanted the fridge to fit perfectly under the removable counter, so the height had to be under the window line that the counter would sit. Honestly, we didn’t really think about the width of the fridge, and that caused major annoyance in the build, as it decreased the size of our bed significantly. So make sure you not only consider the height of the fridge, but the width too!
Breathable Room for Van Life Fridge
Don’t forget to consider not just the true dimensions of the fridge, but also the breathing space the specific fridge you’re looking for needs. Some campervan fridges suggest 10-12 inches of breathing room around the fridge. This is a major damper on space, as it seems like such a waste of space surrounding a refrigerator.
We ended up not leaving the actual amount of space around our fridge as we were supposed to because in a minivan, we just didn’t have the space to give. We did leave the back side of the fridge wall open, creating a bit more breathability for the refrigerator into the propane tank storage area.
Capacity of Campervan Fridge
It’s honestly shocking to see how little space van life fridges actually have to store things, versus how much space they actually take up. Oftentimes, the capacity inside a campervan fridge is measured in how many cans a fridge can hold. We suggest looking at the capacity of a campervan fridge, and putting it to the test in a house fridge to see what you can actually store in that amount of space.
We’ve found that you can always work with less space, by simply purchasing fewer fridge items at a time. And truly, you’ll use the space that you give yourself, and find ways around making the space work for you if not. This post is all about camping foods,most of which don’t need to be refrigerated, allowing you more time in the middle of nowhere!
Here’s an idea of fridge capacities
- 58 Quart / 55 Liter / 60 cans
- 53 Quart / 50 Liter / 68 cans
- 42 Quart / 40 Liter / 54 cans
- 28 Quart / 26 Liter / 36 cans
How the Van Fridge Opens
Talking about space of the fridge again here. How your campervan fridge opens is a major deciding factor in what is the best campervan fridge for you! Some van life fridges open from the front, but most open from the top. These are considered to be chest-style fridges.
However, chest style fridges hinge at all different places. Some hinge front to back, making the top open up super tall — making it necessary to have a lot of space above the fridge for actually accessing the things inside. Others hinge side to side, making the lid come up not as high… thus not needed as much space above your fridge to access the inside.
This again was something we didn’t consider when purchasing our campervan fridge. And it truly limited the placement of the fridge in our build. We weren’t able to put it under places that we would be building a cupboard, and likewise couldn’t put it in the back of our van, as the roof was too curved thus making it too short for the long, front to back hinge.
Some van fridges even hinge in two different spots. These are often times camper van fridges that have two separate compartments, one for a fridge and one for a freezer. These are nice if you plan on keeping your van fridge at different temps.
Area Surrounding Fridge Placement
As I’ve covered above, you need to think about not just where you’ll be placing your campervan fridge, but also the area around your fridge. Thinking about how the fridge opens, can you open the fridge with what surrounds it. Cabinets overhead, cupboards near, or even what kind of countertop you have.
Will you have a removable countertop, as we do in our van build? Or will you have your fridge on a tray like this and open your cabinets, then pull out the tray to be able to open the fridge?
Price Point of Campervan Fridge
The spread of prices for camper van refrigerators is remarkable. 12-volt refrigerators range from a couple of hundred bucks to well over one thousand dollars. You can also consider just having a cooler and using dry ice or frozen food in your fridge as ice if you won’t be in super hot environments. When we traveled in the United States in our Camry years ago,we had a cooler and just used frozen meals and ice from gas stations to keep our fridge cold.
In Scotland, our van didn’t have a large 12V fridge, and instead, we used a small 12V campervan fridge that we only plugged in when we were driving. It never really got so hot that we need an actual fridge there for anything. Instead, we just shopped for things like meat right before cooking it, and ate a lot of meals that didn’t require refrigerated foods.
In our current van build, we have this camper van fridge set up with a complete solar grid to power it. So even with the “cheaper” price point than other van life fridges, it’s still an expensive component of a van build. The price point of 12v refrigerators often tells you how energy efficient a 12V compressor fridge is. With that said, we went with a cheaper fridge, and it runs well without too much power draw!
Warranty and Available Replacement Parts
What kind of warranty does the camper van fridge offer. If you break the latch on the fridge door, can you get just the latch replaced? Are all parts available for individual purchase, or do you have to purchase an entire new fridge if yours poops out?!
Van Fridge Freezer Options
Not all camper van fridges are created equal as far as temperature ranges go. Some van life refrigerators can go all the way down below freezing temps, allowing the fridge to turn into a freezer if need be.
Other camper van fridges have two separate compartments. One for a fridge and one for a freezer. We met a guy in Grand Teton National Park who showed us his build and we specifically asked about his fridge. He had a fridge freezer combo chest fridge because his girlfriend always needed an iced coffee, so he wanted to be able to keep ice in the van for her drinks.
We’ve never had a freezer in our campervans, and have gotten on just fine without one. But what a luxury to have a van fridge and freezer!
Camper Van Fridge Settings
Pay close attention to what kind of setting the fridges you’re looking at have. Some offer battery protection mode. This is useful if you don’t really have a lot of solar power coming in, and need to be sure you don’t draw too much battery life into keeping your fridge at temp. Others have a battery monitor, making it not as necessary to purchase the more expensive charge controller, since you can see your battery charge on the fridge front.
Then there’s of course the range in temperatures a fridge offers. Make sure that if you have refrigerator meds or something similar, the fridge can get to that temperature. Or again, if you want it to be able to go on freezer mode sometimes, make sure the fridge can get to that low!
Make sure you have a good and reliable battery that can power your fridge for extended periods of time. Just like our LiFePO4 Batteries from Goldenmate!
Noise Produced from Fridge
There is nothing more annoying in a van than hearing when your van fridge turns on and off. If something is leaning against the fridge weirdly, or the straps securing the fridge are twisted, we can hear our van fridge turn on. And, holy smokes it’s SO ANNOYING at night! To the point where we’ve even just turned the fridge off completely if it kept running for no reason.
Update.. we’ve since sinched down the straps tighter, and do not have the issue with the fridge being so loud! We don’t have to turn it off anymore from it kicking on randomly in the middle of the night!
Most fridges should be silent while they’re running. However, some will produce a noise when they’re running hard. Take special care to look at reviews that talk about the sound the van fridge produces.
Compressor Camper Van Fridges vs. absorption Fridges
No matter what campervan fridge you choose, you want to be sure to go with a compressor camper van fridge. Compressor fridges are more energy efficient, meaning they’ll draw less power than an absorption fridge, and they are built for life on the road. Compressor fridges can withstand the constant movement and vibrations being in a campervan gives, and they don’t have to be completely level to work.
Chest Fridge vs. Upright Fridge
Chest fridges are said to be more efficient as the cold air is at the bottom of the chest and doesn’t escape as much when you open them. However, you also have to consider the amount of time you have to leave the fridge open when digging through the van fridge. It’s also super annoying having to dig to the bottom of the chest fridge, so that’s something to consider as well. Some chest fridges come with a built-in basket, allowing you to pull out the entire basket of food, so you don’t have to dig through it all in the fridge.
CAMPERVAN FRIDGES | different styles and price points
AlpiCool CF55 | the best campervan fridge for us
This is the campervan fridge we went with and it has worked really well thus far. There are times that it’s too loud at night and annoying when it runs when it shouldn’t.. but hey, nothing can be perfect.
After doing hours and hours of research, we decided this was the best campervan fridge for our needs. It monitors the battery and comes in multiple different sizes, so you can get the size that best suits your build.
Dometic Fridge Freezer Combo
This is the dual Dometic Fridge Freezer combo the guy we met in Grand Tetons had. I love that it has separate compartments for the options of having a fridge and a freezer and also the ability to put the food you access more often on one side while packing the other side tight with not so often need fridge goods!
Dometic Upright Compressor Fridge
This upright fridge seems so much nicer than the traditional chest campervan fridges. However, it doesn’t have nearly as much space as the traditional chest fridges offer. If you think you don’t need much fridge space, this is a great campervan fridge that makes a van seem more like a home. What a dream to have a van fridge that opens like normal instead of like an ice chest!
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