My Vitrifrigo c51is has been an awesome fridge. I got it in October of 2012 when my Norcold de-0040 failed after 5 years. The Norcold was much louder and would vibrate a lot, and was less efficient despite added insulation and increased airflow over the condenser
The assembly of the Vitrifrigo's cooling unit is top notch, and allowed me to move the 120mm fan to be a pusher fan instead of a puller, which makes it quieter and more efficient.
My only complaint would be the door insulation and door seals could be better. In humid conditions the door face sweats. I replaced the provided black faceplate with a stainless steel faceplate. The other thing I would change is the very back bottom of the fridge has a cutaway, presumably to better fit the curved hull of a boat. This is not quite so ergonomic and wastes some internal space.
I added 3/4 inch foamboard insulation to the inside of my cabinet and to the outside of the fridge, and made a cooling unit tunnel which sucks filtered air from the floor, forces it through condenser, and across compressor and controller, and either outside or into the next compartment so it cannot recycle preheated air. The tunnel also protects the cooling unit during removal and install, as mine is a super tight fit for insulative purposes.
I pulled the 270 ohm resistor on the Tstat circuit dropping compressor rpms to 2000 from 2500 and average amp draw falls from 2.7 to 2.2 when the compressor is running. I do not need the quicker cool downs of 2500 rpms as mine runs 50 weeks a year non stop and has no issues maintaining 33.5f with a setting of 2.2 out of 7.
I also tapped the 12v led light circuit for 12vDC and run a 40 mm 0.03 amp fan internally, which keeps the whole box within 3 degrees, whereas without the fan it varied by almost 14 degrees f. The fan adds a very small amount of heat to the interior which must be removed, which is why I went with the lowest amp draw fan I could find as presumably it also adds the least amount of heat.
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...r_Wire_-_KDE1204PKV3MSARGN.html?tl=g36c15s560
It would be best if this fan only came on when the condenser was running but that would have required running new wires into the box, so I just tapped the light circuit and let the fan run 24/7.
I considered the remote cooling unit versions but that would have required a bunch more fabrication/modification to my cabinet already designed for the Norcold, and I would not be able to pull the fridge out so easily.
While I do have an airfilter on the air intake, some fine dust still collects on the fan blades and condenser fins, so about every 6 months I pull it out and clean the fan and fins, so keep this minor maintenance in mind when installing/designing yours.
Fridges do not force things to be cold, they remove heat from items placed within the box. This heat has to go somewhere, and the easier it is for it to be removed from the condenser, the more efficient it is. So Not recycling preheated air and keeping the heat transferring surfaces clean make a large difference in efficiency.
One other upgrade I did was replace the 120MM fan. This original fan pulled 0.12 amps, moves about 72 cfm and is fairly loud with a sleeve bearing.
I replaced it with a Noctua NF-f12 which draws only 0.05 amps and moves ~53 cfm and can barely be heard. With it pushing air into the condenser, rather than trying to pull it through this restriction, it flows more air than the higher rated fan and consumes less electricity doing so. Noctua fans have a 7 year warranty.
http://noctua.at/en/nf-f12-pwm.html
They also have industrial versions of this fan that run at higher rpms and are rated for resistance to water and dust ingress.
The compressor controller can handle cycling 0.5 amps of fans, so one could add another fan to evacuate the heat in the compartment where the condenser resides. In theory, I could use 10 of these Noctua nf-f12 fans. In practice just one can move all the air I need.
The Vitrifrigo main distributor is up near Fort Lauderdale so you might be able to work a deal directly with them. Mine came with an invoice inside that was significantly lower than what I paid this guy to have one shipped(for free) to me in California.
http://www.westyventures.com/parts.html#cart_restore
I got the DC only model as the AC/DC model was another 100$. I took that 100$ and put it toward a 40 amp power supply which not only powers the fridge when I have grid power available, but can provide 40 amps total for battery charging, at any voltage I desire.
If an AC/DC model is more than 30$ more than the DC only model, I would recommend going the same route as me and get a much more capable power supply. Mine is the Meanwell rsp-500-15, and is Awesome in its ability to fully charge any lead acid battery, and hold any voltage between 13.12 and 19.23volts.
Hope you find some of this information useful
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