40L vs 30L fridges in SUV's

[sonoronos]

Just a quick question - I don't really want to talk brands - more curious about what people's experiences are with ~30L vs ~40L fridges mounted in a "typical" SUV (I'm generalizing the term, but unfortunately, I can't really help it...)

I figure the 40L fridge obviously has more room for stuff. The 30L fridge will be smaller overall, which is its own advantage.

Has anyone with a 30L fridge wished for more space, or someone with a 40L felt like a smaller fridge would have been more than enough?

The only reason I ask is because, for cost reasons, I can only afford one of the two, and the prices generally are nearly the same for both

(Note: Obvious, the food load would vary with the duration of the trip, but I'm just asking for anecdotal experiences.)

 

[NatersXJ6]

I have 47L and 28L from 2 different brands. One in my Jeep, the other in my wife’s car. The external dimensions don’t vary enough to make a difference in my world, but other design considerations have me strongly favoring the 47.

While it occasionally feels too big for camping on short trips, I just fill it with water bottles and food items that “can” but “don’t have to” be refrigerated. Having the big rigid box is a great way to keep crackers and chips from turning into bags of crumbs in a packed rig.

My only occasional gripe is that neither unit is wide enough for 2 gallons of milk side by side, and the far and away main daily use of a fridge is grocery shopping!

 

[ducktapeguy]

I have a 63Q and 45Q, I sometimes swap between the two, but typically I just use the 45 now for camping just because of the smaller size and the length of trips I take don't really require that much space. Larger fridge is nice though for certain items. For grocery shopping the 63 is better not just for the size, but the specifically the extra inch or so in width makes a big difference. For example, I can also fit a whole pie box in there without tilting, lots of frozen foods boxes fit width wise in the 63 where it won't fit in the 45. Maybe not that big of an issue when camping, but the fridge sees a lot of use for weekly errands. I have thrown my leftovers in there on my way to going camping so that extra width comes in handy sometimes.

In terms of efficiency, they both draw about the same amount of power, so a smaller fridge isn't going consume less energy. Because the compressors are the same size regardless of the fridge size, the larger fridge is more space efficient. Meaning the ratio of internal volume vs external volume gets better as you go bigger. I don't remember the exact numbers, but I think between a 45 and 63, an ~25% increase in external volume gets you almost 50% more internal capacity.

If you could only get one, go with the largest one that you can comfortably fit in your vehicle. I don't think you'll ever regret having more space, because as Nater said you could always fill up that space so it's not wasted. If I use the larger one and I don't need all the space, I fill it with frozen water bottles which help cut the energy use a lot.

 

[67cj5]

Out of the 2 I would go with the bigger one, because although you might not need the extra space you will always have it when needed, I have found we always want the bigger model even though I have never filled it beyond 85-90% at the most but in a couple of weeks I am buying the big one, It's more about options/choices, the more space you have the more options you have, IE one night the house freezer was playing up luckily I bought a bigger fridge freezer so I was able to load all the frozen food in it and then sort out the house freezer, So bigger is better when it comes to the crunch,

hope that helps.

 

[CSG]

Bigger is almost always better (although I make due with the small Yeti Roadie cooler).

 

[mulze22]

Can somebody provide a comparison of say a Yeti 65 to a Dometic 40? Are they comparable on the internal size and capacity when taking ice into account with the Yeti?

 

[67cj5]

Can somebody provide a comparison of say a Yeti 65 to a Dometic 40? Are they comparable on the internal size and capacity when taking ice into account with the Yeti?

Yeah if you had a 65L/70? yeti that would be about equal to a 40L fridge if you were to fill the yeti full of cans, but if you were filling the yeti with food which takes up more space then I'd say a 40L fridge would be close to about a 70/75L yeti.

The Ice is the killer, by time you have added it to the food the cooler is going to weigh way more than the fridge.

 

[mulze22]

Yeah if you had a 65L/70? yeti that would be about equal to a 40L fridge if you were to fill the yeti full of cans, but if you were filling the yeti with food which takes up more space then I'd say a 40L fridge would be close to about a 70/75L yeti.

The Ice is the killer, by time you have added it to the food the cooler is going to weigh way more than the fridge.

That's exactly what I wanted to hear and now the justification that I needed. Thank you very much to OP for starting thread and thank you 65cj5.

 

[67cj5]

That's exactly what I wanted to hear and now the justification that I needed. Thank you very much to OP for starting thread and thank you 65cj5.

Doing the maths, by the time you have added 3 or 4 20Lb bags of ice your already up to 60 or 80Lbs and that's without the weight of the Yeti or the food/drink, My 47L fridge weighs around 50Lbs so the only extra weight is the food and the best bit is they make life so easy and it's a little bit of home away from home.