What is the Best Upright Fridge?

If you’re in the market for an upright fridge this post may be of some help. It is a pain to be looking back and forth across different websites and tabs to try and compare all of the data, dimensions, costs etc.

This upright fridge comparison can help by having all of the information on the one screen for comparison. Using an upright fridge comparison table that is sortable by the header column, you can quickly check which upright fridge is the best for you by organising the data as you see fit.

Further down the upright fridge comparison you will find the upright fridge comparison scatter plot, not the be all and end all but just a little visual tool that could help you decide between your two favourite upright fridges if you’re having trouble splitting them.

At the end of this post I will discuss the upright fridge that I purchased (mygenerator) and why.

If you’re more interested in dual zone chest fridges then head over to this post!

*Affiliates Disclosure

Affiliate links are present on this page. Through partnerships with, but not limited to: Amazon, eBay and Commission Factory, I will make a small commission through qualifying purchases. This comes at no extra cost to you and is just a way for me to try and support myself and the blog.  Thank you.

Why I am writing an upright fridge comparison

As someone who has recently purchased an upright fridge as part of a 4WD build, this little exercise was just part of my own research process.

I do get sick and tired of flicking through different web pages and marketing bullshit when loooking into fridges, or anything else for that matter, so I tend to make a MSword document and get all the information for future reference.

I have done similar posts to this upright fridge comparison which can be found below:

• Lithium battery comparisons.
• Upright fridges vs chest fridges.
• Dual zone chest fridge comparisons.
• Aluminium canopy comparisons.
• DCDC charger comparisons.
• Fixed solar panel comparisons.
• Solar blanket comparisons.
• Portable solar panel comparisons.
• Inverter comparisons.
• DC charger, AC charger and inverter combo comparisons.

Hopefully these comparison posts can be of use to someone other than myself.

What makes a fridge the best upright fridge?

The best upright fridge is an impossible thing to answer, at the end of the post I will discuss why I bought the Bushman DC88-X, which was the best upright fridge for me, but it doesn’t make it the best for everyone.

There are a number of factors that make up an upright fridge’s ability to be considered the best upright fridge for you, each one will carry a different weight dependant on your circumstances.

Cost

A big one for a lot of people is cost, none of these can really be considered cheap, but they are cheaper than a lot of the same sized chest fridges. Don’t expect something cheap though because the majority of these will be north of $1,000.

If you’re not in a hurry though some of these fridges will be heavily discounted at various times throughout the year.

Weight

If you’re looking for an upright fridge instead of a chest fridge with a drop down slide, there’s a good chance that the weight played a large part in you looking into upright fridges in the first place.

I would consider all of the weights to be quite comparable here.

Power draw

Power draw comes down to how efficient the compressor is, as well as how well insulated the fridge is. Everyone wants the best performance with the least power draw, but unfortunately this information is not standardised.

Most manufacturers won’t actually give you any information regarding power draw, so this becomes very hard to compare, a lot of the time you just need to rely on word of mouth from people who have tried multiple different fridges in real world scenarios.

Noise

Again, not something that is readily available with a standardised measuring practice. Some manufacturers do supply this information but most do not.

You don’t want an inefficient fridge that is cranking its compressor at night time when you’re trying to sleep, or cycling unnecessarily frequently.

Footprint

How much room do you have? How much of that can be taken up by the fridge and still leaving enough for storage? Would you rather a deeper fridge with less width? Or a taller fridge to fill useless space?

How big will the cage that goes around the fridge be if you’re mounting it in a canopy?

Freezer capacity

This may or may not be a concern to people, but how much can you keep frozen? This would be of greater importance for those who need to go on a longer journey or who have meats that will spoil quickly.

Quality

Again, this is hard to quantify and can’t be captured in a table. This comes down to brand reputation and word of mouth. Everyone has good things to say about Engel for example, reputations need to be built over time.

Quality could be visible such as the material the fridge is made out of or the brand of compressor. But the quality may not be visible such as the material of the cooling pipes used, the thermostat PCB soldering quality, the insulation used etc.

*Affiliates Disclosure

Affiliate links are present on this page. Through partnerships with, but not limited to: Amazon, eBay and Commission Factory, I will make a small commission through qualifying purchases. This comes at no extra cost to you and is just a way for me to try and support myself and the blog.  Thank you.

Upright fridge comparison

Firstly, let’s look at the upright fridge comparison table. Click the header of the column to sort the information. If you only have a certain width that you can fit, this is an easy way to sort the table to show the upright fridges that will fit your space next to each other.

The prices are obviously subject to change, clicking on the fridge name will take you to see the most up to date pricing for that model of fridge, these are affiliate links but don’t cost you any extra money at all.

I have linked to mygenerator or eBay depending on where it is sold.

Upright fridge comparison table details

From the above there are some things that need to be noted. Firstly, there is no column for quality, this can’t be measured with a number, so what is provided in the table can only give you half of the picture.

All details are provided either from the manufacturer’s website or their PDF owner’s manual where provided. Therefore, these are all just claims at the end of the day. The prices and dimensions will be accurate, but power draw and even fridge weight can change.

Size warning

A lot of these fridges are designed for RV or caravan cabinet mounting, so make sure to get your measurements correct if you are installing in a canopy or the rear of a car.

Allow for a fridge cage of some sort to protect the fridge as well.

What each brand offers

I originally had this written in another column of the upright fridge comparison table but it got too cluttered, so I’ll just briefly touch on what some of the key things to note are for each manufacturer.

Click the brand name to be taken to their website for your own perusal, but try not to buy into marketing too much.

Engel

It should be noted that the STF-100F and the STR100F can be used fully as a fridge, or fully as a freezer. This can either be useful, or not, depending on your needs. If you need a large upright freezer, or a large upright fridge it is perfect.

If you did want a fridge with a small freezer section though this is not of much help to anyone.

All of the Engel fridges listed here will run on either 12 volt or 240 volt.

Dometic

The Dometic range can be run on 12/24/240 volt if you buy the correct fridge. Most shops will sell the dual voltage variety but it is worth checking.

The freezer compartment of the coolmatic range can be removed to give a larger fridge space, giving it very good flexibility.

I did notice when researching that these tend to go on sale more than some of the other brands, so try to wait for that to happen if Dometic is who you decide to buy.

Bushman

These are the most highly reviewed fridges out there, known for their low power consumption while still working well in the Australian summer.

Nothing overly fancy here, they won’t run on 240 volt and appear quite basic, but they work and people struggle to find things to complain about them.

Evakool

These fridges are a little larger, no real smaller options available. The back of the fridge is very exposed and vulnerable so it would definitely need to be used in a cabinet or with a fridge cage around it.

I can’t really find a good source of reviews for these fridges, but some of the older discontinued fridges of larger capacities had some really bad reviews.

Kings

They have recently changed their 85 litre upright fridge design, some people say because they copied Bushman and had to change it legally, but I don’t know for sure.

The 85 litre goes on special for $600 at times which is crazy cheap. But as always, be careful when dealing with them. Horrible customer service, bad reputation.

The price for what it is is very very good, if you have no issues with it then you’ll walk away with a bargain!

I haven’t heard much about the upright fridges, but the chest fridges were known (still are) for always running, being noisy, consuming power and never actually getting cold.

I’d love to know how these perform if anyone has one and wants to comment.

Upright fridge comparison scatter plot

Now if the upright fridge comparison table didn’t help you decide what is the best upright fridge, perhaps the upright fridge comparison scatter plot will assist.

The data offered here doesn’t mean too much, but it can show trends quite well.

Scatter plot thoughts

The thing that stands out to me most is that there is a serious lack of value in the smaller fridges.

I would recommend you go for the largest fridge that you can realistically install into your 4WD, without needing to go overboard.

A happy medium appears to be at that 80 litre mark where a lot of the $/litre values tend to normalise.

If you have a canopy that will fit the Bushman DC130-X and that isn’t overkill for you (say if you’re a travelling couple or family) then that would be the best buy on the market!

Upright fridge comparison summary

So what’s the best upright fridge after all of that?

If money is an issue then there’s only one option, wait for a special, buy the King’s fridge and hope for the best.

I feel like for the majority of people it is probably the way to go, but yet it’s not what I did.

*Affiliates Disclosure

Affiliate links are present on this page. Through partnerships with, but not limited to: Amazon, eBay and Commission Factory, I will make a small commission through qualifying purchases. This comes at no extra cost to you and is just a way for me to try and support myself and the blog.  Thank you.

The upright fridge that I bought and why

After looking around at all of the fridges on offer there was only one that stood out to me and that was the Bushman DC85-X (mygenerator).

The reputation that these fridges have, both online, as well as with people who build 4WDs for a living was hard to go past. Very few if any faults are reported, the low power draw is constantly mentioned as is the quality customer service.

This might sound weird, but part of their philosophy is to keep it simple, as they put it on their website:

We think that a fridge should stay cold regardless of what you throw at it, and should always be at the temperature you set it to. That’s why we build all our fridges out of steel. We don’t make them out of plastic, and we certainly don’t include unnecessary gimmicks like wifi or bluetooth.

If you’re after Australia’s most reliable, efficient and easy to use fridges, you’re in the right place.

That is basically exactly what I wanted, a fridge that works from start to finish without the risk of issues (that ruled out the Kings for me).

I have no interest in wifi, bluetooth or whatever other marketing gimmick other brands like to tack on, I just want a fridge, a fridge that works.

Of course this doesn’t mean anything if it isn’t followed through on. That’s where the reviews and word of mouth comes into it.

The second selling point for me was the Bushman TLX 4×4 canopy mount fridge cage.

A lot of these upright fridges are designed for caravans, so retro fitting them into a canopy can be a pain. The Bushman series is designed to go off-road and is designed to go into a canopy.

This fridge cage meant I could bolt mounting points off the back panel, I could use the lid as storage, I could stop the fridge from moving and I could protect it.

So that’s how I ended up buying the Bushman DC85-X over anything else.

• Qaulity.
• Low power draw.
• Reputation.
• Customer service.
• 4WD ready.

If I could justify it though I would have gone for the 130 litre variant. The value is incredible on that and it holds so much food. However it is overkill for me size wise.

It is also larger than most canopies will fit, so definitely measure up before buying.

Conclusion

That’s all I really have to say on the upright fridge comparison, hopefully it has been of some use and helped you decide what is the best upright fridge for your particular setup.

For most people it would be hard to go past the King’s 85L upright (eBay). This fridge is far and away the best value for money, it will more than likely serve you well, it’s just that if it doesn’t you’re left dealing with poor customer service. However for most people it’s a risk worth taking.

If you’re mounting this in a canopy it is pretty hard to go past the Bushman range, it was for me anyway, with the whole thing being much cheaper than a chest fridge with drop down slide and less than half the weight!

Any comments on real life power consumption, noise levels or anything else are more than welcome.

Have a good day!