Any recommendations for a portable freezer?

Any recommendations for a portable freezer?

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CardinalFang

Original Poster:

664 posts

175 months

Friday 21st August 2015
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Afternoon all,

Can anyone recommend a portable freezer suitable for plugging into a car 12v, mains elec & caravan? (Caravan not purchased yet, but I guess would mean 12v/mains/gas: feel free to correct me, I'm new to this...).

Budget around £200 (ish, but happy to push higher 'cos it's important I get this right first time)
Space is not an issue in the vehicle: it's a ford ranger truck with a 12v outlet in the loadbed.
Short term use will be used to transport frozen, raw dog food (Country Hunter, in 1kg bags) to a holiday cottage, which has no freezer in September (total around 2.5kg)
longer term plan is to get a touring caravan & use it to store the dog food on trips: weekends & up to 2 weeks (so maybe 5kg). Mainly UK, but possibly Europe.

Critical issue I'm worried about is defrosting (obviously!). Our dog has had major digestive problems over the years, which have only been resolved by a raw meat diet, so when I see that Dometic or Waeco models can freeze "to Xdgreees below ambient", I worry it won't be enough in our english sub tropical summers...

Anyone have any suggestions/experience with these products?

Much appreciated, thanks...



SimesJH

768 posts

158 months

Saturday 22nd August 2015
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Buy a secondhand Engel.

You can source them in different sizes, but around 40 litres seems to be the most popular. New, they're around £700 but they do pop up on eBay, etc regularly. I bought mine, secondhand and well-travelled, from a Landrover show many years ago.

They'll act as fridges, too, but turn them down fully and they'll freeze down to about minus 20'C.

They work off 12v and 240v and have highly efficient motors and good insulation. I use mine as a supplementary fridge / freezer in my motorhome but it's travelled with us in our 110 across the UK and Europe many times.

An example for sale to give you an idea...

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=...

Other makes exist, as do other opinions and options. The above is just my own.

Edited by SimesJH on Saturday 22 August 07:15

CardinalFang

Original Poster:

664 posts

175 months

Friday 28th August 2015
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Hi SimesJH,

Sorry to not respond sooner, but have been travelling for a few days with rotten mobile coverage. Many thanks: I hadn't come across this make before, so will take a look. I guess you get what you pay for & that unit looks very good.

Anyone else have any recommendations?

Regards,
Neil

Troubleatmill

10,210 posts

166 months

Tuesday 8th September 2015
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Engel

I run one all year round.

CardinalFang

Original Poster:

664 posts

175 months

Wednesday 9th September 2015
quotequote all
thanks troubleatmill.

Another vote for Engels. General question: am I right in thinking that gas/absorption freezers need to be kept still & level, making the engels-type electric-only models a safer option to travel with?