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Subject Topic: Great time away, however....
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PersonHarrison04
14/8/2013 at 10:54am
 Location: None Entered
 Outfit: Icarus 600 View Harrison04's Profile View Profile   Reply to Harrison04 Reply   Quote Harrison04 Quote  
Joined: 16/1/2013

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Thanks all for your advice...I knew I'd find some answers here. Good to know there are cool boxes out there that should work for a few days. As new to camping not yet done more than 4 days so would rather stay without the electric as I can only see it being a slippery slope for my girls wanting to watch their DVD players, charge & play their leappads etc & the whole point of camping for us is to get away from all that & enjoy quality family time. I know I can still get that with EHU but at least I won't have the arguments from my little divas if they think there is an option to do those things ;-)

Looks like a the Coleman will be my next purchase.

Thanks again everyone.


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Ashurst New Forest - May/June 2013 (1st camp)
Newlands Holiday Park, Charmouth - Aug 2013


PersonValk_scot
14/8/2013 at 11:17am
 Location: Scotland.
 Outfit: Conway Camargue Lots of Vangos. . View Valk_scot's Profile View Profile   Reply to Valk_scot Reply   Quote Valk_scot Quote  
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3-way fridge run on gas?

We do have EHU too, we go for up to a month at a time and yes, we take laptops and such then. But surprisingly the kids (16 & 11) hardly bother with the electronics when camping, they prefer books and Monopoly and whatever is going on at the games field.


PersonTidburyboy
14/8/2013 at 12:30pm
 Location: Tidbury Green
 Outfit: Swift Fairway SE 442 View Tidburyboy's Profile View Profile   Reply to Tidburyboy Reply   Quote Tidburyboy Quote  
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Quote: Originally posted by johnny B on 13/8/2013
yer I've got an Igloo Maxcold and that does most of the time but I try to do as much "fresh food" shopping from the local shops (I try to steer clear of the supermarkets if poss). Spread the benefit of the tourism a bit to the local shops & it sort of justifies me clogging up their local roads & pubs etc. in my mind anyway.




Good man



Personcarol benham
15/8/2013 at 6:18am
 Location: South Staffs
 Outfit: Vango Ventanas Cabanon Andorra & Calvi View carol benham's Profile View Profile   Reply to carol benham Reply   Quote carol benham Quote  
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Never used electric in all the years we've been camping.

To keep the stuff cold we use a 3 way absorption fridge (just bough a new Combicool to replace the old one we had for over 10 years).

Yes the initial outlay is expensive but I think it pays for itself over time with not eating out


Personmelmel74
15/8/2013 at 10:33pm
 Location: Essex
 Outfit: Croyde 6 Bude 4 Vango Zeal Klondike View melmel74's Profile View Profile   Reply to melmel74 Reply   Quote melmel74 Quote  
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Hi - we have just come back from 2 weeks camping and don't use EHU at all. We take a coolbox which starts out filled up with some frozen food at the bottom, then ice blocks on top of this, chilled food on next layer then anything else to fill in the gaps on top of that. We book sites that have a facility to re-freeze ice packs and 2 sets of 3 (one set in the freezer whilst other is in coolbox). Another thing we do is buy big bag of ice in the supermarket as they also work well. We cook our evening meals on site about 70% of the time and take a picnic most days. Takes a bit of planning but that's part of the fun!?

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2015 April: Polstead, Suffolk. May: Two Acres, Ely. Waveney River Centre and Whitehall Farm, Norfolk. Aug: Howstean Gorge / The Quiet Site / Fron Farm / Cae Du / Trevayne Farm - BOOKED!


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Personwest1871
15/8/2013 at 10:46pm
 Location: Dorset
 Outfit: Royal Atlanta 6 View west1871's Profile View Profile   Reply to west1871 Reply   Quote west1871 Quote  
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The only thing with ice packs and bags of ice is the costs associated. On our week away we filled a trug with ice every other day to keep the drinks cool, cost of this = £1.50 per bag = £6.00.
Ice blocks cost 10p each to re freeze, we only took 2 to use with the packed lunch per day, total cost £1.40.
Total cost of ice blocks and bags = £7.40 and that was just for a drinks bucket and a lunch box.

I suppose that's just over £1 per day for us but would be more if this was our only way of cooling down food in the cool box.

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A problem shared is a problem halved


Personchipmonkey
15/8/2013 at 11:05pm
 Location: Meath Ireland
 Outfit: Raclet Quickstop quechua base 2nds 4. View chipmonkey's Profile View Profile   Reply to chipmonkey Reply   Quote chipmonkey Quote  
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I think even if you have EHU, it won't be available on every site so it's better to have a set-up where you can manage with or without it. The icey-tek looks fab, it's on my camping shopping list but unfortunately after last weekend, it has been bumped down the list due to now needing to get decent SIMs to sleep on.


PersonSummerSky
15/8/2013 at 11:10pm
 Location: Central Scotland
 Outfit: 3 green tents :-) View SummerSky's Profile View Profile   Reply to SummerSky Reply   Quote SummerSky Quote  
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We manage ok with our little Campingaz icetime 13l box, and we're a large family. I just make sure the site we are going to has a freezer to freeze ice packs (and doesn't charge for the pleasure) and that we only buy what we need daily. I also plan meals so that we don't need to keep a lot of chilled food for long. All that's usually in the coolbox is a little milk, a small pack of butter, some cheese and maybe some leftover bacon and eggs. But then again we live in Scotland so keeping things cool isn't so much of an issue

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April '14 - Red Squirrel
May '14 - Nydie (twice)
July '14 - ?
Aug '14 - ?
Sept '14 - ?
Oct '14 - Red Squirrel


Person#deb#
16/8/2013 at 9:25am
 Location: West Mids
 Outfit: Swift [Challenger Sport] Fairway 514 View #deb#'s Profile View Profile   Reply to #deb# Reply   Quote #deb# Quote  
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Having pitched up at Forest Fields after chasing the bad weather around Wales for days with a 2 year old in '06 we found we'd had 'enough' of camping! Torrential rain chased us out of our damp, windowless tent, to the Tourist Information where we got set up with a beautiful holiday let for a few days. We'd been happy campers long before having babies but constant damp weather just felt like a chore and we left it alone for a good year or so. The next time we went camping we had our first EHU trip and we were happy again. Took a little heater so the cold, damp feeling didn't settle and we used a mains converter for our 12v cooler. Tons better. Upgraded to a larger family tent after our next baby came along and we've never looked back. We don't always take the EHU especially if its just an overnighter but I'm definitely not afraid to use it!

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Cheers! Debs


Personnicola1972
16/8/2013 at 1:28pm
 Location: South Wales
 Outfit: Montana 6P & vango venture 600 dlx View nicola1972's Profile View Profile   Reply to nicola1972 Reply   Quote nicola1972 Quote  
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We do both types of camping, if no ehu we freeze everything and then use facilities to re freeze ice packs.
we have been to Midbrooks in Wiltshire where they have two fridge freezers free for campers to use.


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Personarmchaircamper
16/8/2013 at 6:52pm
 Location: Aberdeenshire
 Outfit: Several tents and a hammock View armchaircamper's Profile View Profile   Reply to armchaircamper Reply   Quote armchaircamper Quote  
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I'm usually at sites without EHU or facilities for freezing ice packs so I just buy fresh food each day as I need it and take some UHT milk with me, opening a new pint each day.

Some sites have a fridge for the use of campers and that's really handy.

My ideal camping holiday would involve eating out every day! If only . . .

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Sarah


Personmelmel74
17/8/2013 at 6:27pm
 Location: Essex
 Outfit: Croyde 6 Bude 4 Vango Zeal Klondike View melmel74's Profile View Profile   Reply to melmel74 Reply   Quote melmel74 Quote  
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Ah cost can be an issue with re-freezing etc but we always check out the sites for our long stays and make sure they re-freeze for free! Am sure somewhere on here there's a great post about how to pack up a cool box - it was reading that that I learnt how to do it and have done it the way last 3 years. But yes, agree it can be expensive if they charge for each ice pack. Still cheaper than eating out all the time though.

Site we stayed on in Wales this year was fantastic - had a campers kitchen with toaster, fridge and microwave!

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2015 April: Polstead, Suffolk. May: Two Acres, Ely. Waveney River Centre and Whitehall Farm, Norfolk. Aug: Howstean Gorge / The Quiet Site / Fron Farm / Cae Du / Trevayne Farm - BOOKED!



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