Electric cool boxes and camping

troll35

Does anyone here have an electric coolbox? We are considering buying one to take camping but can't decide what size/sort to go for and just how practical they are.
We have only gone camping for weekends so far. We have a large soft cool bag and what I usually do is take a mixture of frozen (sausages, bread) and fresh foods (sandwich fillings etc). I also freeze a couple of 2L pop bottles containing water. These keep the coolbag cool for a whole weekend usually (in fact there is usually still some ice in the bottles when we are packing away).
Later this month we will be going camping for a fortnight. Obviously my frozen pop bottles won't stay frozen that long, so we need an alternative for keeping things like butter, milk and the next mornings breakfast fresh.

Advice from OS campers would be welcome, thanks

catnap53

We bought one about 10 years ago. Connected via cigar lighter while travelling, then with electric hook up on the site. Definitely a good buy. We don't go camping any more but it still comes in handy as a spare fridge for parties and Christmas!

Oh and when we stay at a room only hotel (Travelodge type when they are on special offer) so we can have cereal for breakfast and make up packed lunches, cheapskate that I am!

And for defrosting the fridge/freezer. Got a small one as well last year from Asda (I think it was about 28 pounds) for days out or taking foodstuffs to eldest daughter when we go to stay, as the journey is at least 6 hours and it is more manageable for me.

Zzzz

csarina

We have a cool box which we use when travelling, it works for the cigar lighter in the car and we got an adaptor from Halfords so we can also use it on power, it works very well and keeps the food cold, you can also use it to keep hot food hot, We travelled to the south of France this year and took hard frozen food with us, we took 2 days to travel down and the food had just started to thaw when we came to unpack the box. I also use the frozen food trick in a cool bag and have done for years, we used to camp with 4 children. I used to get something frozen every day, which we then cooked for supper.........

We use ours at travel lodges too...........

sillyvixen

my parents have one of these and they find it good.. there are plug points in my dads boot as the fridge they have in their caravan is gas and cant be used on a 5 hour drive to cornwall! the origional one they got from a car boot and broke after 7 years, so they got a new one and assumed it worked in the same way - wrong - it had 2 settings one to chill and one to keep warm - imagine their supprise after a 5 hour journey opening the boot to the smell of cooking bacon!! everything had to be chucked but they now understand the settings and it is a godsend - we even use it at christmas as an extra fridge (there is a spegcial plug in the garage to run it) :rotfl:my dad was an electrical engineer!!

savvy

Yep we've got one, it's been fantastic...........just don't forget it and leave it plugged into your car all night!

buyitall

We've got one - bought it at Aldi last year - and it worked fine when we used it non-stop for 3 weeks in hot weather in South of France. I would get the one that comes with a mains adapter, not just the car lighter adapter. They were on special offer for £29 at Go Outdoors the other week (think we paid about that much at Aldi on their weekly specials, but they are normally about £49). Thanks to others for their ideas of using it around the home, I have never thought of using it for anything other than camping!

troll35

Thanks everyone, my only concern now is that we haven't booked an electric hook up at either of the campsites we are using as we don't have any electric camping gear. Just wondering if the travelling around will be enough to keep basics cool (along with my ice packs of course).
Am I right in thinking that many campsites provide facilities for freezing iceblocks? or am I just being hopeful?

Fife_Flyer

troll35 wrote: »

Does anyone here have an electric coolbox? We are considering buying one to take camping but can't decide what size/sort to go for and just how practical they are.
We have only gone camping for weekends so far. We have a large soft cool bag and what I usually do is take a mixture of frozen (sausages, bread) and fresh foods (sandwich fillings etc). I also freeze a couple of 2L pop bottles containing water. These keep the coolbag cool for a whole weekend usually (in fact there is usually still some ice in the bottles when we are packing away).
Later this month we will be going camping for a fortnight. Obviously my frozen pop bottles won't stay frozen that long, so we need an alternative for keeping things like butter, milk and the next mornings breakfast fresh.

Advice from OS campers would be welcome, thanks

From past experience, many campsites do provide an ice pack freezing service which is OK if you have sufficient spare ice packs to keep swapping them over. It may be worthwhile checking with the site you will be staying at though to see if they do provide this service and if there is a charge for it. We managed a whole fortnight a few years back using this method with just an ordinary cool box whilst staying at a Camping club site in Wales.

If the weather is particularly hot, it may pay to only buy and store the minimum amount of perishable food and use it up on a daily basis.

I've never used one of the 12 volt coolers, but I would imagine that unless you're driving a fair way every day, then taking it with you and plugging it into the car's 12 volt socket won't be especially effective. Not only that, if it is hot, any benefits may be outweighed by leaving the cooler in a hot car whilst you're out and about. However, if you can wangle an electric hook-up at your intended campsite, then one of these would quite possibly be effective. Of course, you would need the appropriate hook-up cables and circuit breaker etc. and would need to bear in mind that there is often a considerable daily charge for a hook-up which may seem wasteful if you're only running a cooler on it...

Although it's not very MSE in the short term because of the initial purchase costs, a better option (if you are going to go away regularly and/or for longer periods) may be to consider getting a 3-way fridge that you can cool down on the mains at home before you travel, use on the car's 12 volt whilst travelling and then run on LPG once you are at camp. This is my preferred option these days and one I find works very well.

Whichever method you choose, have a great holiday!

Andy_Hamilton

I have used one and it was OK at keeping things cool. Best thing I have done is to fill the box with frozen juice (nothing fizzy). It can then be left off at night saving battery power and after about 4 days you can drink ice cold juice. Much better than Ice blocks which are dead space.

Keeping_Positive

Depending on budget then you can get 3 way fridges that run on mains. car battery and gas. They do cost a bit though. Ive just brought this as my electic one cant be run for 24 hours without iceing up and then defrosting over the food. http://campervanaccessories.co.uk/royal-absorption-fridge-mains-p-279.html

Have a look at www.ukcampsite.co.uk for advice and tips.