Rhonny I hope you don't mind me adding a few things sorry if you and everyone already knows them. For the cool box 1. Instead of using bags of ice from a shop make your own, fill plastic bottles with water and freeze them. (Only fill the bottles 75% full, so they don't split as the ice expands) it's cheaper than buying ice, the ice doesn't melt over your food making everything wet and when it defrosts you nave a chilled bottle of water to drink. I also use vacuum sealed bags of water as well, as you can make them flat to fit the opening lid. 2. Add more insulation, stick/cover the box in a reflective material, I've seen it down with space blankets and even better wrap one of those cheap windscreen covers round it. 3. The seal on your cool box make sure it's nice and tight, if need be put a bungee cord/ strap over it to compress the seal a bit more. Fridge and cool box 1. If possible freeze what ever you can before your trip, if your taking burgers etc and you know your having them on day 3 or so of your trip freeze them and take them out the morning you need them to defrost, your fridge will benefit from the coldness of the frozen stuff for a couple of days before you need them. 2. Always pre chill your box, the day before you go off on your trip plug your fridge into your home ac power to cool down to temperature, that way it's already cold when you put your food into it and there isn't the surge of current draw off your battery to cool down so it uses less power from your 12v system. If you have a cool box put ice packs into the night before and swap them in the morning for fresh ones and they will last a bit longer. I hope this helps someone out there. Keep up the good work fella.
That was a very fair assessment. We only use an esky and always use home made block ice. For outback winter trips this ice would last about a week. As you said with correct packing soggy food is not an issue. Cheers
"Your food won't go soggy". That says it all! I picked up an ARB fridge a few years back and will never go ice again. Dual battery is the way to go. Use a SPDT relay and wire it 'backwards' so it switches between sources. The second battery when the ignition is not on and the primary battery when it is. Cheap and easy. Thanks Ronnie for another great video!
Some good points mate. I have never had the need for a fridge to be honest. Meat, bread and salad all go into independant tupperware boxes and then stored in the Esky with an ice block. Stops the soggy scoff and the beers just sit happily in the ice cold water/block as and when it melts. Let's face it, if your piss is warm on day 3 you are going too bloody slow and need to take a good look at yourself. lol :-) It's just un-Australian mate. ATB Moose in Vic.
you never cease to amaze me. you've done a fantastic job the pros and cons of those two choices. we definitely went with the 12 volt fridge for our long-term travel trip. the convenience way out ways the price tags.
Thanks for all your great videos, cool, calm, collected and very informative. Also like your genuine approach being real, logical, concise and well filmed/edited. When I was a scout we would canoe down the orange river,(South Africa) hot as hell in mid summer 40 degree Celsius average ..We always had ice ream on the filth day, kept it in a cooler that was put in deepfreeze night before going,(the entire cooler packed and sealed) we would tape it up and was stored at bottom of canoe with clothing on top so no direct sun hit cooler until we opened it on day 5. Frozen ice cream after long river trip, in the heat was like magic as the leader always hid it from us till the end. Thanks again.
I loved that intro!! I have an Evakool Esky and packed it for two weeks, using frozen 3L milk bottles full of water. Three levels using a bottle for each layer and insulated with corrugated plastic. Worked well but you are very correct with all that you have outlined in this vid. 1/3 of the Esky is ice. Good work mate, cheers.
This is a great review. I have a Waeco Cool Ice Icebox (112L) and I take it on every trip with me. I had it up at the Murchison for 4 days in the middle of Summer and still had plenty of ice. I just drained excess water every day and it was fine. I even had enough ice to last a further 2 days at my holiday house using it as a beer esky. I can see how you could get soggy food doing this but if you invest in water tight containers to store food then you're golden. I had an Engle before it and I kept having problems with my wiring and the fridge itself not working at times and it's would continuously spoil my food, or I'd have to bludge esky/fridge space from my mates.
The fridge, once cold, doesn't use up much power. I purchased a portable power unit, in my case a jackery. This allows me to move the fridge to where 'the action' is and still provide it power. It's very handy.
The DC fridges seem so convenient... But if all you've got is an icebox/cooler/"esky" then here's a tip: before you leave on your next trip, cook some large meals and freeze them in individual portion containers, then when you pack for your trip, bring those frozen meals in your icebox. The food is more efficient at maintaining temperature than ice as each meal has more thermal mass than each ice-cube (food melts slower than ice) AND you don't have to cook at camp, just heat up already made meals... Soups and stews work well for this but I've also had success with pasta in red sauce and mac&cheese.
Interesting, I went for the fridge without so much of a thought, thinking about the long trips, but it's mostly keeping beers and wine cool at home now. That's a PRO you've overlooked, once you have the fridge you can plug it at home and it's a great addition to the kitchen (it's in my room tho haha) I put it in the car just when I go for more than 3/4 days out, basically each time I need to buy ice more than once...
Thanks for the vid Ronny. Very true regarding the pros and cons of having either. Having used iceboxes for years I finally succumbed to the 12v revolution, thinking it would be the be-all-and-end-all of my cooling issues. I bought a 35L fridge ($700), deep cycle battery ($220), dual battery tray ($400) Redarc BCDC charger ($350) and installation ($50 carton of beer) and finally a 120W solar panel with MPPT regulator ($200) which equals A LOT OF ICE ! Turned out to be an expensive little process, however in saying that I can now go off the grid for days if not weeks at a time without the need for ice. Admittedly I still need a separate esky for my beer as my fridge is usually full of food...and I need ice to go with my bourbon ... :) I've asked Santa for a bigger fridge this christmas.....
After getting an ARB fridge, I'd never go back to using ice, especially in my Arizona climate. I also like that everything stays dry and you don't have to freeze the hell out of your hands digging in ice to get those damn hot dogs off the bottom.
Hello Ronny, As regards the the esky when we are going out & just take the esky & before there were fridges we used to put about a third of the ice was dry ice keeps the water ice frozen a lot longer and the esky a lot colder. Well done again
I take both a fridge and an esky - the former for food and the latter for beer. The fridge doesn't have to work as hard because I'm not opening it up every ten minutes, and I can sit the esky right next to me for easy access! Best of both worlds!
Dont forget about 12v powered ice boxes. They work ok if you use them properly . Mine gets down to about 4 C in summer time and even colder in the winter. Good for storing non-meat foods like veg, drinks, etc. they stay dry too and are WAY cheaper than a proper fridge. Dont expect it to keep your meats though. keep that stuff in a proper fridge or ice box.
The problem with the size comparison between the two is that you forgot to account for the ice. To keep things cool in the esky/icebox requires much more than 1/3 the space be filled with ice. Even a high-end rotomolded cooler like a Yeti requires as much as half the cooler to be packed with ice to last about 7 days. Once you account for that space, the fridge has much more space for food and other non-ice items.
just an added note if you plan your trips and require frozen 10 litre bottles of water you can contact some supermarkets in those regions and you will find one that will freeze the bottles for you and reserve them
just a point here, if you are organised, you can make your ice for your eski beforehand and then it doesnt cost you money. If you need to top it up while on your holiday, then yes you will need to buy some though
@@kevinhood9781 my guy, there are many perspectives on what rich is; but I will share one that hopefully gives you pause: 1st class on an airline is what rich people consider poor. We ride coach frequently 🥸
I have a 50L arb fridge I use full time for many years, I have only have to replace the 12volt plug, it's got the old school Dan Foss compressor that you can't kill, Just the savings on ice paid for it. It's running right now keeping the cold brew cold.
I have been using the same ARB for a couple of years now. I don't know if I have saved the cost on ice yet but I do know I have save a bunch of money by not ruining food getting 'soggy'. If it lasts a few more years I am sure it will pay for itself.
Occasional short trips. Ice box. Frequent longer trips. Fridge. P.S. Whipping out the Ben n Jerrys ice cream on day three of a summer Arizona trip earned me BIG brownie points with the wife n daughter. I keep my fridge loaded and plugged in. Makes short trips, half day picnics soooooo much easier. If I did my rig build over again, I'd of installed the fridge first, not last.
Coolers or iceboxes are good for a day of fishing, camping at night and leaving in the morning. The fridge/freezer is good for multiple days of being away.
awesome video! this actually helped me heaps, I was weighing up the costs of buying a 1k fridge but I don't go outback @ all, I just go on overnight trips
I've got that same ARB and if its' not in my 80, it is in the belly slide-out tray of my RV full of, well, beer. :-) That thing is awesome! Even here in AZ, it works amazingly well.
I have a large frost bite ice box from bcf. We went to Frazer island for 7 days with with 3 bags of ice. When we got home we still had at least half left. I'll stick with the icebox. Just make sure you put cold food and drinks in it. And put a wet towel on top of ice.
I finally broke down and got my fridge. I settled on the 40 liter Waeco (Dometic here in the States) for the back of my unlimited Rubicon. I probably should have gotten the 35 but the 40 was on sale and cheaper at the time. We shall see how it holds up in the Arizona deserts.
Good review. Where I disagree is the need for a dual battery system. There is a lot of cost associated with that and in the end you still need to charge the battery. I had a dual battery setup and removed it. Now I have a good deep cycle high amp hour battery, a 100 watt solar setup, and a Jumpbox in case I kill my battery. Based on the safety features of the fridge and my solar setup that is not very likely to happen.
to some extent the interior size difference is also taken up by the ice. a bag of ice is 1/3 of the interior of the icebox same as the electric bits in the fridge.
For food get your esky & put a 4 or 5 day block of dry ice in it ( it's not that big ) cover it with 2 bags of party ice & put all food that you don't want frozen in tupperware & it will be kept cool & if you have meat that you want frozen glad wrap it put it in & it will freeze or preferably freeze it at home before you leave & it will stay frozen. just don't put cans of soft drink in a esky with dry ice in it as they will freeze.
Ronnie missed the biggest difference. Beer. If you've mismanaged your beer and don't have any cold ones, you can toss a beer in the 'esky' and it will be cold in about 10 minutes. If you toss it in the fridge it can take over a half hour!
I was lucky enough to get a fridge for a very good price. It's only a 28L which is fine for my use. The physical size of it is almost as big as the 50L cooler it replaced but since there is no ice needed I fit as much or more into it as the larger cooler. I have a Dometic (Waeco) which is cheaper than the ARB, even though the ARB uses/used the exact same internals. I initially had a problem with the 12v plug working its way out and getting very hot but replaced it with Anderson connectors. I've found with mine the single battery is fine since I normally drive all day and it only sits over night when it's cooler and doesnt need to run very often.
Could you bring an "esky" (cooler here in Canada) and also a portable ice cube maker? Then you just add ice to the cooler as you need it. I don't know if this would be way less efficient than a dedicated fridge. But then you can have the ice maker separate from the cooler so you can pull the cooler out if you need to.
This video is now 3 years old, but the information is still pertinent albeit, with that Aussie Summer Sun, I might have thought that a solar panel could help that 12 volt battery run that Fridge/Freezer setup. Does it have a mains 220v option too like my Cooler Box has for when you have the chance of mains electricity/
would you consider a large icebox and small freezer combo using reusable ice blocks a solution say a small 30 litre freezer full of ice blocks and the same amount of ice blocks in your ice box when the one melts swap them around this gets us over the relative small space of the powered freezer and allows the esky to be used for more remote and longer trips.
Yes that is a great idea. I use an engel MD14F on freezer mode to swap ice packs in the extreme type esky every couple days. its like an endless supply of ice when ice packs are swapped every morning
i generally buy 2 or 3 10 litre filtered water bottles and freeze them before going away put them in the bottom of the esky and on the ends and have a coles type basket to hold anything that gets soggy all meat goes into a sealed container frozen also i find on average i get 4-5 days out of the ice blocks and have plenty of nice cold water to drink ...would love to have the fridge freezer combo but thats not in my budget and i keep 8 water bottles in the freezer all the time and just refill them with a thin hose connected to the filter water tap in the kitchen... ohhh i do use 50 mm thermal insulation around my ice boxand when at camp site sit it under the 4bee where its cooler
Always entertaining Ronny, cheers ;) But - Noone mentioned throwing a few handfuls of coarse salt on the ice? oldest trick in the book. drops the temp like a stone. keeps it colder for longer. takes longer to melt. Simple physics. Works best with an esky full of tinnies. You'll get an extra half day at least out of it. ;)
u could have 1 cooler box for frozen stuff and 1 for milk butter beer cheese etc thats not frozen , so not opening lid on frozen stuff to get things that are used more in a day.
I've run engle fridges for many years now and I love them. But yes they are expensive 1400 they need power, they are not portable and need to be looked after. They are great for keeping food cold but take a long time to get drinks cold ie beer and with a fridge trying to chill drinks they never stop running so can a do chew the power. If you are set up for a couple of days you can run a solar panel, wind turbine or generator. My advice short trips for food take a fridge and keep and esky with ice for drinks same for long trips
Would it make much difference putting an icebox in an icebox? Volumetric efficiency out the window, but would the contents of the inner box stay cooler? Would it make a difference putting ice in the larger box to keep the inner box cooler for longer?
I'm trying to make a block of ice using a 100w 12v solar panel with a cheap, small $160 12v freezer and my starter battery as stable 12v power source (fed by both solar and alternator) and then using that block of ice overnight to keep meat, cheese and milk below 40F. Tested and seems like it might work ,but waiting for a really hot Florida day to prove it will work while driving around in the Florida sun. The freezer takes about 4a/hour and panel puts out about 3 - 5 a depending on exposure. Not sure why we need so much cooler space unless brining back game meat or heavy beer drinker. If you can make clean fresh ice, I would only store perishables in there. Some findings on my channel.
I've got a 50L Waeco it's been handed down to me and its roughly 10 years old, even though I have the fridge I still take a 40/50L esky, food in the fridge and the beers and drinks in the esky, I also have a little 12L (i think) waeco cooler it isn't a fridge but it does keep already cold drinks cold and that's what I use for when I'm traveling so there's no need for me to pull over and get one from out the back
Something that's going to vary based on personal factors is how expensive the fridge is to run, more 12V power consumed means more alternator load, means more fuel.
But Ronny how about Dry Ice ? I know that in Canada it is super easy to get and a good ice box here can stay cool as long as 2 weeks whit Dry Ice. This is the best alternative I found yet.
i always use an ice box. and it last for weeks. however i don't use ice from an ice bag. i use huge blocks that i freeze at home. they last for about 3 weeks to 4 weeks. but i also empty out any water each day. i don't know what type of ice box mine is, but light blue and weight a lot compared to most i've had.
Has anyone noticed the battery powered refrigerators? While running the vehicle charge it up here in America even Ryobi has gotten in on it using their tool batteries.
Good video but Im still stuck...I know a $1000 fridge is NOT for me, but what about the cheap Koolatron ones that cost under $200? Barely more than an ice box, are they worth it?
Mate. I'm having a dilemma. Travelling from east to west in a VW transporter for 2 months from late June to early August. Should I bother going 12volt off solar - I'll be travelling every day as well for charging. Or just do $5 ice bags in my hugely efficient Evakool 60l esky? I will get 4 days on one bag.
What about a combi fridge that can work from either 12v or propane gas like the Dometic RC1200? It will not drain your battery if you stay at the camp for a longer period.
Always the catch 22 with fridges v icebox. 2 fridges with a dual battery system seems to be the best answer (IN MY BOOKS ANYWAY). Ice is not always reliable. I live with a medical condition, so not an issue of cost for me.
G'day Ronny haven't seen a vid from you in about 3 months. That beard is coming along bloody nicely mate! Good on ya.I think my youtube sub box is playing up!
Awesome mate, really wish this video came out when I was deciding on the two. Ahah a lot easy to watch it on a video the research it online and read on the forums :)
After one year of travelling in Australia with an Esky i highly recommend ice bricks. They will last a lot longer than cubes! There´s also a big difference in where you get the ice from. Some places they store it at -1°´, some at -17° or even lower...
Question from America: Why do you call them "Esky"? We call them igloos (after the eskimo shelter and a brand of the same name), Colemans (after the brand), or just"coolers". Also, can you get dry ice (C02 blocks) there?
Esky is the name of one of the first brands to sell iceboxes here in Australia. From the 1960s on people typically had an Esky brand. I guess the name just stick.
As Simon states, commonwealth (Britain, Aust, NZ, maybe Canada) countries tend to use brand names on popular items to give them all a Generic nickname. In britain and 60's-70's Australia, a Hoover was a brand name for a vacuum cleaner, but the popularity of the item gained that all vacuums were hoovers, Brits and Older Aussies would not vacuum the house every Sunday, they would "hoover" the house. As Simon put it the "Esky" brand name was the popular and maybe the first coolers in Aust, just stuck to all coolers no matter what brand. In NZ they are called "Chilly Bins" (pronounced Chully Buns" ! ! )
Given the price, it kinda seems like a better idea to just buy a regular mini-fridge and hook it up to an inverter. I'm sure it wouldn't be as efficient though.
Ronny great vids mate, learnt a few things from your tutorials, and I have an extensive knowledge on living and surving in the outback.... At the moment I am tricking up a Ford Ranger Super cab and may send you a vid next year when its done, in your style of Vehicle explanatory. I would like to suggest a video tutorial on the size of fridge required and if freezer is required, there are many variables i.e. duration of trips, amount of people, and how "Spartan" your food requirements are i.e. what would a family need or a bunch of blokes need, or a couple going on a week long trip, weekend trip etc etc, how do you do your plan,???? fridge freezer and cooler combination also can a fridge freezer make enough ice or freeze the "freezer bricks to keep an "Esky" cold enough so you don't have to store drinks in the fridge and leave it for food only, means taking both fridge and Cooler with u ! ! food for thought for a video ! ! !
I just got back from vacation, we caught a bunch of fish and had it processed, they were all put into Styrofoam coolers. once we got home they were still frozen when we got home.
Rhonny I hope you don't mind me adding a few things sorry if you and everyone already knows them.
For the cool box
1. Instead of using bags of ice from a shop make your own, fill plastic bottles with water and freeze them. (Only fill the bottles 75% full, so they don't split as the ice expands) it's cheaper than buying ice, the ice doesn't melt over your food making everything wet and when it defrosts you nave a chilled bottle of water to drink.
I also use vacuum sealed bags of water as well, as you can make them flat to fit the opening lid.
2. Add more insulation, stick/cover the box in a reflective material, I've seen it down with space blankets and even better wrap one of those cheap windscreen covers round it.
3. The seal on your cool box make sure it's nice and tight, if need be put a bungee cord/ strap over it to compress the seal a bit more.
Fridge and cool box
1. If possible freeze what ever you can before your trip, if your taking burgers etc and you know your having them on day 3 or so of your trip freeze them and take them out the morning you need them to defrost, your fridge will benefit from the coldness of the frozen stuff for a couple of days before you need them.
2. Always pre chill your box, the day before you go off on your trip plug your fridge into your home ac power to cool down to temperature, that way it's already cold when you put your food into it and there isn't the surge of current draw off your battery to cool down so it uses less power from your 12v system.
If you have a cool box put ice packs into the night before and swap them in the morning for fresh ones and they will last a bit longer.
I hope this helps someone out there.
Keep up the good work fella.
no worries at all mate appreciate the input
yep great tips!
Thanks for the tips mate
Also add a couple of blocks of dry ice to the bottom of your normal ice to make it all last a bit longer.
@@aaronkratzmann9703 Care to be taken with dry ice, it expands when it melts and I've heard off taped up/sealed iceboxes bursting.
That was a very fair assessment.
We only use an esky and always use home made block ice.
For outback winter trips this ice would last about a week.
As you said with correct packing soggy food is not an issue.
Cheers
"Your food won't go soggy". That says it all! I picked up an ARB fridge a few years back and will never go ice again. Dual battery is the way to go. Use a SPDT relay and wire it 'backwards' so it switches between sources. The second battery when the ignition is not on and the primary battery when it is. Cheap and easy. Thanks Ronnie for another great video!
Ronny, we also get icecream containers and freeze them aswell as ice, lasts us about 5-7 days longer
Some good points mate. I have never had the need for a fridge to be honest. Meat, bread and salad all go into independant tupperware boxes and then stored in the Esky with an ice block. Stops the soggy scoff and the beers just sit happily in the ice cold water/block as and when it melts. Let's face it, if your piss is warm on day 3 you are going too bloody slow and need to take a good look at yourself. lol :-) It's just un-Australian mate. ATB Moose in Vic.
you never cease to amaze me. you've done a fantastic job the pros and cons of those two choices. we definitely went with the 12 volt fridge for our long-term travel trip. the convenience way out ways the price tags.
Thanks for all your great videos, cool, calm, collected and very informative. Also like your genuine approach being real, logical, concise and well filmed/edited.
When I was a scout we would canoe down the orange river,(South Africa) hot as hell in mid summer 40 degree Celsius average ..We always had ice ream on the filth day, kept it in a cooler that was put in deepfreeze night before going,(the entire cooler packed and sealed) we would tape it up and was stored at bottom of canoe with clothing on top so no direct sun hit cooler until we opened it on day 5. Frozen ice cream after long river trip, in the heat was like magic as the leader always hid it from us till the end.
Thanks again.
You can also use dry ice if available in your area. Should last a lot longer than regular ice or use in combination.
I loved that intro!! I have an Evakool Esky and packed it for two weeks, using frozen 3L milk bottles full of water. Three levels using a bottle for each layer and insulated with corrugated plastic. Worked well but you are very correct with all that you have outlined in this vid. 1/3 of the Esky is ice. Good work mate, cheers.
This is a great review. I have a Waeco Cool Ice Icebox (112L) and I take it on every trip with me. I had it up at the Murchison for 4 days in the middle of Summer and still had plenty of ice. I just drained excess water every day and it was fine. I even had enough ice to last a further 2 days at my holiday house using it as a beer esky. I can see how you could get soggy food doing this but if you invest in water tight containers to store food then you're golden. I had an Engle before it and I kept having problems with my wiring and the fridge itself not working at times and it's would continuously spoil my food, or I'd have to bludge esky/fridge space from my mates.
I'm glad this hot the web. I was looking at these the other day.
The fridge, once cold, doesn't use up much power. I purchased a portable power unit, in my case a jackery. This allows me to move the fridge to where 'the action' is and still provide it power. It's very handy.
The DC fridges seem so convenient... But if all you've got is an icebox/cooler/"esky" then here's a tip: before you leave on your next trip, cook some large meals and freeze them in individual portion containers, then when you pack for your trip, bring those frozen meals in your icebox. The food is more efficient at maintaining temperature than ice as each meal has more thermal mass than each ice-cube (food melts slower than ice) AND you don't have to cook at camp, just heat up already made meals... Soups and stews work well for this but I've also had success with pasta in red sauce and mac&cheese.
Interesting, I went for the fridge without so much of a thought, thinking about the long trips, but it's mostly keeping beers and wine cool at home now. That's a PRO you've overlooked, once you have the fridge you can plug it at home and it's a great addition to the kitchen (it's in my room tho haha) I put it in the car just when I go for more than 3/4 days out, basically each time I need to buy ice more than once...
Thanks for the vid Ronny. Very true regarding the pros and cons of having either.
Having used iceboxes for years I finally succumbed to the 12v revolution, thinking it would be the be-all-and-end-all of my cooling issues. I bought a 35L fridge ($700), deep cycle battery ($220), dual battery tray ($400) Redarc BCDC charger ($350) and installation ($50 carton of beer) and finally a 120W solar panel with MPPT regulator ($200) which equals A LOT OF ICE ! Turned out to be an expensive little process, however in saying that I can now go off the grid for days if not weeks at a time without the need for ice.
Admittedly I still need a separate esky for my beer as my fridge is usually full of food...and I need ice to go with my bourbon ... :)
I've asked Santa for a bigger fridge this christmas.....
After getting an ARB fridge, I'd never go back to using ice, especially in my Arizona climate. I also like that everything stays dry and you don't have to freeze the hell out of your hands digging in ice to get those damn hot dogs off the bottom.
Hello Ronny, As regards the the esky when we are going out & just take the esky & before there were fridges we used to put about a third of the ice was dry ice keeps the water ice frozen a lot longer and the esky a lot colder. Well done again
I take both a fridge and an esky - the former for food and the latter for beer. The fridge doesn't have to work as hard because I'm not opening it up every ten minutes, and I can sit the esky right next to me for easy access! Best of both worlds!
Dont forget about 12v powered ice boxes. They work ok if you use them properly . Mine gets down to about 4 C in summer time and even colder in the winter. Good for storing non-meat foods like veg, drinks, etc. they stay dry too and are WAY cheaper than a proper fridge. Dont expect it to keep your meats though. keep that stuff in a proper fridge or ice box.
The problem with the size comparison between the two is that you forgot to account for the ice. To keep things cool in the esky/icebox requires much more than 1/3 the space be filled with ice. Even a high-end rotomolded cooler like a Yeti requires as much as half the cooler to be packed with ice to last about 7 days. Once you account for that space, the fridge has much more space for food and other non-ice items.
I think I re-covered that in the Icebox cons, but if I did not I totally agree with the space thats lost due to the ice..
just an added note if you plan your trips and require frozen 10 litre bottles of water you can contact some supermarkets in those regions and you will find one that will freeze the bottles for you and reserve them
just a point here, if you are organised, you can make your ice for your eski beforehand and then it doesnt cost you money. If you need to top it up while on your holiday, then yes you will need to buy some though
We were just considering getting a fridge for all of our camping excursions, so I ran across this video right on time.
What did you decide to do
@@fergspan5727 we went with an ARB 50L fridge. Later we got a bigger fridge. Dometic 90L. We are happy with both purchases.
@@StaplesInTents must be nice to be rich lol
@@kevinhood9781 my guy, there are many perspectives on what rich is; but I will share one that hopefully gives you pause: 1st class on an airline is what rich people consider poor. We ride coach frequently 🥸
I have a 50L arb fridge I use full time for many years, I have only have to replace the 12volt plug, it's got the old school Dan Foss compressor that you can't kill, Just the savings on ice paid for it.
It's running right now keeping the cold brew cold.
I have been using the same ARB for a couple of years now. I don't know if I have saved the cost on ice yet but I do know I have save a bunch of money by not ruining food getting 'soggy'. If it lasts a few more years I am sure it will pay for itself.
Occasional short trips. Ice box.
Frequent longer trips. Fridge.
P.S. Whipping out the Ben n Jerrys ice cream on day three of a summer Arizona trip earned me BIG brownie points with the wife n daughter.
I keep my fridge loaded and plugged in. Makes short trips, half day picnics soooooo much easier.
If I did my rig build over again, I'd of installed the fridge first, not last.
Great to see a Great northern in that fridge
Coolers or iceboxes are good for a day of fishing, camping at night and leaving in the morning. The fridge/freezer is good for multiple days of being away.
awesome video! this actually helped me heaps, I was weighing up the costs of buying a 1k fridge but I don't go outback @ all, I just go on overnight trips
I've got that same ARB and if its' not in my 80, it is in the belly slide-out tray of my RV full of, well, beer. :-) That thing is awesome! Even here in AZ, it works amazingly well.
I have a large frost bite ice box from bcf. We went to Frazer island for 7 days with with 3 bags of ice. When we got home we still had at least half left. I'll stick with the icebox. Just make sure you put cold food and drinks in it. And put a wet towel on top of ice.
Great Ronny - what about using baskets in the ice box to stop the food going soggy?
man you are straight forward, love your content. support from jervis bay.
I finally gave in and bought a fridge around a year ago ( 50L Ironman) but I still kept a 40 litre esky for those times you need the extra space.
Good job Ronny!!
I finally broke down and got my fridge. I settled on the 40 liter Waeco (Dometic here in the States) for the back of my unlimited Rubicon. I probably should have gotten the 35 but the 40 was on sale and cheaper at the time. We shall see how it holds up in the Arizona deserts.
Make sure to UA-cam it!!!
Good review. Where I disagree is the need for a dual battery system. There is a lot of cost associated with that and in the end you still need to charge the battery. I had a dual battery setup and removed it. Now I have a good deep cycle high amp hour battery, a 100 watt solar setup, and a Jumpbox in case I kill my battery. Based on the safety features of the fridge and my solar setup that is not very likely to happen.
agreed, I left a few points out for the Tip video and that (Jump packs/solar power) will be part of it
Nice one Ronny, looks like I'll stick with the esky until I get a duel battery fitted. Thanks mate.
to some extent the interior size difference is also taken up by the ice. a bag of ice is 1/3 of the interior of the icebox same as the electric bits in the fridge.
thank you ronny for making your videos
For food get your esky & put a 4 or 5 day block of dry ice in it ( it's not that big ) cover it with 2 bags of party ice & put all food that you don't want frozen in tupperware & it will be kept cool & if you have meat that you want frozen glad wrap it put it in & it will freeze or preferably freeze it at home before you leave & it will stay frozen. just don't put cans of soft drink in a esky with dry ice in it as they will freeze.
Ronnie missed the biggest difference. Beer. If you've mismanaged your beer and don't have any cold ones, you can toss a beer in the 'esky' and it will be cold in about 10 minutes. If you toss it in the fridge it can take over a half hour!
like the new hairdo.
I'm with my Engel all day. Ice boxes are for fishing
Question? When used as a freezer, can you make enough ice to supply coolers? Or is that just asking too much from a 12 volt freezer?
I was lucky enough to get a fridge for a very good price. It's only a 28L which is fine for my use. The physical size of it is almost as big as the 50L cooler it replaced but since there is no ice needed I fit as much or more into it as the larger cooler. I have a Dometic (Waeco) which is cheaper than the ARB, even though the ARB uses/used the exact same internals. I initially had a problem with the 12v plug working its way out and getting very hot but replaced it with Anderson connectors. I've found with mine the single battery is fine since I normally drive all day and it only sits over night when it's cooler and doesnt need to run very often.
Some good tips. An awesome vid as always Ronny.
Could you bring an "esky" (cooler here in Canada) and also a portable ice cube maker? Then you just add ice to the cooler as you need it. I don't know if this would be way less efficient than a dedicated fridge. But then you can have the ice maker separate from the cooler so you can pull the cooler out if you need to.
This video is now 3 years old, but the information is still pertinent albeit, with that Aussie Summer Sun, I might have thought that a solar panel could help that 12 volt battery run that Fridge/Freezer setup. Does it have a mains 220v option too like my Cooler Box has for when you have the chance of mains electricity/
would you consider a large icebox and small freezer combo using reusable ice blocks a solution say a small 30 litre freezer full of ice blocks and the same amount of ice blocks in your ice box when the one melts swap them around this gets us over the relative small space of the powered freezer and allows the esky to be used for more remote and longer trips.
sounds legit
Yes that is a great idea. I use an engel MD14F on freezer mode to swap ice packs in the extreme type esky every couple days. its like an endless supply of ice when ice packs are swapped every morning
i generally buy 2 or 3 10 litre filtered water bottles and freeze them before going away put them in the bottom of the esky and on the ends and have a coles type basket to hold anything that gets soggy all meat goes into a sealed container frozen also i find on average i get 4-5 days out of the ice blocks and have plenty of nice cold water to drink ...would love to have the fridge freezer combo but thats not in my budget and i keep 8 water bottles in the freezer all the time and just refill them with a thin hose connected to the filter water tap in the kitchen... ohhh i do use 50 mm thermal insulation around my ice boxand when at camp site sit it under the 4bee where its cooler
Intro killed me lmfao. hey ronny it's youtube, we're just chillin here in ur dometic
If you don’t want to fully install a dual battery system you can get battery boxes which charge off your car 12v outlet.
Very informative video Ronny, also kept the content interesting. Good work mate! Love the videos.
Always entertaining Ronny, cheers ;)
But -
Noone mentioned throwing a few handfuls of coarse salt on the ice? oldest trick in the book. drops the temp like a stone. keeps it colder for longer. takes longer to melt. Simple physics. Works best with an esky full of tinnies.
You'll get an extra half day at least out of it. ;)
Use the melting ice in the esky and put it in the 12v fridge to Create ice and then put back In the esky . Remember freezer can be solar Powerd
Can I add that although 1/3 of the fridge is motor components, so too is 1/3 of the Esky taken up, with ice!
u could have 1 cooler box for frozen stuff and 1 for milk butter beer cheese etc thats not frozen , so not opening lid on frozen stuff to get things that are used more in a day.
i take 2 liter pop bottles or gallon milk jugs and freeze them. lasts about 4 days and the jugs hold the water in as they melt so no soggy sammiches
I've run engle fridges for many years now and I love them. But yes they are expensive 1400 they need power, they are not portable and need to be looked after. They are great for keeping food cold but take a long time to get drinks cold ie beer and with a fridge trying to chill drinks they never stop running so can a do chew the power. If you are set up for a couple of days you can run a solar panel, wind turbine or generator. My advice short trips for food take a fridge and keep and esky with ice for drinks same for long trips
Luv the buz cut Ronny!
Would it make much difference putting an icebox in an icebox? Volumetric efficiency out the window, but would the contents of the inner box stay cooler? Would it make a difference putting ice in the larger box to keep the inner box cooler for longer?
So what I took from that is that having both is the best solution? I'm good with that... now where's that bank card...
hey ronny!, can you do a video about river crossing? maybe some tips, how to aproach them, gears etc.... great videos btw
I'm trying to make a block of ice using a 100w 12v solar panel with a cheap, small $160 12v freezer and my starter battery as stable 12v power source (fed by both solar and alternator) and then using that block of ice overnight to keep meat, cheese and milk below 40F. Tested and seems like it might work ,but waiting for a really hot Florida day to prove it will work while driving around in the Florida sun. The freezer takes about 4a/hour and panel puts out about 3 - 5 a depending on exposure. Not sure why we need so much cooler space unless brining back game meat or heavy beer drinker. If you can make clean fresh ice, I would only store perishables in there. Some findings on my channel.
I've got a 50L Waeco it's been handed down to me and its roughly 10 years old, even though I have the fridge I still take a 40/50L esky, food in the fridge and the beers and drinks in the esky, I also have a little 12L (i think) waeco cooler it isn't a fridge but it does keep already cold drinks cold and that's what I use for when I'm traveling so there's no need for me to pull over and get one from out the back
I like the content, great vids!
Have you thought about using a solar charger to keep your battery up while using the fridge..?
Something that's going to vary based on personal factors is how expensive the fridge is to run, more 12V power consumed means more alternator load, means more fuel.
At a ~5A draw the fuel excess wouldn't be noticed
But the dual battery is needed so consider that as well when it comes to the fridge.
solar trickle into the system can keep it stable with just one battery if a good enough panel but still I take a jump start pack just in case ;)
But Ronny how about Dry Ice ? I know that in Canada it is super easy to get and a good ice box here can stay cool as long as 2 weeks whit Dry Ice. This is the best alternative I found yet.
Good choice for beer
i always use an ice box. and it last for weeks.
however i don't use ice from an ice bag. i use huge blocks that i freeze at home. they last for about 3 weeks to 4 weeks. but i also empty out any water each day.
i don't know what type of ice box mine is, but light blue and weight a lot compared to most i've had.
Good video. I know which one I want but a 1000 dollars is a new pair of 35x12.5-15 NITTOs for my Jeep.
Has anyone noticed the battery powered refrigerators? While running the vehicle charge it up here in America even Ryobi has gotten in on it using their tool batteries.
Good video but Im still stuck...I know a $1000 fridge is NOT for me, but what about the cheap Koolatron ones that cost under $200? Barely more than an ice box, are they worth it?
So how long will the cool coolers last in the ice box?
Rhonny, the fridge you use what kind of water resistance or water proof rating does it have?
Nice haircut / beard combo!
Mate. I'm having a dilemma. Travelling from east to west in a VW transporter for 2 months from late June to early August.
Should I bother going 12volt off solar - I'll be travelling every day as well for charging. Or just do $5 ice bags in my hugely efficient Evakool 60l esky? I will get 4 days on one bag.
Ronny, is there any chance you could start leaving the youtube link in the description for the annotated link in the video? for us phone users.
I will mate just havent released that video as yet.
What about a combi fridge that can work from either 12v or propane gas like the Dometic RC1200? It will not drain your battery if you stay at the camp for a longer period.
Always the catch 22 with fridges v icebox. 2 fridges with a dual battery system seems to be the best answer (IN MY BOOKS ANYWAY). Ice is not always reliable. I live with a medical condition, so not an issue of cost for me.
G'day Ronny haven't seen a vid from you in about 3 months. That beard is coming along bloody nicely mate! Good on ya.I think my youtube sub box is playing up!
no worries mate good to have you back then :D
Awesome mate, really wish this video came out when I was deciding on the two. Ahah a lot easy to watch it on a video the research it online and read on the forums :)
That beard
The ARB is a great unit
All about that fresh cut and beard Ronny
And for eskys you can put ice bricks in and only change them once
After one year of travelling in Australia with an Esky i highly recommend ice bricks. They will last a lot longer than cubes! There´s also a big difference in where you get the ice from. Some places they store it at -1°´, some at -17° or even lower...
Really diggin the beard mate!
I really like your cat.
is the arb fridge waterproof? what happens if it rains in the open tray
Its been half under water a few times and is still going strong...
Great video.
Question from America: Why do you call them "Esky"? We call them igloos (after the eskimo shelter and a brand of the same name), Colemans (after the brand), or just"coolers".
Also, can you get dry ice (C02 blocks) there?
I'd guess that They call them Eskys as a shortened version of "Eskimo" which is probably a brand-name of cooler like Igloo, Coleman, Yeti, and so on.
Esky is the name of one of the first brands to sell iceboxes here in Australia. From the 1960s on people typically had an Esky brand. I guess the name just stick.
i still got an old metal esky with the stubby opener:)
As Simon states, commonwealth (Britain, Aust, NZ, maybe Canada) countries tend to use brand names on popular items to give them all a Generic nickname. In britain and 60's-70's Australia, a Hoover was a brand name for a vacuum cleaner, but the popularity of the item gained that all vacuums were hoovers, Brits and Older Aussies would not vacuum the house every Sunday, they would "hoover" the house. As Simon put it the "Esky" brand name was the popular and maybe the first coolers in Aust, just stuck to all coolers no matter what brand. In NZ they are called "Chilly Bins" (pronounced Chully Buns" ! ! )
Given the price, it kinda seems like a better idea to just buy a regular mini-fridge and hook it up to an inverter. I'm sure it wouldn't be as efficient though.
Ronny great vids mate, learnt a few things from your tutorials, and I have an extensive knowledge on living and surving in the outback.... At the moment I am tricking up a Ford Ranger Super cab and may send you a vid next year when its done, in your style of Vehicle explanatory.
I would like to suggest a video tutorial on the size of fridge required and if freezer is required, there are many variables i.e. duration of trips, amount of people, and how "Spartan" your food requirements are i.e. what would a family need or a bunch of blokes need, or a couple going on a week long trip, weekend trip etc etc, how do you do your plan,???? fridge freezer and cooler combination
also can a fridge freezer make enough ice or freeze the "freezer bricks to keep an "Esky" cold enough so you don't have to store drinks in the fridge and leave it for food only, means taking both fridge and Cooler with u ! !
food for thought for a video ! ! !
an esky that size in summer (QLD) will need 2 bags of ice and will use it in a day
I just got back from vacation, we caught a bunch of fish and had it processed, they were all put into Styrofoam coolers.
once we got home they were still frozen when we got home.
Your style has changed with the hair and the beard. It's kinda cool great video
..what's it called once again Rhonny? OZbox? Runs on OZ? 😜 sOZ couldn't help myself. Don't own a 4x4 (yet) but love your videos 👍🍻
Hey Ronny, we just bought the adventure kings fridge, same motor as a weaco, any review on it
What vest is that you're wearing in this vid? Been looking for one like it, but no joy here. Any hints? Thanks!
good video