If you can find a fridge that will fight its way into the cavity the old one came out from I reckon that would be the best way to goCraig wrote:Thanks for all your comments. I am restricted to space and find that the Westinghouse will fight into the current fridge cavity with little adjustment. The power usage is pretty good but don't know if it is a inverter motor. I go through this same exercise every time the weather climbs into the mid 40's as the three way fridge starts to struggle. It doesn't help that where we are parked up at, the power supply is ordinary to say the least and see the power dropping to 200v regularly.
I would have gone with the Samsung but the height was the killer.
A 1000w PSW inverter will start up just about any fridge motor, a 600w unit beeps on the initial start but still gets it going. If you can find a fridge that will fight its way into the space that uses the newer HC gas (R600 [butane] or R600a [butane with added vitamins and minerals and renamed isobutane] or R290 [propane]) it will use less energy to start up and over all less energy than a fridge running R134a or any of the R400 range of numbers. If you track down Bob (BobnBev) when he's home he might even regas a unit for you (at a foruminomial cost) If you look on evilbay you could make it even cheaper by getting a good looking second hand unit that will fit the space. The first Fisher & Paykel one we bought was $100, still wrapped in plastic from a furniture storage clear out auction, the second one was twice the price at $200 and second hand from a holiday house up near Gosford. Both units are still going strong, both running on solar/inverter power, both run off the one 1000w PSW inverter.T1 Terry
But at 236kw/yr it's great economy