Advice on 12v fridges

[mickmac_42 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mickmac_42]

I was wandering through BCF yesterday and stumbled across this deal. http://catalogue.bcf.com.au/offer/ic...+60L+RV+Fridge

I was about to do an impulse buy when i realised it was not a fridge/freezer combo. This gave me cause to question whether i really need a freezer. For the life of me, i can't think of what i'd actually need to freeze. Most of our camping trips last no longer than 4 days. So i thought i'd throw it out to the masses for your comment.

What do you use the freezer section for, do you use it often, and would you prefer the extra fridge space?

Mike

[D4D Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close D4D]

There's typically about 4 degrees difference in most fridges top to bottom. We set our 50L Waeco around 0-1 and find that if we have pre-frozen stuff at the bottom it stays frozen and the stuff at the top stays cold and doesn't freeze. I also use a piece of coreflute between the frozen food and the fridge food, if that makes sense. I've only used ours as a freezer when we've had a gathering at home and needed more freezer space.

[SOL Find all posts View Profile Close SOL]

I used to have a trail blazer fridge. It was the best. bottom froze top cooled. Put some little blocks in the corners that came a third the way up and then had a sheet of tin with a few finger holes in it I would drop in as a false floor. Basket for your cold gear. Lift out get your frozen stuff and off you go.

So if you set your fridge up right you will not need a freezer for normal stuff. But if you do long trips it might be handy.

SOL.

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

We travelled for anything up to a month at a time only running the fridge, capacity to carry more than a weeks worth of food in a mid size fridge is difficult, plan your meals so chicken and the like is eaten early and food that lasts longer towards the end of the week.

In recent years with the purchase of a second fridge we now run one as a fridge and 1 as a freezer, the main reason is so we don't have to spend as much of our precious holiday time in supermarkets, on our 8 week Cape York trip a couple of years ago we only bought meat once at around the half way mark of the trip whilst in cairns. This also has the advantage of being able to buy food in larger towns with better choice and prices.

Cryovacing is another good alternate to freezing, probably the way we will go for our next extended trip, means we can just run 2 fridges so less power draw on the system.

for shorter trips, freeze some of the food at the start and place it at the bottom of the fridge, it will likely stay part frozen for a fe wdays at least.

Cheers Andrew

[Wombat1 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Wombat1]

I can only say from experience, I have an Evakool Fridgemate 55ltr and had it now for 6 years with little trouble. It can run as either fridge or freezer by removing the divider. It can also run in combination being a Fridge and Freezer.

I have recently done a 5 day trip with the ambient temp at 40 dec at times and running it on both the eco setting and normal settings, the freezer did not drop below -8.9 dec and the fridge was got no hotter than +2.7 dec or better. ( Nothing got hot or spoilt over this period)

Overall it is dependent on how many people you need to look after, I carried enough frozen food and other, for the five days with little trouble for 2 - 4 people. If I was to buy another fridge I'd probably by a 95ltr Evakool Fridgemate for that longer trip.


The original reason I bought this fridge freezer combo was the efficiencies compared with others that were available then. I will not get into the debate of whether one manufactures fridge/freezer is better than an others, because that is each ones own opinon.

Have a look at their website and have look at their products. http://www.evakool.com.au/home

I can recommend the Evakool Fridgemate fridge and freezer combo, just from my experiences, but as they say each to their own.

One thing to remember and a lot of people will not tell you this, air will kill a fridges (also Eskies) capacity to run efficiently, so if you take something out e.g. drink - replace it with another. (Saying this though, just before going away tested the unit with nothing inside running full bore - the freezer got to -27.7 dec with the ambient temp no lower than 24.5dec)

I hope this has helped a little.

[mickmac_42 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mickmac_42]

Great information guys. Exactly what I was after.

Mike

[pete8205 Member Find all posts View Profile Close pete8205]

In my expierence I wouldn't worry about freezer alot of wasted space for the odd time you will want ice blocks.
I run a 60lt engel on a 5 wk trip up the cape Carried enough meet for 2 for the entire trip we just get our meat cryovaced by our local butcher most butchers will do this. Just put some newspaper between the meet and the other items to help control temp and stop warm items when restocking from contacting the meat. I learnt from throwing some cans in on top of the meat.

be aware that some of the esky style fridges if your planning for longer trips as they only have the element around 1 half or at 1 end these work great when you want a fridge freezer but if you it just as fridge we found on a 4 week trip out to birdsville we found that we had to rotate the food every day to keep temps even and from freezing whats next to the element. other then that it worked well.

there exspensive to buy and set up but you will love having one just take your time and buy whats right for you.

[mickmac_42 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mickmac_42]

Thanks Pete. I've had no experience with these things, so all this user knowledge and experience is really helpful.

Mike

[REV Find all posts View Profile Close REV]

I agree with pete8205, I have a 40 lt engel and it has handled the last two GTG's without a problem. The 2011 GTG ran over six days and there were 2 adults & 2 children. I had my meat cryovaced and then frozen. This worked well, it took almost a full day to thaw a roast that had been in the fridge for two days. We bought the milk & juice in poppers and each night I would pack the fridge for the next day, including the beers and other drinks.

The GTG this year worked the same except I had a camper, so there was an esky for the beer & softdrinks. We were on the road for a bit more than three weeks and the fridge did every thing that I asked of it.

I was hoping to win one of the fridges up for grabs at the GTG as I would run it in the camper as a freezer or fridge, depending on the need at the time............But, this wasn't to be.

I am still very happy with what I have got.

Cheers
REV

[Wombat1 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Wombat1]

Hi Mickmac,
It is good to see this thread has created discussion.

I have not tried cryovacing before, but as others have said, it is meant to be the next big thing since sliced bread. (allot of my friends do it and highly recommend it)

The debate regarding the freezer element at one end, let’s say, the "Evakool" should be no problem, if you adjust the temp sensors on the fridge. (Considering that the fridge runs more like a cyclic defrost fridge than a frost free fridge, this in general should make it more efficient) The divider and dependant on different models of the Evakool, can be adjusted to suit.

As for the frozen food placed it in a fridge for a few days, you'd expect that it would remain frozen or only partly defrost over a short period. This would then be dependent on how hard you run it as a fridge and how much current you draw from your battery.

The main thing I can suggest to look at the different models from all manufactures and ther current draw (amps). Also take into consideration of whether you have a Main Battery or also a Second/Third Battery. The last thing you want to do is wake up one morning or arvo and have a flat main battery, because your fridge has murdered it.

To also let you know I have a Waeco Cf 11 Fridge and use it, just for convenience drinks. To my surprise it drew as much amps as the 55ltr Evakool did from the battery.

I know this may be complicating the situation, however can only give you feedback from my experiences and what I own. (others have already - which is good)

I hope this has helped and as previously said, I will not push a certain manufacturers product, as it is each to their own experiences.

Cheers

[pete8205 Member Find all posts View Profile Close pete8205]

with cryovacing the meat you don't need to freeze it as it is supose to to last up to 6mths refridgerated

the other thing to consider is the size how many people are you catering for and for how long you plan to go away for
I started with an engel 40lt found it great for weekenders however I have upsized to he engel 60lt to cater better with longer trips or on a weekender i can fit all our food wifes and kids drinks and almost a full case tooheys.

and I would recomend a second battery or alternate power source as you don't want to rely on your starter battery

[pete8205 Member Find all posts View Profile Close pete8205]

with cryovacing the meat you don't need to freeze it as it is supose to to last up to 6mths refridgerated

the other thing to consider is the size how many people are you catering for and for how long you plan to go away for
I started with an engel 40lt found it great for weekenders however I have upsized to he engel 60lt to cater better with longer trips or on a weekender i can fit all our food wifes and kids drinks and almost a full case tooheys.

and I would recomend a second battery or alternate power source as you don't want to rely on your starter battery

[maxjj Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close maxjj]

I sometimes buy vacuum packed meat from the abattoir, its chilled quickly the same day the beast is killed and kept in a commercial fridge between 0-2 it may well last 6month, I think they suggest about 4month. Less in a home fridge as temp is typically around 4C
After about 3-4 weeks its makes for good eating the meat has started to break down and become tender. I am talking about a whole rump, scotch fillet or porterhouse.

If you are just dealing with steaks or already cut up beef bought from the butcher and then vacuum packed etc or i would suggest its only good for about 2 weeks in a fridge or good esky.

I bought my 40ltr waeco fridge freezer over ten years ago, its been used as freezer and fridge.
I typically run it so stuff in the bottom stays frozen and beer sits on top and that worked well on numerous trips.
Now I have a van with fridge I still use it that way for small trips, but can see that for big trips I might run it as freezer only.


Its easier to start it as a freezer at the beginning of a trip and turn it into a fridge when your needs change. Certainly easier than the other way around, it takes a lot more energy to freeze stuff. For our 7 day fishing trips on the South Australian bight we take a big evacool esky with frozen water bottles ( becomes our drinking water ) and run the fridge on freeze full of frozen water bottles. The fish goes in the esky overnight and then in the waeco for freezing the frozen bottles top up the esky. Waeco is supplied by a battery and a 60w solarpanel. Works fine, once a couple of overcast days run the battery down a bit, but nothing that wasn`t fixed by putting it all pack in the car and taken it for a run to different fishing spot.
The beer and bait goes in the evacool and the ice lasts for the whole trip.


Any fridge or freezer or battery combination works as long as you understand what happens and manage it accordingly, just keep in mind with battery or fridge/freezer its hard playing catch up. Just need to plan ahead a bit.

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

Our local butcher vacuum packs our meat before we go away. We freeze it for a couple of nights and then it gradually defrosts in the gas fridge before we use it. By the second week of camping what is left is defrosted. Prior to that we would only take a week's worth of meat and then try to find somewhere reasonable to restock now we take the full two or three weeks less one or two nights for freshly caught flathead or if we are in town. I would happily keep the meat done this way for a month in the fridge in the car. It is set to -2C and varies up and down a couple of C when cycling. I could run it as a proper freezer below -5C but then that makes it a pain for drinks etc. I guess it depends where you are going and what access you have to a decent butcher. We get vacuum packed meat when we do kayak trips and again freeze the meat for a few days and use techi-ice or similar in a collapsible esky (no room for anything else). Again works well for two nights/three days without proper refrigeration meat is still cold enough. One of the guys cooks his stuff then vacuum seals it hot, freezes the meal and heats it in the bag in boiling water. That works too.

[fido666 Banned Find all posts View Profile Close fido666]

Tigerz11 also do a battery pack called the Ark Powerpack :-

http://tigerz11.com.au/categories/Ark-Powerpacks/

I have no experience with the product, just spotted it when I was out there collecting other gear.