cool box 12v camping fridge time?

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FairweatherDave

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So on our boat we have the trad cool box which keeps things cool with the addition of cool blocks/ice. We seem to manage 3 nights at anchor fine , on the fourth day the milk curdled. We were prepared with UHT and tinned food and of course could go ashore and buy fresh supplies and ice. But we just were wondering about camping fridges or 12v cool boxes to extend the time before hitting the shops. We don't want to use marinas and 240volts on the pontoon, we have a small solar panel that keeps two 110 leisure batteries well topped up. Don't want to do a serious install of a £500 boat fridge, just looking for cheaper ideas people have found helpful in summer in the UK. But probably restocking with ice is the reality as far as I can see.......
 
Probably the very bottom end of the market. 12 Volt Cool Box
They work and reduce the ambient by a few degrees but not great and use lots of power. Whatever you take out using the box you need to put back in the batteries with your small solar panel. Check the box wattage against your solar panels and allow for cloudy days and night time.
Lots to look at out there at a wide range of prices.
 
A peltier effect cool box running off 12V will draw about 4 amps continuously. They have to be on a lot if not continuously to be effective.

I have one which is a cool box type with a plastic interior and the motor in the lid. It was from Aldi and identical to a Waeco one, it runs on mains and 12v. We do run it sometimes off 12v when motoring, our outboard is purported to be able to put out 6 amps. We never run it off battery only. I have had bad experiences doing that off my car. We also use it with freezer blocks and bought bags of ice.

Whether the ones with a metal lining like Halfords sell are more effective I don't know.

At the moment we are on the Clyde and because of Covid 19 we not able to get freezer blocks frozen at Largs and am doubtful whether I will or want to elsewhere.

Whether the ones with a metal interior are more efficient I don't know.

I don't know whether you can get a peltier hear exchanger and fit it to your existing freezer box if that is well insulated. The other alterative may be a caravan breakers or boat breakers for a mains/12v fridge.
 
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AIUI there are two kinds of electric coolboxes - piezo ones are cheap but use loads of power, compressor ones are more expensive but more efficient, the same kind of system as installed in many boats.

My solar doesn't keep up with the electricity demands of my compressor fridge, but I have larger batteries. I'm ok for a few days at anchor, but I think a piezo might challenge OP's battery capacity?
 
As others have said, unless you have power to spare the peltier "solid state" coolboxes are best avoided; they are very inefficient. A second hand campervan fridge might be the cheapest option - or you could run a tiny 240V fridge on a small inverter, which would still be more efficient than the peltier "fridges". A quick search turned up this one, on sale at £99: Mini Fridge with Freezer compartment 45 litres A+ White Single door | Adexa BC47
 
To keep the milk you really need to be below 5 degrees, really only compressor fridges will do this. The common cool boxes only really cool 10 degrees below ambient, so will struggle to get anywhere close
 
Just to add in...........I have a "Colemans portable camping fridge de-luxe"........It is 20 years old at least....a large grey metal box to look at.
Similar ones advertise "High performance, compact portable absorption, top loading refrigerator. Full flexibility, providing excellent cooling performance powered by either 12vDC, 230vAC or Gas. "
I guess that might go under the tiller in clement conditions on gas. I don't know if absorption fridge means piezo / peltier or compressor (but I doubt it is a compressor fridge as I don't hear anything).
It can freeze stuff.
 
Can I suggest UHT milk which is far more palatable than it once was, or filtered milk which has a longer 'keep' time than normal pasteurised.......or Soya milk as another alternative.

I have a Peltier type coolbox from Aldi which replaced a similar type we had for 20 years. As others say, its only much use if you pre pack it with some cooler packs, and don't use it on battery alone. So its only of any use getting stuff to the boat in the car unless you have a decent power set up on the boat. I don't as my marine electrics hardly exist at all...... :confused:
 
I got mine from aldi about 5 years ago dual voltage 12 volt or 240 helps if products are cool to start with as it can take a while to get cold in hot temperatures but works a treat once going was about £40.
tesco also sell mini fridges at reasonable prices also
 
Once our cool box warmed up on a voyage, we used to put milk, butter and the like in a bucket in the cockpit (moved around to be in the shade), with a couple of inches of water in the bottom and a wet tea towel or similar draped over the stuff we wanted kept cool and the bottom of the tea towel in the water. The evaporation of the water from the tea towel keeps the contents cooler than the surroundings. Not anywhere as good as a compressor fridge, but uses no electricity, is silent, and served us well on various jaunts of several weeks in some quite hot weather.

At anchor unopened bottles of milk, wine, containers of butter, etc. or w.h.y. would also be put in a carrier bag and lowered on a rope into the water when this was cooler than the air temperature.

Use the smallest practical bottles of milk: once you open it it goes off quicker. You also have more surface getting warm while it's out of the coolbox with larger bottles.

We also started off with as much as possible of the contents of the cool box frozen, including all but the first bottle of milk. (Ideally the coolbox would be completely full with cold and frozen stuff - empty airspace is not just an absence of cold but speeds warming by convection currents.)

All the boat's cool box contents were brought from home in a good 'transport' cool box to make sure it was as cold as possible to start off with. I did contemplate getting a Peltier coolbox just for the trip from home to the boat (I had a 12v socket in the boot of the car), so everything started as cold as possible and the inevitable was delayed as long as possible.

The coolbox of one boat I had lifted out of it's locker, so this was taken home and filled there. We would leave it outdoors, and/or fill it with 'temporary' freezer blocks, over the night before departure to get the temperature of the box as low as possible before filling with our pre-cooled & frozen provisions.
 
LittleSister said:
... a bucket in the cockpit (moved around to be in the shade), with a couple of inches of water in the bottom and a wet tea towel or similar draped over the stuff we wanted kept cool and the bottom of the tea towel in the water. The evaporation of the water from the tea towel keeps the contents cooler than the surroundings.
Click to expand...

Neat idea - refrigeration doesn't get cheaper than that. Or more reliable. It's actually a fourth kind of fridge, perfected in the award-winning 1990s "pot-in-pot" design by Mohammed Bah Abba.
 
What you are trying to achieve is challenging. Heating and cooling takes a lot of energy, unless you follow the alternatives advised by LittleSister or use the sun for heating. In addition to previous comments:
1. A regular electric peltier cool box doesn’t cool much yet takes much current. Only good on mains power. But cheap.
2. One cool box model, Tropicool, may help if still made. It runs at high and low power and cooling levels, Not cheap, but it does mean that when you are motoring it gets the temperature down really quickly and effectively. much more so than a regular basic electric coolbox. So,it makes the most of your motoring time. Once cool, it eases back, reducing consumption and noise. If you happen to be on mains overnight, you can leave it on and it does not disturb your sleep.
3. Best no expense spared option is a compressor fridge and solar panel. Big bucks. Compressor fridge plus decent solar panel (120W works but may be overkill) and 110AH battery house battery allow you to leave the fridge on all day and night for your entire spell at sea.
I started at 1, moved to 2, and finally 3. Going directly to 3 would have saved some pennies. Good luck with your quest - the next heatwave is approaching :).
 
Camping last weekend in hot conditions. We had the cheap peltier cool box rigged up to a 12v battery but also had a simple polystyrene box with a couple of freezer blocks in it. The 12v cool box ran the battery dry in under a day and never really got cold beer cold. The poly box was still cold well into day 2. I think we're going to bin off the bottom of the line cool box as a poorly Insulated power hungry noise maker. A poly box like this...

POLYSTYRENE BOX - COOL BOX - FISH BOX - HoCo BOX - VARIOUS SIZES AND PACK Q'TIES | eBay

... Will keep food cold for days, especially if not opened too frequently.
 
Here in West Oz we do get hot summers. (despite yesterday being a record low max of 12) As said a peltier cool box will not do the job just flatten your batteries. An absorption type ie 3 way gas electric 12v will also flatten your battery or present a risk with gas. (gas leak or carbon monoxide) The only fridge type in my opinion is a compressor type. They can be a portable type WACO or Engel are typical brands. You can fill them at home and run in the car but quite heavy when full. I reckon use it as a freezer taking out frozen food each day and use that to keep your existing ice bx cool. Count on about 2 amps average in freeze mode so still heavy on battery. Mostly here people just use a well insulated box with lots of block ice or frozen milk bottles the bigger the box and more ice the longer it will last. ol'will
 
Ok so here my input , we invested in a fridge/Freezer this years €450 we wanted to use it as a freezer the Waeco type .
It uses around 4.5 Amps when running at -16c and it runs around 50% of the time although we have made a insulting box for it to help it keep cool out here in the Med .
If you can supply the batteries power it needs to run , it's a good option , I guess running it much highter temp then we do it use less power .
 
I have a small top surface Fridge Freezer, bought it from Argos some 8 years ago for approx £70. Works on 240v, 45w via a cheap inverter. it works great, quite, economical uses very little power, and always have ice for gin and tonic, can't get better than that.
 
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