ok I will go into more detail as far as propane refrigeration. don't get me wrong it works BUT, I like to go places that are a long way from resupply sometimes it would take a day to get to a store. this posed a problem with ice chests unless there was snow nearby. so by late summer keeping food and drinks cold was a real expense not to mention a pain in the *ss.
so I started experimenting with other options I tried them all because 12v refers were so expensive. when I got around to a RV propane refer I found the performance of the refer lacking sure it kept things cold, barely. if you put something warm in them it takes forever to cool it down. plus it warms up everything in the refer. to start a propane refer from being warm and off to running and cold takes days. in hot weather they struggle to maintain a cold temp. opening the door several times a day makes it struggle to stay cold. propane consumption in hot weather when I need it to work best is a lot of propane.
for years I got by on 2 five gallon propane tanks. that would last about a month with some left over. but when I added 2 propane refers I wasn't even making it 2 weeks, so I to start carrying another bottle for back up. if I messed up and didn't change the bottle in time the refers would heat up in short time ruining everything in them, it would then take days to get back down in temp. a note, if you have access to 120v you can plug them in and then you can cool them down much faster, 6-8 hours.
so to recap, the propane refers were a step up from ice. I could make ice last 1 week. but I could only go 2 weeks before needing more propane plus I had to carry more propane. I had to keep the propane running 24/7 so if I made a supply run I had to leave a propane tank in camp running the refers so I could only fill 2 tanks. you can see were this is going now I need another tank. this was getting old, instead of making ice runs I was making propane runs. albeit less frequent.
those that say that's to much propane, keep in mind this is during burn bans so 100% of cooking is on propane. also this is in the summer so the refers are basically running 24/7 struggling to keep the inside temps safe for food. I needed to find a better way. I did. highdesertranger