Best Camping Fridges and Coolboxes – How to Keep Your Food Fresh When Camping in 2024

When heading out on any camping adventure into the great outdoors, my biggest concern is how I am going to keep food fresh. I decided to find the best camping fridges and coolboxes to make sure that I can keep the family well-fed and the milk fresh for a lovely morning cup of tea.

In a hurry? Here are my top picks for the different types of camping fridges available:

What to Consider When Buying a Camping Fridge or Coolbox

Before you go out and buy the first coolbox or camping fridge that you see, there are a few factors you should consider to make sure you make the right purchase.

How Much Space Do You Need?

Camping fridges and coolboxes come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Knowing how much space you will need is important as you need to make sure you have enough space to fit all the items you need inside, but not too much space that you end up with more air to cool.

Just like your fridge at home, fridges have to work harder when there are fewer items inside. For a coolbox, this means you will need more icepacks to keep the space inside the coolbox cold enough to keep your food chilled.

Ambient Temperature

Depending on the type of camping fridge or coolbox you buy, the temperature outside (aka the ambient temperature) will have a significant impact on the items inside your cooler.

For fridges, this is less of an issue as they tend to be very well insulated and act similarly to your fridge at home, where they can simply increase power consumption to compensate for the warmer temperature outside.

For coolboxes this becomes more difficult as they aren’t designed to keep food at a constant temperature, they merely keep it cooler than the temperature outside.

Power Source

Understanding the availability of power where you will be doing the majority of your camping is another consideration when choosing your fridge or coolbox.

Passive coolboxes don’t require power, so are useful for short, off-grid camping trips.

Electric and compressor fridges need a constant supply of electricity to keep them cool. They can be unplugged, of course, however, the temperature inside will increase once the power supply is removed.

3-way fridges can be used with our without electricity, as you can switch to using gas instead. These are a good choice for camping trips off-grid for extended periods (as long as you bring enough gas).

Noise

The noise of your camping fridge or coolbox is another factor to consider when choosing what to get.

Passive fridges, due to not being hooked up to a power supply, make no sound at all.

3-way fridges are also very quiet when being run on a gas supply.

Compressor fridges will hum, on and off, just like your fridge at home.

Electric coolboxes have a fan that will be on constantly, so there will be noise the whole time.

Before purchasing your preferred cooling option, you should be aware of the above as your circumstances will determine which of these options is acceptable. Camping with lots of others around you? You should probably choose something quiet.

What Types of Camping Fridges and Coolboxes are Available?

There are four main types of camping fridges and coolbox you can purchase, each with its advantages and disadvantages.

Passive Coolbox

A passive coolbox is an insulated box (or bag) that keeps your food cool with the use of ice blocks or cold water bottles. After putting your food inside the coolbox you simply add your frozen ice blocks and then close the lid. The temperature inside the coolbox is lowered by the ice-blocks, which eventually will warm up during the day

The main advantage of a passive coolbox is that you don’t need a power supply to use it. This makes them great for transporting to pretty much anywhere as you don’t need to seek a power supply point at your destination.

The downside with these coolboxes is that you will need to keep adding ice blocks in order to maintain a low temperature as the initial ice blocks will melt during use. You will also need to limit the number of times you open the box or bag as each time you do so you will lose some of the cool air inside.

Passive coolboxes are very affordable, starting at as little as £10 and come in a variety of sizes to suit most people’s needs.

Electric Coolbox

An electric coolbox in an insulated box that is kept cool via a fan, usually inside the lid of the coolbox. These coolboxes can be hooked up either to your cars’ 12v power supply or into a standard UK power socket.

The benefit of an electric coolbox is that you can keep food fresher for longer compared to a passive coolbox, without needing to use ice blocks to keep the food cool.

One negative of these types of cooler is that they don’t keep food at a certain temperature, like your fridge at home, instead they work to keep food a certain temperature below the ambient temperature, such as 15°C cooler. This means that on a particularly hot day you might find that the food inside the cooler is not kept sufficiently cool to avoid it spoiling.

Electric coolers can be purchases from as little as £40, however, these tend to be poorly insulated compared to more expensive coolers and can be quite noisy.

Compressor Fridge

Compression coolboxes and fridges are the most like your fridge at home. These are plugged into either your car or main supply, can be set at whatever temperature to need to cool your food down to and will remain at that temperature.

The advantage with these is that you have more control over the temperature of the food inside your fridge, meaning that even on the hottest of days your food will remain cool. Some can also be set to work as a freezer, but only when plugged into a mains power supply.

The disadvantage with compressor fridges is that they are more expensive than other options and can be very heavy.

These fridges can be used in pretty much any weather, so are a great choice for those looking to camp in warmer countries. Starting at around £350, it might be a bit overkill for the UK.

3 Way Fridge

3-way fridges are different to compressor fridges as they can run on either 12v car power, 240v mains or LPG gas. Instead of creating cold air inside the fridge, they use a gas exchange to remove warm air from inside the fridge.

These fridges are very quiet compared to other options available and have the advantage of being able to use a variety of power sources.

They do tend to be quite large compared to other coolboxes, which can be a problem for couples just going away for a couple of nights. You also need to make sure that if you are using the gas supply for power that you use it in a well-ventilated area. They also need to be on a flat surface to work effectively.

Starting at around £250, they are cheaper than compressor fridges but more expensive than coolboxes.

Which Type of Camping Fridge or Coolbox Should I Buy?

The type of camping fridge or coolbox you should buy will depend on the number of days you will be camping and the number of people you need to cater for.

• A couple going away for a weekend – a 20L passive coolbox with some ice blocks should
• A family going away for a weekend or midweek during the school holidays – a 35L passive coolbox or basic electric coolbox
• A small family taking an extended camping trip away for up to a month – A large compressor fridge or 3 way fridge, each with both mains and car power

Best Passive Camping Coolbox

The following are what I believe are the best passive camping coolboxes that you can buy today. Just remember that you will also need some ice packs as well.

My Recommended Passive Camping Coolbox

Passive Coolboxes Between 0-20 Litres

Passive Coolboxes Between 21-30 Litres

Passive Coolboxes 30L+

Best Electric Camping Coolbox

The following electric camping coolboxes will allow you to keep food cool for a much longer period of time when away camping. Just remember that these coolers can be affected significantly by the ambient temperature, meaning in extremely warm conditions this may struggle to keep food fresh.

My Recommended Electric Camping Coolbox

Electric Coolboxes

Best Compressor Camping Fridge

These compressor fridges will guarantee that your food remains fresh, no matter how hot the temperature is. Compressor fridges may be expensive, but they are guaranteed to perform when you need them to.

My Recommended Camping Compressor Fridges

Compressor Fridges

Best 3 Way Camping Fridge

3-way fridges offer the best flexibility, being able to run on both electricity and gas. Just remember that these fridges must be kept level (flat) to work.

My Recommended Camping 3 Way Fridges

Summary

I hope from the guide above you have been able to choose a suitable camping fridge or coolbox for your camping needs. For weekends away, I will be buying the Quechua Rigid Camping Cooler Box.

Happy camping!