Slunnie replied:

Fred, I have the Evacool E60 which is the 60l version. In short these esky's are brilliant. We used this for 2 people up at Fraser Island Qld for 1 week with ice still in it at the end. 3 days will be a breeze. I tend to think with esky's, don't go oversized unless you are going to fill it all with food or ice. The less free space, the better it will keep its cold. In terms of ice, I tend to use blocked ice rather than crushed. The block ice doesn't seem to get the eskie as cold as crushed but it lasts a hell of a lot longer. Frozen plastic 2l milk bottles work really well when layered on the bottom of the esky and also don't leave the bottom flooded when it does thaw out. If I had my time again the only thing I would do different is buy the Evacool Fridge/freezer, which is the same esky with a Danfross element. Regards Slunnie

Kezza replied:

Fred Evakools are brilliant, weve done Brisbane to Katherine over 4 days living out of the esky for the whole time and still had ice and frozen food.
We prepared meals and froze them and layered them in order so we didnt have to touch the bottom of the esky, if you were really serious you could place thin insulating layers over the bottom layers - freeze everything and it will last over a week.

I was in plastics R&D and spoke to evekool about some substitutes for the materials they used, but it turns out they use the best materials available anyway so I don't think there is anything better on the market.

kezza

Paul replied:

I used an E60 up at Woodford in Qld during last Christmas, hottest summer I have ever experienced and I grew up in brisbane. I swear to god it was 45C in the shade.

If i put frozen 2L milk containers full of frozen water inside the evakool in the morning and put in with them normal temperature 1L bottles of tap water, if i did not open the lid then by the end of the day the 1L bottles would be half frozen.

I say this as a warning as the Evakool can be too good - put your lettuce down near the ice for a day and they might be frozen and therefore throwaway by the next. I suggest separating the stuff you take frozen or really cold such as half frozen, clearly separated from fruit and vegetables.

As said above, the more you put in and the less you open it the better it will perform.

Axel +Karen replied:

Fred ,we have owned a evercool / baileys [one and the same, all made in coloundra qld ] for the last 5 years , ours is a 70ltr job ,we use 3ltr plastic orange juice bottles x2 ,the ice as such lasts 6 to 8 days ,,reuse the same water/ice in the bottle if possible ,the older the ice the longer it lasts ,and remember to pre chill the eski and to keep the open / shut to a minimum ,,as far as size goes , that depends on how much cold BEER you want...Axel

Nigel replied:

We've got the 70 litre Evakool fridge with the same compressor as most other fridges. We rarely turn it above 1 out of 7 and never above 2.

If the battery goes flat at the end of a trip we don't have to panic coz it has awesome insulation.

Jan replied:

Sorry to be negative, but we bought an Evakool 12 volt fridge af ew years ago and had nothing but trouble with it. The comressor was replaced twice under warranty, it had to be regassed once, and eventually the servicee contractor in Victoria for Evakool told us not to come back any more - he had a workroom full of disabled Evakool fridges which just wouldn't stand up to hard off road travel. They were fine if used only on the bitumen, he said. The ice boxes, as everyone says, are excellent, but steer clear of the earlier model fridges. The company says they have now completely redesigned the fridges, so maybe the problems have been overcome, but we were reluctanty to take up their offer of a discount on a replacement new model. We bought a Waeco instead, and it has been very reliable.