Just back from a weekend of camping using one of these, however not ideal as i didn’t have electric hook up so had to keep it running off the car battery. Any ideas as to how i can keep this thing running without draining my battery ?

Take a spare battery, I made my own cable for the campsite electrics which worked well used a RCD before I went to anything in the Van. After that your onto leisure batteries really.

The other tips are to pack it full with plenty of freezer bricks to give it a boost.

Any powered coolbox will be pretty power-hungry, so your only real option is electric hook-up, I reckon.

If we haven’t had electric hook-up, we’ve used as many ice blocks as possible and most campsites have a freezer that you can use to refreeze them, so you can have them on rotation.
Filling a bucket with water and sticking your bottle of milk in that will help keep it cool enough to last a weekend….

if you mean a peltier effect coolbox, or an absorption fridge, you are not going to be able to run one without killing your battery.

the only 12v coolers that can run on 12v for a decent length of time are compressor fridges, which are much more expensive.

Either get yourself one of them, or a gas absorption fridge, or run the one you’ve got off a spare car battery.

Dave

nothing will work even the compressor ones need circa 20-30 amp hr per day. – 2 days out of a standard car battery if you are lucky [ big power surge to start]

If you want a fridge get hook up or a large battery array and some solar panels

If you want a fridge get hook up or a large battery array and some solar panels

This ( with a leisure battery rather than a standard car ( starting ) battery ).

I have panels from a Maplin kit fitted to the roof of my Landy, something like this.

We used to have this problem. I prefer camping on remote sites with no hookup etc. I bought a 12v coolbox and flattened my battery. I now have a 3 way fridge (gas, 12v & 230v). It runs on gas a treat (even creates ice cubes!).

I bought it on ebay for about £100.

Have you tried using a normal cool box? I’ve survived in Arizona and Nevada only topping the ice up every couple of days. A half decent cool box and enough cool blocks should do a weekend.

Fridge run off gas FTW!

They’re not small though.

We have a Mobicool 3 way fridge (gas/12v/240v) that lives in our beach hut running on gas. A big cylinder will last us about 10-12 weeks and they can get very cool indeed.
I lit ours on Friday but unfortunately it didn’t get cold so I’m guessing it’s died which is a big shame.
We can’t be doing without cold beer/wine (and maybe milk) so it’s off to the shop to get another 🙁

Just remember to be careful with gas fridges and venting off the carbon monoxide.

As an aside, for a cheap and eco solution for camping refrigeration, google pot in pot or evaporative fridges. Couple of plant pots, some sand and you’re sorted. 😀

http://www.treehugger.com/kitchen-design/mohammed-bah-abba-and-his-pot-in-pot.html

http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-Solar-Fridge/

There’s a lot of battery-juice you’ve got to feed these things.
Another option is to camp somewhere cold..

Or next to a stream.

Timely thread, we were discussing the idea of a powered coolbox at the weekend. After reading this, I think the answer is “eat warm things.”

+1 for a 3 way fridge.

We have one and it’s very good. Get it cold at home on the mains, plug it into the car for the journey there, then run it on gas while camping.
Makes ice and keeps beer essentials cold.

Uses very little gas once it gets cold and you turn it down to a trickle.

Have a google for Engel,ARB or Waeco. Ive got a 47l ARB which runs for about 4 – 5 days off my ‘secondary’ battery without any charging. Its also got a low voltage cut off, so wont / shouldnt flatten the battery completely.

Have a google for Engel,ARB or Waeco. Ive got a 47l ARB which runs for about 4 – 5 days off my ‘secondary’ battery without any charging. Its also got a low voltage cut off, so wont / shouldnt flatten the battery completely.

+1 for the ARB – we use the 47 L one in the Australian summer and get about four-five days out of it on a 75Ah battery. That’s at temperatures considerably hotter than you’d get in the UK, and being re-stocked relatively regularly with warm water and beer to cool. I’d be concerned if it was off my starting battery though, especially if a diesel as they take huge amps to crank.

Just back from Go Outdoors where I was planning to pick up one of their 45L 3 way fridges to replace our old one.
Had a look inside and noticed that it wasn’t very well put together and it sort of looked smaller than i thought it should compared to our 41L Mobicool.
Checked on the box…. 45L, looked on the back of the fridge at the specs and it’s 39L. B’stards. So in conclusion: Go Somewhere Else not Outdoors.