Mini fridge debate

I want to add a mini fridge to the trailer since going for more than a week makes it hard to have enough food in the 5 ft propane fridge. two trips ago we over loaded it, then knocked the sensor off of its holder and ended up tossing quite a bit of meat.

I have space on the two unused bunks with 24 inches up top, 32 1/2 inches in the lower. I can adjust the supports for the top bunk to allow for more on either but still use it as a guide.

I am also mindful of the fact that it has to run off of batteries and solar, so amp draw is  big thing. Oddly a small cube fridge can use more than one that is three times its size and nearly as much as one 10 times it's size.

Now if we were going snowbirding tomorrow or start full timing I would have a Edgestar 321ss 3.2 mini fridge for the lower bunk in a heart beat. It is by far the lowest draw I have seen for a mini fridge this side of a 12v compressor model yet. It draws .64 amp at 120v, that's 6.4 amp plus losses at 12v. That's incredible when you consider a 1 ft cube generally draws 1.3a at 120v.

The downside of the 3.2 is that it is big and until we start going on extended travels, we just don't need that much space yet.

That leaves the upper bunk. Aside from 1 foot cubes, I have only found one mini that fits in the space. it has a tiny freezer and pulls 1.0 amp at 120v.

The other option would be  cube sized freezer or edgestar has a cube fridge that can do either fridge or freezer. That would do because frozen food holds much longer than refrigerated food. Sadly the fridge/freezer combo uses more power and cost more than the 3.2 mini. It would probably be cheaper to get a mini freezer as we would rarely use it as a fridge anyways.

The two edgestar units would be new purchases and done in the spring. That gives me plenty of time to continue the research and possible find something acceptable on craigslist or get lucky and find a 12v unit.

A 12v unit would be wonderful for the low current draw but for the expense and size, they don't hold much. The mini fridges use more power but that's the one thing I have to spare.