Heading to the south of France this year camping with the family. We have never camped abroad or ever used electricity to camp before. To keep food fresh we would like an electric cool box. How do you plug it into the mains at the campsite though? Thinking of the £80 Halfords one.

I think they have ac, and dc inputs, so as long as you have a European adapter you should be ok (check it’s 110-240v)

I found they don’t cool like a fridge cools, you need to put an ice block in and it’s basically circulating cold air. However I don’t know which one your looking at!! It might be all singing and dancing for all I know!

*edit*
Just had a look, you can run it off mains, it only mentions 240v and it only cools down to 15 degrees below ambient, so obviously if it’s 30 your food will still be at 15 degrees!

When you fill it, fill it full and make sure to put a fair number of ice blocks in but remember that, like a fridge, as it empties it becoames less efficient so try and keep it topped up. Not sure how you would refreeze the freezer blocks though

I’ve got the £30 one from Lidl along with their power inverter for the car. Running it from the cigarette lighter only allows one fan setting, but running it at 240v from the inverter gives a whole range of fan speeds. Keeps stuff proper cold. Absolute bargain.

The one I have can run off the ciggie lighter in the car, a three pin plug or a gas bottle.

As everyone else says, it is a cooler rather than a fridge although when run from the mains I can actually get ice cubes if I place the tray on the cooling element. That was proved in the south of France when it was hot and I wanted ice in my pastis.

I have had the running a fridge from a gas source explained to me before but still don’t quite understand how it works but accept that it does

Mine comes from go outdoors rather and does mains or car power. If it’s mains you just need the correct power lead to plug into the campsite hookup. As other gave said not it’s not a fridge but will keep stuff below 10c so everything last several days.

The coolers are based on a Peltier device which can cool or heat up to 20 degrees from ambient temperaure. Ok for the UK but may not got food down to a safe temperature in France.

This says 25 degrees : http://www.caseysoutdoorleisure.co.uk/item/Dometic/RC-1200-Camping-Fridge/34P?utm_source=google&utm_medium=base&utm_campaign=base&gclid=CjkKEQjwwbCcBRCxvJn9-N6dorwBEiQAVriOitgpeswx0AwE-JGToUvp1GOylJXN5HF-3Nz1l0haU4_w_wcB

I am sure I didn’t pay that much and mine gave me ice in the evenings in the south of France. I guess it may have been cooler in the evenings but it still gave me cold beer in the afternoon. Just keep it filled up and put stuff in there ready chilled if possible

If you’re going to be hooking up to the electric on a campsite you need a lead with an rcd safety cut out.Most campsites should have the eec standard 3 circular pin fitting but i would take the 2 pin continental adaptor as well.

We got one from Amazon a few years back, I’m shaky on the details but we also got a big long proper orange-cabled extension lead with a four way UK-socket adapter on the tent end, also had to get a blue euro converter for the mains end (will see if I can dig it out when I get home). Our coolbox is ok, there’s no way it’s going to keep anything icy in the south of France, or even beer particularly cold (plastic bucket full of cold water is our beer and wine fridge), but it means butter, cheese, meat and veg will be quite happy for a few days, saves having to go shopping every flipping day. When this one dies, we’ll get another – pretty essential for camping in hot countries (unless you DO enjoy shopping every day).

If it’s the peltier type (probably is), and it has a hot+cold switch, and you have kids… tape the switch in the cold position.

Friend of mine wasn’t particularly happy to find warm beer and cottage cheese milk.

Check any decent camping/caravanning store – they’ll know the right rcd/adapter for local hookup.

Oh and don’t run it off the car battery all day either 😉

We’ve got a 3-way one that lives in our beach hut. It runs off a decent sized propane tank from middle of July until the end of August keeping beer/wine and some bits of food chilled.
Works really well although I had to buy a new one last year as the 5 year old original wasn’t cooling when running on gas but is working fine on electric.

Ours has a hot / cold switch which always stays in the “cold” position… which is a fat lot of good when you’ve somehow jammed in the DC power lead the wrong way round so it’s heating stuff up anyway… oops!

You can get proper fridge freezers for a car but v expensive £500 +

They can be hired for 50 odd quid a week

Try here

I have an electric coolbox but as said previously you need ice blocks as well. When out for the day here we tend to use ice blocks and stick a couple of small bottles of water in the freezer as well and put them in it.

Travelled around France and Spain camping a few years ago and we just used it to bring stuff back from the supermarket that we were going to use within 24 hours or so, as said its a cooler not a fridge. Keep it well shaded and it will be more efficient.

I bought a 3-way fridge for camping a year or 2 ago. Brilliant things.
I keeps things cool in the car on the way to the S of France and runs off hardly any gas while we’re camping.

Gets cold enough on the element to make ice and no worries of how long things will last etc.

Having properly cold drinks and milk makes things all very pleasant.

Bump!

Any recommendations for an electric cool box to replace my CampingGaz one that gave over 15 years of occasional service. Need to be able to use an adapter to plug into the mains now and again.

I think it was 26 litres but possibly a larger capacity would be better.

It’s not for camping, just for using in the car.

Thanks all. 🙂

dave rambo.

what sort of gas cans does your 3 way fridge run off? how much did it cost you ?

looks to me that they come in at around 200 quid , willing to spend a bit to get a decent item as it will be going in my new “camper” when i build it……. as said above – the ability to not have to go shopping every day would be lovely – was 25 degrees by 9am and 35 by mid day last year in bourg d’osians

I was in a similar position recently. Read up on a few camping forums and the consensus was simalir to above that electric coolboxes dont cope if the ambient temp is high. Suggestion I have followed is to buy a small proper fridge.

We’ve just bought a table top size one for £70 brand new. Major downside is its about twice the size of an electric coolbox but should be able to pack it with stuff to minimise the impact. Upside is it holds twice the volume (50L) and also has a freezer compartment.

Its another idea to consider if you’re always going where there is electric hook up…

Vw heritage have a deal on outwell 12v 230V one atm 25% off with camping25% discount could too 😉

I have the Halfords one, use it just in the car for long journeys, keeps cans etc nice and cold. I think there is a mains adapter available, but would certainly recommend it.

Just realised I never posted the linkhttp://www.engelfridges.co.uk/

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/1023471.htm

AND a generator?