Wondering if anyone has any advice. I'm looking at coolboxes and/or fridges for 2/3 day camping trips, for just me and my partner. I was looking at non electric ones - coleman and igloo seem to be popular. But realise I've got a working leisure battery at home and wondered whether I could utilise this? Is there a box that work off 12v batteries and works non electrically? Also, how would I connect the battery to the fridge, the battery would need a crocodile clip and the fridges look as though they're 3 pinned. Any help most appreciated!
We used a Coleman xtreme passive coolbox for a few years and they work very well. Just put a bag of supermarket ice cubes in every other day and remove the drain plug to empty the water.
We also bought a compressor coolbox for our Benidorm trips but you'd need a decent solar set up or electric hook up for that.
Don't even think of running a fridge or coolbox off a leisure battery unless it is a compressor-driven one. The cheaper type will completely flatten a battery in just a few hours. I found that out to my cost some years ago when I took an electric coolbox on my river cruiser and ran it off my leisure battery. Cruising down the river was fine as the engine was running, but when I moored up for the night my battery was flat in less than 3 hours! It probably wasn't the best of batteries but it ran all the lights and pumps without any problems. We live and learn.
We have a Waeco CF25 compressor fridge which we got back in 2008, superb small portable fridge, we have run it in the car for months, no fear of it draining the car battery as the fridge has has built in battery protection.
The Waeco will run of my 120Ah SLA battery for five days straight, before the battery reaches 50% capacity, my battery is in a portable battery box, that has Anderson powerpole panel mounted output, so I simply plug the fridge into the battery box using a Anderson to cigarette type socket adapter.
We got lucky with the Waeco, it was brand new in the box and cost £150 plus £20 shipping from Portsmouth to Manchester.
I know that they are expensive to buy new now, Waeco are a brand of the Dometic group who also have the Mobicool brand, so the Mobicool MCF-40 is also a very good compressor fridge.
As ever decent kit costs, and portable compressor fridges are right up there, I can only speak from experience and would have no other type of fridge for camping.
For 2 or 3 days at a time I wouldn't complicate things with a powered box. Just go for an extreme or igloo. Don't get one that's too big - you don't want to be wasting "chill" on airspace.
We have a coleman extreme and a halfords peltier type box (for longer trips). There are limits to what a peltier type box can do but they are cheap to buy and if you are using campsite mains the high drain isn't an issue. See here for a reasonable procon analysis:
We purchased a Halfords 40l cool box many years ago that works off mains and 12v and found it to be very effective. Probably one of the best coolboxes we have ever owned.
We now have a caravan with tall fridge so no need for the coolbox which now resides in the garage. Need to put it up for sale sometime.
Ours is an xtreme 36 good size for 2 of us. You have to buy ice every few days anyway so easy to restock if needed.
Beer cans will soon fill it up if there's two of you drinking for a couple of days, I'd look at the dimensions first and see how many fit in 😊😎
Pre-chill everything before putting the items into the cool box.
Before I load my thermo-electric coolbox, I would run it empty overnight to allow it to cool.
Frozen milk in plastic cartons can be very useful as ice blocks when they defrost slowly in the coolbox.
Be careful not to freeze wine in glass bottles or beer in cans as they can explode!
Use bubble wrap to minimise the risk of ice blocks coming into contact with delicate items such as salad leaves as they can freeze and turn into mush.
DK
------------- Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest & Play!
- 2027: ? NL+DE+FR
- 2026: FR+DE
- 2025: 17/77
'24: 10/49; '23: 9/47;'22: 8/46; '21: 9/34
* Ex-tenter
* Treat life events like a dog: if you can't eat it, play with it or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away!
Forgot to mention, as posted by another member Halfords have a 30lt 12/24v compressor camping fridge at £250 which to be fair is a good price, does not come with mains adapter but the 24v (3.5 amp) Waeco EPS100 £80! would power it of the mains, or a decent 12v 7.50 amp mains adapter would also do the job, in fact you can get 24v 4amp Laptop style bricks for less than £15 just a case of changing the barrel plug to a inline cigarette socket, the cheap 12v Coleman cool box mains adapters are not suitable.
The reason for the Waeco 24v supply being so expensive, apart from the brand is that it has battery connection in the event of a mains outage, not a feature many would require.
Quote: Originally posted by Fjones86 on 08/6/2021
Has anyone used the vango pinnacle ones? Can't get the other ones in time..
They look ok for the money, insulation looks thinner than the coleman and there's no mention of a drain for the meltwater, but vango products are usually OK.
Amazon user reviews: 6 ratings all 5 out of 5 but no written reviews.
Like others we have two. A Coleman Extreme and a plug in cooler we bought from Aldi. The latter has both a standard plug and a cigarette lighter built in. If we have electric hook-up we'll use the latter and if not the former. They each come into their own in those two scenarios and do not in the opposite and we found out. The purchase of the latter came from a side-by-side comparison of our Coleman box and a neighbour's bog-standard plug-in box on a cold and raining camping trip in Devon a few years back and their was no comparison.
When it comes to buying a either coolbox, experience has told us that there is very little difference between the different brands.
The last think I will say, is that if you are camping without a hookup and have a non-electric coolbox and have no way to replenish the ice blocks/cubes when they run out then you are left with little more than a cupboard.
Unfortunately, I think it is difficult to get a best of both worlds unless you are wanting to spend £££££ and happy to have a very bulky item. When it comes the to leisure battery all you need is the right adapter to plug in what ever type of plug you have.
People tend to think of fridges and coolboxes as pretty much the same thing, but they are not really. A fridge should be able to maintain a temp of 0-4C to keep perishable foods safe, a coolbox with ice (including the electric variety) will just be cooler than the ambient temp, and may not be at a safe temp for perishable food storage!
The electric coolboxes will only cool (unaided by additional ice/ice packs) to something like 18C below ambient (ie. 28C ambient = 10-15C in box) at best, they are very slow to cool, very inefficient and power hungry, you can't run them off a battery alone (not all have a battery discharge protection cut out to stop battery damage and they'll all kill a car/leisure battery in a few hours), they need a 240v mains adaptor or running engine in a vehicle. Best think of them as a way of extending the life of ice packs for a few more hours if running from sustainable power source.
A 12v camping compressor fridge will run for days off a car/leisure battery, most if not all have battery protection cut outs.
3-way (Absorption type) fridges are power hungry on electric, so again on 12v will kill a (off charge) battery in hours. They are fine on 240v mains and 12v with car engine running, and great on gas (either Calor type cylinder or a model available that takes disposable cartridges). They are slower to chill down than compressor fridges. You also need to use in a ventilated space (tent porch OK, not main enclosed space!) if running on gas as potentially lethal Carbon Monoxide from gas exhaust.
The high end passive coolboxes will keep ice/ice packs frozen for couple of days if you only put pre-chilled items in box and don't open too often. They work pretty well if you can keep them supplied with ice/ice packs as needed.
I've got/used all types and perhaps ought to mention that if you want to use them as 'beer fridges' with frequent opening and replenishing with 'warm' stock, then you compromise their safe food storage capabilities considerably. The compressor fridges are the most capable in that scenario as they have quickest cooling capability.
I've used a huge Igloo as a beer fridge (in France), we freeze a load of 1l/2l ice cream tubs of water at home (in England), and the box lid has a hatch so you don't let all the cold out every time you open lid, that copes for a couple of days with a LOT of opening and warm beer going in!
IMHO, for 2 - 3 day stint's, a high end passive coolbox with lots of ice and pre-chilled items should suffice, otherwise if budget will stretch then a compressor fridge or 3-way fridge on gas. Forget the 'electric coolbox'.
Yes, worth mentioning that there is some debate over whether it makes sense to put ice in a peltier type box while it is running - I think it defeats the point regardless of the fact its thought to have safety risks I dont like that you end up with puddles.
With a peltier type box we've been camping in really hot hot hot weather and it hasnt gone over 4.5 degrees at any point even when in the tent at well over 30 degrees, which is way more effective than the limits set by the relative cooling principle that is supposed to restrict the effective operation of the device - I cant explain this but I wonder if it's to do with the existing cold mass of the contents, in which case it's possible that by "cooling" its actually "warming", either way have never hit 5% even on boiling hot days - and the range has only been +/- not even a degree. You can also help by leaving these things in the shade (shade moves!) and remember how much of your fridge contents dont need to be kept cool - ketchup, jam, etc, and tomatoes are always best kept out of the fridge.
For 3 day trips a good passive coolbox is your best option - no fussing around with power supplies, not overpriced, efficient with space - but it must be a good one. Freeze some of your beer cans just remember not to accidentally open any undefrosted ones! Good tip is to use it as your shopping basket then everything is kept cool right from point of purchase. Also remember even small corner shops stock beers etc already chilled nowadays. For only a couple of days a tub full of ice and cold stuff wrapped in few blankets will do - honest!!
Dont buy anything too big - you dont want to be chilling air if you can help it.
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: Suggestions for fridge/ coolbox
via mobile 07/6/2021 at 10:08pm
