Upright 12V fridges: what each brand publishes about the cavity

An upright fridge is bought for a hole. So the specification that decides everything is the one describing the hole, and 4 of the 7 brands here publish no cut-out dimension and no ventilation requirement at all. This page is a reference for what each maker actually documents, checked 3 August 2026. It is not a ranking, because you cannot rank brands on figures most of them decline to give you.

By Chris LourencoUpdated 3 August 2026

These picks come from published manufacturer specifications, Australian retailer listings checked on the date above, and owner-reported experience treated as a pattern rather than as proof. We do not physically test the products we compare. Read the method in full.

Who publishes what

An empty cell below is not an oversight on our part. It means we could not find the figure published by the manufacturer or by an Australian retailer, and in 2 cases it means the specification block on the seller’s own page does not render at all in a real browser.

What each upright brand publishes about fitting its fridge into a cabinet, checked 3 August 2026.
Brand	Cut-out	Ventilation	Climate rating
Bushman DC50-X HD, DC65-X HD, DC85-X HD, DC130-X HD	Published	Published	43C tropical rating
Dometic NRX 60C, 80C, 115C, 130C	Published	Published	Climate class T, ambient range 16 to 43C
Thetford T2095, T2152C	Published	Published	Not published
myCOOLMAN MCMU80, MCMU115, MCMU205, MCMU250	Not published	Not published	Climate class T
Brass Monkey GH1676 65L, GH1679 90L, GH1660 95L, GH1662 138L	Not published	Not published	Not published
Adventure Kings 85L Stayzcool upright	Not published	Not published	Not published
EvaKool None currently listed	Not published	Not published	Not published

The division is not price. One brand publishing nothing sells at the top of the market and another at the bottom. It is not country of origin either. It appears to be nothing more than whether the company decided the installer was its customer.

The ventilation fork, and the revision that doubled it

There is no category answer to how much ventilation a cavity fridge needs. There are 3 incompatible answers, and a buyer moving between brands has no way to convert one into another.

Bushman. 2 vents from the rear of the cavity to the outside or to the room, each with a free cross section of at least 400cm2, positioned at the bottom and the top of the cavity, plus a minimum 50mm rear gap. The manual carries its own arithmetic warning, that a 400mm by 200mm vent is approximately 400cm2 and not 800cm2, which is in there because people get it wrong.
Dometic. A minimum spacing of 50mm and a maximum installation tilt of 30 degrees, with a warning that insufficient air flow shortens lifespan and reduces cooling. No vent free-area figure is given, so it cannot be compared with Bushman's requirement in any direction.
Thetford. No vents required. Thetford states it on its own Australian page and sells it as a benefit, meaning less dust and less installation time. That is the opposite design premise to Bushman's 2 vents of 400cm2 each, for the same job in the same cabinet.

If you are holding an older Bushman manual, check its date. The current one asks for a 50mm rear gap and 2 vents of 400cm2 each. An earlier version asks for 40mm and 200cm2. The cut-out cavity table is identical between the 2, so an old manual looks current right up until the part that changed. A cabinet built to the earlier figures has half the ventilation the maker now specifies.

What they publish about running cost, and under what conditions

The same pattern appears again, in the other direction. The brand with the best consumption disclosure in the category publishes no cut-out at all, so you can work out exactly what it will cost to run and not whether it fits.

Bushman. 0.98 to 1.4 Ah/h depending on model, at a 25C ambient with the fridge set to 4C
Thetford. 0.36 kWh and 30 Ah per 24 hours on the T2095, 0.47 kWh and 39.1 Ah on the T2152C. Published with NO stated ambient and NO stated internal set point, so the figures cannot sit in a column beside anyone else's.
myCOOLMAN. 1.19 to 2.33 Ah depending on model, at a 25C ambient with the large zone at 5C, the small zone at -15C and 12V DC. The most fully stated conditions of any brand here.

Note what that makes impossible. One brand states its ambient, its set point and its supply voltage. Another publishes energy figures with no ambient and no set point at all. Those cannot go in the same column, and any page that puts them there is telling you about the tests rather than the fridges.

Brand by brand

Bushman

Models. DC50-X HD, DC65-X HD, DC85-X HD, DC130-X HD

The most complete cavity documentation of any brand here: 3 cut-out dimensions per model, a vent free-area figure, a rear gap and a climate rating. It is also the brand whose requirement changed most, so check which version of the manual you are holding.

Dometic

Models. NRX 60C, 80C, 115C, 130C

Publishes aperture width and height as tolerance ranges and no aperture depth for any model. Also sells a flush-mount frame per model as a separate accessory, which is a real cost of a cavity install that nobody mentions. Bushman supplies its mounting kit with the fridge.

Thetford

Models. T2095, T2152C

The only brand here publishing a cut-out per model in all 3 dimensions AND stating that no ventilation is needed. It publishes no Australian retail price at all, so it cannot be priced against the rest.

myCOOLMAN

Models. MCMU80, MCMU115, MCMU205, MCMU250

Publishes the best consumption disclosure in the category and not a single cut-out dimension or ventilation figure across all 4 models. A buyer can work out exactly what it will cost to run and cannot work out whether it fits.

Brass Monkey

Models. GH1676 65L, GH1679 90L, GH1660 95L, GH1662 138L

The retailer's specification tab is lazy-loaded and did not render across repeated attempts in a real browser, so dimensions, weight, current draw and climate class could not be read at all. No climate or ambient limit is mentioned anywhere in the listing copy either, which is a point of difference against the 3 brands that publish one.

Adventure Kings

Models. 85L Stayzcool upright

The specification block did not render in a real browser across 2 separate sessions, so external dimensions, cut-out, weight, compressor make and climate class are all unavailable. The warranty headline is prominent and the specifications are not.

EvaKool

Models. None currently listed

Has left the category. The upright collection renders no products at all in a real browser while still carrying an upright page title and a full upright FAQ block above the empty grid. Worth knowing if you are shopping from an older article that still recommends one.

What we could not source

Cut-out and ventilation for 4 of the 7 brands. Not from the manufacturer, not from an Australian retailer.
Any published comparison of door against lid energy behaviour. No manufacturer in this market publishes one, so we have not repeated the folk claim with a figure attached.
Dimensions, weight and current draw for 2 brands whose specification tabs do not render in a real browser.
Australian retail prices for Thetford. It publishes none, so it cannot be priced against the rest of the category.
A climate or ambient rating for 4 of the 7brands. For a fridge going into a sealed cabinet in an Australian summer, that is the specification you would least expect to be missing.

Common questions

Which upright brands publish a cut-out dimension?

Bushman, Dometic, Thetford publish one. myCOOLMAN, Brass Monkey, Adventure Kings, EvaKool do not, anywhere we could find, as at 3 August 2026. For a fridge sold specifically to be built into a cabinet, that is a strange thing to leave out, and it is the single most useful division in the category.

How much ventilation does a cavity fridge need?

There is no category answer, which is itself the answer. Bushman requires 2 vents of at least 400cm2 free cross section each plus a 50mm rear gap. Dometic requires a 50mm minimum spacing and gives no vent area at all. Thetford states on its own Australian page that no vents are required and sells that as a benefit. That is 3 brands giving 3 incompatible answers to the same question about the same cabinet. Follow the document for the fridge you actually bought.

Does an old Bushman manual still apply?

For the cut-out, yes. For the ventilation, no, and this is worth checking. The current manual specifies a 50mm rear gap and vents of 400cm2 each. An earlier version specifies 40mm and 200cm2, so the requirement has doubled. The cut-out cavity table is identical between the 2 versions, which is exactly why an old manual looks like it still applies. If you built to the earlier figures, you have half the ventilation the maker now asks for.

Does a door lose more cold than a lid?

Everyone says so and no manufacturer in the Australian market publishes anything to support it. We looked for a published comparison from any brand here and found none, so we are not going to repeat the claim with a number attached to it. What is documented is that a cavity fridge is sensitive to the cavity: at least 1 maker lists an unventilated cabinet in its own troubleshooting guide as a cause of poor performance.

What to do with this

Measure the aperture you have in all 3 dimensions first, then use the table above to rule out every brand that will not tell you whether its fridge fits it. That is a much shorter shortlist than the category looks like from the outside, and it is a more useful one.

For the 2 brands that document the cavity most completely, set side by side on their own published aperture tables, see Bushman DC-X against Dometic NRX. For what happens after it fails, who actually honours the warranty here. And the rest of the 12V fridge section is here.

Cutting the cabinet and connecting the fridge are 2 different jobs and this page covers neither. We publish no cable sizes, no fuse figures and no circuit guidance at all, and the cut-out figures above are reproduced so you can compare brands rather than as a substitute for the document that comes with the fridge you buy. Why we draw those lines.