Are car fridges worth it?

The Halfords one is designed to fit in between the back seats. It has two cupholders in it to replace the ones in the armrest that you can't use when its in place. It also has clips so you can buckle it in with the seatbelt. A great piece of kit, the only issue is that it makes a noise which may or may not annoy you when travelling at low speeds. It doesn't really emit a whole lot of hot air - a bit, of course, but not a lot.

We've also used it to keep milk and meat cool on campsites with an electric hookup - you need a 240V -> 12V adapter which they also sell. Only problem for us was that it was in April in Scotland, and there's no thermostat on the box (although the larger more expensive ones have one) so it froze our stuff.

Do you have to take something cold all that way? Can you buy locally?

Small cheap ones are fine (we have a Coleman) but you really need the engine to be running as they aren't very efficient and drain the battery quite fast. But for keeping drinks and things cool while on the car and traveling they are great.  'proper' fridges are a lot more pricey though 🙁

This is the one I have:

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/travel-accessories/coolboxes/halfords-8-litre-12v-in-car-electric-coolbox-291085.html?stockInventory=undefined

Thanks all.

Molgrips, I had been looking at that one too.

We don't need to take things all the way particularly but we try not to stop too often, so having cold drinks, non-sweaty cheese and unmelted chocolate is good for the in-car vibe and therefore for the driver's blood pressure.

Be warned. There are 2 types of fridges commonly sold for the auto market. Absorption fridges and compressor fridges. The first ore c heap but very inefficient, while the compressor type are very efficient but will set you back serious money for a good one. A "good" absorption cooler will only really manage to hold temps inside to about 25 degrees below ambient and they WILL flatten a normal car battery in a matter of hours if it is not being charged by the engine or a solar panel. Cheap ones may not even get temps low enough to really chill stuff on proper hot days. If all you want is cool stuff for the journey a good absorption cooler will be fine. Just make sure to turn it off at journeys end (or have a flat battery AND warm food next day!)

A good compressor fridge will run for a couple of days on a car battery without additional charge and will easily hold 4 degrees for all that time. If you have a panel to keep the battery topped up most of them are capable of freezing stuff too. I can stick frozen food in mine in the supermarket car park, turning it on at 25 degrees plus and it will be at minus 10 before I do the 10 mile drive home.

There are 2 types of fridges commonly sold for the auto market. Absorption fridges and compressor fridges.

There's a third type - in fact the only kind I've seen sold for actual in-car use (as opposed to caravan/motorhome) which is the Peltier cooler, like the one I linked to. That one cools to 18 degrees below ambient which, if it's 22C in your car is perfect.

A “good” absorption cooler will only really manage to hold temps inside to about 25 degrees below ambient and they WILL flatten a normal car battery in a matter of hours if it is not being charged by the engine or a solar panel.

I think the OP is talking about in-car whilst actually driving. If it's plugged into the cigarette lighter it'll turn itself off when you turn the car off in most cases.

Sorry, i meant peltier-type (in my mind they work by absorbing heat on the little metal peltier device and then use a fan to dissapate it). Was definitely not suggesting use of gas powdered 3 way fridge. I stull have my old 7 litre Waeco tropicool thermoelectric coolbox but it has cost me so many batteries over the years it now resides in the depths of my shed.

I just looked it up. Blimey. They cost about £180 these days.

Pretty much everyone has an Engel or Waeco 12v compressor fridge/freezer in Oz. We ran ours off a battery box when camping or the car whilst driving. We used one for years but when it inadvertently died whilst I was ‘fixing’ it decided it wasn’t worth replacing. A good cool box (Esky) keeps stuff cold for up to 3 days anyway. Freeze bottles/containers of water before you leave. Buy ice from places that sell alcohol if you can’t get the bottles refrozen.

The Halfords one is good. I've got a bigger version I use in the van. Just having a cold drink or milk for a cuppa is nice. I used mine on site a few times from a leisure battery and mains and it worked really well.

I’ve got the 8l halfords one in my work van. Great bit of kit keeps my water/sandwiches/yogurt etc nice and chilled.

I have an electric coolbag but it's not that functional when it's really hot, it basically stops things warming up as much...

Have a proper 12v compressor fridge inbound which should be much more useful, albeit taking up more space and significantly more expensive!

Compressor fridges are a lot more affordable now - Alpicool, Mobicool and many other chinese brands do them. Have had an Alpicool C20 for a few years, it gets used loads for camping, days out and overflow at home. Set a temp (down to -20) and it'll stick to it.

Why not just insulated flask filled with cold drinks and food flasks

Works for us

We have the bigger Halfords 240v and 12v one. Which we use for the roadtrip to the Alps each year and it works really well. We plug it the mains before go to drop the temperature and then 12v for the journey and does quite maintain the same temperature but keeps things cool and we have transported frozen food with it and them remained frozen. If we stop over on route we plug it back into the mains to top it up. Would recommend it and if you have the space go big as actually we find we can fill the thing pretty quick.

a coleman coolbox (other brands available, but basically a really well insulated one) will easily keep things cool for 2-3 days with a bunch of ice thrown in at the start, it will be slow (but I think most of these things will) to cool a large bottle of drink thats at ambient temperature when you throw it in. more useful for camping trips too.

On our last camping trip to france we had to top our box up with ice every 2 days, and it was 37C during the day

We've a Dometic 11 litre compressor fridge. It has seatbelt anchor points for use in between seats. Works really well, - you can even run it down to -17,  but have you seen the price of them currently? $%£^! I thought it was expensive at about £350 a few years ago. But £500! Alpicool C8 or Cf15?

Just beware that many of them have fan intakes on the front, which means that the warm air is exhausted to the sides, possibly not amusing for whoever's sat next to it.

There’s a third type – in fact the only kind I’ve seen sold for actual in-car use (as opposed to caravan/motorhome) which is the Peltier cooler, like the one I linked to.

Some people recommending some pretty large objects to try and put in between the back seats of a car here. The Halfords one functions as an arm rest; that Dometic one looks like Hadrian's Wall. That may or may not be an advantage depending on your family.

useful info on the electric coolbag - we had considered it but I think we can discard that.

We'll be taking sandwich fillings and food so a thermos won't be enough.

I'm not spending £500! So I think a trip to halfords is in order this weekend. It's much easier to plug it in at an overnight stop than find a place to freeze ice packs.

Good idea to cool it down before we leave.

Do people use ice blocks inside the fridge or is that not necessary? They take up a lot of space so if we don't need them then we can get away with a smaller fridge.

We’ve used a cool box in the past but we can’t guarantee finding somewhere to refreeze the ice blocks on the first night,

if it’s only on night of the whole trip you’re concerned about - most supermarkets sell bags of ice cubes - so just grab some of those if you’re unable to refreeze your ice blocks on the odd occasion.

What estate car? I know my skoda has a little lever in the glove box and centre console, that divert the air con into it. Might be cold enough?

Make sure you pre chill the box if going for a peltier based cool box (or indeed a passive one). Makes all the difference.

I have been looking at the 12v compressor fridge from vevor that seem to get ok reviews and cheap. Can't quite justify ATM as we are only camping / holidaying in the UK so living with no / passive coolbox is not really difficult.

https://uk.vevor.com/car-refrigerator-c_10723/35l-portable-car-refrigerator-fridge-electric-cooler-freezer-for-picnic-travel-p_010479754921

Do people use ice blocks inside the fridge or is that not necessary?

Not in that one no. It's really quite effective. As I said, 18C below the interior of your car is quite chilled (assuming your car's A/C works!), drinks come out ice cold. Also, even if it's 22C overnight that's still 4C in your cooler which is plenty to chill sandwich meat and milk etc. And you won't be storing much for long cos it's not very big.

I don't like using loose ice because everything always gets wet.

I am considering fixing a basic thermostat to it next time we go overnight camping.

Do people use ice blocks inside the fridge or is that not necessary?

Came here to say this.

I have an electric coolbox (I think Coleman). It was bought primarily to act as a fridge on a French campsite with an electric hookup and on that detail it worked well. But anything you can do to help it will, erm, help. I plugged it into the mains at home a good day or two before travelling to get it down to temperature, then filled it with pre-chilled food and drink from the fridge and a couple of small ice packs. Whilst on site I had it located in different places depending on the time of day so that it wasn't in direct sunlight.

It's a decent thing and I'm glad I bought it, but (based on mine at least, I have no experience of others) if you're expecting a smaller version of the fridge in your kitchen you're going to be disappointed. It'll keep things cold but it'll struggle to make them cold.

Thanks cougar - its job is to keep things cold rather than make them cold so I think it's going to work.

I was probably being unfair on my electric coolbag. For use on the go and inside the car, keeping things cold that were already in the fridge, it's ace. I've had it a while and used it quite a bit. Great for day trips with sarnies and drinks. The best bit is smaller when not in use, gets folded up. Mine has a 12v cable and a 240v adaptor

It's just not so good for camping or holding things at temperature when it's not running from a battery.

It's good for the money and the size, I usually supplement it with a couple of freezer blocks inside

I looked into this a bit very recently as I was after a portable fridge for car/ camping/ hotels / picnic use. As others have said my takeaway from looking online at reviews and youtube was most of the cooler /mini fridges priced £50- £100ish will keep already cold things cool (as long as the ambient temperature isn't too high), but if you want to actively cool things and be able to choose and maintain a certain temperature you will probably have to spend £150 plus.

I ended up going for Alpicool C15 from amazon, more than I wanted to spend but seemed better suited to our needs. The C20 is probably better value, but wouldn't fit in my car so well.

also considered this

https://www.therange.co.uk/technology-and-appliances/appliances/mini-fridges/18l-portable-car-refrigerator/?position=24&s=2658417

i bought a big 12v compressor fridge/freezer for a 2week holiday as the dog eats raw food and we were worried about finding somewhere to keep it cool on the way. it worked amazingly well, and got down to -20c. it also had two compartments and one could be a fridge at the same time.  it was enough that 2 or 3 hours on the ferry with it switched off didnt let it get above abour -12c. At the hotels on the way, we said 'oh we have a cool box for the dogs food, is it ok if we bring it into the room please?' and they always said of course no problem. and then we would lump the darn thing up flights of stairs and so on. a bit noisy so we hid it in the bathroom overnight. wasnt cheap though. it will work really well for shorter trips to keep the dogfood cool and also the usual stuff like drinks, milk, samdwich fillings and so on

If it’s plugged into the cigarette lighter it’ll turn itself off when you turn the car off in most cases.

True, but not all, so it’s worth checking (my 12V sockets are always powered).

I still don't really understand what all this faff and expense is for.

Unelss you have some very specific sandwich filling requirements,  Wouldn't it be cheaper and less annoying to just go to a shop when you need some food (even if it's a really expensive series of shops)

The OP said they were trying to minimise stops, I think.

That said, jam butties last for a while. 😁

I usually take a couple of bottles of water 1 frozen, which helps the cooling. On a couple of occasions I've not been able to drink the second, ice, bottle as it didn't melt. Mine is an old chunky Halfords job.