Adventure kings

[Slow moe]

Hi all,
Has anybody had any experience - good or bad - with Kings camping gear, particularly their 12v electrical range?
I'm looking to buy a camping fridge/freezer and update the rest of my system to support it. Looks to me like they are much cheaper than most other companies but the reviews are fairly mixed. That said, without spending twice the price for a waeco, most brands seem to get flogged in online reviews. I'm wondering if people are actually having issues with their equipment or whether it is being set up poorly by hacks (like me) and that the people buying more expensive gear are spending money setting it up properly.
I'm particularly looking at their 75l dual zone setup as that seems a good size and I like the idea of a fridge and freezer.
Any wisdom would be appreciated before I sink a fistful of money into it and end up in the middle of the northern territory relying on it.

 

[creaky]

I can't help with anecdotal experience with the Kings gear. How much is the 75" DZ one from Kings?

I've only had Waeco fridges, which have been faultless. Current one is 10 years old. I would like a 75L dual zone one nowadays with the kids getting hungrier and have been casually looking at them. Personally, I'd be choosing a Waeco again, either the CF (about $1100) or CFX ($1600) depending on my cost appetite at the time of purchase.

I lust over the National Luna fridges but they are about double the price of a CF series Waeco in the same size.

I've had auxiliary batteries, cheap DCDC chargers etc. fail on me on past trips, which really causes dramas as you need to then find a town and place to get things replaced at high cost and lost time. If you're remote and the 'name brand' fridge fails under warranty then you're more likely to be able to get it replaced by an agent around Australia compared to a Kings one I assume also.

 

[creaky]

In terms of national agents, maybe research the BCF one. No idea on pricing relative to the Kings one though, or reviews.

XTM75 Dual Zone Fridge Freezer

XTM75 Dual Zone Fridge Freezer

www.bcf.com.au

 

[DougalStrachan]

I've had a Kings 60l fridge for 2 years - it's either been running on the deck on 240v or running off battery camping constantly for that entire time - I've had no issues. I also know a few other who run their fridges with no issue. I know of one person who had an issue with 240v not working but Supercenter sorted it our relatively quickly. 100% the quality isn't as good as Engle / Waco but it's been fine for my needs

As for the rest I know a couple of people with the Kings solar panels and battery and they've had no issue. No idea of Kings car kits but they'd be hard to stuff up, I just did my own with an automatic voltage sensing isolator, some heavy wire and a couple of 100amp fuses, run a heap of Anderson plugs and off you go.

 

[ozzybmx]

I've only had Waeco fridges, which have been faultless. Current one is 10 years old.

Same, only 1 though.

CF50, bought it in about ~2004 for around $550 IIRC, a neighbour won it at a caravan show and didn't want it... still chilling beer like a champion.

If I added up the total runtime in the 18yrs I've owned it, it would probably be around 10yrs.

Currently in our kitchen chilling milk and stuff as we are waiting a warranty replacement 'home' fridge/freezer coming.

 

[rextheute]

Also, check Anaconda …. Easter is coming - so there will be a sale on the home brand ones , usually 40-50 % off .

and they will have to compete with The offers from caravan shows in Melbourne and Sydney - that may be counter intuitive tho ……
Dometic do a factory seconds things - but will need to sign up to the mailing list .

i ha ve an engel , been running on battery or 240 for a few years …
No complaints bought it on special .

 

[rextheute]

Sorry also aldi special buys April 2 nd is camping shit
https://www.aldi.com.au/en/special-buys/special-buys-sat-2-april/

 

[Cardy George]

Hi all,
Has anybody had any experience - good or bad - with Kings camping gear, particularly their 12v electrical range?
I'm looking to buy a camping fridge/freezer and update the rest of my system to support it. Looks to me like they are much cheaper than most other companies but the reviews are fairly mixed. That said, without spending twice the price for a waeco, most brands seem to get flogged in online reviews. I'm wondering if people are actually having issues with their equipment or whether it is being set up poorly by hacks (like me) and that the people buying more expensive gear are spending money setting it up properly.
I'm particularly looking at their 75l dual zone setup as that seems a good size and I like the idea of a fridge and freezer.
Any wisdom would be appreciated before I sink a fistful of money into it and end up in the middle of the northern territory relying on it.

I thought I hot post earlier, but clearly I didn't. Anyway, we have a 60L fridge and haven't had any issues, BUT we've used it three times in 19 months and don't rely on it to keep us alive in the middle of nowhere. The 'serious' campers I've talked to about it say they're good for the price. The only thing they say is watch the power consumption. I'm about to find out exactly how efficient it is at the end of next month when we run it off solar for 4 days, but we won't be too far from civilisation if it goes pear shaped. The fridge by itself was fine in the shed for two days, it'll just depend in how power hungry the rest of our gear is.

 

[the drizzle]

I've run one of the older Kings fridges in my ute toolbox off one of their smaller AGM batteries (110ah) everyday for the last two years without issue. I plug in a solar blanket when camping because the battery doesn't get topped up with the usual day to day driving.

I'd definitely recommend them.

Sent from my AC2001 using Tapatalk

 

[MasterOfReality]

I just went through this - you will drive yourself insane reading the reviews. We use ours for the occasional beach driving trip and when we have parties, makes an excellent outdoors drinks fridge and saves a trip into the house haha.

Opted to go for the middle ground Dometic CFX3 55 and cover for $1385 from Snowys. Didn't need dual zone so that narrowed it down a bit. Looked hard at the engels and kings gear. The engel I couldn't justify the price plus its bloody heavy to load in and out of the car. The reviews on the kings stuff was very mixed but they seemed to be ok for the price.

 

[Slow moe]

I just went through this - you will drive yourself insane reading the reviews. We use ours for the occasional beach driving trip and when we have parties, makes an excellent outdoors drinks fridge and saves a trip into the house haha.

Opted to go for the middle ground Dometic CFX3 55 and cover for $1385 from Snowys. Didn't need dual zone so that narrowed it down a bit. Looked hard at the engels and kings gear. The engel I couldn't justify the price plus its bloody heavy to load in and out of the car. The reviews on the kings stuff was very mixed but they seemed to be ok for the price.

Reviews are all over the place and I suspect are disproportionately posted by passed off people. Hence I sought the collective wisdom here.
Plus, always get some other insight here. @rextheute probably cost me some $$$$. The lithium batteries aldi have are bloody cheap and seem to review pretty well. I had decided to renew my AGM setup bit thinking lithium now

 

[creaky]

I had decided to renew my AGM setup bit thinking lithium now

Certainly the way to go if you're starting fresh with battery and charger. Nice deep discharge and lighter. $1k for a decent capacity battery though, and don't necessarily like under bonnet temperatures ....

 

[Slow moe]

Certainly the way to go if you're starting fresh with battery and charger. Nice deep discharge and lighter. $1k for a decent capacity battery though, and don't necessarily like under bonnet temperatures ....

The price is obviously the thing stopping me jumping straight in. Thay said, the deeper discharge offsets that significantly.
Battery will be in my camper trailer so no issues re bonnet temperature

 

[ozzybmx]

Certainly the way to go if you're starting fresh with battery and charger. Nice deep discharge and lighter. $1k for a decent capacity battery though, and don't necessarily like under bonnet temperatures ....

Bloody tiny for 100ah

• Size: 30.6cm(W) x 16.9cm(D) x 21.5cm(H)

I have had many under bonnet AGM batteries over the years, from average priced ones to Optima yellow tops. My current vehicle is 4.5 yrs old and I fitted a standard aux Century 120ah NZ70 'servicable' lead acid battery from new, still going after 4.5yrs but I have a 40a BCDC1240 topping it up.

The under bonnet heat kills AGM's. No experience with lithium batteries.

 

[mark22]

I've had a Kings 60 Lt fridge for a couple of years still going well. Also solar panel and AGM battery still going good. The dimable aluminium strip led camp lights have been great they just daisy chain as needed.
Upgraded the pwm solar controller to mmpt a while back for efficienty reasons.
Not sure how their cheaper range of fridges fare.

 

[discofrank]

another option, buy one that is a fridge OR freezer and plan your days food out ( makes more sense on longer trips ) 3 or 4 days a fridge is fine
run it as a freezer and take what you want to cook for dinner/lunch in the morning or night before and place in a cooler bag, this will allow it to defrost during the day
my dad does this when he goes away, he uses 2 x 600ml water bottles as his "ice bricks" so at the end of the day he puts them back into the fridge which is running as a freezer to re freeze for the next day