Cool it!

[John_N]

I urgently need something to prevent the milk going off and the butter running away and the beer drinkable. I would also like to make ice for my G&Ts but that's (the ice) a luxury I cannot afford.
There seems to be a world of difference in price between a proper refrigeration unit for my coolbox and the 12/240v camping coolboxes which claim to reduce the ambient temperature by about 20 degrees.
Is it worth investing about £60 in the latter (28 litre capacity) or should I just stick it out until we return to normal British temperatures?
Readers advice based on personal experience would be greatly appreciated.

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[TrailerSailer]

We've used one of the cheap 12V boxes and it is OK, but really you're lucky to get it to 20o below air temp.

Just been and got one of the Coolmatic 35 boxes on offer at Aladdin's Cave (£300). It's like chalk and cheese. I suspect that it takes much more power, but it cools so much better. Ice forms in the box within 5mins of turning it on.

Off to S France with both of them. One for the beers and wine and one for the food. Guess which is going in the Coolmatic?


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[ccscott49]

Freeze the beers and milk at home, then put in one of the cheapie boxes, it will be OK, But to cool your warm beer, you need an expensive compressor one. That's just the way it is, I'm afraid.

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[tillergirl]

If you already have a proper cool-box, I would suggest you seriously think about fitting a compressor. Don't think you will get ice but you will keep you dairy produce fresh. Just come back from 3 days on the east coast in the 90's and the remains of the milk bought the day before we left has gone back in the fridge here at home. The fresh beef for the beef stir fry bought the same day was ok when cooked under way yesterday as was the snorkers and bacon finished up today.

I got one of those evaporator plates and compressors at the boat show a couple of years ago and having made a coolbox, fitting the mechanics was easier than the manufacture of the coolbox. Cost £300 but it sorts the problem.

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[jeanne]

S-d the butter; the beer is the thing. If you can get a porous clay pot, put the beer(bottles..) in it and keep it in the shade in the breeze, it will cool better than dunking bottles in the warm sea. place a wet rag on top as well. Keep the pot moist. It's an old trick, i.e. that's how granny did it, but it works. Just like you evaporating off water after a swim.

We had a 12v peltier box and carried 2 bottles filled with water which we froze at every opportunity by blagging a night for one in an ice cream freezer, then put in the box to keep it cool, changing every day. Some obliging bars/pubs with an ice machine will sometimes let you have a bucket of cubes now and then. If you don't empty the box of water, it keeps things cold for a couple of days in temps of 25 or so .

We now have a 'proper' fridge......small. but there's nothing worse than warm beer/white wine.

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[BrendanS]

Advice I gave in a similar thread a week or two back.

Freeze some lager/beer cans. If you're off on a 3/4 day jaunt, freeze 75% of the cans. If you're on a one day, freeze 25% of the cans, as they will not thaw in time.

You cannot do this with soft drinks, they will explode in your freezer. This is tried and tested with high alcohol content cans such as Stella or Grolsch, not sure how low alcohol beers would cope.

Even in an unrefrigerated cool box, it will keep beers and food cold for 4 days, after the usual freezer packs have thawed out.----------

If you want to keep a lot of food cool, then use two cool boxes, each with a good supply of frozen beer.. Never fails, even in this heat. Keep the cool box shaded, rather than in direct sun

The biggest problem is when you have impromptu company, and have to thaw cans in a hurry.

Ice can be frozen in those bags you fill from one end, and end up with 12 odd ice 'cubes'. Put them at the bottom, and with a 75% frozen can cool box, you should still have G&T useable ice slush 3 days later... though some cool boxes really do have better insulation than others



<hr width=100% size=1>Err, let me know if Depsol enters the forum, I'll go and hide

 

[saturn]

I got a 40 litre top loading coolmatic at southampton show last year (good deal) detached the compressor to allow me to add extra closed cell foam insulation around the box,fitted into galley added an extra layer of insulation to the lid and mounted the compressor in a convenient well ventilated spot as much as the pipe connection would allow. last thurs we had 33 degs in cabin and 0/5 in box, pulling up to 3.2 amps when on.if you want i can email you pics of what i did.

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