should i buy a fridge or stick with esky

[Kleyny]

In the future my camping time will be more frequent and longer.

I can get a waeco factory seconds fridge freezer at a reasonable price.
or should i just persist with my 2inch cold-room wall 80lt esky and buy a smaller long life type esky for drinks.

Is there any good alternatives to ice?


neil

[russ81]

Hows it going mate
I am running a waeco 110l fridge on a duel battery setup and absolutely love it I will never go back to an esky the convenience of knowing your stuff is going to stay fresh and not end up swimming is what finally sold me plus the fact that there is no need to worry about where im going to buy ice while im away

Russ

[Kleyny]

russ

when you say dual battery setup what type of battery is it? And how long do you get out of the fully charged battery. Is there any other trick you do to keep your fridge operating?

Thanks neil

[russ81]

Hows it going mate

I have three batteries set up one for the ignition and the two others for the fridge and other items The batteries are 100AH each and i normally get about 3 - 4 days usage out of them i always get the fridge down to the required temp before i go using the mains power and have it set to 3 degrees i also try and have everything cold or frozen before leaving so as not to draw extra power trying to cool them down.

Russ

[reelchippy]

Well said Russ i have a 50lt waeco which great but if i buy a new one i would get a CF-60 AC VERA model which can connect direct to 240v.
Also if you go the waeco way you realy need the duel battery system

[Kleyny]

Well said Russ i have a 50lt waeco which great but if i buy a new one i would get a CF-60 AC VERA model which can connect direct to 240v.
Also if you go the waeco way you realy need the duel battery system

What sort of battery have you got and how long do you get out of your set up.

If i buy a waeco i have a choice of either a CF50ac (12-24-240v)
Or a CF80 (12-24v) and I'll also get a 240v adaptor

thanks Neil

[russ81]

Mate if you get yourself a single 100AH deep cycle battery you should get at least 48 hrs before having to charge up

What type of vehicle are you looking at putting the setup in?

Russ

[Kleyny]

a 60 series TD It has a cage for the dual battery allready

[Brett1907]

Neil, go to this guy for the dual battery setup. He sells online, but if you are on the Gold Coast you can pick it up. It is all DIY and is quite easy. I'm still trying to find the time to install mine. A few guys on here also reccomend Val.

Oh yeh, get the fridge too.

http://www.fridge-and-solar.net/index.htm

Brett

[FNQCairns]

Will you need to freeze stuff while camping? and how long do you intend to camp.

IMO under 4 days and under a good esky will do everything a fridge will do in the real world, over 4 days then depending on how much longer either a motor driven fridge - engle etc.

Although they are a pain if trying to relax without being forced to drive the car to maintain batterys, the other way out with these to tool up with a gennie or solar etc = $$ + extra bother.

The other option is gas which is the best for the seasoned easy going camper but some knowledge is needed to get the best out of them, they are not as 'urban' in ease of use as the engles etc but they are the best for longer trips.

I have all 3 and for over 4 days the gas fridge comes, under 4 days it is a toss up between the engle or esky, if I need to freeze then the engle wins, if not the esky hands down, stuff buggerising around with maintaining the batterys etc there is enough work to do while camping anyway!.

The gas I dearly love they are set and forget for up to 2 weeks on a 9kg bottle.

cheers fnq

[Kleyny]

Neil, go to this guy for the dual battery setup. He sells online, but if you are on the Gold Coast you can pick it up. It is all DIY and is quite easy. I'm still trying to find the time to install mine. A few guys on here also reccomend Val.

Oh yeh, get the fridge too.

http://www.fridge-and-solar.net/index.htm

Brett

Thanks but I'm a mechanic by trade and have played with auto electrics as a side thing. (used to have to challenge my mind to keep it from getting bored)
Thank god I'm over that now;D ;D

Got some power usage figures from waeco today.

The CF40-60 use around .8 amp hour. (on fridge @ ambient temp of 32)
While the 80 and 110 are around 3:o

.8 can go for a fare time on a decent deep cycle battery.
then go for a good esky or cut down my 80lt home made job.

thanks

neil

[candogu]

If you have the cash go the fridge,, Mine is in the car 24/7 and it is on all the time. love the thing.. I'm the other way... short trips (weekends) just the engle for drinks and food... longer trips i take the esky for the beer and the engle is the freezer and if you run out of ice you can swarp the food/ drinks( refeeze cooler blocks) between the esky and fridge to kept it all cool.. Yes the fridge will uses alot of power but i still get 24 hrs out of 2 standed 600 batt's and start the car no prob's..

Hope this helps

[Kleyny]

If you have the cash go the fridge,, Mine is in the car 24/7 and it is on all the time. love the thing.. I'm the other way... short trips (weekends) just the engle for drinks and food... longer trips i take the esky for the beer and the engle is the freezer and if you run out of ice you can swarp the food/ drinks( refeeze cooler blocks) between the esky and fridge to kept it all cool.. Yes the fridge will uses alot of power but i still get 24 hrs out of 2 standed 600 batt's and start the car no prob's..

Hope this helps
I'm really starting to sway this way.
How big is your engle and what size esky do you take on the larger trips?

neil

[candogu]

Neil, I have only got a 40l engle as it's in the car all the time, the 60l was little to big.. the 60l would of been a better size for camping.. when I take a esky it's a 40l or 70l depending if it's a family holiday or just me and little lady.. brand names are not all that important,, be it engle, waeco , whatever.. they are all work well

hope this helps

Noel

[Stumpthumpa]

The other option is gas which is the best for the seasoned easy going camper but some knowledge is needed to get the best out of them, they are not as 'urban' in ease of use as the engles etc but they are the best for longer trips.

Without hijacking this thread, what type of gas fridge/freezer do you have FNQ? I am leaning this way as when I set up camp, I do not tend to drive much and so no chance to charge batteries.

[Kleyny]

Without hijacking this thread, what type of gas fridge/freezer do you have FNQ? I am leaning this way as when I set up camp, I do not tend to drive much and so no chance to charge batteries.

Hijack away I'm also interested in anything to do with the fridge/esky debate

[Stumpthumpa]

Thanks Neil,

We tend to camp and stay put in one place and only use the car for launching and retrieveing the boat if our campsite is not handy, so I was leaning towards gas for this reason.

At present we are using a big Evakool esky and it is good for ice for about 4 days (depends of course on ambient temperature). After that we need to go to town for ice.

I have other friends with 12V fridges and by the time we need ice, they need to go for a drive to recharge their batteries. Great for me, I just say "please drive to town and pick up my ice while you are there". Sort of negates the investment in 12V for me. Admittedly if you move a lot 12V wins hands down, but that is not my pattern of camping and so I am looking seriously at gas. I understand the trade off is that current gas units are 12V hungry, but this is not so bad for me.

I really need to find a good 3 way fridge freezer, that is not too bad on 12V. At the moment Chescold seems the best, but hungry on 12V. I think Waeco now have a 3 way, but have not heard much about them.

[NormC]

Neil, first thing is once you have a fridge, you'll wonder why you didn't do it earlier. Just do it.
We now run two. A 70 Litre Reefer fridge / freezer and a 40 litre Engle.

Be cautious about qoutes on power usage. From my experience (we travel and camp 5 or 6 months of the year) ambient temp is the biggest factor in power consumption. We just came back from Borroloola. No fridge will run on .8 Amps per hour up there. I suspect the Waeco you have quoted draws around 2.5 Amps when running. They have quoted .8 Amps as an average, which is probably right at around 22 degrees ambient.

I run 3 AGM deep cycle batteries (for info on these, see the Fridge and Solar link above). 4 if you count the one I carry for the Minn Kota. The three that run fridges etc are 2 @ 120 AH and 1 @ 90 AH. With ambient temp in the mid 20s I can go 3 days easily running both fridges. With ambient temps in the high 30s, like it was at Borroloola, I had to charge every day.

Once you have the fridge and battery set up to support it, get yourself a cheap vacuum sealer (under $100 on eBay). No mess in the fridge and you can seal bait and fish and happily story them with your meat, vegies and beer. Try that in an esky with normal plastic bags!!

[FNQCairns]

Hi fellas, the gas one I have is a chescold 40L the green poly jobie.

cheers fnq

[FNQCairns]

Stumpthumper, the 12V on the 3 ways is a bit of a joke but it can be got around to maintain temperature (sometimes decrease it) when on the road.

A person needs to run dedicated cabling to the unit that is well over spec.

Years ago we did a 6 week long Christmas road trip to the tropics from the central coast NSW (we almost died from the heat!). The vehicle was an MQ patrol towing the boat without working aircon and we experienced no problems as a result of 12V.

Each night it went onto gas or sometimes 240 if we felt flash and didn't camp that night and the days we were traveling were 12v in the car, 2-3 hours was the max amount of time we would leave the unit powered up without the car running, I did have dual batteries of 1200amp total.

Fillets of fish we caught in the tropics we ate when back home.

Don't think you will find a gas unit that is good on 12v usage, the 3ways take some getting used to, some simply will not/cannot so good secondhand units can be found cheaply I have noticed.

The ONLY thing they have going for them is their ability to be forgotten about for up to 2 weeks.

The day after TC Larry we did a trip to Innisfail with supply's for a friend with family, with a choice between the Engel and the chescold we took the chescold, this family were effectively camping in their house for an indefinite period of time (ended up being 5 weeks), the engle was a near useless choice although he did have a small gennie.
To me anyway that choice says allot, I do love my engle because it works so dam well and on roadtrips it's nice to be spoiled, when they make a 50L where one end contains the gas unit and the other end a 12v engle engine - count me in!:)

cheers fnq

[Stumpthumpa]

Thanks FNQ - clarified things a lot for me, although I do eny Norm C's set up!

[kingtin]

Hi Neil, mate, I went through a similar dilemma as yourself a while ago so these threads may help:

http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/showthread.php?t=107350&highlight=waeco

http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/showthread.php?t=107677&highlight=waeco


And this I wrote in another thread shows how to make the most of two eskies and also how I utilise my waeco:

"I used to have a 126l and 85l Tropical Esky. When we went camping at the Pin for between 4 and 7 days, the 126 would stay on the boat chocka with frozen 3 litre cordial bottles, the last 3 days grog and the frozen food. The 85 would go ashore with dairy, drinks, first 3 days grog etc in it, and 4 similarly frozen water bottles to keep it cool.

With the large family that I had, the 85 was being constantly opened and the bottles thawed after about 48 hrs. They were topped up with others from the 126 and the thawed ones were used as drinking water. The 126 sitting in the boat would have a large towel placed over the lid which hung down into the water, thereby acting as a wick and negating the heat from the sum beating down on it.

This system kept a family of 7 going for up to 6 days and the remaining bottles in the 126 would still have ice in them when we left. I reckon that system could have done us for another 2 to 3 days. No salt, no slurry, no worrying about spoiled or damp food.

The secret is to plan well ahead with your frozen food and water........the longer you have it frozen prior to a trip, the longer it takes to thaw.

We now no longer require the 126 'cause we have invested in a 2 way Waeco (Don't trust gas on a boat) that we only use as a freezer. It keeps our frozen food and bottles that are used to top up the 85 esky. With this system, the frozen water used to keep the 85 cool is placed back in the waeco as it thaws, IOW, the ice is always just that.........by recycling between the esky and freezer every 24 hrs. For simply traveling to and from powered camp sites, land based, I haven't bothered wiring up a dual system in the 4by (yet) but run the waeco via a 1900 amp jump pack which is re-charged at our destination. If it's kept closed whilst traveling, it probably doesn't need power anyway.

Works great too if you're "roughing it" if you've got the power to your Waeco via a couple of deep cycle................next step for me is good solar, or a generator. Expensive way to go but if you do a lot of camping, it negates a lot of worry, wet food, buying ice, asking questions about whether to drain or not,http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/../yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/grin.gif and is a lifetime investment."

kev

[trevcob]

I have a tropical 105lt and a 45lt .I find the trick is to use a block of dry ice wrap it well . Pack esky with meat and fish or eneything you want frozen next to the block. And use a fome devider to split the esky so the other end not so cold.
Lasts us around a week.

[Kleyny]

I have a tropical 105lt and a 45lt .I find the trick is to use a block of dry ice wrap it well . Pack esky with meat and fish or eneything you want frozen next to the block. And use a fome devider to split the esky so the other end not so cold.
Lasts us around a week.

So you don't use water ice in your esky just dry ice with the divider?

What size dry ice block do you use in both of your eskies?

thanks

neil

[Haji-Baba]

Hi honky Dory,
I have been poking around the bush for a few years now and i have settled on a 40l engel and generator. My caravan has a three way fridge and i always carry a couple of eskies as well. These can double up as live bait boxes or just containers and if required buy a block of ice and then you have an esky again.
Often the engel does not leave the cruiser and runs off a deep cycle battery as well as the gennie. As someone suggested earlier, it all requires space and in my case I have to carry fuel for the gennie and the outboard.
It can get a bit complicated.
We do a lot of fishing and need the freezing capacity of a good fridge to contain our catch. The main thing with any portable refrigeration is to keep it clean and dry. Any spillage will spoil the contents of any fridge.
We are away for months at a time and i have toyed with the idea of solar panels but up to now have been quite comfortable with the present setup.
I don't need a bigger freezer as when it's full of fillets and meat who needs more.

Have fun Haji-Baba

[bungie]

Looked at a Mobicool 35 litre three way unit yesterday ($399), and did some research today. Seems Mobicool also make Waeco. Anybody had anything to do with Mobicool units ??

[chisel]

At $399 I'd guess that's just a fridge and will probably just go down to about 20 degrees below ambient temp.

For everyone with a standard Waeco or Engel with just one large compartment, how does everyone go when trying to use it as a freezer and fridge at the same time?
I understand that the bottom gets colder than the top (partly because the lid is at the top!) but is there enough difference so that you can safely leave stuff at the top that won't freeze, while the bottom remains well-frozen?
Obviously don't want the steaks defrosting at all (especially don't want them cycling from frozen to defrosted and back) and don't want to freeze the stubbies at the top.

Yep, I know you can get ones with 2 compartments but they are mostly too big, too expensive or use too much power.

Cheers,
Steve