Small fridge or cool box - which is better with no hookup?

[KatyMac]

I have a leisure battery but I don't want to let it run out completely

Is there something I can look for that might keep the food for one person for about 2/2.5 days

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If you're looking for ways to keep your food and drinks chilled for long periods, we’ve rounded up the best cooling boxes as recommended by Mumsnet users, including options that don't need battery power. We hope you find it useful.
MNHQ

Icy tek is what you need!

We've done week long trips with a cool box and it's fine
first of all, pre chill it. buy bags of ice, or if you have the room in your freezer, fill bottles of water and freeze them. put them in cool box 24 ish hours before you pack it.
then you can freeze milk, wine, bread before you go and leave them to defrost in your cool box. similarly take frozen meals - pasta sauce, chilli etc
buy some cool blocks, freeze them, and pack as many into your cool box as possible
then when at the campsite after a day take half out, put them in the campsite freezers overnight and then swap them for the others.
doing all these things has meant I can have chilled wine six nights after leaving our home with no electricity

You can deffo manage a weekend without a fridge! Assuming you're using a gas stove?

Anything tinned/jar - soup, meat (stew, mince, meatballs, chilli), beans, pasta sauce

Fresh (that should be good until Saturday morning at least) if you buy Friday afternoon - bacon, sausage, fresh pasta, mixed veg for stir fry, hard cheese, salami etc, bread

Basics - eggs (101 uses), packet rices/noodles, crackers, biscuits, cakes

Drinks - uht milk if you really can't live without tea/coffee, squash, juices, beer, wine..

I'd see this as actually quite liberating and not having to conform to normal meal requirements.

(if you must invest in a cool box then take most things frozen - cartons of juice, pre-made spag bol, milk in 1pt cartons (or get the ones from Macdonalds for smaller portions)

Live a bit OP, mini rolls and Ribena for breakfast if you wish!!

I'm a seasoned camper, and have never used electric hook up. If used correctly, a bog standard cool box will keep food cold for 3-4 days, a weekend is easy. Some of the more expensive brands will keep cold for 5 days, but those cheap blue ones are just as good as the mid range ones.

The trick is to pre-cool the cool box the day or two before you go, best way to do this is to freeze bottles of water and then fill it up. Freeze any other food that can be, like small pints of milk, grated cheese, pre-prepped food, smaller bottles of water or juice etc, this makes a huge difference.

Start with the box full! A half full box won't last nearly as long. If you don't need much food, fill the gaps with frozen water/cool blocks or ice cubes, or get a smaller box.

Keep the lid on as often as possible, rather than constantly opening and shutting it while cooking, get what you need in one go.

Some good quality cooler bags are as good as cool boxes, and waterproof so you can fill with bags of ice if you need to top up, even festivals usually sell bags of ice. The Titan deep freeze range is good, and a good price in Costco if you are or know anyone who is a member.

I have a colman coolbox and it works well.

Chill it down before you go - fill with ice/frozen bottles of water etc the day before so it is already cold.

Then have everything going into it well chilled. You could add a pre-frozen meal for 1 dinner or freeze your meat if bringing it raw to cook, or freeze a bottle of milk for later days (if you will go through 2 bottles - have 1 fresh and 1 frozen as you leave home). At least a few iceblocks, or frozen bottles of water. I have a bag that contains the wet, so often fill that with just ice cubes - but they melt faster than iceblocks as so much surface area. But it does mean that I can tip out the melted water and refill with a bag of supermarket ice mid-trip.

Also many campsites will have a freezer you can refreeze your blocks in - so bring a couple of spares (the ones you initially use to chill the box before departure, for example) to refreeze on arrival and swop over every 24 hours. I would seriously recommend writing your name in sharpie on any you will do this with, or even any bottles of water.

And open the lid as little as possible. I often bring a smaller picnic coolbag to use during the day for my butter, milk (enough for a day of cups of tea - not the whole lot), cheese etc - things I will pull out frequently and don't need so much cold.

We've got an esky and have done three nights and still had ice cubes when we went home, and that was a weekend in 2020 when it was baking hot.

We pack it with bags of ice, frozen water and frozen food.

This but get a cool box fridge so in addition to the above you can also plug it into the car for a bit.

Sorry I've been really struggling with this as I have food intolerances and trying to align them with no fridge has been tricky

Minirolls and ribena sound divine however it would lead to a rather closer associate with the toilet than I need while camping 😂

No dairy, so milk isn't a problem

I have a cool box, ice packs and I can add water in bottles

So my plans are further along but not perfect!

Thanks all

It might be worth exploring the information on "The Boat Galley" website for ideas as well - Carolyn Shearlock wrote a book on how to cope on a sailboat with the tiny and very inefficient fridges that tended to be on board, and has a lot of good advice.

We've used a cool box on road trips in Australia and Canada with no issue. A weekend is a doddle. Make sure the box is as full as possible, freeze juice cartons in addition to ice blocks, make sure everything is cold going in.

Costco (if your a member) have a food trolley and a rucksack that claims to keep ice as ice for up to 3 days. We're contemplating one for camping.

Well I survved - thanks all

I took too much food, the cool box was too big and I had the best time ever!

The clothing looked stunning too 😍

Were you there?
Did you talk to me?

Was I completely oblivious? I am a nightmare!

No I follow you on FB and Instagram.

I "know" you from way back on here before your DD started dancing, when you still CM and my late teens were babies 😳 where has nearly 2 decades gone!

Sadly you live nowhere near me

Oh good! (well kind of I'd like to meet you but I hate not recognising people & I'm really good at it!)

The event was better than the photos I reckon! The food was fab and safe to eat

I was a bit nervous over night by myself away from the general campsite bt it was really lovely

Agree with this. I've got a campervan and still use a coolbox rather than the pain in the arse 3 way fridge for 3 days. Right to freeze most things though, your pre-prepped meals, your bacon/sausages (if you have them) and pack it full of this frozen stuff. Partially freeze drinks or water if you don't need that much food. I say partially as some can 'blow out' if you fully freeze them. Butter or spread in a container not loose in a packet (again, very chilled or part frozen) I would go longlife milk and have it chilled/part frozen (frozen milk isn't good on cereal !). As others have said, the more you interfere with the box, the quicker it will lose the coolness, and having it in the most shady/cool area, surrounded with a spare sleeping bag will 'keep the cool in'. I am a bit of a worrier, so would do canned or takeaway on day 4 or 5 or vegetarian, and I would pre-prep meals (i.e no raw chicken). Also heat stuff through properly, and I would personally cook rice or pasta from scratch and just have the sauces frozen. Hope you have a lovely time. Once you have done it once, you will see that it is fine.

Coleman Xtreme, Icey Tek and other ‘performance’ cool boxes will keep stuff very cold for 5 days, if treated well ( pre cooled, filled with cold /frozen items, lid opened briefly and infrequently)