Fridge / cool box

Ricko · 2017-01-23 18:32:32

Hi
I'm not going to have room for a fitted fridge and am thinking of a powered cool box, do any forum members have any recommendations or observations?
I'm thinking of keeping it in the back for travelling and lifting it into the front over night.

Futon bought ready to be cannibalised for bed with storage, smart relay arrived today ready for my 12v battery and lighting.

Cheers

Casper · 2017-01-23 19:12:57

Put a power socket as well in the back. You cab fag lighter goes off with the ignition. Funny i just ordered this today for my van

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371716528192? … Tags=bu=bu

I also had one in my expert what worked a treat. Only issue was my 2nd night the leisure battery died (75ah) but it turned out i forgot to earth it. Next day at a garage i bought a Fag lighter extension for a coupld of €'s and stripped it down for the wire. If anyone is looking for a cheap split charge i was emailing the seller who says you could use up to 180ah battery on this system. I am only getting a 110 so went for the same again.

Last edited by Casper (2017-01-23 19:33:50)

Watergypsy · 2017-01-23 22:53:53

Ricko wrote:

Hi
I'm not going to have room for a fitted fridge and am thinking of a powered cool box, do any forum members have any recommendations or observations?
I'm thinking of keeping it in the back for travelling and lifting it into the front over night.
Futon bought ready to be cannibalised for bed with storage, smart relay arrived today ready for my 12v battery and lighting.
Cheers

I have a 36l Electrolux cool box, my experience is it works fine for me on 12v for a weekend away racing.
It keeps the beers and meat cool whilst the van is running on the journey to the event. I add a few ice packs just to keep it cool a bit longer

It draws a lot of power and won't run unless engine is running or 240v hook up is available,
so in my experience it wouldn't be very usable for more than a few days away in summer

Casper · 2017-01-24 00:00:53

You got a leisure battery Watergypsy? Be interested to know how long it would take to drain one. Guy on facebook says he leaves his plugged on on his main battery aver night and its fine. Unsure if he is full of shit but it may be handy if it is the case.

OAT · 2017-01-24 00:44:26

I have been looking into this as I can't get my old 2 way dometic working. Found this somewhere and copied it for reference.

Many coolboxes use about 50 watt per hour, which at 12v is 4.2 ah per hour. An 85ah battery in decent nick should be good for 10-12 hrs. A compressor type fridge/coolbox at more like 10 watt per hour could do more like 40 hrs on leisure.

I wouldn't want to risk my starter battery though. Not if off grid anyway. They do run flat out all the time they are connected though and often don't need to. Once well chilled shutting down and switching back on every hour or so can greatly stretch out your valuable 12v.

As might one of these:-

http://tinyurl.com/gwhqpcn

Last edited by OAT (2017-01-24 00:48:57)

Watergypsy · 2017-01-24 02:02:47

Casper wrote:

You got a leisure battery Watergypsy? Be interested to know how long it would take to drain one. Guy on facebook says he leaves his plugged on on his main battery aver night and its fine. Unsure if he is full of shit but it may be handy if it is the case.

Hi Casper, no I am not running a leisure battery. I have just checked and it's a powergaz not Electrolux the same as this one https://www.outdooraction.co.uk/camping … 0wodtB0Mhw
It only runs if engine is running! if not it just shows a red light.

Take from this as you like, this is just my own experience.

Casper · 2017-01-24 07:11:10

Cheers OAT. That power usage/drain is quite interesting and promising.

I was looking at them at GoOutdoors Watergypsy and they are around that price also. Some are 12/24v and a 240 adaptor what will be handy. This will be a late summer purchase but i will keep an eye out as i think i said here, Tesco and Aldi/Lidl sell them around £30 at the start of the summer for the past two years. If they do 240v as well i may grab one.

tee_cee · 2017-01-24 18:00:51

The consumption figures look about right.
The standard thermoelectric coolboxes take about 4 or 5 amps - continuously, and will cool 15-20C below ambient (which isn't a lot of use when the inside of the van is 35C!) . Since an 85Ah battery only realistically gives you about 50% of the rating, this equates to about 10hours.

Waeco tropicool boxes are a little more sophisticated - cooling by 30C below ambient and using a theromostat to switch on and off, claiming to get down to and equivalent of 2A an hour, which would be 20 hours on the leisure battery

Waeco Coolfreeze compressor boxes will cool down like a regular fridge, consuming abut 3A when running - but the difference is that once its down to temperature, and depending on the ambient temp, it can take very little to run. Usually less than 1A per hour - which would give 40 hours on the leisure battery.

Of course the Waeco boxes cost a small fortune, so it depends on how much use you are going to get out of it.
Personally I've used all 3 types, and wished I'd just spent the money on a compressor at the beginning.

One thing that I would say is that any wiring to the coolbox should be as big as possible (10mm 75A) - once cables are routed they can be quite long, and the voltage drop can be significant, especially when compressors startup.

Casper · 2017-01-24 19:16:42

Waeco Coolfreeze compressor boxes. Cheapest one so far just on a quick Google is 300 quid yikes Sounds like a good investment if i were away a lot. Ill keep an eye out on the 2nd hand market as well.

tee_cee · 2017-03-01 01:59:14

In case anyone is interested, you can get the Waeco CDF11 compressor fridge freeze form Amazon France for 269 Euros plus 12 Euro delivery. Comes out at just under £240 - cheapest in the UK is £300. Be quick there is only 2 left and this is the lowest price it has been there . This can also double up as a small freezer at home also (had to think of something else to justify the cost)
This is what it looks like in place

amazon.png?force=1&zero=0&w=725&h=440&desired=false&legend=1&ilt=1&tp=all&fo=0&lang=en

monkeynut · 2017-03-01 21:14:36

Crikey that’s a wad n half nearly half the price of my van, i just have a neat little space between the gas bottle and water , did the job in my T3 and Rascal and now my scudo smile

tee_cee · 2017-03-03 16:47:09

Hadn't noticed in the picture, that the coolbox is in fact nestled between 2 standard seats - unfortunately not enough room with swivel seats sad

tee_cee · 2017-03-18 11:38:25

Amazon.fr have dropped the price again to 249 Euros - it's £324 on the UK site!
Also the one I opened, put it back in the box & returned is now on the Amazon.fr Warehouse for 220 euros - bringing it in at about £200 delivered.

wookey · 2017-09-24 19:53:29

I've got one of the waeco compressor fridge/coolboxes. Bought it 15 years ago, but looks like they haven't changed much. Mine is the CF-18: https://www.getawaeco.com.au/index.php? … &itemid=37

It's a very nice bit of kit (should be as they are not cheap - I got mine ex-demo for £220 rather then the £400 they normally were then). It's been great. Solid, reliable, makes things nice and cold if you ask it (The fridge can freeze things if you turn it up to full waz and drive for a few hours. ). Built-in low-voltage turn-off is very useful.

For many years we used it just when driving, but eventually I got my leisure batteries wired up so now we can use it when parked too. We get about a day or so of cooling on a hot day, maybe two before the batt is too low-voltage.

You can hear the compressor if you run it at night (we don't). It uses 55W when running IIRC. And in practive I reckon it runs something like 1/4 of the time, so typical equivalent continuous usage of maybe 15W?

If you put a couple of extra water bottles in to store some 'cold' we find that actually just running it when moving is enough cooling for most circumstances. This works fine unless you want to go somewhere for several days without moving (or are paranoid about things every getting a bit warm from time to time).

I did modify mine to have separate LEDs for power and running. It came with just one, which was really unhelpful. Maybe that's been improved sometime in the last 15 years?

Last edited by wookey (2017-09-24 19:58:05)

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#1 2017-01-23 18:32:32

Fridge / cool box

#2 2017-01-23 19:12:57

Re: Fridge / cool box

#3 2017-01-23 22:53:53

Re: Fridge / cool box

#4 2017-01-24 00:00:53

Re: Fridge / cool box

#5 2017-01-24 00:44:26

Re: Fridge / cool box

#6 2017-01-24 02:02:47

Re: Fridge / cool box

#7 2017-01-24 07:11:10

Re: Fridge / cool box

#8 2017-01-24 18:00:51

Re: Fridge / cool box

#9 2017-01-24 19:16:42

Re: Fridge / cool box

#10 2017-03-01 01:59:14

Re: Fridge / cool box

#11 2017-03-01 21:14:36

Re: Fridge / cool box

#12 2017-03-03 16:47:09

Re: Fridge / cool box

#13 2017-03-18 11:38:25

Re: Fridge / cool box

#14 2017-09-24 19:53:29

Re: Fridge / cool box

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