Mini Fridge

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jimmy

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Aug 8, 2002
Messages
2,316
Location
Northamptonshire
Car
Discovery 3 TDV6, Discovery 300TDi - Plaything!
I have just been trying to figure the best place to put my mini fridge ready for my hols. I was wondering why dont car manufacturers build in a little fridge, would be possible with cars with aircon.

Up until about six years ago I used to work in agriculture and many of the newer tractors and combine harvesters had a place to put a bottle of drink, sandwiches and mars bar that was cooled by the air con. (Also kept stuff hot in the winter if you ahd the heater on.....not so good for mars bars!!)

My fridge is OK but it takes up a fair bit of room and saps the battery if you leave it on all the time.
 
The glovebox on my Vectra doubled as a fridge (not much use really - as that was where I put the 10-CD player).

And my dads 20+year old Toyota had one in the rear seats.
 
I'd suggest running an auxillary wire from your ignition fuses or straight from the alternator into the rear of the car and fitting a socket on one of the side panels - That way it will only work when the engine is running and you can unplug it when you don't want it in the car. A more elegant solution is to run a dual battery system, one for accessories such as the fridge and the standard one. This way you can use a leisure/marine battery to power accessories which are designed to be run flat without the plates warping. A split charger relay on the alternator will be required to charge both batteries and isolate the second battery when starting (available from most caravan shops). I used to run this system when I had a Range Rover to power an invertor in the boot to give us 240 volt power.

Andy
 
Jimmy - if your car is the same as mine, you should already have a 12V socket in the left hand panel of the boot, with a little hinged lid. I use this one for my fridge - it is ignition sensing, like the cig. lighter, so will only work with the keys in.
 
I thought E-Class S-Class had their centre console cooled/warmed ?
 
Originally posted by sym
Jimmy - if your car is the same as mine, you should already have a 12V socket in the left hand panel of the boot, with a little hinged lid. I use this one for my fridge - it is ignition sensing, like the cig. lighter, so will only work with the keys in.

Yeah, thats the one I use, only on with the ignition so no problem in this car. Ran the battery flat on the Vito once because I left it running overnight.

It is quite a big cooler, 30L I think so takes some time to get cool so it is best left on. I could take it out at night and plug it into the mains but that is too much hassle.:p

I had thought of the two batteries on the Vito but not enough room in the car and I already have to carry loads of samples and catalogues and those discs can be heavy.
 
When i use my bigger coolbox type fridge in the car , i fill it with iceblocks . Means it does not have to work as hard.
 
Originally posted by Koolvin
I thought E-Class S-Class had their centre console cooled/warmed ?

Yep mine does and it works well (I haven't used it as a fridge but everything I put in there seems to come out very cold, inc my wallet, iPAQ etc!

It only works on the aircon, so you have to have it blowing cold air to chill the compartment.

I've been thinking of buying one of those mini fridges that you can buy in Tesco's and Homebase, about £60 and work from 12V or 240V. Does anyone know if they are any good?
 
Originally posted by RichardM

I've been thinking of buying one of those mini fridges that you can buy in Tesco's and Homebase, about £60 and work from 12V or 240V. Does anyone know if they are any good?

Yes - they are great - they also heat to about 60 C to keep things nice & warm in the winter !

S.
 
Thanks, I can't see I'd ever have a need for keeping things warm (although takeaway's just sprung to mind) but I was worried they wouldn't cool down that much as they only seem to have a fan in them.
 
I got mine in Lidl . Was about £20 . Its great .

Im sure they have some more in just now.
 
I can't remember how many litres it is.

Its large enough for about 16 cans of coke without craming them in.

Ill take some pickies and the next time im in Lidl ill have a look.
 
thanks, I just wondered if it was one of the tiny one's but that sounds the same as I've been looking at.
 
Saw some 24L ones in Makro last night, £29.99 + VAT. They had the Cooling bits in the lid and a spare lid wothout the gubbins to make it lighter to carry to the beach.

Most of them are 12v only and you have to buy a mains adapter. We can get the Ring ones if you are stuck. They do a tidgy fridge, enough room for a can and a sandwich and half an apple. They also do a bigger one that comes with the mains adapter.
 
This is the one I've been looking at in homebase

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Works on 12 or 240V. reduced from £69.99 to £49.99 with an extra 20% off tomorrow.
 
I bought one of these -

Tf14au12.jpg


probably 5 - 6 years ago, so I can vouch for durability, plus its portable, which we wanted.

Details here (click on Tropicool freshbag)

MB do a branded version in the accessories brochure - £86.83 -
B6 781 2376
 
I got an absolute bargain in halfords today :)

28 litre hot or cool box. Normally retails at £129

Was in the old colour box and was at the reduced section....

£15
 

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