What size fridge/freezer for a family of 6??

[Kidsanall]

Hey all a (relatively) quick question. Looking to set up the CT and 4WD with a suitable fridge/freezer or fridge and freezer, but unsure as to which size/s, know of a few people that run seperate fridge freezer set-ups and figuring this the way to go. Looking at a 60l to start with, a couple of weekend trips to determine how the whole set-up goes and supplies fairly handy if required,any ideas or advice on suitable or personal set-ups from all but specifically larger families. We have a 4yr, 2x7yr, and 9yr old. Hoping in time to work up to a couple of weeks away relatively independant. Thanks in advance Les.

[albany_nomads]

I dont know about for a family of 6...(now I come to think of it Ive never had a family of 6 the most we ever had was 4)
I imagine it also comes down to how much room you have to store the fridge/freezer in your vehicle or CT.
We have a 70 litre EvaKool yellow fridge/freezer where we can have it as all fridge, all freezer or 50/50 fridge/freezer and we are very impressed with its storage space and also very impressed with how little it has to run to keep its temp. Has an Danfoss compressor..super insulated and I gather helps with its efficency Regards Albany Nomads

[chunk]

I dont know about for a family of 6...(now I come to think of it Ive never had a family of 6 the most we ever had was 4)
I imagine it also comes down to how much room you have to store the fridge/freezer in your vehicle or CT.
We have a 70 litre EvaKool yellow fridge/freezer where we can have it as all fridge, all freezer or 50/50 fridge/freezer and we are very impressed with its storage space and also very impressed with how little it has to run to keep its temp. Has an Danfoss compressor..super insulated and I gather helps with its efficiency Regards Albany Nomads

A bloody big one !!!!! All jokes a side would buy the biggest you can afford for the space that you have. There is only 4 of us and we run 2 x 40lt Engels, 1 in the camper as a freezer and the other in the Disco as a fridge. I don't like the idea of having just the one fridge/freezer in case something goes wrong, a bit like putting all you water in one container.

[darren]

We have a family of 4 and travel a lot and we use a 39l engel and have done for years. Adapt you lifestyle to camping not camping to your lifestyle

[Moto Mech]

We went for years with a 39lt fridge but found it was alway abit of a pain having to "stack" everything on top of each other so we upgraded to a 60 Engel.Fantastic, as it uses two cages, things are easy to find and unless we are preparing for along stint outback, we have plenty of room left.Family of 5.

[crackacoldie]

For our family of 5 we use an 80l engel split fridge/freezer and when space allows a 40l weaco for beer.  Cracka

[DeLuxHiLux]

My trusty 15 year old Engel 40l has served us well for some time, but the 2 kids caused me to purchase a two-zone which gives us another 15l to play with. this works well for us at the moment, only doing 1-2 week trips when we can. juggling the temperature controls is a bit of an art form though!  Any longer, or if we were going really remote, we'd need more freezer space, and when the CT finally arrives, we'll be aquiring another fridge/freezer to do the one freezer, one fridge thing like has been mentioned before.

you use an esky/cooler (the really good ones) with ice blocks you have made in your freezer. I did this on my first big central Oz trip. I use my engel as a freezer and had 2 x 5 liter water containers. 1 in the freezer freezing, the other in the esky chilling the stuff in there. Swapped them over in the morinng as part of daily pre drive routine. worked a treat, though admittedly, the beveridges were not as cold as they could have been, and a few ended up in the freezer to get them to the "right" temperature. but food wise we had no spoilage. If i was doing that again i'd use 3 2l containers rather than 1 x 5 liter, to spread the cold around more. They also act as emergency water supply. Large blocks of ice last longer than cube ice. the really good $250-500 insulated eskys can keep those frozen for a few days apparently.

I'd consider at least a 60l fridge, but you have to consider size and accessability in your vehicle or CT. many 80l fridges wont leave much room in the back of a 4x4 wagon, and some CT's may not fit it either. id look at the biggest frige (probably one that is a split fridge/freezer, rathen a all togther fridge or freezer) but there is some logic in the 1 fridge, seperate freezer argument as well. shop around though as you might be able to get 2 40l  for the price of 1 x 80l split , depending on pricing. the new "plastic" engel were selling for around $900 when i was lookig earlier this year. and 80l engel splits were $1700. Not much difference in price, but more flexibility for you! you can have one in the car, one in the CT. also spreads the weight around too

We try and plan the menu to use a many foods that dont require fridge to keep them. Pasta and basic pasta sauce in a jar doesnt need a fridge (and kids generally love it)

Good luck though, its always a tricky one. its  big investment and you want to feel you got it right!!!!

[gronk]

Do you or ( and? ) your wife drink copious ammounts of beer ??
This can sometimes double the size of the required fridge...

If you don't drink much ( or at all ) then a 40 to 60 ltr will do all you require.........but then again, some people think you have to take icecreams etc etc when you go camping.......

With your ammount of kids a 60 ltr would be a good size....and if you can't fit everything in....then you're taking too much....pretty simple......just learn how to take more stuff that doesn't need refrigerating.....as an example; cordial instead of 10 cans of drink !!

[BigJules]

I have had a 40L Engel for years and recently picked up a 60L Engel with freezer, just so we can have more cold drinks on hand.

[GU_Thomo]

I reckon the ideal would be a 60l and for long trips take a 40l as well and run it as a freezer.
The problem with more refrigeration is you have got to have the power to keep it running.

Cheers
Parry

[DANBRI]

I have a 32L Engel as a freezer in the camper, and a 40L Engel as the fridge in the car.

I would only take the 32L if we were intending on camping without calling through a town for more then 10 days. So it has rarely seen the day of light. 40L for a family of four seems to work well. Even if you drink a lot of cans, as you take one out, put one in to cool. It's very effective and simple.

The bigger the fridge, the more energy required to run it - weight, costs etc...

[DAZnBEC]

We are a family of six and use a 60 litre engel and a 35 litre engle. That gets us by pretty well so far!

[Maîneÿ . . .]

It's interesting to see what others are using - and their reasons

We (2) had a 50 Lt Fridge/Freezer for 2 or 3 years, however upgraded with same manufacturer, to 70 Lt Fridge/Freezer for the extra space available, as we camp long term on deserted beaches well away from anywhere.



I think it depends on how long you are likely to spend time away from shops, and if you and the kids, are prepared to compromise at all 

 

[Garry H]

Hi all,
we (family of 4) started with a 60l engel combi unit and this did us for a number of years until we did some extended trips and bought a smaller engel as well, the combination engels take a little getting used to where to stack what as there is only one thermo to control the "freezer" and then an automatic fan to control air flow into the "fridge". turn the freezer to low and you'll freeze the tomatos or lettuce in the fridge, turn the freezer into a fridge - and the second side is not cold enough for the milk (rotate the long life) if you go this way you will soon learn where to stack what and what works for you
the smaller engel we start as the freezer and shift food acros to the fridge in advance of needing it, helps keep the fridge cooler while the meat defrosts, sometimes we return home with only the big fridge or just the little fridge running.
I wouldn't hesitate in two smaller fridge's in preferance to one large one, 1, good back up 2,you can turn one of when not needed, 3, can always add a two zone to one of them to increase size if needed,
the choice is yours depending on what room you have and how much battery life you have (we have 180 a/h) but we tend not to sit for to many days in row anyhow,
years ago they managed without fridges anyway, have we all gone soft?
hope this helps you
cheers
Garry

[cranky]

4 of us we use a 40 LT engel as a freezer & an 80 LT engel as a fridge.

[dragonsgirl]

Hi Kidsanall, I am following this with interest we also have 6 of us and unsure what size to get etc.  It looks like you might have 7yo twins I have 9 yo twins and they are loving the camper trailer lifestyle.  We are looking at the Waeco 50 L but I rather like the look of the evakools but I dont really know much about them.  We will be buying the fridge after christmas so will keep looking, researching and listening to everyones opinions.

[Myfault]

For 3 or 4 of us we use a 40 litre and an 18 litre fridge. The 40 litre is for food.  On short trips the 18 litre is for drinks.  On longer trips it starts life as a freezer and when close to empty it is changed over to a fridge and works well for drinks.  Like the others, I like two fridges just in case.  I have had one die on me half way through an outback trip.  Glad I had the other one.

Alex

[fromunder]

Hi Kidsanall,
                we use 60L weaco (in my ute) for stuff we don't want to have water damaged
and a 72ltr esky in the camper trailer for drinks.
The only reason we went with the 60l weaco is the low power useage for size .83amp avg over 24hr
wanted a 80l weaco but uses 2.9amp avg over 24hr
and only extra 20lts
All the data is off there web site ( I know there are many different things to consider eg outside temp,amount times you open door
ect)
Family of five (6yr old and twin 5yr olds)

Dwayne

[morgue]

 There are heaps of combinations you can use for this little problem, on a limited budget, depending on your camping requirements.

My sollution to this evergreen problem, grab a 12v portable fridge from 40 to 50 ltrs in capacity, there are various makes on the market, shop around and haggle....
Then buy a quality built esky(everkool, Coleman etc), again about 50ltrs in capacity.
You keep the foodstuffs, milk, butter, salads etc in the fridge on -2c or 0c.
Then in the esky, keep the ice, frozen water, beer etc.
Why, 90% of the time, the kids and you are in the fridge wanting drinks, plus it saves energy for the fridge to do its stuff because you are not in and out of the fridge all the time, think of the kids into the fridge at home...

My set up is at the moment, a 12volt Bushman, with a collar and high dome lid, expandable from 35lts to 50ltrs for the foodstuffs etc, a Coleman heavy duty esky, that keeps solid ice blocks (not party ice) for 4 days.. all up about $1200.00.
 The Bushman cost about $990.00, with the extras thrown in, thermal cover, 240v power adapter, high lid dome, collar and extra baskets (got it at the Qld Caravan and Camping show as a special) and the heavy duty Coleman esky, $150.00.
It does the job  for me and my clan perfectly.

 

[Barry G]

Morgue, I almost picked up a bushman, but managed to get an Autofridge second hand.  I think the Bushman is the most versatile on the market in terms of size and multiple arrangement of collar and lid.

[Kidsanall]

Absolutely outstanding points of view and some very good ideas many thanks so far, personally i'm leaning to 2 seperate items. One for a fridge one for a freezer, although they may be purchased at different times allowing for us to take a few shorter trips to get settled into our routines and learn more about the camper and our requirements etc. And allowing for budgetary concerns. Only got a few thousand queries running around in my head now ..... slowly getting sorted!!
Thanks again and keep the thoughts coming.

[Garry H]

Hi,
another thing I forgot to add is that when we travel we have a 12v cooler (with an ice brick in it) sitting on the back seat packed with carrots/cherry tomatoes/grapes/sultanas etc for the odd snacks so we don't have to stop at inconvient times for snacks, also means we arn't in the fridge every time we pull up for a photo or toilet/fuel stop
we normally rotate drink bottles around so we leave with 1/2 frozen water bottles every morning,
do other travellers with kids stop at every whim or am I just lucky and ours travel fairly well? (or is it because of the snacks we have available in the back seat?)
cheers
Garry

[LJs GU]

G'day Garry,
We try to do just do the lunch stop on the long trips.  Kids have got the dual screens on the back of our head rests and the movies get a high rotation. That and the snack foods we throw to them to keep them quiet means we can keep on trucking...
LJ

[Paul and Bern]

  Hi Kidsanall, we started out with my old 39L Engel, and an esky for veges.  It's pretty hard to get the 39 to keep the meet frozen but the milk, lettuce etc not. With the onset of Kids now 5 & 1, we just got a 75L combo Engel for the last trip.  Become a task to fit two fridges (esky) in the patrol along with porta cots etc and the 75 fitted neatly and is a 33L freezer and a 42L fridge which looks like it will work for us, and truthfully might even be a tad over in the freezer side.  If you want to do a lot of drinks though probably 2 fridge/freezers might work better.  It was interesting when we did the gulf to see just how hard the fridges were working so the power consumption was pretty high for just 12v power, something else to keep in mind if your not thinking of going to places with mains power. Eskies become a hassle if you have to make ice but did us for the short trips. Meal/menu planning is what got us through with one fridge so you only take the minimum.
Best of luck,
Paul

[farmer6]

We are also a family of 6 and for a long time we used a 60 lt trailblazer for camping but have recently got a 60lt engel combi with our new camper. I'm not a big fan of the split fridges in this size as you dont get much room of either fridge or freezer but my wife and I are both bundy rum drinkers so having a supply of ice close by is making me come round to the idea. The size Paul has would be better I think. Eventually I will put our 60lt trailblazer in the wagon as the freezer and change the camper combi fridge to just a 60lt fridge only. I guess your the same as us with 4 kids in the car there isn't a lot of room to put a fridge and all the other stuff you might want in the back.

It also depends a lot on what you eat. This weekend the boys and I went camping ( 4 of us) and for 3 days all we needed in the freezer was steak, rissoles and sausages and somehow the peachs got in there but thats another story, and in the fridge was just a tub of potato salad, a tub of pasta salad, ham, cheese and chocolate. Some people like to have a salad with each meal that has 25 different types of ingredients with 4 types of nuts and 3 lots of dressings. If that gets you up to operating temperature then thats fine but it can require more cold storage. My wife wants/needs salad so we work around that.

We also just take 1 litre cartons of long life milk so if any is not used after opening it doesn't take up much fridge space. We take the usual dried, packet and canned food. We take fruit for snacks like apples and oranges and just keep them in a cool shaded spot. We have found that whole coconuts are great for the kids to share as snacks. Keeps them busy opening them up and chizeling out the flesh. And the only other thing I'd add is we dont take any kids soft drink or juice when camping, its only water for drinking with some ice if its hot and no ice blocks, although we almost took some of those zupper dopper type ice blocks this week end.

Esky works fantastic for keeping cans of coke or beer cool without losing any fridge space but as other have said you need access to it or have to make your own. The fridge/freezer decision is totally dependent on your budget, the type of camping you do and the space you have. Good luck.

farmer6