A Guide to Camping Coolers, Fridges and Freezers

When you go camping for a long period of time it's advisable to bring along a cooler of some sort. Keeping food and drinks like milk, butter and vegetables is necessary if you don't have an RV or camper with you. Relying on UHT or warm milk is not a great way to camp.

You're roughing it already so why sacrifice life's little pleasures. Nothing gets the day off to a great start like a meal of eggs and fruit with a tea or coffee afterwards. Having access to these essential foodstuff items means you will have more energy and enthusiasm for the day.

You can find several different types of coolers designed specifically for camping and which type is right for you will depend on where and how long you will be camping. Do you require food to be kept cool for long periods of time or just for a few hours? Will you have access to mains supply or are you going to rely on car battery or gas?

A compressor fridge will serve you if you use only mains or battery while an absorption fridge is your option when looking for gas powered fridges and freezers. They may be more expensive than simple coolers but will add so much more to your camping experience that you will not regret the purchase.

For short term or day trips, you want to have a very well insulated camping cooler to place ice packs inside. The ice you put into it needs to stay cool for numerous days while you're camping as there may not be a convenient place to go to purchase more bags of ice.

A camping cooler with a sealable lid and a valve to release melted ice water is recommended. Put it under a tree or in a shady spot to help it stay cool. Secure lids will also keep animals away. Animals that may arrive into your camping area won't be able to get it open. You don't want to arrive back and find that your supply of food is gone due to the fact an animal wanted to get a snack.

Having a number of coolers for different times of day may be beneficial so you only open each once per day, rather than multiple times which will release much of the precious cold air.