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Cheap Cool box option

I've seen the same one in Halfords for about the same price.

Are they any good (Not trying to compare to Engle fridge or similar...)
 
They use a peltier cooler to cool down to x degrees below ambient- usually about 15-20 degrees-great in the UK where they will happily get down to 1-2 degrees in most weather but not much use in the Sahara where you'll be lucky to cool stuff below 25degrees.

They can be made FAR more effective by replacing the 12v fans on them- peltier coolers work through creating a temperature differentiel- you have acooler in the box and a "heater" in the open air. If you add some speciliased PC fans that push a LOT of air (50cfm or more) then you c an get the cooler to pull down 30degrees or so.

Even without modding the fans they take a lot of power to cool even a couple of degrees and will drain a typuical car battery in hours rather than the days that an Engel or National Luma would take!
 
I have one of these form CCC. £149. Well I thought, I'll give it a go. Fantastic! It's gas, lecky or 12v car. On gas and lecky it is as good as anything I've seen before. It has proper pipes and ammonia and all that. It's not peltier. It even makes ice inside. Nearly froze my gin and tonic when on full. On 12v is good at holding the temperature, but you are better to pre chill. It is very frugal on gas too. If you really cannot stretch to an Engel etc, then this is a really great alternative. And when in base camp of course, you can take it out and leave it. It's 45L with hardly any loss of space for the cooling element inside.

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/product-search/text/fridge
 
I used to have one like the one from Lidls but beware, it is really tiny inside and the lid will not close with them bottles shown in the picture.
You have to lay the bottle over so you will get one bottle in and not much else. Absolutely caned the battery on my Landy if the engine was off.

I would go with Chris on the dearer one. Far more spacious and the one I have now also works to keep stuff hot if you need it to. When Tommo and I went to the Alps, we had one for hot and one for cold. The hot setting isn't good enough for meal type heat but when you are cold and tired even luke warm pies are good enough.
 
Hi Chris,
I just looked at the fridge, it certainly looks like it is value for money.
Are you serious when you say it can freeze? ?

For that price of 149.00 it is very good.
Do you find 45 liters is enough, or would you ever consider to buy 2 ?

Graham
 
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I spilled milk in it this last weekend in Scotland and I thought 'Oh cr@p, that's going to be nasty' Firstly, I am still using the carton of milk that I took with me and secondly, when I got home to empty it, the spilled milk was frozen into a puddle in the bottom. You can put an ice tray on the edge of the plate, so I understand, and direct contact will freeze water when on max.

45 litres was big enough for me. I had an 8 pack of Bombardier (Morrison's - £1.00 - 500ml bottle. Come on) Milk, three tins of G and T, three packs of cheese, three tins of grapefruit, 2 tubs of humous, six pack of pork and pickle pies.

I mean how much DO you want in there?

Most of the time it was on low as well.

Chris
 
I've found 'your' fridge on't net for £100 Chris - you sound like you reckon its a good bit of kit... I might have a punt at that.

They seem to be seconds that are being punted out from a camping shop but they won't post them out due to previous difficulties with damage... They're not that fragile are they??
 
No, I wouldn't have said so. Make sure that you get the gas hose and reg if you haven't got one already. I don't think that it came with that. I use a medium sized gas bottle like 902 or something and I reckon I could get a week out of it.
I know these Engel type things are super, but really, this one is pretty close for a 5th of the price. Hey buy 5 and you'd still be winning! OK on 12v it holds temp but can struggle to get it chilled quickly. But if you've an inverter on board, it will probably work pretty well. On gas is bloomin' brilliant.
Chris
 
Gavlad said:
I've found 'your' fridge on't net for £100 Chris - you sound like you reckon its a good bit of kit... I might have a punt at that.

They seem to be seconds that are being punted out from a camping shop but they won't post them out due to previous difficulties with damage... They're not that fragile are they??

Where have you found them Gav? Laura and I travelled Aus with a Waeco fridge and it's probably the best $180 I've ever spent. We got the element full of dust and kept it on full power 24/7 on 12v (or 240v when we had hookup). It got really bashed around too and still worked 100% when we sold it with the van. I would jump at the chance to get one over here for that price, I think ours was only 35l too.
 
Quest 3-Way Fridge

Here they are Jim. A camping shop in Tamworth (cleverly called Tamworth Camping :p ) has them. I have just ordered mine but unless you're going to have a punt on the 'bay, they charge them out at £110 from the shop.

As I mentioned earlier, collection only unless you arrange a courier yourself from the sound of things.

They are unused but certainly seconds. You'll get a 3 month 'back-to-base' guarantee with it but the lady I spoke with (Heather) went to great lengths to say they'd help out in the very unlikely event of a problem so long as the thing hadn't been misused. (OT, how does one abuse a fridge... :lol: )

When I spoke to the chap last week, he reckoned to have a dozen in stock - she reckons they're down to half a dozen or so now.

Happy shopping :)
 
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