Additional Fridge For Awning

[alan1406]

After our first 2 trips, we now feel maybe a small additional dc/ac fridge would be useful for the awning. Has anyone got any recommendations for such items? We mainly would store drinks and would save us having to use normal coolboxes with icepacks frozen in our main caravan fridge.

[Jon46]

Before we had our first caravan we camped in a large frame tent. We had a sort of electric cool box - Campingaz, I think. It was like an insulated cool box with a hinged lid (or door, depending which way round you stood it) with a cooling fan in it. It ran off DC via a cigarette lighter socket, or AC if plugged into a rectifier which we bought as an extra. You can also get similar ones which run off gas as well. It was useful in that it could be plugged into the car lighter socket to keep food cold on the journey. I think it cost about £90 - that was about 8 years ago.

Jonathan.

[BadbackCol]

Hi Alan

 

We were faced with this dilemma so went and bought a S/H Lec fridge-which is fairly light-and plug it into an extension cable which we keep in the awning.

 

'Van fridge is used mainly to keep drinks cool.

 

HTH

 

Regards.

Col

[chillypenguin]

What about a 3way (Gas,12V,230V) camping fridge.

http://www. gooutdoors. co. uk/45l-3-way-fridge/COREACED7501

 

That link is just a sample you should be able to get one round £130.

[vaughan]

Hi Alan

 

We have a Mobicool 3 way fridge (approx £120) which we use in our awning, it is basically a box with a top opening lid rather like a chest freezer. I find it very good for keeping drinks in (in this country) and it holds the 2 litre size bottles although I must say it struggled to cope last year in the south of France with temperatures of 90 degrees plus every day so what we did was to buy a bag of ice cubes and put that in and that helped it to work better. You can spend several hundreds on a mobile fridge and I suppose you get what you pay for but the Mobicool is quite adequate. Hope this helps.

 

Vaughan

[MauriceH]

we have an Igloo fridge which is 12v which can stand in the awning -- ideal for when on holiday -- also being 12v we plug it in to the 12v socket in the van when we are travelling and it keeps cold. .

see here

 

Igloo fridge

 

it appears that they are out of stock - but I am sure if you search you will find one. .

Great bit of kit. .

 

Maurice

[Pommie5]

We have an Electrolux 3 way refrigerator and use this both as an additional fridge or freezer. Left on full, it will work as a freezer . Set it up on mains at the house. Load it up and it plugs in the cars 12v for the journey. Plug it straight back to the mains when we arrive. Not actually ever used it in gas but you can if you are in a ventilated area. Obviously not for use in your awning. Just had a look on ebay and the following link is for one on sale now.

There will be new more modern models too I suspect.

 

 

http://cgi. ebay. co. uk/Electrolux-camping-r. ..A1%7C240%3A1318

[chillypenguin]

We use our 3way camping fridge in a tent, I don't see any reason why you could not use one in an awing. Remember most caravans have their fridge on the awing side venting into the awing.

[alan1406]

Hi Alan

 

We were faced with this dilemma so went and bought a S/H Lec fridge-which is fairly light-and plug it into an extension cable which we keep in the awning.

 

'Van fridge is used mainly to keep drinks cool.

 

HTH

 

Regards.

Col

 

Col - what do you mean by the abbreviation "S/H Lec"? Would like to have a look online at what you mean!!

[The Ridge Rider]

This is what we use in the awning, we bought it at the end of the season when they were on offer

 

The A/C dropper was cheaper as well.

 

http://www. halfords. com/webapp/wcs/stores/...tegoryId_165657

 

And this stays in the back of the Jeep.

 

http://www. halfords. com/webapp/wcs/stores/...tegoryId_165657 (wish i knew how you shrink the link)

 

I have seen them cheaper in France, Carrfours at Citi-Europe, surprising what you can get for a £1, return ferry via the papers, last week in the Sun, Daily Mail do them as well.

[jennifernn]

We used a £30 12v coolbox from Lidl. We don't need it now as we have a bigger fridge, but we still use it in the car. We just plugged it straight into the 12v socket in the van. We now have an external 12v socket we can use in the awning.

[MauriceH]

Just found the Iglo on e-bay -- £15 -- well worth a punt -- grat bit of kit

 

Igloo 12 v fridge

 

look at the spec

 

colect from Derby

 

Hope it helps

[Guest Tephi]

We have an Electrolux 3 way refrigerator and use this both as an additional fridge or freezer. Left on full, it will work as a freezer . Set it up on mains at the house. Load it up and it plugs in the cars 12v for the journey. Plug it straight back to the mains when we arrive. Not actually ever used it in gas but you can if you are in a ventilated area. Obviously not for use in your awning. Just had a look on ebay and the following link is for one on sale now.

There will be new more modern models too I suspect.

 

 

http://cgi. ebay. co. uk/Electrolux-camping-r. ..A1%7C240%3A1318

 

Pommie5,

 

Are these still available, new, do you know?

 

I bought one of these Electrolux three way chest fridges about 30 years ago [£50ish then] - an ideal piece of kit for the awning - when I sold the 'van c1985 I took the fridge to sea, where it sat by my bunk full of cold lager

 

Steve

[Guest Surfer]

We have a Waeco electric only fridge as it was a lot cheaper than buying a three way fridge as we never use sites without electric. We only use it on long weekends and holidays.

[phutchison]

We bought this on elast year

http://www. outdoorworld. co. uk/royal-3-way-...ml?currency=GBP

(though not through this source)

for use in France last year.

 

Used to use a CampingGaz 36l cooler, but with the noise of the fan, used to turn off at night and then back on in the morning (only used for beer and wine!).

 

Now use the fridge as is silent running!

 

Only down side is the weight - not as easy to put in the back of the car!

 

Cheers

 

Paul

Edited April 21, 2009 by phutchison

[Guest John KS]

Our Campingaz box tends to freeze everything in it if the temperature drops over night. We now remember to turn it off if it goes cold.

We have never been able to find one with a thermostat at a decent price.

[grasmere59]

Our Campingaz box tends to freeze everything in it if the temperature drops over night. We now remember to turn it off if it goes cold.

We have never been able to find one with a thermostat at a decent price.

 

We have a 32L Halfords cool 12v coolbox and find it really good it can be used upright or as a "chest" fridge,as said earlier though if the temp drops overnight it will slightly freeze whats in side,we have only used it in this country so i don't know how it would cope with really hot weather but we find it invaluable for drinks etc specially 2 litre bottles which won't go in the fridge

[Sheila]

We have one of the old electrolux ones left over from camping days. We used it a lot in the awning as a beer fridge when in France, you have to be careful to get it level though for the thermostat to work.

[alan1406]

Sincere thanks to everyone who has replied to this post - so much experience for me to call upon! We don't want to shell out for a thermostat one, so will have to remember to turn it off at night if the temperature drops. I could not get my head around the "cools to 20 degrees below ambient temperature" feature on most of the electric coolboxes. Now I understand!

[Pommie5]

Pommie5,

 

Are these still available, new, do you know?

 

I bought one of these Electrolux three way chest fridges about 30 years ago [£50ish then] - an ideal piece of kit for the awning - when I sold the 'van c1985 I took the fridge to sea, where it sat by my bunk full of cold lager

 

Steve

 

Hi Steve

 

I think they are still available but not made by Electrolux anymore.

See

http://www. obrienscamping. co. uk/portable/waeco_CAB-40-B. htm

 

If you read the advert it states

The Dometic (formerly Electrolux) CAB 40 B compact refrigerators comes with 12 Months Dometic Full European Guarantee

Capacity,refrigerator,litres

40

Net Weight, kg 16

Dimensions, mm H x W x D Outside - 450 x 500 x 510

 

Colour Cabinet: Blue lid/cooling unit: light grey

Consumption

- Electric, kWh/24 h approx. 0. 33 Amp 75 Watt

12 Volt, Ah/24 h approx. 6. 25 Amp 75 Watt

- Gas, g/24 h approx. max. / min 13 grams per hour

Average consumption in 24 h at 25 C° mean ambient annual temperature according to ISO standards.

[Guest Surfer]

Sincere thanks to everyone who has replied to this post - so much experience for me to call upon! We don't want to shell out for a thermostat one, so will have to remember to turn it off at night if the temperature drops. I could not get my head around the "cools to 20 degrees below ambient temperature" feature on most of the electric coolboxes. Now I understand!

When we lived in our caravan on a permanent basis we never had any issues with the fridge freezing up in the awning, but that is not to say it couldn't happen.