Derek, I see you are from Oz and I don't think you have the stupid
restrictions against R-12 refridgerant we do here in the states.......

Look around your area for a small fridge that uses R-12 refridgerant
and its compressor is a vibrator, not a motor. Mine is an old
pre-restriction Norcold unit that is 2' by 2' by 2.5' deep with the
external condensor arcing out the back. The compressor is easily
identified because the electrical connections to it are ONE wire to an
insulated terminal and one wire grounded to the pipes on the
compressor. This compressor uses 40VAC from a little power
transformer. The manufacturer does this so that when they ship it to
Oz, it would have a 220 to 40V transformer and to the USA a 115 to 40V
transformer.....

Now the kicker that will blow that solid state crap clear out of the
water......These fridges draw 40 watts only when running! R-12 is
very low pressure gas, why they use it in cars with rubber hoses. The
little vibrator compressor has NO STARTING CURRENT, it's simply a coil
bouncing its core up and down at 50 or 60 Hz.....connected directly to
the diaphram the pump uses to pump the gas. My old Norcold runs about
50-60% of the time at 40W....50 to 40% of the time a ZERO watts....not
that constant amp drain of the thermoelectric garbage that hardly gets
cold. The little Norcold will make THREE trays of hard ice in about 1
hour and 30 minutes, something thermoelectric won't do....

40 watts at 12V is about 3.5A about half duty cycle, depending on how
often you open it, of course. A tiny 80W inverter that's built right
into the 12V cigarette lighter plug from Radio Shack will power it
continuously! My Honda EU1000i tiny genset doesn't even vary when it
comes on it's such a light load.

Look around for one of these fridges. Way more efficient cooling and
you can hardly hear it running on forbidden R-12, or maybe the new
R-134a used in the new cars.....

Larry


Larry W4CSC

"No, NO, Mr Spock! I said beam me down a WRENCH,
not a WENCH! KIRK OUT!"