ARB Freezer/Fridge Temp Settings for 9 Day trip

[Disco2Guy]

In a few weeks I'm heading out on a 9 day trip to Death Valley. This is my first time going on this trip, and will also be my longest yet. In preparation for the trip I bought a new ARB 50qt. freezer fridge as a Chirstmas present to myself. I won't have time to wire the outlet to be "always on", so it'll run while driving around during the day, and be off at night. I do have the canvas transit bag to help with insulation/protection.

At home, keeping lunch meat for a week doesn't usually happen. I'd like to keep things (on the bottom at least) very cold so they stay fresh for as long as possible. What temp should I set the fridge to keep everything as long as possible? I've noticed the temp I want has to be 7-10* cooler than what the display reads.

What I'd really like is to keep ice cream until the middle of the trip. Is there a way to have it frozen on the bottom, without freezing everything else?

TIA.

 

[cnynrat]

The standard recommendation for keeping ice cream is right at about 0 degrees F. At between 5 and 10 degrees it's easy to serve, and above that gets pretty soft. I've not tried it, but I think you'll have a tough time finding a temp where ice cream will be frozen and other foods will not be freezing.

That's one reason we have two, one in the trailer and one in the truck. Well, keeping ice cream and keeping ice cubes for cocktails.

 

[hoser]

I think you can forget trying to bring ice cream under those conditions.... mainly having the fridge off for 6+ hrs with that kind of ambient temperature. Ice cream doesn't really like cycling temps either. You might be able to keep ice cubes that long and "make" home made ice cream.

You also might be able to convert your 12V accessory plug to "always on" by simply jumping a relay.

 

[Black Dog]

One thing you could do is have some plastic water bottles in there for thermal mass to help keep the temps down when the fridge is turned off.

 

[teotwaki]

maybe make a quick and simple jumper cable with a cig lighter socket on one end and alligator clips on the other. Connect you fridge to your battery manually at night.

 

[Disco2Guy]

Thanks for the ideas everyone. After some discussion with the other members of the trip, it sounds like we may have someone dedicate their freezer fridge as a full time freezer. Their food will be dispersed between two or three other people while they carry ice for drinks, ice cream, etc.

 

[03rubicon]

Just another note. It was suggested in another thread that dealt specifically with coolers but I believe the concept is easily adaptable to this, as it is what ill be doing on my extended trips. FREEZE any food that you are going to eat at the tail end of the trip. This will keep it cooler longer and fresher.

 

[Willman]

I keep a thermometer inside the fridge so i can double check the readings.

Ice cream..Just remember....Your fridge is going to be working hard to keep your ice cream frozen....Make sure your battery is up for the task...

 

[hoser]

I would guess the compressor works about twice as hard maintaining 0 degrees vs 37 degrees. Anybody do any real tests?

 

[4x4junkie]

I found the exact temperature with my EdgeStar where stuff would just start to develop ice crystals after about the 2nd or 3rd day into a trip. I readjusted the thermostat exactly one degree higher and it's absolutely perfect (lunchmeats will keep fine for even two weeks or longer)
Finding that exact temp may take some experimenting over a few days though (as noted, fridge's thermostats do vary, for my Edgestar it was 35°).

Like others have said, freeze stuff you plan to use later in your trip (things like steaks, bacon & ground beef in particular.) and place them down on the bottom. They should stay frozen for at least 4-5 days into the trip, at which point by the 9th day they've only been thawed 4-5 days and should still be of good quality.
I also agree, find some way to keep it powered all the time. Those lunchmeats will be the first thing to spoil if the temp is allowed to rise above 37° or so for much time (IIRC, 39° is where listeria can become active).


Yes, the colder the temp, the more the compressor will run. I haven't done tests, but just from observation it seemed like mine was running maybe about 20-30% more when set at 0° than set at 35°, so it's not too real big a difference (I would think any rig with a decent battery setup should still be able to handle it).

 

[ranewman]

You can also use your jumper box, if you have one, for the over nights. Then just recharge it during the day via truck or solar charger. My jumper box will run my fridge at 20f for 3 days without a charge.

 

[kevint]

This may be too late for your trip. When you first posted, I was on a 10 day drip with my ARB. I did a lot of experimenting before the trip which you'll have time for after you return. Here are some of my learnings.

1. Because there is no airflow inside the fridge, there is quite a temperature difference between the top and the bottom.
2. The thermocouple is in the middle of the bottom of the fridge. The temp on the display is related to that point only.
3. Testing your fridge by freezing bottled water (from the store) can be problematic. The water is clean enough and the container inert enough to supercool the water well below freezing without ice formation. Test with tap water and look for the melting point, not the freezing point. When experimenting, put a lot of stuff in the fridge. I used bottles I knew wouldn't supercool (after a week of thinking that my fridge wasn't working right because I was using bottles that did supercool). Play around until you get frozen water. Now raise the temp 1 notch and wait at least 12 hours. When you check the contents, pull a bottle of water off the bottom and check for a little melting around the top. Keep raising the temp 1 notch every 12 - 24 hours. Once you detect melting, drop the fridge back down one notch and see if it refreezes. I don't know if that is the best way but that is how I eventually learned my fridge. You can do all of this testing in the house, for example a corner of the living room on AC power. As soon as you have nailed down the freezing point, replace all of the water in the freezer with ice cream sandwiches and drop the freezer to it's lowest setting. Each member of the family should enjoy 1 ice cream sandwich every day until the freezer is empty. Everyone will love the fridge, except your wife who knows it doesn't belong in the living room, but she won't complain because she likes having ice cream sandwiches as much as the next person. Now you can take the fridge to the garage. :ylsmoke:
4. It takes several hours for the fridge to stabilize after being loaded (again due to no air flow).

For the first month I thought my fridge was close to 10 degrees off. With a lot of trial and error (and patience waiting for things to equilabrate) I've pretty much pegged the freezing point on my fridge at 27 deg-F. If I set it on 26 deg-F milk, orange juice, and meats begin to get icy. If I set it on 28 deg-F every thing thaws slowly and frozen water melts. I've heard there is a procedure to calibrate the display but I haven't figured that out yet. On my last trip, I set it on 26 deg-F and kept my meat on the bottom. It never froze hard but it did get an icy texture. Everything above stayed above freezeing. Didn't try ice cream. We made sure to eat the chicken and ground beef in the first half of the trip and had no problems. Even at 26 deg-F we would occaisionally find the bottom without ice so I probably will used 24 deg-F in the future to allow for a little drift and for the fact the fridge get's opened from time to time.

Enjoy your fridge. I love mine.

Fortunately for me, my truck has some unswitched 12v outlets so I don't have to worry about nights.

Edit: By-the-way I know I should have put the meat in the fridge already frozen but things just don't always go down as planned. That was the plan. It didn't happen. We'll work out the kinks in the future.