Camping Gear Reviews

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A place to discuss camping gear, homemade or bought, that you think applies to VWs and VW campers.
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Alternatives for refrigeration in off grid camping

by Mary Atleson

Sep 23, 2012

We don't have a solar set up yet and our stock fridge does not run on propane at the moment (too expensive to fix). When driving, we run the stock refrigerator off our auxiliary (yellow top) battery. However, that would only run for so long in an off grid situation. We also have a small 12v cooler that works great and I think since we only camp for say 2-3 days at a time we should be able to get by with a regular Coleman "5 day" cooler plus the 12v one for just Jonathan, myself and the dog's raw meat diet, which needs to be refrigerated. Can anybody else offer suggestions?

Mary

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  • up

    Dharma Van

    I'm a fan of dry ice- but caution as dry ice can fill a small room very fast overnight. Keep the van vented well on the bottom 1/3 of the van (CO2 is heavier than air)

    whc03grady said:

    A good-sized chunk of dry ice will keep for 2-3 days easy in a decent cooler, or in the existing fridge. In fact, it'll work so well that it will likely keep the stuff closest to it frozen. And the best part: no clean up.

    Mar 14, 2013

  • up

    whc03grady

    One pound of dry ice sublimates to 8.5 cubic feet of CO2 (I've never used more than two pounds), and it doesn't do so all at once. The mathematics pertaining to the danger of its indoor use  are left as an exercise for the reader.

    Dharma Van said:

    I'm a fan of dry ice- but caution as dry ice can fill a small room very fast overnight. Keep the van vented well on the bottom 1/3 of the van (CO2 is heavier than air)

    Mar 14, 2013

  • up

    Dharma Van

    Agree-

    whc03grady said:

    One pound of dry ice sublimates to 8.5 cubic feet of CO2 (I've never used more than two pounds), and it doesn't do so all at once. The mathematics pertaining to the danger of its indoor use  are left as an exercise for the reader.

    Dharma Van said:

    I'm a fan of dry ice- but caution as dry ice can fill a small room very fast overnight. Keep the van vented well on the bottom 1/3 of the van (CO2 is heavier than air)

    Mar 15, 2013