23 replies to this topic

[worthyraver]

Does anybody take a camping fridge with them, I know pretty much everybody in a campervan will have one, but what about taking one to use in a tent?

As I am taking my family with me next year, including 4 kids under 4 years old, I am looking at things that may make things easier and I do like the idea of a fridge.  I could fill it full of bacon and cider how popular would I be???

I was thinking of one of these or similar:
Combicool RF 60

I would obviously have to take a 4kg cylinder in with me which would be masses of gas for the fridge and cooking whilst there, I figure all this will cost me one extra trip from the car.

Anybody ever gone to all this trouble, and is it worth it?

[FestivalFriend]

thinking of doing the same for next year. will a 4kg cylinder last from wednesday to monday?

[mikeb]

Not too sure that having something like that in a tent is a particularly good idea tho. Apart from potential fire and fumes stylee considerations, the biggest issue would be the generally high ambient temperature inside a tent in the sun and the amount of extra heat it would chuck out anyway I think.  All that heat removed to make the inside cool has to go somewhere and all that.  Mind you, anyone with a seemingly never ending stock of bacon for sarnies plus ice cold cider/beer to wash them down is defo going to be way more than a bit popular with the neighbours ... where exactly might you be camping ? Just outta morbid curiosity and all that as I kinda feel a change of location coming on

Edited by mikeb, 06 July 2010 - 11:17 AM.

[liquuid_fusion]

You could try running it with a car battery.

Or get one of those powered coolboxes.

Next year i'm thinking of taking a Coleman Maxcold passive coolbox which apparantly keep ice for 5 days in upto 30C temperatures.

[rubberducky]

liquuid_fusion, on 06 July 2010 - 11:39 AM, said:

You could try running it with a car battery.

Or get one of those powered coolboxes.

Next year i'm thinking of taking a Coleman Maxcold passive coolbox which apparantly keep ice for 5 days in upto 30C temperatures.

At 220Ah per day you are not going to get much run time off a car battery - the one I took this year was only 50Ah
7 deg of cooling doesn't sound much to be honest.
/Mike

[mikeb]

liquuid_fusion, on 06 July 2010 - 11:39 AM, said:

You could try running it with a car battery.

Gonna need one h*ll of a battery and/or a small wind farm as well:

"Power Consumption: 220Ah/24hr"

Not sure I quite believe that quoted figure mind you but such things are always going to be horribly inefficient and whilst a very nice idea and all that, quite probably totally impractical I think.  Apart from anything else, said fridge plus gas weighs in at more than my rucksack, tent and all other cr@p various combined !  Fine in a building or installed in a camper or whatever but otherwise way more trouble than it's really worth I would imagine.

Different thing altogether but I acquired one of those Peltier Effect beer can cooler stylee things a few years ago as it was heading for the tip and whilst I must say that it does work brilliantly as a fridge - it can easily produce ice - the amount of heat it chucks out and the power consumed to run it is astounding !

Edited by mikeb, 06 July 2010 - 12:06 PM.

[parsonjack]

why not go the whole hog and bring your butane patio heater too for the chilly evenings?

[bass1999]

liquuid_fusion, on 06 July 2010 - 11:39 AM, said:

You could try running it with a car battery.

Or get one of those powered coolboxes.

Next year i'm thinking of taking a Coleman Maxcold passive coolbox which apparantly keep ice for 5 days in upto 30C temperatures.

i took one of these coolboxes this year.  it managed to keep the beers cool for 4 days.  all the ice was melted by the 5th day but the water was still cold when we left the festival.

[Sabcully]

I don't think fire stewards would be very happy with this. On top what has already been mentioned here, if somebody might accidentally tip the gas bottle over while you are away, potentially you could have a very dangerous situation there and put people at risk.
You just can't always have everything in live...! Buy a camper.  

[Tomska]

I still had cold beers on sunday. No need for a fridge, you just need a big porch. Here's how - you lay down 2 slabs of beer and lay 4 bags of supermarket ice and a few freezer blocks on top (we brought the ice in a gaffered-up coolbox). Then you cover the lot with a couple of bin bags and then chuck all your jumpers, coats, spare clothes, tent bags, blankets etc on top. The ice takes about 2 days to melt and as long as you keep all the gubbins on top, the beer will stay cold for another 2 days. Works every time.

[worthyraver]

FestivalFriend, on 06 July 2010 - 11:14 AM, said:

thinking of doing the same for next year. will a 4kg cylinder last from wednesday to monday?

Quotes gas usage is: 14 grams per hour - 336 grams/24 hours therefore from Wednesday to Monday it should use 2.016Kg of gas leaving masses for cooking and loads to spare

liquuid_fusion, on 06 July 2010 - 11:39 AM, said:

You could try running it with a car battery.

Or get one of those powered coolboxes.

Next year i'm thinking of taking a Coleman Maxcold passive coolbox which apparantly keep ice for 5 days in upto 30C temperatures.

I looked at car battery running, but have others have mentioned you would need masses of batteries, I think this option is really for people with campervans so it can be ran from the leisure battery.  I am thinking of taking one of the cold boxes you mention as well to keep the beer/cider cold and if I do I could take a smaller fridge as that would only need to hold the bacon and sausages.

[Ponyegg]

This year was the 4th year we've taken down this:


And the hottest and longest we've take it for. We parked up in the car-parks around midnight of the Tuesday, having stocked it full of ice (14 x 2Kg bags). We had used about 50% of the ice by Friday, there was some water but not much, these things work v.well when full, not so much when more air gets in as your ice consumption goes up. we still had some ice left over by Sunday, enough to help chill a few ciders and spirit/soft drink mixes down. The remaining water (approx 5ltrs+) was used for rehydrating ourselves and eventually to chill some beers down. We didn't put our drinks in the box, but would decant some ice to smaller chill box and put beers into that instead, it meant the ice lasted longer, especially in that heat. There's 11 of us in our group and this has proved a very successful addition. The only drawback is that the wheels are showing their age now and I've got to put some proper trolley/pneumatic wheels on it if it's to last next year+.

I looked at these gas powered fridges (useless fact, Einstein patented the design for an absorption fridge back in the 20s IIRC) but I think logistically they could be a bit of a nightmare (with gas they weigh as much as a fully loaded ice box above) although I've not totally ruled it out (although the price may well do that and I'm not too sure you're guaranteed to get those large 4kg propane cannisters into the main site).

I did spend some time up in the Greenfields chatting to some Solar power people looking at options there about other options, I still think I could build something could act as a decent fridge though. Didn't see the 'solar powered' Lemonade stall this year, seen it for years, a solar powered unit which chilled homemade lemonade, bloody gorgeous it was too.

Edited by Ponyegg, 06 July 2010 - 01:31 PM.

[worthyraver]

That is my concern, will I be allowed to bring the 4Kg cylinder on site as without it I would constantly be changing gas cylinders, which not only would be a pain, but also work out expensive.

Some of the smaller fridges "promise" better efficiency of around 200g of gas per day, at this amount it maybe possible run from the smaller gas cannisters.  I think some combination of cool box and fridge will work perhaps only turning the fridge on when the cool box is all but given up.  Plenty of time to work it all out, in the meantime I have emailed Glastonbury office as to whether 4Kg cylinders are allowed on site, as it would be tricky to sneak one in.

[gizmoman]

This is something i've thought about and discounted, basically you need too much energy to try to keep things cool for 5 days, especially in a sunny tent, I find the best idea is to take a coolbox filled with frozen stuff and cover it with a space blanket when on site. This stops the sun warming it too much and it will stay cool for quite a few days, our bacon lasted fine til Monday (from Tuesday night) but it was frozen to start with. If you're prepared to take a large coolbox with loads of ice i'm sure that will work better than trying to run a fridge in such conditions.

[safehands]

Ponyegg, on 06 July 2010 - 01:31 PM, said:

This year was the 4th year we've taken down this:


And the hottest and longest we've take it for. We parked up in the car-parks around midnight of the Tuesday, having stocked it full of ice (14 x 2Kg bags). We had used about 50% of the ice by Friday, there was some water but not much, these things work v.well when full, not so much when more air gets in as your ice consumption goes up. we still had some ice left over by Sunday, enough to help chill a few ciders and spirit/soft drink mixes down. The remaining water (approx 5ltrs+) was used for rehydrating ourselves and eventually to chill some beers down. We didn't put our drinks in the box, but would decant some ice to smaller chill box and put beers into that instead, it meant the ice lasted longer, especially in that heat. There's 11 of us in our group and this has proved a very successful addition. The only drawback is that the wheels are showing their age now and I've got to put some proper trolley/pneumatic wheels on it if it's to last next year+.

I looked at these gas powered fridges (useless fact, Einstein patented the design for an absorption fridge back in the 20s IIRC) but I think logistically they could be a bit of a nightmare (with gas they weigh as much as a fully loaded ice box above) although I've not totally ruled it out (although the price may well do that and I'm not too sure you're guaranteed to get those large 4kg propane cannisters into the main site).

I did spend some time up in the Greenfields chatting to some Solar power people looking at options there about other options, I still think I could build something could act as a decent fridge though. Didn't see the 'solar powered' Lemonade stall this year, seen it for years, a solar powered unit which chilled homemade lemonade, bloody gorgeous it was too.

these are fantastic but dont use small ice cubes in it. we used ice cream tubs 5 litres 3 blocks lasts all week. remember to let the water in the bottom drain away dowen to the line at the bottom and its fine. I am stealing your idea for putting bigger tyres on it for next year. cheers ma man

[worthyraver]

gizmoman, on 06 July 2010 - 02:50 PM, said:

This is something i've thought about and discounted, basically you need too much energy to try to keep things cool for 5 days, especially in a sunny tent, I find the best idea is to take a coolbox filled with frozen stuff and cover it with a space blanket when on site. This stops the sun warming it too much and it will stay cool for quite a few days, our bacon lasted fine til Monday (from Tuesday night) but it was frozen to start with. If you're prepared to take a large coolbox with loads of ice i'm sure that will work better than trying to run a fridge in such conditions.

This is interesting as I have always read, on here, that bacon never lasted past Friday in such cool boxes.  Are you just packing it full of frozen bacon and other frozen goods, or are you putting ice and frozen bacon etc in?

[ferraristu]

You could not run a gas fridge in your tent - IT WILL KILL YOU !!  Carbon monoxide poisoning.

You could however run it in a ventilated porch area

[gizmoman]

worthyraver, on 06 July 2010 - 03:07 PM, said:

This is interesting as I have always read, on here, that bacon never lasted past Friday in such cool boxes.  Are you just packing it full of frozen bacon and other frozen goods, or are you putting ice and frozen bacon etc in?

This year used frozen foods and dilute drinks and a 3l box of cider (all frozen to start with), it takes a few days for them all to defrost but they still stay cool long enough to last the festival, the stuff at the top of the coolbox will melt first (as heat rises) so put the stuff you need for the first day or two at the top and use them first. It's not a perfect system by any means but it does work. I keep the box in the porch area in the shade if poss. and cover with a space blanket and spray a bit of water on top. The water help keep it cool too as it absorbs heat when evaporating.

[lord stradmor]

any techies out there? could you combine one of these:

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...323a953ff2e56fa

with one of these:

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...=item2c558bef0b

and one of these:

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...=item5d29babf93


might need a team of sherpas to transport it all of course

[Cooter]

lord stradmor, on 06 July 2010 - 04:06 PM, said:

any techies out there? could you combine one of these:

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...323a953ff2e56fa

with one of these:

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...=item2c558bef0b

and one of these:

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...=item5d29babf93


might need a team of sherpas to transport it all of course

No and yes, no because the batteries in those things are too small. Basically the battery would be flat before the solar panel had a chance to keep it charged. You really need big batteries to keep a decent 12v fridge going. That booster thing has a 15ah battery, in my camper I have two 180ah batteries so you can imagine the weight compared to the booster thing. Or if you can't then its 50 kilos. You'd probably get away with a 180ah (25kilos) for the whole festival, but you'll also need a solar regulator as well in case of the panel overcharging the battery with disasterous result. So yes, but only if you do it properly, and only if its very sunny!

Edited by Cooter, 06 July 2010 - 04:17 PM.