12v coolboxes

Kelpie

Kelpie

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Seen these powered coolboxes designed for use in cars/caravans etc. Mains or 12v on most of them. Seem like a very neat idea- load it up at home, take it to the boat, and when you're done it can come home for a clean out again. No joinery, very cheap.

I presume the downside will be something annoying like "they don't actually work". Anybody got experience of one?
 
Waeco

I use a Waeco CF-18 on the boat.
This is a small but real fridge. They are really efficient too , their power consumption is really very modest and will not draw too much out of the battery if your amp hours are modest.
I use a fan cooled cool box whilst driving to the car and then just take that bag out of the cool box and put it in the Waeco.

Mine sits in the space where the navigators feet would normally go.
It's also top loading which cuts down on losses when you open it and mess.

It's only 18ltrs capacity and so for a family on a boat would be on the small side buit there are other Waeco models that are bigger.

Cheap ? no they are not IIRC I paid about £280 for mine from Ebay.

Check out here http://www.waeco.com/en/3105.php


No connection etc.............
 
They might be Ok for picnics on the boat if you load up food from the fridge or frezzer at home and run them in the car on the way down, for use on a cruise they are useless. I have had several and chucked them out. They use lots of power, make a noise and dont actually cool very well. I f you want a portable fridge , we use one by Waeco that is an actual fridge witrh a compressor, much more expensive but actually works. It is portable but we keep it in a ventialted locker because I could not see how to build in a conventional boat fridge without butchering the woodwork. But if it is the coolbox, dont bother, just put some ice in a bag in a simple insulated bag like iceland sell for taking frozed food home
 
I bought (and still have) one of the cheapo coolers, they work ok if you put items in it that are already chilled but they do use a lot of power. My one from a car accessory shop pulls about 5 amps.

More recently I bought a Waeco compressor driven cool box (CF25) and it is very good indeed, I have it set to about 3C and is uses on average 1-1.5A/hr during the average British summer and is quieter than the cool box. It is also small enough to transport to and from the boat with reasonable ease.

With both the above comments made I have also had great success in using large blocks of ice in the bottom of a locker and find a couple of 4 pint milt containers are still frozen after a weekend on the boat so I only tend to have the Waeco onboard when away for more than just a weekend.

Hope this helps.
 
yup - we have one - used it on the previous boat where we didn't have a fridge ...
Only turned on when under engine or shorepower - otherwise it just acted like a cool box.
As others say - they are noisy and comsume a fair bit of power.

One important thing to do is to have somewhere to wedge or tie it into ...
 
Another vote for the Waeco. I have a CF25, which I either use as a fridge, or as freezeer if I am using a coolbox. I freeze the blue ice block in it and use them as coolant for the big inert coolbox.

They are not cheap, but mine has given excellent service for six years and has travelled extensively in the back of my car all over the UK and much of France and Spain.

It works on 250 volts as well as 24 and 12 volts.

The I have had four or five cheap 12 volters in my time and they have all failed in a matter of months.

EDIT. Just remembered another advantage. If you set the Waeco at level 4/5 it will freeze the raft of blue freeze blocks on the bottom and cool the rest of the contents without freezing. If battery power is low, the blocks will keep the contents cold for up to 24 hours without power.
 
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Thanks, that seems to be quite a consensus!
Seems like the 12v boxes are non real improvement over a conventional ice-cooled box, so I'll probably just stick to one of those and see whether I really need anything more.
Cheers!
 
We also have a Waeco CF-18. First time out plugged it in to 24 volt supply because it will tollerate that voltage and turned it up high. An hour later cheese and tomato sandwiches frozen solid and had to wait for them to thaw out.

Now five years old, been on used on the beach, dumped in the dinghy, left on board a rib for a year and generally abused yet still going strong.

About £300 from Marine Superstore, Port Solent.

Pete
 
another vote for Waeco cf-25 - very low power consumption compressor type coolbox circa £280 best price around. used 3 years now without fault.
 
We bought a 12volt fan coolbox from Wilkinsons about a year ago and it was £19. We also bought a transformer from maplins so that we could power the box off mains as well as 12 volt. The transformer was about £10 I think.

Firstly, the fan type box that we had didnt have a thermostat so left on one night in the cockpit it froze the milk by the following morning.

It had to go in the cockpit because even in the aft cabin with us in the bow cabin the noise was not tollerable. It didnt help that the transformer had a fan also.

The space was really limited, by the time you had a carton of milk, bottle of wine and bottle of orange juice it was fairly full so you had to put everything in a sort of way that the lid would close but then it was a nightmare trying to get something out from the bottom!

I didnt notice how much power it used but it was a fair amount on 12 volt so have massive batteries or the engine running when using it.

The biggest disadvantage has got to be the fan, its so annoying we cant even use the box in the car.

This boat has a coolbox/fridge in the galley that powers off 12 volt, compressor?? But its really not that big, we just fill it up with ice blocks and put bottles of water, wine etc. in there.

There was plenty of space underneath the chart table so we bought a 3 way Waeco. Its completely silent and has a thermostat. Obviously we wouldnt use it on gas on the boat but it works off 12 volt and mains. When we get to the boat I usually put it on 9 which is full and then knock it down to about 5 after a couple of hours. Unfortunately last time I forgot and by the morning everything was frozen solid. Had to wait 4 hours before my morning cup of tea :( lol

Hope this helps
Ian
 
On the Ice box side we use an Igloo Family 48 Cooler Box with Blocks of Ice and usually get at least 3 days out of it, some times much more if the weather is cool. You need to be carefull of keeping the lid on firmly, but for £50 its worked incredibly well for 5 years, most marina's have some where you can freeze a 2 liter bottle or two.
 
It's the Peltier element ones that are not much cop.

Contiuous current draw of 4-5amps (no thermostat control) and only cool a limited amount so final temp depends upon ambient

Mine came from Lidl ... would not recommend.
 
Re , The Weaco CF 18 ; Out of interest , Do other users of these fridges find that they tend to have an annoying trate of the fridge motor cutting in for 40 secs every 6 mins day and night !!, which can tend to drive one mad , or is my fridge over active with its motor cut in/ outs times ? .
 
Have one of these coolboxes and as others have said they draw to much current.Managed to find one that only draws 3 amps.Would not a simple timer that switches it on for an hour in every two be the answer,as this would half the current consumption and prevent the contents from freezing.
 
In defence of the Peltier coolbox, they take up about the same space as an normal insulated box yet allow you to keep stuff cool on a long drive to the boat. I've used on for a weeks coastal cruising by filling it with frozen supermarket ready meals which I allow to defrost over a couple of days. Eat the nosh and then restock. It gets plugged in when shorepower is available to help prolong the contents.

I don't have space or battery power for a fridge on my boat. For me, the coolbox is a convenient, cheap way of keeping several days worth of food.
 
Waeco

I use a CF-80 on the yacht which has a fridge, freezer and chiller section, ideal for long term cruising, 80 watt solar panel keeps battery charged up to run it continuously, even on overcast days. Have a CF-90 that my son uses now that I have had for 10 years still works as well as the day it came out of the box. Danfoss compressors in Waeco's are top of the heap in there field
 
djc said:
Re , The Weaco CF 18 ; Out of interest , Do other users of these fridges find that they tend to have an annoying trate of the fridge motor cutting in for 40 secs every 6 mins day and night !!, which can tend to drive one mad , or is my fridge over active with its motor cut in/ outs times ? .
Click to expand...

I have to sleep two feet from mine. At first it annoyed me, but now I hardly hear it. But, on a quiet night I solve the problem by running it up very cold an hour or two before bed and then switching it off. The blue ice bricks in the bottom keep it cold all night and into most of the next day.
 
planteater said:
In defence of the Peltier coolbox, they take up about the same space as an normal insulated box yet allow you to keep stuff cool on a long drive to the boat. I've used on for a weeks coastal cruising by filling it with frozen supermarket ready meals which I allow to defrost over a couple of days. Eat the nosh and then restock. It gets plugged in when shorepower is available to help prolong the contents.

I don't have space or battery power for a fridge on my boat. For me, the coolbox is a convenient, cheap way of keeping several days worth of food.
Click to expand...
I used to use one when I was caravanning, Used to work OK BUT very power hungry. Ok when the awning was up and plugged in to the mains, I had a mains converter and the fan sound was outside the caravan. I used it for beer and wine cooling, it worked fine in the South of France. Really cold if left working continuously.
Stu
 
Coolbox

We bought a coolbox from Halfords about 6 years ago for about £50.

On sunny days we connect one of our (56W) solar panels to it, and one to the battery; on cloudy days both to the battery.

So, on sunny days we get coolish beer and wine, and the butter doesn't melt. The noise is only noticeable when the sun is at its peak, and even then is not an issue, because we are outside. On cloudy days we don't need the coolbox.

This system works quite well

Tony MS
 
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