Freezer only

[Mik01]

I have an 80L fridge/freezer (single compartment) - as I have a hundred kids, this is suitable for extended stays as a fridge to hold all of our food and drink, but not frozen stuff.

I have been using a 110L esky for the frozen stuff, but it was a fail at keeping stuff frozen after a few days and also its way too big. also with my bait inside the rest of the stuff stunk, and the mrs complained royally about for the whole week!

I am after a dedicated camp freezer only - maybe 40/50L - am I right in assuming that they only make 12v camping fridge/freezers, which you simply turn the thermostat right down?
is there a difference from the way a dedicated freezer operates to the way a fridge/freezer operates?

[Darcy7]

Hi Mik

We've been using a Waeco 50l fridge as a dedicated fridge freezer for extended trips and it work very well.  I just set the temp to -10 or what ever is required.

The beauty of this is that if I ever need to use it as a fridge, I can just by turning the temp up.

Cheers

Darcy

[Green rv]

Gday Mik01
i use the 80ltr  dual zone waeco that i use as a freezer and for a 7 day stay has been working fine for me will also freeze water bottles along the way
i did have trouble keeping power up to it for the last stint but stayed frozen until i could get the power back up to it

biggest tip have everything frozen at least a week before and box pulled down to the lowest temp possible at home on the 240v i will normally do this 2-3 days before hand

hope this helps
Ads

[oldmate]

I am after a dedicated camp freezer only - maybe 40/50L - am I right in assuming that they only make 12v camping fridge/freezers, which you simply turn the thermostat right down?
is there a difference from the way a dedicated freezer operates to the way a fridge/freezer operates?

yes mate thats right, just get a fridge/freezer and turn temp down like like above comments. I have a waeco dual zone 50lt, whick can be fridge and freezer, or all fridge or all freezer. same as Ads only smaller. They have removable dividers in them. 

[Mik01]

yes mate thats right, just get a fridge/freezer and turn temp down like like above comments. I have a waeco dual zone 50lt, whick can be fridge and freezer, or all fridge or all freezer. same as Ads only smaller. They have removable dividers in them. 

thanks guys - how do they go on power when on freeze only? Adam, I note your post about keeping power up to it.

should I have a separate solar panel just for the dedicated freezer for example? is that what you do?

or is power draw not much more than on fridge setting? - ie if I pre-freeze it like you say, and load with frozen stuff, it shouldn't work too hard to stay at a frozen temperature for 7-10 days? (would be opened once or twice per day max, unlike a fridge)

cheers,

Mike

[jwb]

I would suggest you re-think the frozen option towards vacuum packed items.
If it's only for 7 to 10 days It wouldn't need to be frozen
Depends on what your items are obviously
Cheers

[Bullant4x4]

Chicken, pork needs good looking after but  beef can last up to 6 weeks in the fridge after cryovacing.

Use to buy 6 month old ribeye

[Mik01]

I would suggest you re-think the frozen option towards vacuum packed items.
If it's only for 7 to 10 days It wouldn't need to be frozen
Depends on what your items are obviously
Cheers

you might be right.
we were a bit worried with chicken and pork that defrosted after a couple of days, although it was super cold within all that ice.
however we had frozen pizza bases and pre-made meals also that defrosted (and pizza bases that went soggy.)

plus everything went wet and soggy due to ice melting - it was a total pain in the proverbial.  as mentioned, bait that I wanted to keep in semi-frozen state stunk up the esky, as the ice melted around it and dripped on to the food packaging.
as we have a big family, the fridge is full, so the cleanest and easiest option is to get a freezer - although I accept it might not be the cheapest option.

[weeds]

I would suggest you re-think the frozen option towards vacuum packed items.
If it's only for 7 to 10 days It wouldn't need to be frozen
Depends on what your items are obviously
Cheers

gotta agree......

if we vac chicken than we just eat it early in the trip and leave the beef til later

the week prior to the trip we are starting to pre-cook more meals and than vaccing them down

[zzzaaazzz]

I know this wasn't your question but I've had lots of luck salting bait, then it doesn't need to be cooled.

[Reddirtroaming]

We are on an extended trip but are using 2 40L Engels. One as a freezer & one as a fridge.

As the others have suggested we turn it right down when we are on 240V & run at -14 when just on solar power. We have 2 120W solar panels & a dual battery in both the car & camper trailer.
Both Engels are located in the back of the 4WD so when we are travelling they run off the car but when at camp we run them on the trailer & solar. Our charging system keeps up indefinitely (well we have done 5 weeks without 240V & very rarely camp at caravan parks), but have been lucky with sun so far. We reckon our freezer uses at least double the power than to our fridge. Even more when it's hot.

We get the butcher to vac pac our meat & then freeze. The bags are tougher & when you defrost & put the meat in the fridge it doesn't make a mess.

I would also recommend staying away from meat with bones in it if you have limited room. Luckily it's just the two of us so we don't have to worry about this, but bones take up valuable space. Eg a kilo of chicken breast verses a kilo of wings or legs, you will get a lot more meat from the breast & take up less room in the freezer. Also try to freeze things flat so you can play Tetris in the freezer to make more use of space, so it might be easier to freeze it flat in your home freezer & then pack the 12V freezer with frozen meat.

[muzza01]

On a recent camping trip friends of ours had a couple of LPG fridge freezers. I was surprised how quickly they got cold. They had one as a fridge and one as a freezer. They were about 25-30 lts in size and I think they said they paid about $4-500 for them.

As for cryovaccing, a lot of butchers will only charge about $1-2.00 per vacuum bag. When we camp for two weeks, we only use the fridge as a fridge and cryovac all of our meat.

[bodgie]

Last big trip we ran the 47L ARB fridge as a freezer and used a 47L Evacool Ice Box as the fridge. We used frozen 1L milk cartons and ice bricks to keep the esky cold. Once the milk defrosted we had milk and while it was defrosting it kept everything cold. If I needed more ice we'd through more milk or a carton full of water into the freezer.

Overall it worked very well across the two weeks, I know it worked well because the beer was at good drinking temperature. I can't recommend the Evacool fibreglass ice box highly enough, simply the best esky (or ice box) I've ever used or owned. It's a good solution that works well and doesn't mean you have the cost or hassle of trying to keep two fridges running.

Jason

[firefox]

hi,
we love our waeco fridge/freezer which is the new CFX models. It works well as a mix.. However

We have a Evakool Fridge/Freezer (white one 80L). It's the only Freezer that actually works. As a freezer.
At the moment as a freezer it uses about 40a a day roughly so pretty economical. However it's the only freezer that actually keeps ice cream and other items frozen. (there's a difference between frozen and very very cold, i.e sort of frozen)

As someone else mentioned i can't speak highly enough of the evakool, i've had all the brands, but evakool's the one i keep going back to (currently have 3 fridge/freezer's).. Evakool's the only one i trust as a true freezer..

[Mik01]

Some good info - thanks all. I will look further into the cryovac thing. So you don't have to freeze meat if it's cryovac and to be eaten within say 10 days?

[edz]

G,Day Miko.
Mate Vacu packed meat / cooked meals etc are fine, though usualy eaten first week [ would freeze these though ]..
We vacu pack bag our own and pre freeze it in flat packs [ but dont have too ], placed into the bottom of the 12v fridge [ pre chilled] for the trip, raw stir fry chicken strips etc , for crumbed stuff just individualy wrap it then vacu bag and freeze, raw red meats... no troubles with freshness [ even if frozen and then  thawed ] up to 14 days on our Fraser trips ...Waeco 50 lt set on about 4* C ..

[Bongo]

My old waeco 80l, when set as a freezer, ran 24/7. I only put food that was already frozen into it. It did struggle to keep ice cream and icy poles frozen.

Just purchased a National Luna .. Only ran the small compartment as a freezer. Wow. What a fridge.

[muzza01]

Some good info - thanks all. I will look further into the cryovac thing. So you don't have to freeze meat if it's cryovac and to be eaten within say 10 days?

Check with your butcher but i reckon it's good for about 2 months when heat in fridge. I know I have eaten cryovac packs of our meat 6 weeks after it was bought.