Convince me I need a fridge!

[swduncan]

I don't hesitate to put warm stuff in my fridge - like leftovers or warm drinks. When I was using a cooler I always felt like putting warm stuff in it was just wasting ice.

I can use the fridge like the one at home - in fact we just take what's in the fridge and transfer it when we go camping, and transfer it back without a thought when we get back. Leftover taco meat at the campsite? Bag it and stick it in the fridge and we'll eat it later.

With a cooler and ice I always felt rushed to use things that were really perishable - like meat - and anything else that wasn't sealed seemed tainted. Probably irrational, but I don't believe a cooler keeps food as cold reliably, unless there are several sources of ice. Adding multiple frozen jugs takes up a lot of space.

Then there's the issue of what kind of ice - block works well but is hard to find unless you freeze it yourself, and it's not good for putting in drinks. Cube works ok, but needs a dam or container to put it in - it's the easiest to replenish on the road, and works well in drinks, but doesn't last. Frozen jugs are nice and provide cold water, but can't be replenished on the road.

Before I had a fridge I made a dam and platform for my Coleman Extreme cooler and used cube ice. Easy to find, works in drinks, and worked ok. In the shade in Florida it lasted more than long enough to serve in a campground. Just had to empty the water before it got above the platform. But it made the cooler small, and putting warm stuff in raised the temp inside noticeably.

Cons for the fridge, aside from the cost and power issues include:

It's heavy. Really heavy with food. Not so easy to get it in and out of the vehicle.

It's expensive, and I don't want to leave it at a campsite unattended. I have brought a bike lock to help ensure it stays where it should, but it's a worry sometimes.

It can contribute to alcoholism. Warm beer can be endlessly made drinkable...

 

[jacobconroy]

Another thing, I leave my fridge running at home all the time with beer and water in it. When we're packing for something we put stuff in for a week as we shop and prep it. When we leave, put it in the truck and done. When we get home it can stay in the truck overnight and can get unloaded at our convenience later, too.

I agree that this was the biggest plus when buying a portable fridge. Load at your convenience the week before...remove from the truck and plug it into 120 volt when you return. That...and no more wasted groceries. No soggy bread. No "mushy" cheese.

Also found that when going camping on short notice, I can just snatch stuff from the house fridge and put it in the portable fridge. There is no concern about collecting "camping food" at the last minute.

I have an NL Weekender 50 on a 120 Amp-hour group 31 battery. After 48 hours without the engine running, the battery was still at 12.6 volts. I thought that was pretty darned good.

 

[ducktapeguy]

If you want a fridge, just buy it. It's one of those things that you won't fully appreciate what it's like until you use it. I bought a fridge a year or two ago and have never regretted it, actually the only regret was not getting one sooner. Yeah, it's expensive, but it was cheaper than the cost of all the coolers I was buying trying to find the right one. If you buy one and decide you don't like it, you could always sell it for close to what you paid.

Aside from the no-ice issue, there are other benefits that other people have touched on

1. You can plug it in to 110 and preload everything for camping instead of trying to frantically load everything right before you leave. I have everything loaded and sitting in my car a couple days ahead of time so that's one less thing to worry about when I leave. I always seem to be throwing last minute items in there
2. I can put leftovers in them and bring them home, something I've never been able to do with a cooler. Yeah, I've tried putting leftovers in coolers on trips, but usually by the time I get home I end up throwing it away because I don't trust it. With the fridge, there's no problem, all the food is as good as it was when I started.
3. All the space in the fridge is used for food, so a 60 quart fridge is actually 60 quart capacity. A similar sized cooler holds only about half it's capacity because of the ice. And if you expect it to last for it's advertised 7-days or whatever, you really only get about 1/3 - 1/4 of the rated capacity.
4. You don't have to pre-chill anything before putting it in there, as long as you have battery capacity you just throw it in there
5. You can save space by not needed to have all your drinks inside at the beginning of the trips. Just load up a days worth and replenish them as you use it.
6. It's great for weekend errands. I can go out to lunch or Costco and throw things in the fridge without having to rush back home.

I don't have dual batteries on any of my cars and haven't had an issue. What i do is pre-freeze everything, and have it set to Fast freeze when I'm driving and power is abundant. When I'm at camp, I lower the temp to above freezing, it takes a lot less power and the fridge just acts as a giant cooler. Depending on the outside temp, I can leave it off overnight and not have the temp get above freezing, even in the desert.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Depending on how hot it is, how many amp hours your battery has, how much power your alternator puts out, how much food is in the fridge and what temp you have the fridge set at, 1 - 2 hours a day can keep your battery topped off just fine.
.
Before I got my dual battery setup if we were staying at one place for 3+ days, my routine was to simply start the truck in the morning and let it idle for about a half hour, and I'd do that twice a day (at breakfast and dinner.) It seemed to work OK, although the one time I decided to skip the morning startup (because we were leaving that day) and waited until we were getting ready to leave at 11:30 or so, the battery did need a jumpstart.
.
Now that I have a dual battery with a 68ah capacity in the house battery plus a 100w solar panel, I'm not even worried about it.

 

[Corey]

Back in 2007 when I got my first fridge, the ARB old school model, I could run it up to 5 days on the stock Toyota Panasonic battery, and the rig would start, but it was slow.
I now run a dual battery setup, and my new fridge gets fed from the aux battery, which in turn has a dedicated 100 watt solar panel for it.

Like others have said, once you have a fridge you will wonder why you waited so long.
No more wet soggy food, no more buying ice, JUST DO IT

 

[Explorer 1]

Most "overlanders" I know don't have a Frig. Many have gone out with me on week long trips with a quality ice box and done fine.

Convince you, I don't think I can. My experience is that if you want the convenience of a refg/freezer, go for it. Be prepared to add a second battery if you camp long in one spot especially in warmer weather. Nobody "needs" a frig to go out and have a good time. It's kind of like Big Tires and winches, for most, there great for the show but rarely ever needed.

Nothing wrong with having a frig, but if the expense of having one keeps you from being able to get out exploring, I would think the money spent on gas would be a better choice....

Thanks,
Fred
Explorer 1

 

[perterra]

Big difference in need and want. You dont need anything more than a cheap cooler, want is a different thing.

 

[Outside somewhere]

You need a fridge

#overlanding
#allthecoolkidshaveone

 

[NatersXJ6]

I've posted this many times, but the best use of a fridge is not in camping. I run mine 24/7.

Cold drinks anytime? - Check
Grocery pickup mid-day? - Check
Keep lunches cold? - Check

The thing is so convenient that I bought my wife another one to run in her daily driver 24/7 as well.

The resale on them is high too, so you can undo your purchase if you hate it.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Nothing wrong with having a frig, but if the expense of having one keeps you from being able to get out exploring, I would think the money spent on gas would be a better choice....

This is the fundamental argument to just about everything talked about on ExPo. Back when I was a teenager overlanding was putting beer in a styrofoam cooler, setting up a military surplus canvas tent and firing up an ancient Coleman stove. So the question of what we "need" is relative. What we "need" to do is get the heck out of the rat race periodically and whatever it takes to make that happen is what you spend. Having a fridge sure is a luxury that I don't mind having, though. I'd drive that same old Honda Civic and sleep in that worn out old tent if it meant I could keep the Engel.

 

[SoCal Tom]

I have a cf35, it carries as much stuff as a 50QT cooler ( less ice). It probably weighs about as much as a cooler full of ice and stuff. Using as a fridge, it takes about 2 days in mid 70s weather to get my battery down to 50% (12.2V). Quality fridges have sensors that shut them off at certain voltages, so you can make sure you don't drain the battery too far to start the rig. The waecos have 3 potential settings, when running on the starting battery I use the highest one. When running on my trailer battery I use the middle one. With a good alternator, driving an hour a day should be enough to make up for the fridge power use ( Starting the car probably uses more power than running the fridge for a day). One trip the fridge shut off during the night because of low voltage, but because I keep it full, everything was still pretty cold ( not 33F, probably closer to 40 or 45, but still cold), started the engine and let it run an hour or so and cooled everything right back down.
When I put my food in an ice chest, most of it had to be tossed when I got home. It was either waterlogged, or all the ice melted and I was unsure of what temp it was stored at. With the fridge the left overs look just like they came out my home fridge. No more special bottles of mustard and ketchup, all the left over sandwich meat goes right back in the fridge. The cheese is not a soggy mess of junk. I've probably paid for the fridge in the cost of the food I've saved, let alone the savings on ice.
Speaking of ice, I have a small drink cooler, it hold about 18 cans. I top it off with ice from the home freezer when I leave. The ice is usually gone by the 2nd night, but by then I've cleared space in the fridge, and I move 3 or 4 drinks there. Then as I use a drink, I replace it. I Always have cold drinks and I never buy ice.
Tom

 

[Burb One]

+1

The other thing about the fridge, is space. On long trips half the cooler volume was ice. With the fridge, much more of that space goes to actually carrying what you want, food/ drinks

 

[ducktapeguy]

Everything discussed on this forum is a want, not a need. It's just that some people arbitrarily draw a line and decide that everything they have is a necessity, and anything they don't have is a luxury.

One can make the argument that you don't really need a cooler either, backpackers have been doing it for decades. Same way you don't "need" a tent, stove, sleeping bag, flashlights, a 4x4 truck, or any hundreds of other items we take camping, it's all about convenience. I don't know about everyone else, but the reason I go outdoors is to enjoy myself, not to needlessly suffer so I can come back and brag on an internet forum how I was able to survive without these modern conveniences. Most of us have used coolers in the past, so it's not like we can't survive without them, but if there's an product out there that can increase my enjoyment of camping and I'm able to afford it, why not use it?

 

[big44g]

I've posted this many times, but the best use of a fridge is not in camping. I run mine 24/7.

Cold drinks anytime? - Check
Grocery pickup mid-day? - Check
Keep lunches cold? - Check

The thing is so convenient that I bought my wife another one to run in her daily driver 24/7 as well.

The resale on them is high too, so you can undo your purchase if you hate it.

This has been a great read. I never really thought about the other uses. I already have batteries and solar. I now have another option for food after a hurricane. I will be getting one soon.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[fjmario]

I would think the money spent on gas would be a better choice....

^This....