Using fridge to make ice for esky? Urban myth?

[Jayson H]

I am starting to go further afield with my camping, now have a camper trailer to play with! I was talking to a mate at a bbq, as you do, and he reckoned that using my 12v fridge to freeze coke bottles of water, and rotating them through the esky was the best use of resources......  But when I asked him, he admitted he had never tried it! I have heard this a few times, has anyone ever tried this? I have a fridge/freezer, a long life esky and a normal esky.  It seems like a good idea, but does it work? The idea is to rotate the bottles of water through the esky's and freezer, keeping the food cold....  Anyone tried this? Cheers!

[elkay]

We have an 80 litre Waeco Fridge freezer and part of our routine is to freeze water in the little coke bottles, only half filled, before we go camping and put in the freezer to get some cool mass in the freezer.
We also put some in the esky when doing day trips, the half full bottle can then be topped up with water for a cool drink on the road.  A another idea is to make ice cubes before you leave and put in a flat ish container like chinese food container and these go in freezer for ready made ice.  Once the bottles have been used we refill and put back in the freezer and round we go.  Starts to freeze fairly quickly.
Try experimenting and see how you go.
Cheers Lesley

Ps keep the fridge/freeze full as the thermal mass is then in the frozen items in it and this keeps things cold too.

[scarpsD40]

Used to do a 10 remote fishing trip this way and prior to my 12v Waeco I'd freeze 1l long life milk blocks (really cheap from Aldi) and 300mm bottled water and stack as many of them as would fit upright into the bottom of the big esky. On top of this I would layer frozen meat and frozen precooked meals. Then my beer/soft drink, cheese, chocolate, fruit and veggies. I'd then lay a thick beach type towel on the top. Use the meat as it defrosts from the top and once we ran out of beer and soft drink, we'd drink the milk and water.
These days I freeze the meat and precooked meals and stack them on the bottom of the Waeco and it reduces the load on the 12v system as the thermostat reads the internal temp of the frozen food. Use the meat and meals as they defrost on top and it all chills the drinks. We still lay a thick beach towel cut to size in the top of the Waeco to give a material layer on the top for when the lid is open.
I've no doubt my Waeco 12v could make ice bricks for the other eskies, but it will chew your 12v power supply in doing so.

[chisel]

Constantly making ice in a 12V fridge will draw maybe 60-90AH per day.  Unless you're driving a lot or have hundreds of watts of solar panels you'll be out of battery in a day or two.
I also wonder how much ice you can actually freeze each day in a normal waeco-type fridge.  It usually takes at least a couple of days to really freeze a 2L container of ice but I guess you would only need maybe 1 of those going into your esky each day so you could cycle through 4 or 5 that are in your fridge at a time. 

You also have to consider the space.  Aside from other frozen stuff you can't store anything in the fridge so you've effectively brought along a fridge-sized block of ice

[axle]

I have only heard this method used in conjunction with generators not solar.

[feisty]

Get a rc1180 3 way fridge and run it on gas when you are stationary and use it as an esky when moving (they chew thru 12v) on gas the are fantastically efficient.

[BaseCamp]

Myth Busted   

Constantly making ice in a 12V fridge will draw maybe 60-90AH per day. 

x2

[weeds]

I brought. Second fridge.......my problem solved

[jetcrew]

I have only heard this method used in conjunction with generators not solar.

agreed 

that is how we have done it and you really need to rotate bottles daily before they defrost too much or they will take a long time to frezze again.

We used to swap out bottles at night before bed to give the frezzer 24hrs to replenish and the big hit is in the cooler night air.

but now we just have fridges in the boat and at camp 

Jet

[Jayson H]

Cheers guys!

Sounds like it would be possible with a Genie or at a caravan park with 240V.  Some 40 degree days I can go through a bag of ice a day in the old esky, just keeping beers cold....  I did think briefly about drinking less.....  but I reckon there must be another way!

The long-life Techni-ice esky lasts longer, if I treat it right, but once the block ice goes (5 days to a week), and I resort to ice bags, I dont get anywhere near as much life out of the ice....

[Banjo16]

Yep, 2 fridges so why bother.