Refridgeration When Camping

[Seahorse]

I Have Just Placed An Order For New Camper Trailer.
I Would Like To Know What Other People Do For Refridgeration.
Is There Anything Out There Thats Best To Buy?


Cheers
Greg

[Seahorse]

I have been looking everywhere for more hints on keeping things refrigerated while camping up the beach ( double island).
i dont want those 240v/12 fridges.
To expensive for what u get in size.
A gas one sounds ok but how good are they in middle of summer?
The otherthing i was thinking about was to take a 110litre bar fridge and run it of the generator as this would give me a freezer sect as well.
Has anyone done this? and how would it go if u turn it off later at night and kicked it in , early in the morning.
Probably turn it off for about8 hrs at night as it wouldnt be opened for that period of time.
Could anybody help me with this?

cheers
greg
Would this have any effect on the fridge motor?

[Flex]

Hello, I can maybe shed some light on refrigeration whilst camping. Went through the process of trying many different options over the years. we go to far north QLD every year for 2-3 weeks and have had issues on how to keep things cold.

Your best option is to get a specifically designed camping refrigeration. I have tried gas,petrol powered fridges,bar fridges and they all came well short of what you need. Gas is ok but you cant move, need em out of the wind, and need to carry lots of gas, petrol makes for a heavy fridge and bar fridges just plain suck, they simply do not get cold enough and will chew through tons of energy.

The best camper fridge on the market is a Trailblazer IMO, they run a danfoss compressor,alloy frame and can run to -20 deg all on 60w of power. when your camping you need a fridge that gets to at least -10 degrees or you use to much energy keeping it around -4 like a bar fridge.

Run that with a AGM battery and simply charge your battery 2-3 hours a day.

I know they are a little expensive, but get a second hand one and you will not regret it. any other option just gives you the shits after a time and makes camping painful.

When your camping I find your constantly refilling the fridge with cans of beer so having a fridge to pull your temps down to -10 really fast is damn handy, then just take your beers out after 2 hours and bung em in an esky, fish will freeze properly too, unlike a bar or gas fridge your fish will takes ages to freeze

[culbara]

I whole haeartly agree about the trailblazers i bought one and run it on battery they will work on a 30deg incline and if in doubt about how tough they are these are actually put on the back of tanks. I just charge the battery up each night when i start the generator for lights. If yo want to run it as a fidge freezer put a board half way up adjust your coldness to about 2 and use the bottom as a freezer and the top as a fidge

[Whitey81]

i will answer this truthfully unbiased as i have both
staying in one spot for a long period
chescold 12v 240v gas. running on gas, i get about 4-5 weeks on a 9kg bottle.
i will assure you running a 12v fridge will drive you up the wall, generator, solar panels chasing the sun. Let alone the extra expense of gene and panels.
Staying 1 to 2 nights
12 v fridge. Absolutely the gas will drive you up the wall, very ineffient on 12 v and a pain to level and light every night on gas. I have done this on a trip and was ready to throw the chessy over the next bridge. Dual batteries a must with the 12 v.
What to get when you travel long and short term i dont know, maybe some others can shed some light. After 15 years i cant work out which is better.

[Whitey81]

Ohh,
Trailblasers are probably the best fridge due to their insulation which means you really need a ute otherwise not much room in the back of the wagon.
CHeers
Whitey

[Seahorse]

flex
thanks mate. will check it out. why would -4 on bar fridge not be good enough.
i did intend buying a honda 2kva port generator.
are u saying just charge the extra battery that u need for this fridge off ur generator?
whitey.
i really thought about gas. i was told that a 9kg bottle would last about 3 weeks but thought they operated at 20/25 deg below ambient.
this is one hell of a decission to make.
why would gas drive u up the wall?

cheers
greg

[Flex]

flex
thanks mate. will check it out. why would -4 on bar fridge not be good enough.
i did intend buying a honda 2kva port generator.
are u saying just charge the extra battery that u need for this fridge off ur generator?
whitey.
i really thought about gas. i was told that a 9kg bottle would last about 3 weeks but thought they operated at 20/25 deg below ambient.
this is one hell of a decission to make.
why would gas drive u up the wall?

cheers
greg

A normal bar fridge will only get down to -4 maybe -8 on a good day. not only do they not get very cold they take a long time to get to that temp, or "Freeze time" is very long on your everyday type fridge. Something like a Trailblazer(which the army use as their refridgeration too) has a very very short "freeze time" it gets your stuff cold fast.

Added to this is the very very poor insulation and reliability of a bar fridge, they do not suffer vibration very well and their insulation is terrible. if you put half a dozen fish fillets in a bar fridge running off a battery then the fish will take ages to freeze and run your battery dry in no time.

As mentioned previously a 12v setup can be a little bit of a pain in the butt, though if you set it up correctly then nothing is better IMO.

what sort of battery setup do you have? running it off dual batteries? or you have a spare one dedicated to the fridge?

We had a car alternator hooked up to a generator to charge a AGM deep cycle which runs the fridge. 2 hours of charging each day is all thats needed. or you could run a normal generator to charge your battery or simply run it off your dual battery in your car if your only going for a few days. But you do need a good battery.

But the trailblazer is by far the very best option I have found so far, once I get 2x80w solar panels im doing away with the generator.

[Seahorse]

Flex
this is all good info.
i just dont want to spend heaps dollars to work it all out.
i havnt bought any batteries.
what is best to buy?
iam just working all this out before i get my camper.
it is being picked up in bout 3 weeks.
hopfully all finished by then.
they are just putting in a battery box at present.
why couldnt i run the bar fridge of the generator? for about 12-15hrs per day.
whats 2 solar panels going to cost u?
sorry for all the questions mate, just sounds that u have been down the track iam heading.

cheers
greg

[Shagga]

Greg,

I looked at my options and could not justify the cost of buying a new camp fridge that might only get used 2 weeks of the year. I ended up buying a second hand caravan fridge that runs on 240v as well as gas. I picked it up for $60 out of the week end shopper and it will run for 3 weeks on a nine kilo gas bottle.

It has a good size freezer in it and It has been great. I normally turn it on under the house for a couple of days before I go camping, then I load it in the trailer when I head off. I have had it off in the trailer for up to six hours and everything was still frozen.

[Noelm]

I still fail to see why anyone would go camping to get away from it all and take a stupid noisey Generator, might as well take a Caravan and book a powered site and a van park (I reckon anyway) AAHH the Serenity!

[TheRealAndy]

I still fail to see why anyone would go camping to get away from it all and take a stupid noisey Generator, might as well take a Caravan and book a powered site and a van park (I reckon anyway) AAHH the Serenity!

Personal prefernence I guess. My style of camping goes from hiking with a backpack and pretty much nothing, to swag on the beach in the 4wd right up to almost hotel style camping with fridges and gensets. Whilst I have only been once with a generator (honda) I didn't really have a problem with it. I do have a problem with the idiots who fire up the 2 stroke $99 GMC shitters in busy campgrounds though.

[Whitey81]

Seahorse,
Gas fridges are great in a fixed environment,
The reason why the gas fridge drives you up the wall is it chews alot of 12v power, you have to pull it out of your vechile at night to run it on gas, I cant use it in the camper either, carbon monoxide i think it is. Either way it smells. You also have jets and other things to worry about with a gas fridge, in my opinion you really get benefit out of getting them serviced.

A honda eu20 is overkill for a camping fridge, last christmas ran a 5kw split system air con, 3 way large caravan frige and normal fridge on one.

Cheers
Whitey

[Seahorse]

whitey
i know it seems bit overkill.
just a 10eu is around $1200 and 20eu is $1700.
I really just thought that if i go up to the beach for few days or a week then a bar fridge with a completely sealed frezzer area would be ok if i ran the generator all day and turned of at night.I saw this 110 bar fridge with a complete sealed freezer compartment.
For weekend just take evakool.
Its interesting to hear what u could run on a 1kva gen.

Noelm
I wouldnt say the honda was a stupid noisy gen.
Each to their own i guess.
I like comfort camping.

Andy,
ur right, its not a $99 spec.

Cheers
Greg

[TheRealAndy]

I guess with the bigger genset you could also run a big stuff you whos ya daddy size battery charger during the day to charge a deep cycle and run the fridge off an inverter at night!!

A mate of mine had a property up at gympie we used to camp on. Had an old caravan with 2 bar fridges. Both of them would run on a 1kva honda. Once they had cooled down to temp the genset would run idle and you could barely hear it. Even when the fridge compressor was it was bloody quiet.

Trick is to buy the bar fridge with the most energy efficient stars!