Will fridge stay cold?

[Loan Rider]

Hello fellow travellers. I'm going to be taking my caravan on a 5+ hour trip to Cornwall next weekend. Sadly, my new to me caravan has a broken 'S plug', so I can't power the caravan. When I have time, I do plan to convert it to 13 pin wiring, but for now.... no power to the fridge when towing.

My question is; assuming the fridge is pre- cooled, would it be realistic to expect the contents to be ok when I get to the site?

 

[Hutch]

I would think it will still be chilled, as long as the door is securely closed
See what others say..

 

[RogerL]

The oft-quoted trick is to freeze some milk at home and put in the body of the fridge - it'll keep the fridge contents well cooled and is drinkable afterwards.

 

[Beachball]

it should keep your contents chilled and make sure the fridge door stays fasten .

 

[IanB1485]

THO freezes some meals she has cooked and I freeze some fridge blocks ( water has a high thermal mass) , also before we embark we run the fridge for about a day on EHU (1, to check its working and 2. to precool the cooling system) and then on gas for reason 1 above. If the frozen mass rises in temperature it got 20 Deg C before it starts to melt , even 4 days in the stuff in the freezer was still rock solid .

 

[Mr Plodd]

I have done the "freeze à bottle of water and leave it in the fridge" practice for many years, even when taking the long ferry to Spain. The contents have remained well chilled. We have even packed the frozen food compartment and left a couple of freezer "blocks" right at the front to act as a sacrificial buffer, they partially defrosted, but the rest stayed rock solid frozen.
So in answer to your question, get the fridge cold, fill it with cold food and a frozen couple of pints of milk (semi skimmed, full fat doesn't freeze well) and you will be fine.

 

[Beardy]

I never use the fridge to transport food, but I can tell you that in cheap 'cool bags' frozen stuff stays frozen for 5 hours easily, and chilled stuff stays chilled (with the addition of a couple of freezer packs). I used to raw feed my last dog. I ordered the food online and it came through the post (Royal Mail) wrapped in polystyrene.......... still frozen. I would hope that your fridge has better insulation than either of the examples above so should be fine, just resist the temptation to open it to check before you get to your destination as the cool air in the fridge will quickly drop out and be replaced with warm air (assuming the air in the caravan is warmer than the air in the fridge).

 

[Sam Vimes]

My fridge is never powered when we travel. We put it on the night before we set off...or if on site going home it's already at low temperature.

Then we'll put in it some of those prefrozen blue coloured freezer blocks in with the frozen stuff plus chilled contents. Even after 7 or 8 hours it's still cool enough not to worry.

 

[toad a caravan]

Safe journey and enjoy Cornwall,I do 🙂