electric freezer under 22lbs that is travel-friendly?

[Guest]

Hi all,

So, I'm on a mission to find an odd item... I need to bring a year's supply of serum drops with me and I need my own freezer since where we're going, I can't depend on having one available for my use where we'll be staying (I know... usually only keep them for 3 mo frozen... but I don't trust getting my blood drawn in the countries I'm going to (heck, don't even know if I'd be able to get them as a traveler there), so want to bring my own from home... worst case they don't work, but I'll take the chance)

So, my dry-eye friends, anyone know of a freezer that meets my strange requirements?

Max weight 22 lbs
For exterior dimensions maximum value - 40cm x 55cm x 20cm (= 16" x 22" x 8")
Ability to keep contents to -15C (5F) or colder, no matter how hot the climate is

I don't care what it costs, as long as it meets these requirements.

Thanks so much for reading!

[PotatoCakes]

Unfortunately, most of the portable units I've found, after a good deal of research, weren't even proper refrigeration units; they were cooling units, so they don't get cold enough to keep the drops in general. If you're able to find something, I'm very interested.

[Guest]

Here are 4 contenders I've come across - I started searching for portables intended for use in ambulances and that's when I came across these:

http://www.coolerdirect.com/engel-po...-8017-prd1.htm
17"H x 20"L x 14"W
24.5lbs
- gets stuff cold enough regardless of exterior climate, but it's a bit too large.

https://www.engel-usa.com/products/e...fridge-freezer
External Dimensions : 17.5" x 11.3" x 15.8" (LxWxH)
Net Weight : 26 lbs
So far this one is the closest to what I'm looking for, EXCEPT, I need to make sure I'd be able to find an adaptor to use it plugged into a wall plug.
AND, it's still not light enough, so I haven't ordered it yet... hoping to find a lighter one (smaller would be nice too). Oh, AND, before ordering it, I'd have to e-mail the manufacturer to confirm how far below freezing it can get in there.

http://www.coolerdirect.com/summit-p...-7106-prd1.htm
17.0" x 21.25" x 14.0"

Also this one looked like it had potential, but no dimensions or weight listed so I e-mailed them to ask... still waiting on a reply:
http://nanolytik.com/es/node/299

[Rebecca Petris]

Smallest ones I've seen that sound like you could rely on them to keep a steady temperature cold enough are ~1.5 cubic feet like this one so the dimensions are still too large…. Smaller ones mostly seem to be portable "fridge/freezers" that don't claim to sustain a temp below 0. I was searching industrial and laboratory uses.

[Guest]

I know... they come sooo close, yet are still a bit too big. Worst case, I suppose I could use my insulin carrier with icepack during transit to keep them cold, and put the freezer as checked baggage in a suitcase that I would unpack at my destination... but, I'd hate to check a freezer that cost me so much money!

Hoping I find a freezer that fits the criteria...

re: search terms - so far, the best luck I've had is searching for "EMS portable freezers", or "portable medical freezers" - the Engel ones I found were originally for use by EMS (emergency medical services) workers to keep things frozen

I'm going to try searching for lab and industrial ones too, and see what the searches turn up for those - thanks for the idea Rebecca!

Anyone else have any search terms not mentioned?

[Guest]

re: Also this one looked like it had potential, but no dimensions or weight listed so I e-mailed them to ask... still waiting on a reply:
http://nanolytik.com/es/node/299

Ok, so this one is pretty sweet:
External dimensions (WxDxH) 230x262x390 mm
Weight 10 kg, 11 kg

PERFECT AS A CARRY-ON PIECE OF LUGGAGE!!!

But the cost will have you passing out...

3857 Euros! Yes, almost FOUR THOUSAND Euros! *cough *sputter *choke... water... need water....and a machine to re-start my heart...

Now I'm not criticizing... it looks like a very high quality product... But maybe a bit tooooo high quality for my needs, since it will cool down to minus freaking 80 degrees celsius. Brrrrrrr!! Teeth are chattering just thinking about it.

So, my search continues... gotta find a small freezer that will work regardless of ambient temperature and cool to -15 or -20C. I was thinking I'd spend $1000, or even $2000... but with shipping, that 3857 Euros comes out to $5600. Ouch.

[No tears in ATL]

Maybe I missed something but could you have them flown Fedex or UPS to your destination? And then shop for a freezer at the destination? (Unless you are really talking about no civilization here).

If so, then ignore me. : )

[Guest]

Maybe I missed something but could you have them flown Fedex or UPS to your destination? And then shop for a freezer at the destination? (Unless you are really talking about no civilization here).

If so, then ignore me. : )

No worries

Our itinerary involves a lot of moving around - ex. country 1 x 16 days, country 2 x 2 months, then a quick trip out of country 2 to renew our visa in country 3 (stay a few days) before heading back to country 2 for another 2 months (unless we get sidetracked and decide to stay in country 3 for longer), then to country 4 for 3 months, then another visa run to a neighbouring country so we can renew our visas to country 4 for another 3 months (but again, if we get restless, maybe we'll stay in country 5 for a while)... so, that would mean buying a lot of freezers along the way, if we simply bought them at our destination.

But definitely not heading to a no civilization type of place - I need clean water hehe... and wi-fi

It's just that we'll be on a very tight budget in an attempt to stretch our money, and I'm pretty sure that the places we'll be staying in will not be totally decked out with a full kitchen and freezer. Heck, I kind of doubt that small freezers will even be readily available in some of the places we'll be staying. Scared to risk having my entire serum drop supply getting too warm in the time it takes me to find a freezer (if available), and if they are readily available for purchase, I don't know if they are reasonably priced (ha, but I guess anything is reasonable compared to thousands of euros for a carry-on freezer lol)

The logistics of my serum drops are a bit tricky... but hopefully I can figure out a solution - the portable freezer would give me the most peace of mind though - not to mention it would give us total freedom to travel wherever and whenever we want.

I am considering getting around 18 months worth of serum drops made before we leave - take a 6 month supply with me, leave the rest at home with family in their deepfreezer - will save space in luggage, yet be enough of a supply that I won't be in any panic to get more too early into our trip. Then can FedEx or UPS extra serum drops over when we'll be staying put long enough to ensure we'll be around to receive the shipment.

Ah, well... all this trouble will be worth it... just gotta get the logistics sorted out...

So, if any Google experts here have found some small freezers that I've missed, I'd love to see the info

[littlemermaid]

SAAG ~ how do Red Cross carry frozen blood products? this has to be solvable low-cost in disaster relief or inaccessible places eg bikes. What do military do? Maybe it's possible to source the 'real thing' http://www.transfusion.com.au/blood_products/storage Oops, reading again, you've already checked that out

[Guest]

SAAG ~ how do Red Cross carry frozen blood products? this has to be solvable low-cost in disaster relief or inaccessible places eg bikes. What do military do? Maybe it's possible to source the 'real thing' http://www.transfusion.com.au/blood_products/storage Oops, reading again, you've already checked that out

You've given me an idea though - I haven't googled anything with blood products in the search term - maybe I'll get slightly different results and find something useful - will post if I do

Also, it occurred to that perhaps not all of these companies that make these kind of freezers have website that are properly optimized for the search engines - yes, they might have websites, but maybe not being found by people like me doing google searches.

So, if anyone out there has any paramedic friends, or friends that might need to transport blood products, I wonder if your friend would know the name of a manufacturer or supplier of the kind of freezer I'm looking for? I don't care what country it would be from, since shipping costs would be a relatively small proportion of my overall costs in obtaining it.

[RFREITAS]

Hey SAAG!

I am not sure what you are looking for. But check those pages:

https://pt.vwr.com/app/Header?tmpl=/...ridges_hgp.htm

http://www.concessus.pt/produtos-pro...3&idmodelo=269

http://www.isaitaly.com/pt/refrigera...boratorio/zero

http://www.duosystem.pt/1/upload/ger...aboratorio.pdf

Everything is in portuguese, so if you need help let me know I will be happy to help!

Take care,
R.

[RFREITAS]

http://www.sterimed.pt/images/produt...r_Portatil.pdf

http://uniqmed.com.br/index.php/produtos/consulta/22

http://www.multienergy.com.br/site/m...dor+waeco.html

http://www.labosistema.pt/default.as...language=en-us

http://www.grupo-certilab.com/pt/cat...-12v-24v-240v/

Probably you already know it all!

[Guest]

Thanks so much! I'll try google translate for the non-english pages first!

[Guest]

Got a chance to look through those links RFREITAS- thanks again for taking the time to post them, it's much appreciated.

Unfortunately, they are all too large.

I need something that fits the following:

Max weight 22 lbs
For exterior dimensions maximum value - 40cm x 55cm x 20cm (= 16" x 22" x 8")
Ability to keep contents to -15C (5F) or colder, no matter how hot the climate is

I'm going to search for blood product freezers now... maybe that will be give me better results... fingers crossed!

And of course, if anyone else has any luck finding something in their own country, I'd love to see it - doesn't have to be an english website, since if I can't figure out the gist of it, google translate will do it for me

[littlemermaid]

SAAG, my sister-in-law is immobile but they travel the world in an adapted motorhome on minimum income with kit bought off eBay, hardly ever at home, whooping it up. She even has an amazing electric arm to lift her in it, and 7 different scooters, some of these aids made for her by volunteer engineers. I thought 'here's your guy, gadget man, brother-in-law will know'.

He says there are lots of freezers for campervans - they have them fitted in with 12V/240V or LPG supply - so maybe also take a look at camping/caravan/motorhome/RV/boat/trucker/horsebox suppliers. Maybe post on one of their forums - they are a helpful crowd who love this sort of challenge. A few popped up on Google 'camping freezer' http://www.skcamping.com/waeco-cdf-1...FYMfwwod4SsAwQ but Google search from Canada would be better (maybe doesn't need to be bear-proof unless there's dingoes, anacondas, monitor lizards, where you're going, lol). But you've already found Engel, some of them are using Waeco too, eg http://www.caravantalk.co.uk/communi...ridge-freezer/