Mini Fridge - Keeping the fridge cool!

[hellaspikenard]

I'm taking a generator for the first time this year, and am considering bringing a mini fridge/freezer to keep my goods nice and chilly. The bf & I will have a 10x20 shade structure under which the mini fridge can live, but no RV. Any tips for keeping the fridge itself cool and functioning properly? Should we bring an ice chest (with dry ice?) in addition to the mini fridge? I would love to hear any mini-fridge misadventures y'all have had.

Thx

[FlyingMonkey]

I'm taking a generator for the first time this year, and am considering bringing a mini fridge/freezer to keep my goods nice and chilly. The bf & I will have a 10x20 shade structure under which the mini fridge can live, but no RV. Any tips for keeping the fridge itself cool and functioning properly? Should we bring an ice chest (with dry ice?) in addition to the mini fridge? I would love to hear any mini-fridge misadventures y'all have had.

Thx

Keep it out of the dust & heat & you should be just fine

Kidding.

I had one in 2012 running off 2 deep cycle batteries & an inverter. It was in a bus so it was protected from the dust, but it was pretty hot during the day & it worked just fine. We did have to run our generator once per day to charge up the batteries, but that was much better than running it all the time.

I think if you keep in in the shade you should be fine, just be sure to inspect/clean the back as needed. I think the dust is more of a concern than the temperature.

But to be perfectly honest I would rather just use coolers. I had a dry ice cooler with frozen soda jugs & moved jugs to my food cooler each day. It worked great & I still had frozen jugs on Friday. Best of all you can always buy ice if you need to & you don't need to run a noisy/stinky generator all the time. For me that alone makes coolers the better option.

YMMV

[Captain Goddammit]

If you live in a populated area and have a little extra space maybe check Craigslist for a small "apartment size" fridge. The mini fridges I've used didn't seem very powerful and were too small to put a significant amount of food in and the freezers were lame.
But a real fridge, even an extra small apartment jobbie, ROCKS to have on the playa!
Even the mini fridge has a few distinct advantages over coolers though. You don't have the hassle of trying to keep your food from getting water-logged (the main reason coolers bother me) and having a freezer means Popsicles all week and ice cream on Saturday!!

[FlyingMonkey]

If you live in a populated area and have a little extra space maybe check Craigslist for a small "apartment size" fridge. The mini fridges I've used didn't seem very powerful and were too small to put a significant amount of food in and the freezers were lame.
But a real fridge, even an extra small apartment jobbie, ROCKS to have on the playa!
Even the mini fridge has a few distinct advantages over coolers though. You don't have the hassle of trying to keep your food from getting water-logged (the main reason coolers bother me) and having a freezer means Popsicles all week and ice cream on Saturday!!

No water-logged cooler if you use frozen 2 liter jugs. But you are right, the ice cream will only last as long as the dry ice.

But one thing is for sure, my cooler is a lot quieter than my generator

[Captain Goddammit]

Well there's always the option of using a propane fridge out of an RV.
They are silent and work great and use hardly any propane.
The only downside is they are expensive even used.

[WileE13]

120 AC mini fridges work great for drinks. Don't use them for food unless you plan on keeping the generator running all the time or you have an inverter to run of batteries. Those mini fridges are not well insulated. Once they go off, they heat up fairly quick. Not good for food items. Cold drinks (beer, water, soda, ect...) hold their temp through the off period, and even if they heat up a bit, it isn't going to lead to spoilage.

We use a 120 AC mini fridge for all our beer, and propane fridges for all the food items.