Fridge cooling down what's your tip?

[mjvw]

Because of the location of our storage facility it's not practical to cool down our 3 way fridge on hook up before we departed, and when running on Alternator it takes a long time to get to a working temp, so i have been freezing bottles of water, and putting them in fridge when we set off this has worked a treat and by the time we have parked up the fridge is lovely and cool, we also run a cool box and have used the same procedure with that even in the warm weather this has been very successful.

Plus you have some nice cold water to drink, when done.

 

[antiquesam]

It seems more logical to me to fill the fridge with the things you need already chilled from the fridge at home. It works for me.

 

[Obanboy666]

Running on the alternator / 12v, as far as I’m aware only maintains the temp so unlikely it lowers the temp.
Fill with frozen bottles of water as you already do and immediately switch it onto gas whilst you are packing the vehicle before you move off.
I have found running on gas is the most efficient method to lower the temp. If you have a modern regulator with a crash sensor what’s to stop you running it on gas as you travel ?

 

[mjvw]

Running on the alternator / 12v, as far as I’m aware only maintains the temp so unlikely it lowers the temp.
Fill with frozen bottles of water as you already do and immediately switch it onto gas whilst you are packing the vehicle before you move off.
I have found running on gas is the most efficient method to lower the temp. If you have a modern regulator with a crash sensor what’s to stop you running it on gas as you travel ?

Just not happy running on gas while traveling' as for the running on alternator it does seem to lower the temp after journey. But this could be my imagination.May look into the crash sensor but the fridge and my lovely campervan is over 25 years old.

 

[mjvw]

It seems more logical to me to fill the fridge with the things you need already chilled from the fridge at home. It works for me.

The frozen water is properly more effective at chilling the fridge than a chilled yogurt etc, but I get your point, we normally pick up stuff on route in the area we are staying.

 

[Canalsman]

During the recent very hot weather I froze ice packs overnight in the 'van then placed them in the fridge section during the day.

It made a big difference, much more than I had expected.

 

[n brown]

when i had a fridge in Portugal , it was an old one and we drove thousands of miles with the gas lit .worked fine. it's just a pilot flame in a steel box

 

[mjvw]

when i had a fridge in Portugal , it was an old one and we drove thousands of miles with the gas lit .worked fine. it's just a pilot flame in a steel box

I always thought travelling with gas on was a nono? But hey I could be wrong.

 

[wildebus]

Using frozen bottled water sounds like the best plan and has a dual purpose. Win-win

 

[RichardHelen262]

We always just put frozen bottles of water in the fridge and works just fine

 

[trevskoda]

I just went electric and its 100%.

 

[r4dent]

Frozen chicken.

 

[TJBi]

Running on the alternator / 12v, as far as I’m aware only maintains the temp so unlikely it lowers the temp.
Fill with frozen bottles of water as you already do and immediately switch it onto gas whilst you are packing the vehicle before you move off.
I have found running on gas is the most efficient method to lower the temp. If you have a modern regulator with a crash sensor what’s to stop you running it on gas as you travel ?

I have found that running the fridge on 12v when driving is very effective in bringing down the temperature; I normally opt for the maximum setting and then reduce to something more reasonable when I switch to gas. Pre-frozen water bottles placed in the small freezer section inside my fridge prior to departure from home are very effective in keeping the fridge cool when unable to run it, even on 10-12-hour ferry crossings, and don't take up valuable space in the fridge itself.

 

[Aly]

I always use frozen bottles of water to chill my fridge, it works really well.

 

[trevskoda]

I always use frozen bottles of water to chill my fridge, it works really well.

So no room for food then.

 

[Aly]

So no room for food then.

I don’t put 20 bottles in!

 

[in h]

I'd use gas. It works. It works really well.

 

[Wisewoman]

I worked out that it was costing me quite a lot of money in gas to keep the fridge cool when sometimes it was just for one pack of bacon. I realised that in this situation, it was false economy and would be cheaper for me to just buy some refrigerated bacon every day. Also the fridge will only work well on the gas if I am level and often i'm not!

So, I now put the fridge on EHU two days before departure, then run it as a 12V which works only when my engine is running. I also put in frozen icepacks once I leave my house.

After about 2-3 days and all of the above, in the recent hot weather the fridge was getting too warm and the ice packs had long melted, so i went to Aldi and bought a bag of icecubes for 89p. Wrapped them in a binbag and placed them in my fridge - it worked well and kept it cool for a further 2 - 3 days. (Just beware water leakage from the bag!) lol

 

[landoboguy]

As mine is mostly used for guinness I just freeze it (almost) and wack it in after cooling ot down on EHU...bonus f it keeps my cheese cool and milk cool

 

[in h]

I worked out that it was costing me quite a lot of money in gas to keep the fridge cool ....bought a bag of icecubes for 89p. Wrapped them in a binbag and placed them in my fridge - it worked well and kept it cool for a further 2 - 3 days

How big is your fridge? Mine is a big fridge freezer with separate doors.
On gas it uses less than 300 grammes per 24 hours. That works out at about 30p per day. Less than you are paying for ice. A smaller fridge would cost less to run.