Sorry if this seems like a silly question but we are very new to caravanning.
I am under the impression that the fridge will stay at a certain temperature when the caravan is connected to the car? If that is true does it just draw power when the car is running? We are going to France in the summer on an over night ferry and I don’t want the fridge causing the car battery to go flat but we need the fridge to be as cold as possible to keep the food fresh.
For what it's worth, many people are under the (incorrect) impression that the fridge does not chill down, but only maintains pre-chilled temp when connected to the car. What they always seem to overlook is that the absorption type fridges fitted to caravans are VERY slow to chill, and take 8-12 hours to properly chill to normal storage temperatures (on ANY power source!)! That chill time is usually far in excess of most journeys, so they whinge that the fridge didn't get cold connected to the car!
If you are transporting perishable food in it from the start of your journey, you really need to pre-chill the fridge for 8-12 hours BEFORE putting food in it, either on EHU mains, or gas, as it will otherwise not be cold enough for safe storage for many hours. It will certainly keep food safely chilled properly when driving if you pre-chill. If you can't pre-chill fridge before starting journey, freeze anything that is safely freezable to assist the fridge in chilling down during journey. Also, don't open it any more than is absolutely necessary - if you want access to food on the journey, take a cool bag/box for those items.
As said, fridge ONLY operates when car engine running (assuming BOTH car towbar and caravan are correctly wired! - with the car engine off the fridge should give an alarm at loss of power!). As it draws around 10 Amps, it would kill a car battery dead in a few hours if running off battery. As said again, Large FROZEN bottles of water (you can drink the nicely chilled water when it thaws!), or large Ice Cream tubs work well for ferry crossings or overnight parking where the fridge is not powered and you want to keep it chilled.
Some fridges will AUTOMATICALLY try to swap power source to gas on loss of car 12v (or mains EHU) supply! Make sure your gas cylinder is turned OFF at the cylinder valve - ferries do not allow running on gas when on board!
In most cases, you need your caravan 12v system switched on to provide power to the fridge controls, the onboard 12v system does not power the cooling, but is used to run the fridge controls, and without, the car 12v supply may not work at cooling!
Taking perishable foods to France!!!!! You are aware of the restrictions on taking Dairy and Meat products into the EU zone from the UK (https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/carry/meat-dairy-animal/index_en.htm)! Nearly everything is prohibited! That said, there are few checks made and many break the law without consequence!
To be honest, we usually disconnect the electrics between the car and caravan when on a ferry, our usual route is Poole - Cherbourg, probably overkill but the last thing I'd want is trying to start the car with a flat battery on a ferry!
Personally I would use a coolbag/box with frozen water bottles on top inside. Still have the fridge cooling via the car.
The shelves in the fridge have a habit of collapsing causing damage.
For the overnight ferry, we freeze 3 or 4 big bottles of water and put them in the fridge to keep the food cool on the journey. This works a treat and you can drink the water as it melts.
Quote: Originally posted by Paul and Nikki on 03/3/2025
To be honest, we usually disconnect the electrics between the car and caravan when on a ferry, our usual route is Poole - Cherbourg, probably overkill but the last thing I'd want is trying to start the car with a flat battery on a ferry!
Quote: Originally posted by Pixie_Hez on 27/3/2025
For the overnight ferry, we freeze 3 or 4 big bottles of water and put them in the fridge to keep the food cool on the journey. This works a treat and you can drink the water as it melts.
You should also have the fridge fairly full for most efficient cooling and as Monty said, keep the fridge closed during the journey. As mentioned, frozen bottles of water work a treat!
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Topic: Caravan’s fridge
via mobile 18/2/2025 at 4:53am
