Cool Boxes

 
 
 
 
 
 
essjay
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Cool Boxes

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Posted: 16.05.2019  ·  #1
Does anyone bring a cool box with them when traveling? I find the fridge is very small for a family of 5 so something like a cool box would be very handy to bring and store in the awning.

Any recommendations? Can any of them be left plugged in cooling 24/7?


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Re: Cool Boxes

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Posted: 16.05.2019  ·  #2
Yes We used to take our 12/240 v cool box with us in the van,whilst on a campsite we used it on the electric and left it plugged in all the time,but had to hoover out the cooling fins every now and again to keep it running properly.Very handy for the extra beer .


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Re: Cool Boxes

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Posted: 16.05.2019  ·  #3
The electric pulgin are hard on power especially in warm weather. On 12 volt it would flatten a leisure battery over 24 hours.
We use the ordinary eskie, insulated box for foods which only need to be chilled. Instead of ice packs, we would freeze a 2 litre bottle of water at home beforehand and use it in the box.
Last year in France, I picked up one of these.

 


It holds 8 cans of beer and a half bag of ice. Cold beers for 24 hours.


essjay
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Re: Cool Boxes

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Posted: 16.05.2019  ·  #4
Quote by petie

Yes We used to take our 12/240 v cool box with us in the van,whilst on a campsite we used it on the electric and left it plugged in all the time,but had to hoover out the cooling fins every now and again to keep it running properly.Very handy for the extra beer .


That’s my thinking. Leaving it connected to hookup 24/7


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Re: Cool Boxes

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Posted: 16.05.2019  ·  #5
The handle on our esky just broke so we went out and bought an electric one from Halfords at the weekend. A 25 liter, 12 volt cooler. At 40 watts, you don’t want to be leaving it on for extended periods of time on leisure battery. But while driving or on EHU, no problem. My thinking is that if it is not running on 12 volts, well it should at least work as well as a regular esky. If that means throwing ice in to it from time to time, then so be it. I’m sure we’ll manage to give it power intermittently. But I agree, if the three way fridge is a little too small by itself, so I would recommend backup.


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Re: Cool Boxes

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Posted: 16.05.2019  ·  #6
I would sometimes use a cool box and put some chilled items in it with ice blocks to leave room for things like milk in the fridge. I don’t bother booking it up to the 12v. It’s noisy and creates a lot of heat too. That’s a good idea with the frozen 2L bottle of water.


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Cool Boxes

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Posted: 16.05.2019  ·  #7
Quote by The Rambler

The handle on our esky just broke so we went out and bought an electric one from Halfords at the weekend. A 25 liter, 12-volt cooler. At 40 watts, you don’t want to be leaving it on for extended periods of time on leisure battery. But while driving or on EHU, no problem. My thinking is that if it is not running on 12 volts, well it should at least work as well as a regular esky. If that means throwing ice into it from time to time, then so be it. I’m sure we’ll manage to give it power intermittently. But I agree, if the three-way fridge is a little too small by itself, so I would recommend backup.


Jason. if you run it for a while on the cigarette have a check that the plug is not overheating especially the chrome tip.


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Re: Cool Boxes

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Posted: 16.05.2019  ·  #8
The other thing to remember that some of the electric cool box are not quiet.
Excuse the pun, at the end of the day, you have to sleep while it's running away, unless you have an external socket.


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Re: Cool Boxes

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Posted: 17.05.2019  ·  #9
Quote by sprinter

Jason. if you run it for a while on the cigarette have a check that the plug is not overheating especially the chrome tip.


I will check that Martin. It hasn’t had it road test yet. I plugged it in for a few hours at the weekend during the day just to get an idea of the actual drain on battery, which owingto day light would have been offset by incoming solar. I must have run it for about 5 hours. It depleted by battery to 90% SOC before I unplugged. By the time I got home the next day from work, the solar had fully recharged the battery.

I’m thinking I would probably not run it at night. I’ll probably only run it during the day if on EHU and the fridge is full.


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Re: Cool Boxes

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Posted: 17.05.2019  ·  #10
We often have ours on EHU for a week in the awning. Remember you can get 10% off in Halfords if you are an AXA or Dolmen customer - just produce your insurance disc in Halfords.


essjay
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Re: Cool Boxes

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Posted: 17.05.2019  ·  #11
Halfords have €27 off their 40L 12v/240v coolbox at the minute (now €105) - I was in looking at it yesterday. Seems big enough.

Lots of videos of the Coleman Cool Box Xtreme on YouTube with people getting 5 days passive cooling from bags of ice (these boxes are not powered). Their 49l is about £75 and a massive 91l is £105. These might be good enough to throw a bag of ice or ice block in every day or two. Also strong enough to use as a bench seat.


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Re: Cool Boxes

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Posted: 17.05.2019  ·  #12
We've had the halfords 12v cool box for several years and it's been very reliable. The fan isn't totally silent, but you get used to the quiet hum after a while. We only have it on 12v when we're driving but on occasion we have run it for a couple of hours per day just off the battery to bring the temp down in the box. You don't need to run it 24/7 in Ireland. (Different story on the continent of course).
It cools stuff down pretty fast as long as you don't have the box packed tight with stuff. I've often considered fitting a countdown timer to our cool box so it'd only run for 2-3 hrs and then shut off.

Timer:
https://www.ebay.ie/itm/12V-Ti…Sws0JaYSer


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Coolbox

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Posted: 17.05.2019  ·  #13
 
this is my halfords coolbox but what I’ve done is fitted a thermostat which works between +4 +10 it stays on when I’m driving or on ehu but I have left it on while wild camping ,we normally put it on the night before we go away to get it done in temp and also put a few ice packs in with the beer, and it has stayed cool for a whole week


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Posted: 17.05.2019  ·  #14
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Re: Cool Boxes

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Posted: 19.05.2019  ·  #15
Quote by sprinter

Jason. if you run it for a while on the cigarette have a check that the plug is not overheating especially the chrome tip.


The chrome tip plug gets hot for sure Martin. Now, how concerning is that. 🤔 The CE mark has got to mean something.


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Re: Cool Boxes

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Posted: 19.05.2019  ·  #16
I have the Dometic RC 1200, 3 way fridge and used it when I had the dayvan. This past 3 years I have used it as a back up. Two years ago I was heading to Tollymore for an extended period with loads of food and drink on board. I had it plugged into a cheap B and M 3 way cigarette lighter adapter in the hab area of the van. About 5 miles short of Tollymore I got a hot smell followed by the smoke alarm going off. I struggled to find anywhere to stop so just stopped in the middle of the road. The flames were reaching 3/4 of the way to the ceiling.
I turned off the hab isolator and the flame started to die down. I went to dampen the flame down but had to turn the power back on again to get the pump going. Got it out but the smell was horrific.
All the damage was on the 3 way adaptor and the wiring back to where it was plugged into the motorhomes original hab 12 v socket.
The fridge works well on 240v and gas. It can be turned up and used like a freezer. It is designed to operate on 12v and probably is perfectly fine to use whilst travelling to site but take care when using cheap adaptors


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Re: Cool Boxes

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Posted: 19.05.2019  ·  #17
I agree the 12 volt plug on the halfords coolbox also got warm the way to get round this is fit a normal plug on the 12 volt side and install a plug socket with a fuse to the batt’s it won’t heat up but remember mark it with a 12 volt sticker


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Re: Cool Boxes

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Posted: 19.05.2019  ·  #18
Just to expand on Hilton9.
https://www.caravanaccessorysh…ocket/2708
Both socket and plug is rated to 10 amps or 120 watts.
Cigarette type sockets are grand for small draw work, like a phone charger.
High power stuff causes arcing due to the low voltage and higher amps.
This arcing causes heat especially as the contacts are not tight fitting.
To wire in the above example, the minimum cable size should be 2 mm squared.


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Re: Cool Boxes

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Posted: 19.05.2019  ·  #19
Quote by Thorn123

Just to expand on Hilton9.
https://www.caravanaccessorysh…ocket/2708
Both socket and plug is rated to 10 amps or 120 watts.
Cigarette type sockets are grand for small draw work, like a phone charger.
High power stuff causes arcing due to the low voltage and higher amps.
This arcing causes heat especially as the contacts are not tight fitting.
To wire in the above example, the minimum cable size should be 2 mm squared.


If the plug is rated to 10 amps then should it be getting very hot at 3 amps? That’s what is happening with the Halfords cooler. I would chop the plug and re-terminate with a higher specified one if i thought the original one was not fit for purpose


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