Caravan Refrigeration – Top 5 Handy Hints
When it comes to caravan refrigeration, we all want to have our cake & eat it as well! ie: We want it cold – to be as big as possible – to pull our food down colder quicker, and use as little amount of energy / power as possible. It’s not too much to ask is it?
So with that in mind, we have decided to give you some really simple, yet effective handy hints on how you can get the best out of your Sportscruiser Caravan refrigerator.
1. Pre chill your fridge at home
Most of us store our caravan refrigerator turned off when not in use. That means when it comes time to get organised for an upcoming trip and we turn our fridge on, it’s going to work incredibly hard initially. Not only has it got to cool the air inside the refrigerator, it also has to cool the insulation as well, and because of this, we’re going to use more energy up front. Rather than use the valuable energy in our Sportscruiser Caravan (be it gas with a 3 way fridge or battery power with a 12volt compressor fridge), we are better to save this for our trip and use our 240volt mains power at home.
2. Put cold food in a cold fridge
If you put cold food in a cold fridge you will use less energy…. it’s that simple! When you put hot food into a cold fridge – your fridge will work harder to cool the food and this means you are using more of your valuable energy / power.
3. Keep your fridge full
If your caravan fridge and your food/drink is pre chilled, then the next thing we need to do is keep it as full as possible – it will use less energy / power to run. If you’re fridge is 1/2 empty – fill it with bottle of water or the like. The same goes for your freezer – keep it full!
4. Keep the door shut
Caravan refrigeration is almost always front loading with doors (as opposed to most camping refrigerators that are top loading with a lift up lid). As cold air drops, everytime we open a front loading caravan fridge door, much of the cold air falls out towards the ground. This means our fridge has to work hard again to cool the warm air that enters and this means using more of our valuable energy / power. It’s all about being as organised as possible by getting everything you need in one go. The less you enter a fridge the less energy / power you are going to use…. period!
5. Replace as you go
For those of you who like the odd beverage or two, we have an invaluable little hint that will improve the efficiency of your Sportscruiser Caravan fridge. When you take one or two cold drinks out, make sure you replace it with one or two hot drinks. When it comes to making a fridge run harder than it needs to (ie: use more energy / power), there is nothing worse you could do than take a dozen cold drinks out of a fridge over a long period of time, and then replace a dozen hot drinks in one big drop….. expecting it to pull down cold quickly (it’s not going to happen!).