We hardly bothered keeping cold stuff when we camped before kids. Getting back into it now with young kids (and a big tent), our old hand-me-down coolbox is really showing it’s limitations. Even with swapping ice packs and the odd bag of ice it was a struggle to keep food cool particularly in the warm during the day.

I’ve looked at:
– Fancy passive coolbox (Icey Tek or similar) and hope to change ice packs less
– 12v/240v thermoelectric boxes (but screwed if we don’t get electric hookup or set up a leisure battery)
– 3 way gas/12v/240v fridges (but do you have to keep it outside the tent on gas?)
– Proper compressor fridges (£££ and still needs a battery or mains)

What do you use that works?

Camp near running water, put stuff in a bag on the end of a bit of string, put it in the water.

We have a 12v camping gaz cool box. It works well as a passive cool box as well as when it’s plugged in. So we’ve managed on several 2 week trips with a combination of ice packs (a lot of campsites abroad have freezers for swapping them out), ice and running it in the car when driving places.

Tbh, we survived fine in Tasmania with a cheapo cool box from Bunnings and topping up with ice every few days.

Go camping in Scotland

We’ve got a peltier fridge thing, that we normally use.

I buy maybe 8 cheap 2 litre cartons of orange juice and apple juice and freeze them before setting off, I use those as the cooling in a standard cheap coolbox and the fill up the other half of the space with the things I actually want to keep cool.

Freeze anything you wont use for the first day so that it defrosts over time too, drink the juices as they melt. Can probably keep stuff cool for around 3 or 4 days.

– Fancy passive coolbox (Icey Tek or similar) and hope to change ice packs less
– 12v/240v thermoelectric boxes (but screwed if we don’t get electric hookup or set up a leisure battery)

You can readily turn the latter into the former. Indeed, when I use mine I load it full of ice packs also.

Even then, they’re still cool boxes rather than refrigerators. Rotating their location throughout the day to keep them out of direct sunlight will help a lot.

Your best bet is to camp near a river, stick it all in a dry bag and dump it in (anchored down!)

We got a between-the-back-seats electric coolbox for a few Scottish trips from Halfords and I have to say it works quite well. It’s ace having ice cold cans when driving, for starters (it has cup holders and a seatbelt clip to hold in place, and it doesn’t take up extra boot space) but we also bought their 240V adapter (which is just a standard 12V mains power supply with a cigarette lighter socket) for use at a campsite. Only problem is that it’s got no temperature control, it just cools to whatever it cools to. We went to Aviemore in April 2019 and whilst it was warm weather it still got a bit chillier at night so the coolbox froze the milk.

Worked well passively too. We also have a large passive coolbox that’s advertised as ‘5 day’ cooler and it’s alright, but it’s a bit hit and miss, you need to buy ice at the right time, and stuff tends to get wet and bits of old food end up floating around in the bottom in a primordial soup.

I open that fridge door and try and find space inbetween the cold beers.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2gC9i8d]Waterside House[/url] by DaveyBoyWonder, on Flickr

Stick it in the wife’s knickers.

I open that fridge door

^^ not camping

We have a 12v camping gaz cool box. It works well as a passive cool box as well as when it’s plugged in

We find that ours won’t cope with a really hot day – it needs supplementing with ice packs.

^^ not camping

Daft question then as I must have been doing something wrong but what is it?

Are only option is cool bag/box. I think getting the size of bag correct is important. Ideally you need it full. Last week we had room for a freezer pack, 2 pints milk and butter and we were fine changing the pack daily. Previous years we did 2 blocks in a bigger bag but with more stuff. Buying frozen food really helps

Might help;

Which camping fridge? We put fridges and coolboxes to the test

(assuming car camping!)

That’s rather low Davey, I’m guessing it’s not static? What wheels are you on?

Sorry, thread hijack. Back on topic, I use a Halfords own brand electric 12v cooler which is great when it’s plugged in but not that great as a passive cool box. I get about 24 hours run time from my leisure battery once parked up without a 240V hook up.

Daft question then as I must have been doing something wrong but what is it?

Staying in a motorhome. Camping = tents.

Polystyrene boxes work well. Depending on space, having a couple of smaller cool boxes/bags where one has frozen stuff you don’t need immediately helps as you’re only opening 1 box regularly. Also helps if you have coffee black so don’t have to worry about milk!

We are camping in 38c in france this week. Coleman extreme with a bag or block or 2 of ice per day thrown in keeps everything at fridge temp, including cooling stubbies down from ambient temperature. In normal uk temps, pre cooling it the night before (with frozen 2l bottles from the freezer), then a bag of ice and itll stay cold for a long weekend

We find that ours won’t cope with a really hot day – it needs supplementing with ice packs.

I think ours will do 20 below ambient and we’ve never been camping with sustained hot temps where that’s not enough. Keeping it full helps too. On days like today, it would probably need a helping hand.

Have UK campsites not cottoned on to hiring out fridges yet? Everywhere I’ve stayed on the continent does. Ideal for a big family tent, and so much easier than filling up the car with bulky coolboxes etc

Perhaps look for campsites which do, if its even a thing?

I think ours will do 20 below ambient and we’ve never been camping with sustained hot temps where that’s not enough. Keeping it full helps too. On days like today, it would probably need a helping hand.

We camped in the Black Forest the other year and it was over 30 every day. Our coolbox was ok as long as it had a new ice pack to see it through the heat of the day.

Staying in a motorhome. Camping = tents.

Looks like a campervan to me.

I use one of these camping: https://www.igloocoolers.co.uk/igloo/bmx/52/cool/box/

A day or two before we leave i’ll put two or three frozen 2ltr bottles of water in it to chill it right down. If you pre-chill anything you plan to put in it in the fridge first this will also help.
Then anything frozen (pre-made chilli, curry, bolognese etc) goes in alongside chilled drinks (beer) and any perishables on top(dairy, meat etc)

I then dump a load of ice cubes in to fill any gaps or if you have ice blocks, shove them in to fill in the gaps.

In can be a bit of a pain to get to things, but if you pack wisely and limit how often you open the thing, you can keep things suitably cold for up to a week.

I also use the drain to empty out any water as everything melts and top up with more ice (from the supermarket) or re-frozen cool blocks if the campsite offers that facility

I find going in and out for drinks all the time is the main reason for the contents melting. If you can get a smaller coolbox specifically for drinks, this will help the food stay colder for longer.

The other tip is to put a wet towel over your coolbox, the evaporation of the wet towel will have a cooling effect on your coolbox.

Looks like a campervan to me.

Whatever the nomenclature, it’s clearly not a tent and has no relevance to the OP’s thread, so it’s only willy waving… Of course, if you want to show off about it I have a bigger fridge than that (with a freezer), about 5x more space and my caravan only cost me two grand 😉

Anyway – the OP could take another approach to solve the problem, one I use quite often – that’s to go camping in cold and dull places where keeping warm is more of a problem than cold. Usually early or late in the season at an otherwise popular location, so that it can be unseasonably cold and end up being crap. No issues with milk then.

Whatever the nomenclature, it’s clearly not a tent and has no relevance to the OP’s thread, so it’s only willy waving…

You sound like an absolute riot.

We used a tabletop fridge with small freezer compartment for ice for the wife’s g&t’s. Take up as much space as a large cool box but work much better.

Coolbox with ice. Beer & wine in a stream.

Your post amuses me Molgrips, purely because another forum user who has a real dislike for VW T5 vans would say Davey’s wagon is nothing more than a metal tent as it doesn’t have a bathroom.

Genuine question, how the **** do you get on a campsite with suspension that low?

First thing I intend to do with our camper is jack it up and fit ATs.

Drink it…😁

So a question for coolbox users on this thread.. drain out the cold water (from melted ice) regularly or leave it in there? Obviously if you can top it up with ice then get it out of there, but when you can’t, which keeps the box cooler longer (my gut is leaving it in)?

I’ve nicked a proper transport ice box that even has a separate section for the dry ice.

Massive thick walls and it doubles up as a chair too.

First thing I intend to do with our camper is jack it up and fit ATs.

Sensible option.

When we were in Canada we used the communal fridge .

When we were in New Zealand we used the communal fridge

When we were in France we had our icepacks frozen over night regularly.

Seems rare I’ve found campsites that do either in the UK.

All the camp sites I’ve been on have a fridge for ice blocks.
Freeze your milk, pop at home even the bacon. Get a powered jobbie plug it in if you have a hook up. My van has fridge thats basically a insulated box things that we use day to day go in that as it stops opening the cool box all the time.
Wild camping I get about 3 days of cold items

https://www.waecofridges.co.uk/coolbox/mobicoolw40.htm

Mine

My wife bought one of the Halfords powered boxes against my recommendation and annoyingly it seems very effective. We transferred it to the car whenever we drove anywhere and the 30mins or so kept it nice and cool.

I have to begrudgingly admit she was right on this one.

For off hook-up I bought s S/H three way cool box come fridge. On gas it’s excellent, keeps stuff as cold as the fridge at home. It can make ice also.
It’s a bit heavy though.

We’ve got a 12/24V coolbox from CampingGaz (36 litres)
It’s one of those ones that will call to ambient temperature -15 degrees or so.

I expect it needs an electric hookup (over leisure battery) but for a family of four camping on sites with limited on site shopping and no desire for an hour’s round trip to the shops each day for fresh stuff it was brilliant. In lower temperatures than we have now it would keep sandwich meat, cheese, juices and BEER cool for a few days and veg fresher longer – not fridge cool but cool enough it wasn’t sweaty and horrible.

We bought because with all the Covid stuff/surface transmission risk/contaminated ice packs etc. it just seemed logical (oh and Mrs Dweller wanted electricity anyway 🙂 )

really good cool box, lots of ice.

that camper van thing must be really useful for driving to car parks along perfectly smooth access roads.