Mini Fridge reccomendations please

[Pudsey Bear]

Looking in advance as Liz is now on a med that needs to be refrigerated, so we need a tiny 12v fridge to put it in, there are a few on Amazon from £30 up, we can put it in the three way but it has a tendency to freeze stuff when it likes and the med cannot be frozen.

 

[wildebus]

Looking in advance as Liz is now on a med that needs to be refrigerated, so we need a tiny 12v fridge to put it in, there are a few on Amazon from £30 up, we can put it in the three way but it has a tendency to freeze stuff when it likes and the med cannot be frozen.

The really small ones tend to be old-school tech and very inefficient so suitability when wilding could be a problem?

I would look at these - https://amzn.to/3XjtwEr . good reliable brand. one of my neighbours fitted an Alpicool drawer fridge in his self-build and he finds it incredibly efficient. (the top loading fridges and coolboxes tend to be much better power-wise than the front door loaders.

I would also add in the mix one of these - https://amzn.to/4khImoL - so you can keep an eye on the temp. unlike a min-max thermometer it will give you a minute-by-minute temp record so you can see if it is getting too warm (or too cold!)

 

[Pudsey Bear]

It's only for the France trip, so it needs to be disposable almost, I did consider putting gel packs in the freezer and swapping it out each day using a tupperware box.

 

[wildebus]

what about this? - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/116467914508
240V/12V fridge and quoted as A+++

 

[Pudsey Bear]

That might be just the job David.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Update

Mini fridge arrived, nice bit of kit, but it's going back, it's a freezer in effect, the meds cannot drop below 2°c

 

[wildebus]

that's a shame. out of interest, maybe run it for a whiel and see if it is as efficient as claimed?

 

[Pudsey Bear]

All boxed up

Data plate.

 

[wildebus]

key question of course is what the duty cycle is once down to temp? Compressor Fridge will be on about 1/4 of the time. I have a Drinks fridge that I thought was efficient but is running most of the time

 

[Pudsey Bear]

It was only supposed to go down to 2c, but there are no controls.

 

[trevskoda]

Update

Mini fridge arrived, nice bit of kit, but it's going back, it's a freezer in effect, the meds cannot drop below 2°c

View attachment 75567

All fridges sit at -2c, feeezers go down to -20, you can turn most fridge stats up so they will site at a higher temp.
Cool boxes only go down 20c below outside temp, so if in say 30deg spain then it will sit at 10c, hope this helps.

 

[nabsim]

All fridges sit at -2c, feeezers go down to -20, you can turn most fridge stats up so they will site at a higher temp.
Cool boxes only go down 20c below outside temp, so if in say 30deg spain then it will sit at 10c, hope this helps.

Don't be too sure about that Trev, that Dometic Fridge/Freezer that Charlie had in the big Hymer wouldn't keep ice cream frozen. The dealers tested it and agreed it wasn't right as the fridge would sit around +7C. Dometic got the figures and said everything is okay, they aren't fridges they are coolers

 

[trevskoda]

Don't be too sure about that Trev, that Dometic Fridge/Freezer that Charlie had in the big Hymer wouldn't keep ice cream frozen. The dealers tested it and agreed it wasn't right as the fridge would sit around +7C. Dometic got the figures and said everything is okay, they aren't fridges they are coolers

Correct, all are made for a diff use cooler fridge freezer.

 

[Ardachaidh]

My wife needs to take 6 “pens” for our 3 month trip, plus travel time. We bought a mini fridge which is specifically designed to keep meds at the right temperature. We’ve just had our second year of using it in Spain and it works perfectly. Naturally it’s not cheap. It has a back-up battery and an app where you can monitor the temperature.

The old adage of you get what you pay for applies, I’m afraid. But it keeps the critical med at the right temperature for the 3 months trip. It can plug into the mains when we’re at a site and into the van’s permanent 12v supply when travelling. https://lifeina.com/en/

 

[lizbiebrowne]

It's only for the France trip, so it needs to be disposable almost, I did consider putting gel packs in the freezer and swapping it out each day using a tupperware box.

That was my thought too. You can buy both hard and soft insulated boxes that may be better than a Tupperware type box.