The life of a truck driver is not the easiest. The longing for home and the problems that arise during the tour are their bitter everyday life. One can say that the truck becomes their second home. Every driver has to properly prepare for the route and think about how he will store his food.
There are many products available on the market to cool and freeze products outside the home. However, when deciding on a specific solution, we must first answer a few questions. First of all, we need to determine how long we want to store chilled food. Then we need to think about whether we want our appliance to cool only or keep the food warm. At the very end, we need to determine which products we want to cool down. All these issues determine which solution we should decide on. So let's see what the market offers us.
Thermal bags
A thermal bag is the cheapest solution when keeping the temperature of drinks and food constant. The bags are usually made of polyester or cotton canvas. From the inside they are lined with aluminum, which reduces the heat exchange with the environment. As mentioned earlier, the task of a bag is not to cool down the food, but to keep it as long as possible at a constant temperature. We put the already cooled products into such bags and thus we can take such a bag with us on a short journey and enjoy, for example, a cool drink while driving. We can also put a hot meal into such a bag, which will be warm for about an hour from putting it into the bag. Isothermal bags will be appreciated by drivers who travel on short trips. In the case of routes that last several days, however, they do not pass the exam.
Refrigerators for refrigerators
A popular tourist refrigerator works like an isothermal bag. The product must already have been cooled down before it is placed in the fridge. The interior of the fridge is isolated from the environment by polyurethane or polystyrene foam. This solution allows to keep products at a lower temperature. These fridges are not powered, so the cooling cartridges help to keep the temperature low, which must be previously frozen in a standard home fridge. A tightly closed refrigerator can keep the temperature as low as 12 hours. However, it's important to remember that the refrigerant cartridge should always be on the products and not on the bottom of the fridge. This is because the cool air always drops.
Electric refrigerators
It's time to move on to refrigerators, which are most often used by truck drivers. Electric truck refrigerators meet all the requirements of drivers on even very long routes. These fridge models can be powered from two sources: the car lighter socket and the mains. Electric refrigerators can be divided into two types: thermoelectric and compressor.
A thermoelectric fridge works on the Peltier effect. This means that a current flows through the two connected conductors, which at the connectors causes a temperature difference. One connector cools, while the other heats up, so the fridge can cool, but also store hot food.
Truck refrigerators can also be called compressors. This type of fridge works in the same way as a household refrigerator. Compressed gas is used for cooling, which is called the refrigerant. The advantage of these refrigerators is low electricity consumption.
Capacity
Depending on what products we want to store in the fridge or bag, we have to consider their capacity.
The capacity of isothermal bags varies greatly. You can find models that can accommodate large bottles of beverages, while others are suitable for smaller products such as cans. The standard capacity of such a bag is about 15-20 litres.
Refrigerators for refrigerators have a capacity of about 25-30 litres.
Electric refrigerators have a similar capacity, but you can find models with a capacity of up to 45 litres.
Choosing the right refrigerator for your truck is not difficult. The most important thing is to adjust the cooling time to the length of the routes to be covered. It is obvious that the thermal bag will not be useful during the week-long trip, and in this case an electric fridge will work better.
