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I don't want to (and can't afford) a pre-made fridge. I am making my own ice box, top loading, about 3cf...if that. How do I make a cold plate fridge.
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OK, you really want 3 inches of closed cell foam insulation. More is not worse. If you want 3 cf then you need to add the room for the ice. I get about 3 cf with my 6 cf fridge using ice. My old fridge died and I use ice for this summer until I get the new fridge installed (soon). Ice sucks! When you start out right you can go 4 days maybe. The next round drops to 3 days. More insulation is always better, but don't forget the room the ice takes. A drain for the melt water is best advised too.
Freeze everything that can be frozen before you leave and get an extra day free. Forget cold beer and drink rum. I like single malt or wine.
The cold plate is what I prefer but this time around I won't because the plate is too big for the fridge setup. Cold plate buffers the opening and closing of a fridge and works well if you want a freezer too. The spill over can work a dual system well when the day time temps are over 90 F.
With ice you can forget frozen food after one day. We just completed a 10 day trip on ice. The good news is the battery bank never went below 95%. You just can't need that much power when you don't have a fridge. I spent a fair amount on ice though. Long term - ice sucks unless you can add 20 pounds every other day (or more). The other option is don't use it. I was a mountaineer for 30 years and we never ever carried ice - went went where there was some instead! Coffee was enough of a starting battery. I don't do that any more but we still carry coffee. That only takes propane! One of those lasts a way long time.