Dometic VS ICECO

What do you recommend? Planning on running a fridge in the future for overlanding and possibly will be building a van for vanlife.

 

Dometic if you don't have to budget and if you need/want wifi/Bluetooth controls.

Iceco if you're on a budget.

I've had an iceco jp40 for a few months now and been happy with it.

 

I had a dometic once, it never ran right on DC power, no one would service it and dometic was no help in providing troubleshooting. Eventually after I bashed them on social media enough they sent me a new fridge that's been running for years no issue now. So good/bad?

Father in law had an ARB elements that had a screen issue, still under 2 year warranty, ARB sent him a replacement fridge and instruction and parts to fix the old one! Great service manual, parts lists, parts availability and support! Premium price but you get what you pay for here.

I tried a BougeRV on Amazon, first one was broken from poor packaging shipping damage, second one had a bad thermistor from the factory. Returned both. Chinese support and garbage product.

Finally, currently running an Iceco JP50 for around 6 months. Only complaint is the blue LED inside, swapped out for comparable white festoon bulb. Seems to be the best budget fridge while still getting quality parts/packaging/and possibly support. It looks "the same" as the bougeRV online but even during unboxing it was clear Iceco was packaged much better, came with a cover, and overall fit/finish was superior + sepco compressor.

 

Was given a broken Waeco CF25 (old name for Dometic) that I was able to fix/sell and put the proceeds towards buying an Iceco TR45. Ran the Waeco in the garage with no issues before selling. Never took it on the road so can't comment on it too much. I believe the fit/finish on the dometic is a little better than on the Iceco but not by much (for example, the lid on the dometic was much heavier and thicker plastic than on the Iceco. Like a speaker, I attribute weight to high quality when it comes to these fridges). I have been running my TR45 for about a week now in the back of my truck and a couple months before then in the garage. I do have some condensation issues which only seem to have appeared once I flipped my lid from opening on one side to the other? Planning on reaching out to Iceco this week to see what they have to say about it and will update once I get a response.

I went with the TR45 because 1) it was the cheapest they offered at $380 and I figured that's a good price for a Secop and the size. And 2) I liked the wheels for being able to take it to the beach. Wheels aren't all they're cracked up to be; most likely will fab my own brackets and get some better wheels or just leave them off. The VLPro series seems to be a little better built than the others, but at that price point you're right next to the Dometics.

I would consider throwing ARB in the ring and potentially ditching Dometic. Go either super cheap or spend the dough to get the customer service mentioned above. If my current Iceco doesn't work out, I'll probably end up going with an ARB next time around.

Also, the Iceco fridge slide works but has a little bit of slop in it. Not too bad, but if you have OCD it'll probably drive you nuts.

 

Have a dometic cfx45. Its works as it should and is quiet. Only time will tell I guess. Biggest issue is having enough batterys to keep the beer cold.

 

I have a Norcold 30 that works great on DC power.

 

Which ICECO do you recommend? Seems like there are a lot of different fridges.

 

That's mostly personal use case and preference. It looks like the JP and VL classic series are the cheapest/oldest models, and their VL pro is their modern design, possibly a bit tougher case at a higher price tag. I'm willing to bet the cooling mechanicals are all the same across similarly sized models. The other thing is to do is watch the different models on Amazon and put them against the coupon codes direct from iceco, there's random deals to be had one way or the other that'll pop up for a few days here and there.

How much room do you need of cooled food/drinks? What space are you trying to fit it in? Power usage requirements based on your climate/days parked/Ah storage capacity?

 

So unsure of how much food/drinks. It is just two of us and we camp from anywhere from one day to a week. We try to make a fresh breakfast, lunch, and dinner while camping. My initial thoughts are the bigger ones but I have not seen one in person yet. I just got a Bluettie EB55

 

I have a Dometic CFX-50W and after 2 years is consuming a lot of juice and I'm wondering the compressor may have crapped out on me. I'm out of warranty and as someone explained before, no one would service it. Just ordered a National Luna Fridge. It has 8 year warranty on the compressor and consumes less energy from what I have read. Let's see how it goes....