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Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / RVs / March 2005Anyone have and electric cooler?
Hi, Does anyone have any experience with electric coolers? A friend of mine at work likes his and I wondered if anyone else has ever tried one out. Thanks, Kirk 2000 Bayside > Does anyone have any experience with electric coolers? A friend of mine at > work likes his and I wondered if anyone else has ever tried one out. I have one and plan on getting a second. Plugs into the lighter on the road and AC on site. No messy melting ice to replace. I use the coolers for 'meals' and the camper's frig for other stuff. Keeping them closed helps keep the temp down. Only problem I have is that it tends to frost up. Not really a camping issue, but you can't leave one running indefinately, say as a beer cooler. > > Does anyone have any experience with electric coolers? A friend of mine at > > work likes his and I wondered if anyone else has ever tried one out. > I have one and plan on getting a second. Plugs into the lighter on the road > and AC on site. No messy melting ice to replace. I use the coolers for [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > Only problem I have is that it tends to frost up. Not really a camping > issue, but you can't leave one running indefinately, say as a beer cooler. Len, you've got a good one. I have one and I like it. But I don't think it really keeps things cold enough. I put a large zip lock baggie of ice in mine every day or so to help cool things down. > Len, you've got a good one. I have one and I like it. But I don't > think it really keeps things cold enough. I put a large zip lock > baggie of ice in mine every day or so to help cool things down. Maybe. This is what we have... http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=2496642 Funny you mention that. The discussion about getting a second one happened only this morning. Wife complained about how cool it keeps things, and I suggested four things... 1) Put cold things in it 2) Plug it in TWO days before leaving 3) Use it for meal food 4) Put a ziplock bag full of ice on top I didn't really explain well in the last post, so thanks for dragging me back to finish. The reason that we use them for 'meal foods' is that they do not cool quickly. So opening and closing for soda, beer, etc. is not a good thing. BUT they do cool and stay cool, so steaks, burger, coldcuts, etc. will stay cold for the whole trip without adding ice once they are cold and if the cooler is mostly closed. So we put stuff we're after all the time in the camper frig -- which seems to be more forgiving of people looking for things ;-) The zip lock bag of ice is not usually necessary, but is a remedy for #2 not getting done. If I plug that thing in for a couple weeks, we get ice around the fan. And the beer freezes. It's also a best opractice to store ice for drinks in a zip lock bag on top of the food in the cooler. You also want to be careful how you pack these. The air needs to get away from the fan. Still, I like these a lot for keeping things cold and dry when we camp. Saves me a lot of trips for ice. We have an Igloo electric cooler. We plug it in a couple of days before our camping trip. Then we fill it with items that are going into the camper fridge. Our drinks are in an ice cooler. When we get to the campsite we plug it into the power while the camper fridge cools down. Then we transfer cold items to camper fridge. Sometime when it is longer than a weekend we keep it plugged in outside for extra cooling space. The McFetridge Family New Whireland IN We got one two years ago at WalMart - it was about $100. After a couple of days we returned it. It would only lower the temperature by about 40 degrees from ambient. We were camping where it was in the upper 90's. We didn't think 50 degree milk was good thing! Instead we bought an "Extreme" cooler - very well insulated. I put a load of ice inside the cooler and all of our food around that. Kept everything right at 34 degrees inspite of the 98 degrees outside! We'd add a $2 bag of ice every other day. Two years later it is still going strong!  SignatureAlfred Anderson > Hi, > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > 2000 Bayside We have used one for years..... Made a cover from an old quilted silver windshield reflector for the hot days and keeping it out of the sun. Bought a timer that would turn the cooler on-and-off during the cool nights. We had more trouble with frozen fresh veggies than with too warm foods. If the warm conditions exist we move 'em to the camper fridge if possible. I say If possible because we have kept meat et. al. _frozen_ for two weeks by running the camper fridge on high and on propane. Signature[Dale] & Betty 97 Coleman Cheyenne/2002 Caravan 97 Toyota T100 > We got one two years ago at WalMart - it was about $100. After a couple of > days we returned it. It would only lower the temperature by about 40 [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > > > > 2000 Bayside > We have used one for years..... Made a cover from an old quilted > silver windshield reflector for the hot days and keeping it out > of the sun. How feel for how well that works? I lined mine with Reflectex. Did the same with one of my ice chest. I think it helps but it doesn't make a big difference. > How feel for how well that works? Gaack. I think the above is a cross between "How well does that work?" and "Any feel for how well that works?" I'll go sit in the corner with my dunce hat on. Agree that it didn't make a big difference. But we carried a digital indoor/outdoor thermometer and did watch the temperature. I don't recall ever loosing any food to the heat but we did freeze some tomatoes and lettuce on a cool night. The Reflectex should do better than the thin material we used. Signature[Dale] & Betty 97 Coleman Cheyenne 97 Toyota T100 > > We have used one for years..... Made a cover from an old quilted > > silver windshield reflector for the hot days and keeping it out [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > I lined mine with Reflectex. Did the same with one of my ice chest. I > think it helps but it doesn't make a big difference. > Does anyone have any experience with electric coolers? A friend of mine at > work likes his and I wondered if anyone else has ever tried one out. There are portable refrigerators and freezers that operate on propane GAS. You plop it beside you under your beach umbrella and screw-in a disposable propane cylinder and enjoy ICE cold pop (et al) all afternoon. That is, of course, assuming you are willing to spend the $$ and haul this heft chunk to the beach. http://www.loftyshelters.com/RC3000.htm I saw another site that wanted over $400US for the model. BTW - This is a SMALL refrigerator. There are larger "portables" that run on gas. More money. :) JR > Hi, > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > 2000 Bayside As usual the feedback is very interesting from everyone. I never heard of the small 'gas' units that Jim posted. Can those of you who have these units share your opinion on weather or not it would keep a beer or pop cold enough to drink? We usually freeze our meats and pre-cool our beverages before we load up and pre-chilling the cooler would not be a problem. We have the fridge in the Bayside for the real critical items. I guess the biggest appeal to the electric unit would be to get away from the need for ice. Is there much condensation with the electrics? So they have a thermostat or are they just on and off? Thanks again, Kirk 2000 Bayside and family > Can those of you who have these units share your opinion on weather or not > it would keep a beer or pop cold enough to drink? We usually freeze our [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > electrics? > So they have a thermostat or are they just on and off? no on/off and hot/cold >> Hi, >> [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > > 2000 Bayside and family > Can those of you who have these units share your opinion on weather or not > it would keep a beer or pop cold enough to drink? We usually freeze our [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > be to get away from the need for ice. Is there much condensation with the > electrics? Good for beer/soda if mostly closed. Repeated opening will warm things up. Quite a bit of condensation, but nothing like water from melting ice. Of course, water from melting ice can be contained in a ziplock bag. Appeal for me is less ice too. > So they have a thermostat or are they just on and off? on off and hot/cold -- you don't want to know how I discovered this ;-) > > So they have a thermostat or are they just on and off? > > on off and hot/cold -- you don't want to know how I discovered this ;-) You too? It only took once. Now, I double-check that switch every time. > Hi, > > Does anyone have any experience with electric coolers? A friend of mine at > work likes his and I wondered if anyone else has ever tried one out. Their usefulness depends on a few things. First, if you dry camp, they are a huge load on your battery. We once forgot to unplug one in the back of the van, and couldn't start it six hours later. Second, they will only keep things 40-45 degrees colder than the ambient temperature. So if you camp where it's 70F, they will freeze (70-40=30, 70-45=25). If you camp where it's 90F, they won't be cool enough (90-40=50, 95-45=55). We have experienced both. In between 75 and 85 they should be fine. Third, they take a long time to cool things off, so they won't work well for a pop or beer chest where they are opened frequently, nor will they cool off warm pop or beer before the weekend is over. The one we had (an igloo) was also fairly noisy, sounding like there was a baseball card stuck in the fan (I disassembled the fan mechanisms (there's one inside and one outside) trying to find the source of the noise problem, and failed. We gave it away and got a large extreme cooler. Haven't regretted it. Austin SignatureColeman Bayside behind a Chevy Astro. No, not without a Reese Mini-350 WDH! There are no X characters in my address > Hi, > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > 2000 Bayside We tried one, had the same results as most everyone else on here has and finally went with a permanently installed dorm size fridge from Walmart for under $75. Have an extreme cooler also for "most-used" items which works well. We keep that outside under bunk-end covered with silver/black reflective tarp. Kathy and Joseph Houston, TX 1987 Starcraft Starmaster 1994 Plymouth Voyager 2003 Pelican 16.5' Canoe http://photos.yahoo.com/jausti3 If you mean the thermal transfer type coolers, note that they probably have a limit on the temperature gradient they can produce. For drinks, that could be fine. For food safety, maybe not. Consider that summer temperatures could be in the 90's. If the cooler can't cool more than (for example) 50 degrees below ambient, the interior temp will be 45, at best. That's unsafe. Do you want food poisoning on your vacation? SignatureChris Cowles Gainesville, FL > Hi, > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > 2000 Bayside > If you mean the thermal transfer type coolers, note that they probably have > a limit on the temperature gradient they can produce. For drinks, that could [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > will be 45, at best. That's unsafe. Do you want food poisoning on your > vacation? I would think that they would work fine if stored inside an air conditioned vehicle or pop-up. Leaving them in the heat would not work. I agree but whoever's buying one needs to consider the circumstances under which they'll use it. Not everyone is aware of their functional limits. SignatureChris Cowles Gainesville, FL > I would think that they would work fine if stored inside an air > conditioned > vehicle or pop-up. Leaving them in the heat would not work. As others have said, it depends on your use. I just returned from a five week trip through Mexico in a Mini Van. Used the Igloo brand unit and it worked just great for me. What I liked was the ability to run it on the Vans DC when traveling and take it into the hotel and run on AC when stopping over night. I did have some cold weather in New Mexcio and fairly hot weather (hi 80's) in Mexico. The unit worked flawlessly for my needs. Regarding DC operation, I left it on many times for six or seven hours without any battery worries. The unit draws less than five amps max. If you have a high amp/hour battery you should be able to run all day without problems. Best of all no Ice to buy, no soggy food, no cleanup. JerryB > I agree but whoever's buying one needs to consider the circumstances under > which they'll use it. Not everyone is aware of their functional limits. [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > conditioned > > vehicle or pop-up. Leaving them in the heat would not work. |
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