Quote: Originally posted by peas1977 on 09/8/2016
Fab, thank you :)
Do find out what the Aldi one will cool to - if its 18 degrees below ambient, it wont keep your food fresh for example, if the tent heats up to say 25 degrees (and that is very possible), your milk will very likely go off. Perhaps it is worth considering something that will reduce by at least 20 as a minimum although 25 would be better, even in the UK. Ideally, fridges/coolers should be between 5 and 2 degrees.
------------- 2018 & so it begins.
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We used a Lidl thermoelectric coolbox in the Ardeche in July - and it was hot. We did have a shady pitch it must be said, but the box performed quite well.
I was a bit sceptical, having used a Coleman Extreme 5-day passive cooler in the past and been impressed with it. The electric one took up less space which earned its keep.
I topped up the box with two large ice blocks, changing them everyday which did help keep things cool. In fact, the milk I took from home, as a frozen bottle, lasted almost for the 12 days we were there - OH using it for coffee only. Now, that was unexpected. The butter stayed solid, and we survived without food poisoning.
Put only chilled things into the box or that will raise the temperature (that said, we did put in beer and it chilled down nicely over a day).
I didn't leave chicken in there longer than necessary, but for cheese, milk, salad stuffs, butter it was fine. I wouldn't have trusted the Coleman with chicken for long either.
Our second night frozen lasagne (taken from home) was still pretty much frozen on arrival at our final destination - we had the unit on 12v during the journey (great for lunch).
Fridges keep food at about 4 degrees C, so 18-20 above this would be 24 degrees.
Don't overfill, boost it with ice blocks if you can (or ice from a shop) as a bit of belts and braces and you should be fine.
Great for picnics too.
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We've got halfords own coolbox. Best bit of kit and it actually froze my cucumber and lettuce one night.
I've been known to use it at xmas when the main fridge gets full.
I use the Aldi one, on permanent loan from another UKCS member, and I can't fault it. It works well even in a very warm tent - I've never had any food go off yet and it keeps my cans of Coke nicely chilled, and in cooler early and late season temperatures it's even been known to actually freeze stuff.
------------- Tigermouse
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Quote: Originally posted by Fuchsia on 09/8/2016
We've got halfords own coolbox. Best bit of kit and it actually froze my cucumber and lettuce one night.
I've been known to use it at xmas when the main fridge gets full.
I bought a Halfords coolbox last year and have had the same thing.If you put frozen blocks in to kick it off it is virtually like a freezer.Well impressed with mine.
Forget how much I paid but it was not extortionate.
We bought a Lidl box a few years ago which has a plug and also cigarette lighter connector and used it on both. Works really well, one of my best purchases from there.
another vote for aldi one never had food go off even when very hot in the awning plus its great to plug into mains but if going away for day plug into cig lighter
Well up until this week I would have raved about my aldi coolbox (one with speed knob)
The past week its been touch and go to keep up even though I've wrapped my down jacket round it
The igloo maxicold cool box next to it is holding its head high on a bag of ice a day or 2 if i drop 18 cans of Stella in ;-) and the first if 2 bags still had some cubes left after 3 days!
We have had our Aldi one for 3 years with no issues,used it on both 240v in the tent and 12v in the car with no problems.
Now we have a van with a proper fridge, we still take the cool box to use in the awning for beer, wine and kids drinks .
Good choice, had our Aldi 12v/240v model for a good few years now, I don't use it for camping and it lives in the boot of the car 24/7 plugged into the 12v socket which is live all the time.
To prevent the unit from draining the battery, I use a Waeco Battery Monitor, which shuts the power of to the Aldi CoolBox a few minutes after the engine has stopped, great piece of kit for use with these cheapo electric cool box's.
My local Aldi has the current electric coolbox on offer at £29.99 which is a good offer.
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Topic: Electric Coolbox Recommendations
