Best fridge for the job?

It depends whether it will be the only fridge you have, do you have a Caravan or just camping.

If camping then I'd suggest one that has a freezer section and a fridge section.

You will need decent battery power to run it.

Engel, Waeco, EVA Kool are all OK depending on your budget.

G'day Marco
Go for 60 ltrs - you will not regret it. Wife and I travelled heaps with 2 kids and found the 60 ltr to be great. Would have really struggled with anything smaller.
As for make you'll get heaps of opinions but if you do a search you'll soon find out which one/s give the most trouble. BTW - we've had a Trailblaza for 20+ years with no complaints.
Cheers from the Moose

Hi Mate

I'd tend to agree getting a bigger fridge and would recommend the 80L Engel fridge and freezer combination, especially if you are planning to use it for camping with your family in the future. The 80L is a taller version of the 60L, that will take 2L drink bottles upright - so it's more worthwhile.

One thing with portable fridges is that you can never have one big enough, as they fill up very quickly due to more food going in than you thought you'd have. If you have the money get the 80L, otherwise get the cheaper 40L or 38L Eclipse and see how you go - you wouldn't want to have many drinks for 4 people though.

I'd definitely recommend an Engel too, as I've seen a friend's 110L Waeco fridge that wouldn't stay cold once thing got above 30 degrees or so.

Goodluck!!

If you haven't already done so have a look at the fridges article on this site.

I had an Chescold RC1180, and apart from it struggling in Qld temperatures, found it too small. I'd recommend a 60L compressor based fridge if touring.

We have a 30 litre fridge, and have used it for over 30 years, while the family was growing up, so it has fed 4 adults. Depends on how you use it and pack it, and the type of food you are eating.
We usually carry about 2 to 3 weeks of food with us at any one time.
We tend to use one pot meals a fair bit, made from fresh vegies, tins and dried stuff like pasta, rice etc. Fridge just keeps the meat, butter and milk cold, and a couple of drinks. We don't run it on freezer, cryovac our meat.

So if like us, 40 litre would be fine. Takes up less space, draws less power.

With two of us now, the 30l runs half empty a lot of the time.

We had a 40litre and struggled with space (2 kids) When it came to upgrading we to struggled with the question of bigger fridge meaning less space. SWMBO then made the comment that there is no space saved or lost by going bigger - simply more cold space less warm space in the back of the truck! Too true. We opted going for the 80 litre with freezer space. When we run low we can then use the space by putting bread, fruit, water etc. in the fridge and swapping cold an warm space that way.

What you must realise though is the bigger cold space, the more power hungry it will be

Now that we have done both big and small, we will definately stay biig. It also changes the way you pack supplies, instead of packing dry provisions you can afford to pack frozen provisions

Hope this helps,
CJ

Autofridge 40l is all you need............... ;-)

Cheers,

Mark

Marco

Unless you want Ice Cream you don't need a freezer to keep meat for weeks.
Just have it cryovaced, you should be able to get 6 weeks out of red meat, les for white meat.
Doesn't work for sausages but does for mince. Freezers require a lot more power.

We can get away with a family of 5 for a week with a 50L fridge.
Use UHT dairy products (milk, cream, custard), only need to put them in the fridge after you have opened them.
In the morning just put the Beer/ wine, that you will drink that evening into the fridge. Your car battery & alternator will do a great job.

We sometimes take an esky for the first 2 days with frozen food/ drinks, then when empty use it as a storage container, as mentioned above.

Just as your standard of living is always 10% more than you earn, no matter how much or little it is, .........what ever fridge size you have, you'd always like a little more!

Hi Marco,

I know you seem to have discounted the 2 x40L options, but it does have more flexibility that also has the advantage that you can buy the fridge/s as the budget permits.

I too have a 2+2 family and have found 40L is always a squeeze to fit everything in that we "must" take on longer trips. So I added a Two-Zone (21L) and now have ~60L of fridge space that has the advantage that vegies etc... can go into the top half like a crisper while the colder stuff (like beer) can be kept colder at the bottom but still be easily accessible. Also, I can take the Two-Zone off for shorter trips when 40L is enough.

But it also goes to show that once we had 60L that too soon wasn't enough, so we "had" to get another 40L Engel that we use as fridge or freezer. So now we can have 40, 60 or 100L of fridge and/or freezer space as the need dictates.


Cheers

Captain

Marco

You haven't given us a great deal of info to go on.

As well as how many people it is also important how big a vehicle and how much battery capacity and recharging capability you have and how much can you spend on it as well as your travel pattern. An answer without that sort of information is pretty meaningless.

Anyway in the spirit of this forum where opinions are freely offered I will give my opinion.

For 2 adults and 2 children a larger fridge would be the go. Your 60-80 litre suggestion would be the go not the smaller 40 litre. I would look really hard at Explorer and Trailblaza. They are more expensive than most but they have a reason to be so. The Explorer, such as the DC65 I have, has ability to run off 12, 24 or 240 volts. It has separate fridge and freezer sections. It has separate thermostats for both but these are interdependent. The setting of one does affect the other. There are 3 models DC65 , DC85 and DC110. I have found that the fridge and freezer temperature can be nicely balanced as in good beer temperature, slightly minus, and good freezer temperature (both thermostats on 5 or 4 if I want to save a bit of power). For a unit with fridges and freezer fully independent the Trailblaza would be the choice. Did a preview on the Explorer DC65 recently. A full review with the new dual battery system and summer temperatures should be posted in January.

A warning that if you want to freeze ice cream you will pay for it pretty savagely in increased power consumption.

It is swings and roundabouts, there is no "best".

I also have a small Waeco that has worked reliably for years but no way is it in the class of the Explorer or Trailblaza. Still Waeco are a lot cheaper and in many situations could be the choice as would a lot of other brands.

The 2x40 litre versus 1 larger combined fridge freezer comes down to price. There is extra versatility in having two smaller units. They could be run both as fridges or one of each or both as freezers. Power consumption would be higher as would bulk and most likely cost. I thought about that option but went for the Explorer recently and am happy with the choice.

Flynnie

we have had a 40L Engel for two adults and two now teenage kids and find it more than enough. It draws low amps and doesn't take up heaps of room in the car and I can lift it fully loaded unlike some of the bigger units.

Hi Marco

I have both a 40lt Engel and and a 38lt Waeco. The original plan was to use the one of them as a freezer but found that you use too much battery power.
We now use the Waeco for a drinks fridge that way it is a lot easier to get to food, also we found that the temp in kept more constant for the food as it is not getting opened all the time or being reloaded with warm drinks.
Like some others have mentioned, I do not think it is important to have a freezer you just need to cryovac your meat etc. for longer trips.
Oh, for what its worth, the Engel wins hands down compared to the Waeco in my opinion.

Chris