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12v Cool boxes - recommendations?


Jennifer McM

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During Autumn to early Spring the locker in the cratch works really well for fruit/veg storage, but not so when the weather warms up for obv. reasons.

 

Now it's time for lazy salad days, having not enough room in the fridge cos it's full of other stuff, and seeing that I don't like having to plan for stopping at a shop every couple of days, I'm thinking that a 12v cool box just might do 'the trick'. Some cool-boxes I've seen will keep food around 20C below the ambient temperature, and some will also work on both 240v/12v. 

 

Wondering if anyone has any thoughts, or experience of them?

 

During the glorious summer of last year, I bought a two different types of non-electric cool-boxes, swapping freezer packs when I could. They weren't a success :( 

 

What we did find though, no matter what the temperature, the solid non-electric cool-box kept tinnies at a cool/drinkable temperature surprisingly, and without any freezer packs.

Edited by Jennifer McM
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We used a campingaz 12v cool box when we used to go camping. It kept milk and other fresh items ok and we ran it via a 240v adapter so we could plug in to the mains hook up in the tent.

 

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7 minutes ago, Jennifer McM said:

During Autumn to early Spring the locker in the cratch works really well for fruit/veg storage, but not so when the weather warms up for obv. reasons.

 

Now it's time for lazy salad days, having not enough room in the fridge cos it's full of other stuff, and seeing that I don't like having to plan for stopping at a shop every couple of days, I'm thinking that a 12v cool box just might do 'the trick'. Some cool-boxes I've seen will keep food around 20C below the ambient temperature, and some will also work on both 240v/12v. 

 

Wondering if anyone has any thoughts, or experience of them?

 

During the glorious summer of last year, I bought a two different types of non-electric cool-boxes, swapping freezer packs when I could. They weren't a success :( 

 

What we did find though, no matter what the temperature, the solid non-electric cool-box kept tinnies at a cool/drinkable temperature surprisingly, and without any freezer packs.

 

CHECK VERY CAREFULY

 

I have yet to see one that is actually thermostatically controlled - they are running continuously and are very, very, thirsty.

The one I took out of our boat was drawing 7 amps continuously - have that on for a day and you need a 350Ah battery bank just for the cooler.

 

I have one for the car for carrying 'stuff' when we go down to Plymouth. It is a small one (holds 4-6 2 litre bottles of pop) and draws a continuous 4 amps.

It is only used when the engine is running.

 

The 240v ones do have a thermostat.

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When we had the last shareboat, we bought a mains/12 volt DC one from Aldi's for about £40 (it was my first ever Aldi purchase and we had to travel miles to the nearest one).

 

It served its purpose by keeping food, wine and beer reasonably cool during the 2-6 hour drive to the boat. However they do consume quite a lot of electricity.

Edited by cuthound
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Just now, Alan de Enfield said:

Why ?

 

They do free delivery for items over £20 (it used to be FOC for any value, but they introduced a MOV a couple of years ago)

 

This was when they first started up in the UK. They didn't do delivery back then and the store was in a small existing shop in Egham High Street.

 

Now they have purpose built out of town stores and an internet presence.

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18 minutes ago, Jennifer McM said:

Thank you for the heads up, looks like another one of my 'bright ideas' has bit the dust :( 

 

 

You could add some more solar just to power it? There was a forum member selling some recently ? ;)

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3 hours ago, Jennifer McM said:

Been called worse ?

Not necessarily. The cool boxes most people have talked about use Peltier coolers cum heaters (depending upon which way round you connect the unit) and they do consume lots of power and may well have no thermostat. Ideal for keeping things cool while travelling to your camp site with the alternator providing for the load. However I have seen and I think it was on here that cool boxes can be found with a 12V compressor unit but I think they will be very expensive so you might as well buy a 12V fridge or get sufficient solar to run a fridge or cool box during the day.

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25 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

@Jennifer McM have you considered a non powered cool box and popping a couple of those ice block things in each morning chilled in your regular fridge overnight? Or maybe one in the box and one in the fridge swapped during the course of the day?

Errr

 

"During the glorious summer of last year, I bought a two different types of non-electric cool-boxes, swapping freezer packs when I could. They weren't a success :( "

 

:)

it's easy to do

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'Tis one of the negatives in trying to translate modern house living conditions and requirements into what really is an uprated camping environment.

 You can get pretty well close to it, but some compromises have to be met.

My Management (and I) dislike having to shop too frequently (requiring stopping in places that we would otherwise have passed by) and thus fitted a fridge freezer (big tall and spoils the ambience) - but it's blurry good in freezing ice blocks - apart from One's G&T  - and which can be used for keeping bulky items cool in an appropriate container.

A pointless comment for folks currently inconvenienced - but may be of help to newcomers...      

If anyone reads old threads (or any) that is.

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7 hours ago, Rob-M said:

We used a campingaz 12v cool box when we used to go camping. It kept milk and other fresh items ok and we ran it via a 240v adapter so we could plug in to the mains hook up in the tent.

 

We bought one of these when our fridge packed up a year or so ago. It kept stuff cool, but the cooling thing ran 24/7. This was OK for a few days during a time of crisis at home, but would not be satisfactory on the boat.

 

Spend £500 on a fridge. It’s a tough call at the time but the money spent is forgotten over time, and the fridge remains for years.

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3 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

Not necessarily. The cool boxes most people have talked about use Peltier coolers cum heaters (depending upon which way round you connect the unit) and they do consume lots of power and may well have no thermostat. Ideal for keeping things cool while travelling to your camp site with the alternator providing for the load. However I have seen and I think it was on here that cool boxes can be found with a 12V compressor unit but I think they will be very expensive so you might as well buy a 12V fridge or get sufficient solar to run a fridge or cool box during the day.

Thanks for the tip Tony. Basically I'm looking for something for the hottest time of the year, which could be a weekend or 4 months (? for 4 monghs :) )

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3 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

@Jennifer McM have you considered a non powered cool box and popping a couple of those ice block things in each morning chilled in your regular fridge overnight? Or maybe one in the box and one in the fridge swapped during the course of the day?

I tried this for a week or so, problem was the condensation, inside the box became sodden, turning salad stuff into mush within a day or so. But it was an exceptionally hot last summer.

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2 hours ago, tree monkey said:

Errr

 

"During the glorious summer of last year, I bought a two different types of non-electric cool-boxes, swapping freezer packs when I could. They weren't a success :( "

 

:)

it's easy to do

Yeah  see,  good idea innit! :D

 

 

(sorry!) :)

 

1 minute ago, Jennifer McM said:

I tried this for a week or so, problem was the condensation, inside the box became sodden, turning salad stuff into mush within a day or so. But it was an exceptionally hot last summer.

Yeah, see, daft idea innit!  :D

 

(Oh heck!) ;)

 

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9 minutes ago, Jennifer McM said:

Thanks for the tip Tony. Basically I'm looking for something for the hottest time of the year, which could be a weekend or 4 months (? for 4 monghs :) )

Are you struggling for the money for a fridge, or struggling to justify the cost?

 

if the latter, if you buy one for £500, use it for 4 months a year, and it lasts 5 years, it will have cost about 85p a day, (it should last much longer than 5 years :) ).

 

 

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14 minutes ago, Richard10002 said:

Are you struggling for the money for a fridge, or struggling to justify the cost?

 

if the latter, if you buy one for £500, use it for 4 months a year, and it lasts 5 years, it will have cost about 85p a day, (it should last much longer than 5 years :) ).

 

 

I've got a fridge/freezer, unfortunately I don't have space for another fridge. I'm looking for a way of storing fruit/veg for the hottest months of the year - normally I keep them in the locker in the cratch which works really well, but it's getting a bit warm in there now. It's a temporary thing, only for a few months.  Fridge/freezer has other food stored, salad/veg takes up a lot of room. and doesn't really need the colder storage of a fridge. :) 

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22 minutes ago, Jennifer McM said:

I've got a fridge/freezer, unfortunately I don't have space for another fridge. I'm looking for a way of storing fruit/veg for the hottest months of the year - normally I keep them in the locker in the cratch which works really well, but it's getting a bit warm in there now. It's a temporary thing, only for a few months.  Fridge/freezer has other food stored, salad/veg takes up a lot of room. and doesn't really need the colder storage of a fridge. :) 

You know how they managed this in the old day, right? Tins!

 

Crikey, you've already got a freezer more than most of us and a fridge and freezer more than many. Talk about first world problems...!  :D

 

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1 minute ago, Sea Dog said:

You know how they managed this in the old day, right? Tins!

 

Crikey, you've already got a freezer more than most of us and a fridge and freezer more than many. Talk about first world problems...!  :D

 

Sounds silly now doesn't it ?

 

Think it's best to make more use of Google maps and visit shops more often! ?

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