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paulz
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# Posted: 14 Jun 2017 20:59
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I'd like to keep just a couple of perishables cold at my cabin Mayonnaise, maybe a beer or two, yogurt.. I have limited solar due to shade. Is there a small cooler that a deep cycle RV battery will run for 3-4 days between charges? The automotive coolers I'm seeing say 30-40 watts. Cabin is 50-60F inside.
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Cowracer
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# Posted: 15 Jun 2017 09:05 - Edited by: Cowracer
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How bout a propane fridge? You can pick one up out of an old camper pretty cheap if you know were to look. Some older ones work without electricity, the newer ones use a miniscule amount of 12vdc to run the controls.
Tim
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Gary O
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# Posted: 15 Jun 2017 09:18
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Quoting: Cowracer How bout a propane fridge? You can pick one up out of an old camper pretty cheap if you know were to look
YES YES YES!
I highly recommend it (you might’a picked up on that).
We got ours for the sweat of getting it out a friend’s camper.
Took me a bit to figger how it works, but man.
I do love the cold milk, eggs, cheese, butter….and mayo.
The tiny freezer part does keep a couple healthy chunks of back strap from a rather large muley, too.
It uses about a 20 lb tank a month, maybe less.
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Cowracer
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# Posted: 15 Jun 2017 11:50 - Edited by: Cowracer
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One side note... Propane fridges will keep cold on propane, but they are very slow to cool down. I see that all the time on my camper forum where people don't think their fridge is working because it was not very cold after 2-3 hours on propane alone
There are 2-way fridges that run on propane or 120 volt ac, and even some 3-way (propane, 12 volt dc, 120 ac). If you can supply it 120 for a while it will get colder much quicker. Also, all the fridges that I have seen will automatically switch from AC to propane if you lose ac, and back to ac when it gets restored
You might be able to set it up to run off your solar until you loose your light, then auto switch to propane to maintain. That would be a pretty slick setup.
Tim
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 15 Jun 2017 14:27
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Hmm interesting. One thing I like about my cabin though is when I leave there is no propane on, no electricity going (I plug my truck in while I'm there). So I'd be looking at propane burning and a pilot light?
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rockies
Member
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# Posted: 15 Jun 2017 17:28
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http://www.coolicebox.com/
I knew I'd posted something like this before (One of my many, many, many helpful posts).
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silverwaterlady
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# Posted: 16 Jun 2017 16:18 - Edited by: silverwaterlady
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It takes about eight hours for a propane refrigerator to cool down to a safe temperature.
That's what the salesman told me a few days ago when I purchased my new travel trailer.
I'm just going to keep everything in a cooler with ice packs until we get to our destination than turn on the propane after we get the trailer level and wait the eight hours before I unload the cooler.
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SE Ohio
Member
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# Posted: 16 Jun 2017 17:24
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A good cooler with a frozen-solid gallon of water should keep your stuff cold 3-4 days. A fridge is nice, but you bring your stuff in a cooler, then have to transfer everything to the cooled fridge, and transfer any leftovers back to the cooler when you go home. Also you have to remember to shut down the fridge.
You can test the your cooler at home with a frozen gallon and thermometer. 45 degrees is a good beer temp...  Can always freeze a bigger ice block for longer duration, e.g. 2 gallon water jugs are sold at bigger groceries.
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ICC
Member
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# Posted: 16 Jun 2017 17:30
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Quoting: silverwaterlady keep everything in a cooler with ice packs until we get to our destination than turn on the propane after we get the trailer level and wait the eight hours before I unload the cooler
I have 30 years of intermittent roaming experience with a class C RV /propane fridge. I almost always ran with the propane fridge burning and keeping food cold. Never had it blow out. Always turned it off when fueling up or in a restricted space (tunnel, ferry...). Operating a propane fridge while driving is okay, that's why some have the 12 VDC option. The motion does not have the same potential pitfall as does parking in a non level position. My 1981 GMC had the same fridge after 30 years and 275,000 miles, two engine builds though.
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Cowracer
Member
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# Posted: 16 Jun 2017 23:23 - Edited by: Cowracer
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Agree. I run an extension cord out from the garage to power up the fridge the night before we leave on AC so its nice and cold. Then I let it run on propane going down the road. That is what its designed for.
Never had a problem either. Off level can affect it, but good rule of thumb is, if its level enough to sit in, its level enough for the fridge.
Tim
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Kudzu
Member
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# Posted: 18 Jun 2017 17:50
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You keep on messing with Mayonnaise and report back, this could be good.
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silverwaterlady
Member
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# Posted: 18 Jun 2017 19:07
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Check out this video on YouTube:
http://youtu.be/HJMTQWWoMSw
Thanks for the warning. One more thing for safety conscious drivers to watch out for on the road.
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moneypitfeeder
Member
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# Posted: 23 Jul 2017 17:32
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We also love our propane fridge, we just turn it off when we leave the cabin, open the door, and turn the vegg bins upside down to discourage mice from taking up residence. When we travel up there we use a marine cooler packed with all our food (it'll stay cold for days), & just wait till the fridge has cooled before we move stuff over there. Then if we have leftovers, I don't have to toss them all out for the bears when we leave. I can freeze certain things the night before, and make ice packs or ice water bottles to keep everything cold for the return trip home back in the cooler. Once we are there and everything has been transferred out of the cooler, I can use it to store dry goods like bread etc and keep those mice free too. We did notice that our old fridge seemed to quit, we tried everything, removing and cleaning the gas supply valve, checking level, and found that in the back by the heat exchanger the (dreaded mice again) had removed a bunch of the original insulation & had been nesting there. Once we fixed that its back to running like a champ again.
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groingo
Member
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# Posted: 25 Jul 2017 10:32 - Edited by: groingo
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Personal experience, bring up fresh when you visit the cabin, nothing worse than eating rotten food (especially Mayo which is dairy and egg based) then spending the night and day hugging the toilet because you wanted to save a couple bucks!
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paulz
Member
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# Posted: 25 Jul 2017 10:53
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My quick fix for the great mayo dilemma was swiping some extra mayo packets at a restaurant but I'm also reading that modern (ie heavily chemicaled) mayo doesn't require refrigeration.
https://www.chowhound.com/post/mayo-refrigeration-needed-452512?page=3
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