Kogan Komodo 42Ltr Portable Fridge/Freezer

[Mr&Mrs_Fr8Train]

So in my quest of keeping things economical as we dipped our toes into the waters of camper trailering, and after many hours of research looking at the copious amounts of fridges online I came to rest on the Kogan Komodo 42Ltr portable fridge/freezer. My decision was based on price and previous experience with Kogan being favorable, there were some bad reviews online but appeared Kogan was pro-active in responding to poor reviews, and sorting people's issues out.



Well we got it on sale for $408 +postage (approx $60) Not a bad price.

It arrived in about 3 days to Tas which is pretty good, and I rushed home with it like a kid in a candy shop, plugged it in and....

It worked, was reading a 29deg internal temp, put some cans in and left it there to chill, and went inside.

The handles that you fit are sturdy, the housing is sheet steel, and the lid a poly-carbonate style plastic. All seemed good.

Came out to the shed to check and....

It was still going, had dropped to 2deg in 40min, excellent.

My wife had some shopping to do a couple of days later, and had an appointment after, she was concerned about the frozen stuff and meat, so I said "take the fridge"

She plugged it in and mounted in the back of the Escape, and...

It worked, ran well for her trip and had chilled quite nicely on the trip into town.

Until she came out with the groceries and loaded it up, shut the lid and noticed an "ERR3" on the display, and the fridge wasn't running, tried power down and re-start, no change.

She had to bail on her appointment and get the groceries home.

Got home done some research and discovered it was an overload, and the supposed remedy was to power down for 30min and re-start, no avail on battery or mains power.

I contacted Kogan on the Saturday, they ran through everything I had tried and informed me it was now a warranty job, they replied with several eamils promptly along with a postage sticker to cover postage costs.

Posted it back and....

Nothing, all inquiries I had to prompt, and as it stands I still have no fridge, I have informed Kogan I will be taking a full refund, and have given them until Thursday to take care of it as a reasonable time frame as 2 weeks is up, and I need a fridge with Easter fast approaching.

I have sourced the EvaKool 42Ltr from Supercheap (currently on sale down from $899 to $584), as an alternative, and have read nothing but positive reviews, my wife is picking one up today, "touch wood" this one serves us better. And at least we can take it back to a "bricks and mortar" store if there is any issues.



Moral of the story, a poor man pays twice

[jw2170]

The EvaKool, seems to be a reasonable price, Mr&Mrs_......

[Mr&Mrs_Fr8Train]

The EvaKool, seems to be a reasonable price, Mr&Mrs_......

It was, and we have had it running on mains power the last few days and it just ticks along, now issues, fairly quiet, and holding a steady temp, we have been loading it up with our groceries ready for the weekend so it will be nice and chilled when we set off and save on the batteries.

So far pros for evakool:

Has separate 12v and 240v cables/circuit (from research indicates if one fails the other can still work)
Has insulated bag cover available (which we did purchase as well)
Very solid build over the Kogan that had a lot of flex in the sides, this has no flex.

Cons:
Very tall 544mm (could be pro for some) my camper trailer is 540mm deep, so it has to ride in the ute, not really desirable in the long run, but hey I have a fridge that works now.
The led light inside does not switch off, I tested by videoing on my phone and putting it in the fridge and closing the lid fully, light stays on I know a little LED isn't going to draw much power, but still it is a tax on the battery system when we are all trying to be as efficient as possible.

Will keep you guys posted as I get more thoughts and experience with this unit.

[jw2170]

Very tall 544mm (could be pro for some) my camper trailer is 540mm deep, so it has to ride in the ute

,

We have a Waeco CFX40 and had similar problem to you.

I should have checked before buying the fridge...I bought a larger tool box to solve that issue, but since have moved it to the back of the ute.

The led light inside does not switch off

Interesting...I found out the other day that my led light stays on even if the fridge is turned off but still connected to power.

[Mr&Mrs_Fr8Train]

Very tall 544mm (could be pro for some) my camper trailer is 540mm deep, so it has to ride in the ute

,

We have a Waeco CFX40 and had similar problem to you.

I should have checked before buying the fridge...I bought a larger tool box to solve that issue, but since have moved it to the back of the ute.

The led light inside does not switch off

Interesting...I found out the other day that my led light stays on even if the fridge is turned off but still connected to power.

The Evakool went well over the Easter weekend, we were running it on a single battery setup we were getting about 24 hours comfortably with both fridges running. The Evakool ran on par with the Waeco CFX for temp (both set up to 2deg C and neither got over 4deg C in the hottest point of the day), the cfx did cut out earlier than the Evakool when the battery was getting down as a point to watch.

The height did bug me a little, but it was the best on offer for the price at the time, and beggars can't be choosers (I would of preferred it in the trailer). It fit fine in the tray of the ute and just took setting up in position once we got there and plugging back in (we only traveled 1/2 hour and had frozen meat in there) Longer trips will warrant power supply to fridge though.