21-01 Vitrifrigo DRW180A and DW180RFX Steppenwolf

[@ulumarty]

for your install of the DRW180A what size wire did you use for your 24v installation?

[@JaM_Mobil]

Hey Steppenwolf, thanks for sharing the video and your impressions. We are „the people“ who did the video you are talking about :) (small hint, its very useful for your audience when you link the sources you are referring to in the video description). We have one correction to make. Our air circulation system works in both directions. One direction is as you showed it, i.e. sucking the air from under the fridge and blowing it out via fans on top of the fridge. However, this system is temperature controlled. The fans only start blowing over 25 degrees. And that nearly never happened until now. Only once when I forgot to switch off the diesel heater. The second (and built in) system blows out to the right bottom of the fridge. We have left the side walls open so the built in fans can run normal. However, the switch on time is still every 5 minutes. Another comment goes towards noise measurement. Before I started researching about it I was not aware that the decibel scale is logarithmic. That means an increase from 30 to 40 dBa nearly doubles the noise you feel. Also, I am a bit sceptic about a noise measurement with a smart phone. Silence should be around 30-32 dBa. In your video silence fluctuates somewhere between 30 and 45. However, 45 should already be a clearly notable sound. At least on the video you can’t hear anything when the meter jumps to 45. Moreover, I am pretty certain that the microphone of your smart phone is on the bottom. Therefore the phone is pointing in the wrong direction. And since especially mobile phone mics are designed to capture the sound very close to the mic and no background noise I am sceptic that this will result in a sensible reading. By the way: we did the measurement (with a dedicated noise meter) when the fridge was built in already and mostly covered by furniture around it. From what I hear in the video it sounds like you don’t have the bubbling noise we are getting and which is actually most annoying. Could you do me a huge favor and record one cooling cycle for us with your microphone pointed to the back of the fridge? I’d like to compare your sounds with ours ([e-mail]). Here is the link to our video for everybody who is interested: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fpnaiaidrtStoNE

[@steppenwolfbyhoekro1798]

Thanks for your response. Ofcourse a phone cannot measure so good, I try to lent now a official decibelmeter. I have not much time, because in the same period as I building the Steppenwolf I am also building a house out of CLT, draw it myself, build it myself, but I will try to prepare a better test. Why I call you "the people" , I think we only need to talk about the product. Not to make companies black. The company cannot defend itself. I did only a simple comparison. You build a very nice cooling system, but I would change it and take the air from outside under your camperbox, there is the most cold air, this is a big benefit. Decibel, every 3 dB is a dubbeling of the sound, so 31 tot 40 dB is 3 times louder. When I Saturday put the fridge on, I hear bubbling sound, but after a short time it was already less and nearly gone. I will make a sound recording for you and email. Greetings Rob

[@steppenwolfbyhoekro1798]

Dear JaM Today I had meetings at my engineering company Total Support Group in Eindhoven and I saw we have a sound level meter (from CEM DT-8850 calibrated) in our measuring room, so now I can do the test again with this device in the weekend. To be continued Greetings Rob

[@ralph9987]

Can I use the 180A top as fridge and bottom as freezer? Or other way around? Thanks for your video

[@ralfheintges9061]

Hallo We are building a very similar truck based on a 90-16 Iveco Magirus. Do you have an address where to buy the DRW 180 in Czech Rep. ? We are considering the exact same fridge / freezer combination Thanks Ralf

[@steppenwolfbyhoekro1798]

Hi Ralf I bought the DRW180A from www.mulac.cz [e-mail]. The. DRW180A will be made on order so you need to wait 5 to 6 weeks and you need to pay up front. I did this also and everything was handled perfectly. Succes Greetings Rob

[@ralfheintges9061]

@@steppenwolfbyhoekro1798 Thanks very much Horeko

[@dbrophy]

Did you compare the power consumption of these fridges to standard residential 240V fridges? For example, the LG GBB92MCBAP (384L) has an annual energy consumption of 110 kWh per year (280 Wh/L). The DRW180A (150L) has power consumption of 1.1 kWh/day = 400 kWh per year (2660 Wh/L). So by these figures, the Vitrifrego fridge uses over *ten times* the energy per litre of capacity than the LG product...

[@steppenwolfbyhoekro1798]

Hi David This comparison was only done for noise. I have now an official tested noise meter but not the time todo the test again. I hope in a few weeks. Is the LG a household fridge or fridge for more extreme conditions? Can the LG run on 24V direct?

[@dbrophy]

@@steppenwolfbyhoekro1798 it’s a 230v household fridge so would need an inverter (perhaps 20% efficiency loss) and a method of securing the door while the vehicle is in motion… but if it really uses ten times less power… 🤔

[@steppenwolfbyhoekro1798]

@@dbrophy Succes with your LG, I like my Vitrifrigo

[@Behindthejab]

@@dbrophy are you comparing a product running at 230v to 12v? As a note this compressor can run at 12/24 vDC or 110/220 vAC

[@dbrophy]

@@Behindthejab yes that’s right, I’m comparing a 240v product with a 24v product… I really don’t want a 240v fridge that will rely on an inverter, however if the 240v units are really ten times more efficient then this is a more difficult decision. I small inverter will perhaps have 10 or 20% loss due to the efficiency, but the overall system would still be far more efficient if the numbers are anywhere near right. I’m going to buy this LG fridge and run some tests to see if the numbers are correct.