I'm a bit sick of our old cool box now. Its never as cold as you need it, and its a pain to have to freeze your ice-blocks daily.
The only thing we need to keep cold is a few small items. Milk, butter, maybe some bacon etc.
I'm looking for a method to keep things nice and cool, hopefully without too much space and weight and not a car battery hog as my car battery is terrible!
What are people's preferred methods of refrigeration?
If we have EHU we have a mini fridge for milk/butter/cold meat nd a cool box for beer/wine/juice etc. We are looking at buying an electric coolbox to replace the standard one so we don't have to freeze the blocks. That will have to wait until next year though
------------- April- rosetta 3 nights
May - walled garden 3 nights
June- ??
July- monkey tree 14 nights
Last time we went, we didn't find out until our last day that the site we were on offered ice blocks, so every day I bought a bag of ice and dumped it in the bottom of the coolbox, it actually woked pretty well but at £1.50 for a bag of ice, wasn't very cheap. I'd be interested to see what solutions others have come up with. I really don't want to go down the EHU route though.
we have a 5 day coolbox which means we don't have to freeze our freezer blocks daily...they can be quite large tho so you'd have to be sure you could fit one in your car before buying...failing that you could use a bucket or flexible trug, fill it with cold water and place the items you wish to remain cool in there...drape a damp tea towel over the top and that will draw the heat away...we still keep drinks cool this way, but in the past have used it as a way of keeping milk, butter, cheese, bacon etc cool too...just be sure to put your food stuffs in watertight containers before dropping them in the water...!!
We have a Coleman 70 Quart extreme which is fantastic. Ice packs stay frozen for days (tried and tested for 3 days running and packs still frozen when we got home). It requires no power whatsoever just follow instructions at home before leaving - chill it well and it will keep your food chilled.
A little tip is to put the ice blocks on top as the cool air goes to bottom . Also cool the cool box first by putting fozen milk cartons filled with water inside for a couple of days . Make sure the stuff you want to keep cool is chilled before you put it in the cool box These tips i got from here and makes my ice blocks last a couple of days even our old cool box .We now have the coleman extreme 6 day cool box which is large but good enough for a week.
------------- Gingercol
April ,Isle of Avalon Glastonbury 4 nights ,
May ,Hoburne Cotswolds 3 nights
June ,12 nights River Valley Holiday Park cornwall
I'm with Poppydog...3-way fridge is awesome. It's like having a real fridge but not being dependent on electricity...and it uses very little gas.
Initial outlay is high...but IMO worth it.
Quote: Originally posted by CamperTate on 05/8/2011
We go on EHU and have a Mobicool coolbox W35 it is fab and actually keeps things cooler than our fridge at home.
It can fit loads in and does us really well for picnics etc. as it can run from the car.
It has 2 settings, cold and even colder (economy and not economy).
Woudln't be without it!
I'll go with that, purchased one this year, fantastic..
keeps food and drink real cool,also very quite running, two weeks camping in Uplyme back last week and only a small amount of water in bottom of case, at the end of the holiday £87 P&p Great value
Quote: Originally posted by gingercol on 05/8/2011
A little tip is to put the ice blocks on top as the cool air goes to bottom . Also cool the cool box first by putting fozen milk cartons filled with water inside for a couple of days . Make sure the stuff you want to keep cool is chilled before you put it in the cool box These tips i got from here and makes my ice blocks last a couple of days even our old cool box .We now have the coleman extreme 6 day cool box which is large but good enough for a week.
Top class tip , Ice blocks should go on the top , there is a place in the lid for them on most cool boxes & yes cool the box before using it ,
We use a Waeco CoolFreeze CF25, works just like a regular fridge, as it is a compressor unit like a domestic fridge, but designed for portable use.
I guess a domestic table top fridge, would do much the same job, but the CF25 is uber compact and will run of 12/24v or mains.
We got lucky with the CF25 at £150 brand new in the box, had that bargain not come my way, I would have gone for a £90 table top fridge, for use on our fortnight campings, in the South of France during July.
But it's nice to have a pukka portable fridge, in use for the 1000 mile drive to the campsite.
Ummm...a fridge lol! Got a table top one, lovely and efficient and totally silent :)
For non EHU trips a colman extreme.
TCx
------------- “It is great to be a blonde. With low expectations it's very easy to surprise people.”
Vango and Outwell Tents > VW Camper and various Vango and Outwell awnings dependent on stay location and duration > Bailey Pegasus Grande SE Brindisi and Vango Air Awning.
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i got a small table top fridge although it isnt very small works brilliant and gets down to 0c with 20c ambient nice and quite too got it for free when working at a tesco (im a fridge engineer) had a electric coolbox the cheap ones you get for £30 from go outdoors etc they dont cool very well at the best of times and they get annoyingly noisy
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Topic: Refrigeration
