Different brand auto door??

[Mrs Webmuppet]

Oh ever helpful Omleteers I need some advice and help. The Webmuppets are off camping soon and I quite fancy getting an electric cool box to assist me in catering for our mini break. The campsite has electric hook ups in the tent area.

 

My questions are these electric cool boxes any good? And what cable do I need to connect a cool box (assuming it's one with a 'normal ' domestic plug) to the hook up? I'm probably being totally dense but I have tried the 'net and ended up totally confused.

[Cat tails]

We have had electric coolers for a number of years now. Used to buy a relatively cheap one (€50), but those are not that great. They work with a fan and only cool 20 degrees below the outside temperature. And they are very noisy. The fan will give of a humming sound the entire time...

Now we have a slightly bigger and more expensive cooler, which is great! If you put too low, it will actually freeze! It's more like a fridge and is almost silent. The only downside is that they are quite heavy.

 

My advice: spent a bit more money and you'll be a lot happier if you go camping for a longer time. Buy a cheap one if it is only for a few days.

 

Ps: don't know anything about english plugs...

[UKMARCH]

We have a cheap one and make do, its not great but fine for what we need we use a couple of frozen ice blocks and unless its really hot and the tent heats up loads it keeps our stuff cool. Normally camp sites can re freeze your blocks so its a good idea to take several so they can be refrozen which sometimes takes a while if a lot of people are constantly opening the freezer. We do switch ours off at night as I agree that they are noisy but as its quite small we only keep milk and a few bits in it so it works ok for keeping that fresh. There should be a plug that comes with it which plugs into a normal socket and there are normally a couple on the end of the cable that you buy to plug into the hook up socket.

[chickencam]

We have one that works pretty well, just be careful that you don't put delicate things to close to the cooling area because they tend to freeze.

 

We haven't been camping for a few years but still use ours for the turkey at Christmas and for cold drinks once the turkey is cooked.

[Beantree]

We have a Waeco CF-18. It is a small, but heavy, freezer or refrigerator, depending on where you set the dial. It works from the cigarette lighter socket. If you want it to run on mains you need a mains adaptor unit which takes 220/240V ac and outputs 12v dc. Campsites provide electricity via waterproof DIN sockets. Blue ones are 240V (yellow are 110V for site equipment) so you will need a blue DIN plug on a lead and a standard domestic mains socket at the other end. The supply sockets can be quite a way from the pitch, so you may need and extension.

 

We used to do a lot of camping in France and we freeze ice blocks in the unit and put them into a large, extremely well insulated, cool box.

[merlina]

As a regular camper, I have tried pretty much every permutation of cool box over the years.

My main criterion was keeping ice for drinks over a 4/5 day period.

The electric ones I tried were all rubbish - absolutely ineffective.

 

I have one of these:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Igloo-MaxCold-Island-Breeze-62-Quart-58L-Rolling-Cool-Box-Ice-Cooler-6-Days-NEW-/141219905491?pt=UK_TravelTickets_Accessories_RL&hash=item20e15cbfd3

 

and find it a zillion times better than everything else. Not least because it has wheels and I'm a bit of a weakling. It also seems to be better insulated than everything else I've tried by a considerable margin

 

I don't bother with ice packs. I freeze 1.5l bottles of water and put those in the sides/back (and some milk which I let defrost ready for day 3/4) and lay a couple of packs of ice cubes over the top. Depending on how hot it is, I have frozen/cold things still available at the end of 5 days

[Daphne]

As a regular camper, I have tried pretty much every permutation of cool box over the years.

My main criterion was keeping ice for drinks over a 4/5 day period.

 

I like your style

[UKMARCH]

As a regular camper, I have tried pretty much every permutation of cool box over the years.

My main criterion was keeping ice for drinks over a 4/5 day period.

 

I like your style

 

Me too! Mind you I try to get out of camping if I can but when we do go I take a coffee machine and china mug! I find it brews the coffee just as quickly as putting on the camping kettle.

[soapdragon]

As a regular camper, I have tried pretty much every permutation of cool box over the years.

My main criterion was keeping ice for drinks over a 4/5 day period.

 

I like your style

 

Me too! Mind you I try to get out of camping if I can but when we do go I take a coffee machine and china mug! I find it brews the coffee just as quickly as putting on the camping kettle.

 

 

Of course, us Omleteers have VERY high standards

[Mrs Webmuppet]

Well Mr W took it upon himself to get an electric cool box and picked one up from Aldi . He is going to get an electric hook up today (a proper one with a circuit breaker) . He came round to the idea when one of his mates pointed out to him that he would be able to charge up his techie stuff and his mate also told him to get a camping kettle to plug in which would be quicker and easier than putting a pan on our little stove.

[Cat tails]

It is probably a lot quicker, but do keep in mind the amperage you are allowed. Things like electric kettles use quite a lot of power and tend to blow out the fuse.

It happens at least a few times every year, that one of the neighbours uses their electric kettle, microwave or coffee machine and the fuses blow.... Whole field is the without power....

[Mrs Webmuppet]

I had already Realised that we had to stay within our allowance. I think Mr W is going to look for a proper camping kettle....with the amount of coffee he drinks it'll save a fortune in gaz canisters.