Ice boxes

[cuz]

Hi Guys, just returned from a few days spent lazing by the Murray River in N.S.W in one of my bondwood vans. How true it is that when you pull into a caravan park everyone is interested in Vintage Vans and wants to chat about them (forget those hi-tech multi everything vans that all look the same), Anyway i would just like to know if any of you guys have had any success with iceboxes? Both of my vans have them and i have yet to use them yet, (yes i know that block ice is the best to use) how well does food keep in them?
Regards Bill

[Deleted]

Cuz ....... you lucky bugga .......I've got four of these old caravans and not ONE has an original ice box !!!!

Anyway, one of our crew, Jim, with the Don caravan (as per the website) used his icebox the weekend we went to Harvey.
He managed to get a block of ice close to his home and it worked perfectly for a couple of days ......kept his VB tinnies icy cold .......oh yeah .....the milk too ;D

Yes they do work, but obviously for a limited time.

Mark

[belinda]

We use our ice box all the time and it's been fine.

I make blocks of ice beforehand in 2 litre icecream containers. Also, before a trip as much food as possible goes in the freezer - kids drinks, milk, meat, the tub of margarine - and everything else is chilled down very cold.

The trick is to create a thermal mass. Make as much of your stuff as cold as possible, so it's not just the blocks of ice that are keeping the space cold.

Also, think of the ice box as a space that keeps cold items cold, not an appliance that chills things from room temperature to fridge temperature.

A great advantage of ice boxes is that they are much, much lighter than fridges, and having a small ice box controls the amount of stuff we take.

Most of us don't take our vans anywhere terribly remote. Why buy kilos of beer and ice at home and then pay petrol to tow it to the campsite? You are better off carrying a nice, light, empty esky and stocking up when you arrive.

Our icebox could be improved if it had insulation around it. I'm thinking of cutting down some polystyrene to put against the walls. However, for an overnight stay or a day's picknicking the basic zinc-lined box works just fine.

[belinda]

Block ice is hard to get these days, but spring water is popular.

Measure your ice box and go to the supermarket in search of a nice square-ish container of Spring water. Drink a quarter of it (to allow for expansion) and put the rest in your freezer. Voila! Non-leaking block ice in a re-usable container!

Spring water is pretty cheap. Most of the big containers at our local Woolies were around $5

update:
We used the spring water ice block at Motorfest (January), which was a day where the icebox door was constantly being opened and closed to show people what an ice box looks like. The next day when I unpacked the van it was still cold and had a big piece of ice in it.

[belinda]

I took a frozen 10 litre container of spring water to Coledale and it was great! 10kg of non-dripping block ice with a handle.

When we got home on Sunday afternoon it was mostly melted, but there was still some ice in the container. I think the efficiency of the ice box can be improved by lining it with polystyrene.

[Deleted]

Belinda speaks the truth.
Freeze everything for at least a week before you go.
I use balloons filled with water to about 6" round. same again, the longer they are in the freezer the better.

Another tip is to think about what you want out of the ice box before you open the door. the shorter the time the door is open the less heat you are allowing in. Make sure you have a good seal around the door. The same philosophy as your home fridge as well.


Another alternative is "Dry Ice" wrapped in newspaper or similar. But like block ice it is getting hard to come by.
The big advantage with dry is is when it disolves or you are left with is the newspaper. No mess in the fridge.

Reddo

[retro1]

Another tip is to freeze salted water as it takes longer to thaw. So I'm told. When I rebulit my van I purchased 8 x 4 foot sheets of polystyrene foam in a very dense grade for insulation, it costs about $12 a sheet and you can cut it with a fine toothed saw and
re-line the fridge.
Another thought I had was to modify one of those 12v esky type fridges and build it into the fridge wall under the cupboard and out of sight. These only drop the temp by 20 degrees approx but it would help a bit. I modify My Castle and have a bar fridge ( $100) from Target and this is only 240v but works a treat.

Happy vanning
retro1

[belinda]

It's a hot one here in Sydney today, so I've dragged the frozen container of spring water out of the freezer and sat it on the bench. As it slowly melts in the 35 degree predicted temps I'll have ice water on tap all day!

Ah, vintage vanning. What an addition to our modern lifestyle.

[Roehm3108]

Are you on holidays again Belinda or just daydreaming under the pink umbrella at home??? ;D ;D
Ray

[belinda k]

Obviously there were iceboxes and there were iceboxes.

Cobber and Yvonne have a very classy one with two doors and that special waffle-thingy on the top shelf for the ice to sit on (I'd kill for one of those). Their slab of ice was still respectably large at the end of the weekend.

At the other end of the scale is the one in our Atlantic which is basically an un-insulated tin box. OK, we still had some ice at the end of the weekend, but not a lot.

This weekend we had a good look and found there was enough space around the ice box to put sheets of polystyrene behind, beside and on top of it (we used foam cut down from broccoli boxes), and a piece of closed-cell foam slid underneath. It should make a big difference this Summer.

If you still have an ice box this might be another option to improve its efficiency.

cheers

Belinda

[belinda]

This Christmas we had a week's "retro holiday" with the Austin 1800 and vintage van at Kiama.

In the camp kitchen there was a fridge for use by guests. We kept filling up empty 2-litre milk containers and putting them in the freezer. It meant we had a supply of drip-free block ice to put in the ice box.

[groovy]

From experience, the ice compartment needs to be almost full of ice, which will then last around 3 days before needing more. We used to add 1/2 block every 3 days and never had food spoil.

If you want to make an icebox colder, apart from adding insulation, add up to 50% (dependent on how low your freezer can go) metho to the water you freeze as alcohol has a much lower freezing point then water.

I have an OLD Millard with a chest icebox that I will be replacing with a fridge if anyone wants it, the only thing I want from it is the facing from the door as it is grooved and matches the other cupboard doors in the van.

Belinda
Those "waffle thingies" are made from small corrugated iron, which should still be available and if not, look around during council clean up week and you will find some. Then make a simple frame from flat galv sheet to keep it above the lip in the ice compartment. Aluminium would work better but wont look original.

The additional weight of a fridge over an icebox will make virtually no difference to fuel consumption, as the main cause is mainly the windage and low pressure drag from the back of the van. Which with most of these older vans is vastly reduced in comparison to the "modern" styles like mine.

Greg

[belinda]

I popped a fridge thermometer in the ice box this weekend and was curious to see how the temperatures went over a Summer weekend.

We started out with our 10-litre spring water container frozen solid, plus various bits of frozen food - millk, meat, margarine - and everything else chilled from the fridge - drinks, eggs, veggies etc.

On Friday evening the bottom section of the ice box was around 5 degrees. After that it stayed around 12 degrees - cold, but not fridge temp. Meat was still partly-frozen when we cooked it.

By the time we got home on Sunday evening there was no ice remaining in the big container, but the water was still pretty cold. One of the advantages of freezing a container of water rather than making a block is that you don't lose zero-degree melt water down the drain hole - OK it might not be ice any more, but it will still make some contribution to keeping things cold.

The ice box is working much better now we have a waffle-thingy for the top. It lets cold air flow around the ice and drop down into the lower part. Remember, if you need a waffle-thingy, Camp-a-pak have one on the shelf and now know how to make more (see separate thread "parts for ice boxes").

So an ice box isn't a fridge, but it can do a quite adequate job if you pack it carefully.

[wildmanaus]

It is amazing how good the old ice boxes work one of my dads freinds swore buy them and would not bow to get an electric fridge in his van as he said it takes away the charm of the old vans
Wildmanaus

[tinnie]

The icebox in my van was one of the features that "made me buy it".
You can't get better originality in a van as it's one of the things that people usually changed when gas/electric fridges became common.

I love it! Mind you, I have yet to use it (so maybe then I will eat my words......). Oh well there's always the portable gas chescold fridge, which I can hide outta sight and still admire the icebox!

Tinnie ;D

[royce]

Have a friend doing the ice box trick but he uses large bags from the inside of wine casks to freeze the water. Again, no leaks or water problem. Flatter too and can be put sideways alongside things in the icebox or esky for that matter.

[humpty2]

Always did that too Royce, but...........beware the foil will damage in a very short time and start leaking......

Answer to get more containers drink more wine ;D ;D ;D