New Fridge, got it under $275

[Lanlubber]

I sent them an email asking various questions. Not super interested in their answers but more so how they answer if that makes sense.

My update on the site issue has been solved I think ??? Microsoft (which I use) has a site where you can ask questions about web sites that advertise through that site. I asked if how to know if a web site is safe. The answer they gave is that if there is a grey picture of a lock next to the web site address then it is safe to open. If the lock is greenish then it is even safer. Now I need to go back to your post and find the site again so I can check for the lock symbol.

 

[Lanlubber]

If you're willing to trust a random website with your financial details and that it will deliver as promised, there's a site that seems to normally sell bow ties selling the Costway 54 Qt. for $100.
I'm not going to link their URL here because I'm not that trusting (see the Google Shopping link at the end of this post). I did just order the fridge from ebay, though.

In the past I have had luck with modifying a small AC mini fridge so it can operate on its back. I was able to run it plugged into an inverter. However, you need a rather large battery pack to operate the thing for any length of time. That wasn't a problem when I had my Tundra but I'm not so excited about it now that I've got a Tacoma again.


Here's the Google Shopping URL (sort by price, low to high):

costway 54 quart refrigerator - Google Search

My update on the site issue has been solved I think ??? Microsoft (which I use) has a site where you can ask questions about web sites that advertise through that site. I asked if how to know if a web site is safe. The answer they gave is that if there is a grey picture of a lock next to the web site address then it is safe to open. If the lock is greenish then it is even safer. Now I need to go back to your post and find the site again so I can check for the lock symbol.

If you're willing to trust a random website with your financial details and that it will deliver as promised, there's a site that seems to normally sell bow ties selling the Costway 54 Qt. for $100.
I'm not going to link their URL here because I'm not that trusting (see the Google Shopping link at the end of this post). I did just order the fridge from ebay, though.

In the past I have had luck with modifying a small AC mini fridge so it can operate on its back. I was able to run it plugged into an inverter. However, you need a rather large battery pack to operate the thing for any length of time. That wasn't a problem when I had my Tundra but I'm not so excited about it now that I've got a Tacoma again.


Here's the Google Shopping URL (sort by price, low to high):

costway 54 quart refrigerator - Google Search

I just checked the and the add for the $100 ref is gone.so wasn't able to check for the lock symbol..

 

[Twisted]

My update on the site issue has been solved I think ??? Microsoft (which I use) has a site where you can ask questions about web sites that advertise through that site. I asked if how to know if a web site is safe. The answer they gave is that if there is a grey picture of a lock next to the web site address then it is safe to open. If the lock is greenish then it is even safer. Now I need to go back to your post and find the site again so I can check for the lock symbol.

I just checked the and the add for the $100 ref is gone.so wasn't able to check for the lock symbol..

PM with link sent.

 

[Lanlubber]

when I decided to take the plunge on buying a portable fridg\freez I had a lot of questions I asked myself. The most important was reliability. I didn't want a portable fridg that would quite working after a few trips or even a year & or shuts off at rough offroad travels. Another was power consumption, even though price on lesser expensive portable fridg's were tempting there use of power was another issue that concerned me. On American Adventurist forum I asked several members about portable fridg\freez, the majority of them who replied to me stating "buy once cry once." I ended up purchasing Engel MT27 22qt., even though the price of the Engel was shocking the reliability, extremely low power consumption made up for the sticker price shock. Since then I've upgraded to a larger Engel 40qt. MR040 & love the Engel. I am not saying Engel is the best what I am saying is to invest into a portable 12v.\110 fridg\freez price isn't always the best mark for purchasing a portable fridg\freez. The reason of Engel, ARB, Snomaster, Dometic are in the higher price bracket is of quality parts, low power consumption, consistently unfailing customer service, reliability of keeping steady temperature & offroad travels ruggedness. There lots of copycats 12v. fridgs out their, & the most well known complaints are customer service, power consumption & reliability. These copy cats have horrible customer service (usually over seas) limited warranty, power consumption is moderate to twice the consumption of a known brand. Many quality 12v.\110 portable fridg\freez like Engel have yearly sales that drop the price low as 200.00 off list price @ certain times of the year. I know this, I bought both of my Engels this way. Another option is a buying a good quality fridg\freez used from another fellow adventurist. I see these up for sale all the time on American Adventurist & other forums.

I'll have to check that out, Thanks

 

[Lanlubber]

PM with link sent.

Daaaaaa what is a PM ??

 

[Twisted]

Daaaaaa what is a PM ??

Private Message

 

[Lanlubber]

Private Message

ha ha okay, simple English, I thought it was a code

 

[Viking1204]

My new refrigerator will be here Friday, woo hoo!

 

[Jim SoG]

Just got back from a week at the GC and I will tell you this, I am buying another one, Performed perfect (with added cables) and with my Flexo battery I got 3 days on it at a time.....I am very happy. Ther reason for a second is one will be only food and other drinks (for longer trips).

Jim

 

[Lanlubber]

Just got back from a week at the GC and I will tell you this, I am buying another one, Performed perfect (with added cables) and with my Flexo battery I got 3 days on it at a time.....I am very happy. Ther reason for a second is one will be only food and other drinks (for longer trips).

Jim

So 52 qt. ref. is not enough for a family of ? for 3 days ? Did you put your drinks in all at once or did you fill the ref daily ? Wouldn't an ice chest be cheaper for cold drinks ? Wont ice last 3 days ? I'm just asking, I'm not questioning your solution. I haven't camped out in 40 years but I can remember plenty of soggy bread and other items floating around in the old Coleman by day 3. The cold drinks loved floating around in the icy cold water though. The advantage I think, of the ice cooler would be that you could put a lot more beverages in the cooler than in the ref. Have you ever tried Hot Ice instead of regular ice. A small block 6x6x8 will outlast 50 # of ice and leave a lot more room for drinks (you may freeze a few if you don't put a piece of divider between the ice and the drinks). I'm glad you are happy with the ref., I haven't bought one yet because I'm still waiting on another sale and a few more bucks in my pocket to buy one.
Grateful for your input Jim, Thanks

 

[Viking1204]

So 52 qt. ref. is not enough for a family of ? for 3 days ? Did you put your drinks in all at once or did you fill the ref daily ? Wouldn't an ice chest be cheaper for cold drinks ? Wont ice last 3 days ? I'm just asking, I'm not questioning your solution. I haven't camped out in 40 years but I can remember plenty of soggy bread and other items floating around in the old Coleman by day 3. The cold drinks loved floating around in the icy cold water though. The advantage I think, of the ice cooler would be that you could put a lot more beverages in the cooler than in the ref. Have you ever tried Hot Ice instead of regular ice. A small block 6x6x8 will outlast 50 # of ice and leave a lot more room for drinks (you may freeze a few if you don't put a piece of divider between the ice and the drinks). I'm glad you are happy with the ref., I haven't bought one yet because I'm still waiting on another sale and a few more bucks in my pocket to buy one.
Grateful for your input Jim, Thanks

I assume what you call hot ice is actually dry ice? I'll have to look into that because even with my refrigerator I can see on longer trips taking one of the good roto molded coolers for my beer. Where do you get your "hot ice" from?

 

[Lanlubber]

I assume what you call hot ice is actually dry ice? I'll have to look into that because even with my refrigerator I can see on longer trips taking one of the good roto molded coolers for my beer. Where do you get your "hot ice" from?

Ha ha, generational language barrier huh ? Yes some in my part of the world do call it dry ice. I've always called it hot because it is hot and will burn you badly. When using it be sure to never allow it to sit in water. It becomes explosive sitting in water and enclosed in a container.. I buy mine at the local grocery store. If you know of a manned ice house it will be found there also. Call around to the independent grocers. I don't think wal-mart would carry it but they may.

 

[Viking1204]

Ha ha, generational language barrier huh ? Yes some in my part of the world do call it dry ice. I've always called it hot because it is hot and will burn you badly. When using it be sure to never allow it to sit in water. It becomes explosive sitting in water and enclosed in a container.. I buy mine at the local grocery store. If you know of a manned ice house it will be found there also. Call around to the independent grocers. I don't think wal-mart would carry it but they may.

So how much does dry ice cost compared to regular ice and how long will it last in a roto molded cooler? Can you break it up easily?

 

[Lanlubber]

So how much does dry ice cost compared to regular ice and how long will it last in a roto molded cooler? Can you break it up easily?

I made a call to a store here. Dry ice sells for $1.59 a pound. Since water weighs 8 pounds to a gallon I am assuming that ice weighs the same. A block of ice here cost $1.99 for eight pounds. That's probably equal to a sack of crushed ice at a convenience store except they charge more these days. Block ice is sold at my grocery store in blocks of 25# and 50# pounds. So the 25# block of regular ice is about 24 pounds of ice, or $6.00 (+ -) a block. If you bought 4 pounds of dry ice it would cost $6.40 (+ -). The dry ice will last three times as long as regular ice by my estimate. Dry ice does not need breaking up although it chips just like regular ice. All ice last longer in block form and cools in much the same way. How do I know, because when I was a kid the ice man brought a 25# block of ice once a week for our ice box we had until 1946. Leaving the ice box door closed was a must in my family and was forcefully enforced. Remember though the ice box was about twice the size of a 60 qt. cooler and a whole lot more insulated. 30" wide x 60 " tall, 24" deep on legs.
It wouldnt hurt that much to go buy a one pound chunk (if they sell that small a piece) of dry ice and give it a test in your cooler. The down fall will be that the ice would be a little small to be testing in a large hot box. Larger ice will last a longer time, so you might invest $6.40 and give it a real test with a case of beer. Let me know how it turns out. I might try it out here but my igloo is a $20 cheepo from The Dollar store . If it last it will be a real good test.

 

[Twisted]

For those of you not familiar with dry ice be sure to do a little research about the safe handling of it. It is over -100 degrees Fahrenheit and will "burn" your skin with frostbite if touched. If I recall it is basically froze carbon dioxide. You've probably seen it use around halloween time, put in bowls of punch to cause the steam/smoke effect over the drink.

 

[ob4838]

Not an ARB or one of the thousand dollar units out there, but great for my tiny budget.....Good reviews and the thing is so quiet I thought it was broken and not running....
Site said it had packing damage, and that is all I see wrong and it was small, did not even hardly dent the foam inside.....


Will let you know how it does on the trail later on.

Jim

Well that’s awesome, good find. May we all be so lucky. Enjoy

 

[Jim SoG]

So 52 qt. ref. is not enough for a family of ? for 3 days ? Did you put your drinks in all at once or did you fill the ref daily ? Wouldn't an ice chest be cheaper for cold drinks ? Wont ice last 3 days ? I'm just asking, I'm not questioning your solution. I haven't camped out in 40 years but I can remember plenty of soggy bread and other items floating around in the old Coleman by day 3. The cold drinks loved floating around in the icy cold water though. The advantage I think, of the ice cooler would be that you could put a lot more beverages in the cooler than in the ref. Have you ever tried Hot Ice instead of regular ice. A small block 6x6x8 will outlast 50 # of ice and leave a lot more room for drinks (you may freeze a few if you don't put a piece of divider between the ice and the drinks). I'm glad you are happy with the ref., I haven't bought one yet because I'm still waiting on another sale and a few more bucks in my pocket to buy one.
Grateful for your input Jim, Thanks

It was 2 of us LOL we had a ton of fruit and snack foods plus meals and extras, then add that I drink maybe 10 bottles of water a day myself, a beer or 3 with cigar at fire at night and for us, we found one fridge to be not enough and frankly, I rather have 2 of these than anything with regular or dry ice. I am hooked for sure on these. I appreciate the idea and maybe for others it works but for us, we are going with 2, and bu they way, fully stocked (pre-chilled), I found the fridge easy to maneuver and carry. Also again I am talking a week camping.
Jim

 

[Lanlubber]

For those of you not familiar with dry ice be sure to do a little research about the safe handling of it. It is over -100 degrees Fahrenheit and will "burn" your skin with frostbite if touched. If I recall it is basically froze carbon dioxide. You've probably seen it use around halloween time, put in bowls of punch to cause the steam/smoke effect over the drink.

AMEN, IT IS HIGHLY EXPLOSIVE WHEN CONTAINED IN A CONTAINER. NEVER PUT IT IN A BOTTLE OF LIQUID AND SEAL THE LID, IT TAKES VERY LITTLE TIME TO EXPLODE SENDING GLASS CHARDS 60 FEET IN THE AIR AND IN ALL DIRECTIOMS.

It was 2 of us LOL we had a ton of fruit and snack foods plus meals and extras, then add that I drink maybe 10 bottles of water a day myself, a beer or 3 with cigar at fire at night and for us, we found one fridge to be not enough and frankly, I rather have 2 of these than anything with regular or dry ice. I am hooked for sure on these. I appreciate the idea and maybe for others it works but for us, we are going with 2, and bu they way, fully stocked (pre-chilled), I found the fridge easy to maneuver and carry. Also again I am talking a week camping.
Jim

It sounds so good to me. I am trying to go to Colorado to meet up with my son and go to this location:
https://cpw.state.co.us/placestogo/parks/JohnMartinReservoir/Pages/default.aspx
My son just finished his camping and traveling rig. It's a 1996 Chevy Suburban That has been gone through to the extreme. He spent a lot but he said it will last him many years and will out perform anything new including his new 2019 Ford Raptor. He wanted something that big for his family of 5 to be comfortable in. He is not a loner so has things the way it suits him the best. He makes more than adequate money so he takes nothing away from the family and they share in the activities. Sorry I got off the subject. Maybe you could send me that grocery list you guys have. It sounds better than mine.

 

[PHANTASTIC81]

Thanks @Jim SoG for the info. I was lucky enough to nab one . Just received it today.

 

[Viking1204]

It was 2 of us LOL we had a ton of fruit and snack foods plus meals and extras, then add that I drink maybe 10 bottles of water a day myself, a beer or 3 with cigar at fire at night and for us, we found one fridge to be not enough and frankly, I rather have 2 of these than anything with regular or dry ice. I am hooked for sure on these. I appreciate the idea and maybe for others it works but for us, we are going with 2, and bu they way, fully stocked (pre-chilled), I found the fridge easy to maneuver and carry. Also again I am talking a week camping.
Jim

Jim thanks for the info, looking forward to my fridge arriving Monday. Was originally scheduled for Friday but there must have been a delay coming from California to Florida. I like the idea of the fridge not being too heavy. I have a RTIC 65 quart roto mold cooler and it's heavy before you add ice, drinks and food to it. Takes two people to lift and I'm a big pretty strong guy but have learned over the years if you're not careful the muscles in the back will tell you whose boss!