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12v Coolers/Refridgerators

Vince

Vince

NAXJA Forum User
NAXJA Member
Location
England
Does anyone have any positive experiences with any of the cheaper 12v coolers. I know the ARB Refridgerator works well, but I'm not sure that I want to spend $700 on a cooler when that money could be better spent on spare trail parts.

I was hoping to go to Costco and find something reasonably priced that works. Anyone bought a good cheap 12v cooler that they would recommend?

I found this online retailer but I've never owned a 12v cooler before so I have no idea how to choose a good one.
http://www.compactappliance.com/12-Volt-Travel-Coolers/Outdoor_Living-Travel_Coolers,default,sc.html
 
I have always had a cooler like that with me in my Semi.

The two things that suck about them for Jeeping is
A...They only cool to like 40* below ambient temp. Which means, if it is hot your stuff wont stay that cold and if its cold...its going to freeze everything.

B...They WILL drain your battery overnight if you leave them plugged in.
 
I had a coleman 12V cooler for two days, after it drained my battery and didn't even cool off the food that was in it I took it back.

If you get one, make sure the food you put in it is already cold, otherwise the cooler won't be able to keep up. Don't expect to put a warm 12 pack in there and have it be cold a few hours later.
 
I had a coleman one as well and ended up putting a bit of ice in it to help keep it cool in summer and forget about opening the lid unless your getting everything out for lunch or some thing, it would warm up really fast when you opened it up
 
i like to use an insulated cooler and for the ones that i wont have to open for a while use one or two blocks of ice. it takes the block ice longer to melt and thus the food colder longer.
 
We have 2 Coleman Extreme coolers we use every time we go camping, Jeepin, etc. One is for beverages and we use ice cubes, the other is for food and we use frozen milk jugs full of water. The frozen jugs (heh) take a while to thaw, and when they do, you have ice cold drinking water.

The Colemans do really well keeping ice, especially if you keep the opening to a minimum and keep them out of the sun.
 
IllianaXJ said:
We have 2 Coleman Extreme coolers we use every time we go camping, Jeepin, etc. One is for beverages and we use ice cubes, the other is for food and we use frozen milk jugs full of water. The frozen jugs (heh) take a while to thaw, and when they do, you have ice cold drinking water.

The Colemans do really well keeping ice, especially if you keep the opening to a minimum and keep them out of the sun.
Click to expand...
This is what we do too. Only we take all of our drinking water in 20 oz bottles and freeze them. We only have room for one cooler so we put everything together but having the ice in the 20 oz bottles makes much less of a mess and if you pack enough it will last all week.

Vince...I can throw a ton of water bottles in for you before you guys get here in July if you want.
 
I've used a coleman 12v fridge and it did ok. I always plug it in to 120v for a day, then put in everything already chilled. As long as you don't open it too frequently it will work. I agree that using it in hot weather does become a bit trickier. When it's hot I use a cooler and frozen water bottles also.
 
I have a ARB fridge, and it works excellent. Used it on the Geo-Stash last year. all week and not a hint of a low battery. The new ones are very efficient. It will even keep ice cream frozen. The nice thing is it's 12v,24V and
110V. Run a 110v cord too it the night before you leave and bring it down to
your set temp. Load it up and it holds that temp very well. I love a cold one even on the 5th day of a trip and no soggy food or ice runs.
I also recommend the insulated cover.
 
We use a Coleman Extreme and Igloo Marine. Trick is to prechill/ freeze food and pre chill the cooler. We keed a few gallon jugs of frozen water in the chest freezer and the night before a trip we load the cooler with the frozen jugs of water.
 
I'm using a Coleman Steel Case cooler and filling 10 oz. soda bottles about 3/4 full with water and leaving the caps loose. I then freeze them. When I am ready to use them, screw the caps on tight and put them in the cooler with everything else being pre cooled. Even kept in the XJ, I get 4 days out of it. The nice bonus is there is no melted ice mess in the cooler. Works well but if I needed to go longer, I would look at an ARB or Engel fridge.
 
When I'm going out for a few days and I have stuff that *has* to be kept cold (think meat) I use dry ice.

I've got a Rubbermaid cooler (non-powered) that is well insulated but any well insulated cooler will work. I will line the bottom with dry ice, put a laywer of wet ice over it, then lie the steak down.

After that pack as usual.

This will keep everything nice and cold for at least three days, in fact you'll have to thaw out the beef prior to cooking!

The things to be careful about are over-cooling, frost bite (wear glvoes when digging around in the cooler) and, of course, don't leave your cooler sitting in the sun (that's just wasting cooling!).

I do this every year when I do my annual Kern trip, ambient tempatures are generally 80 - 90 in the days and I've never had a problem.

Sequoia
 
GSequoia said:
When I'm going out for a few days and I have stuff that *has* to be kept cold (think meat) I use dry ice.

I've got a Rubbermaid cooler (non-powered) that is well insulated but any well insulated cooler will work. I will line the bottom with dry ice, put a laywer of wet ice over it, then lie the steak down.

After that pack as usual.

This will keep everything nice and cold for at least three days, in fact you'll have to thaw out the beef prior to cooking!

The things to be careful about are over-cooling, frost bite (wear glvoes when digging around in the cooler) and, of course, don't leave your cooler sitting in the sun (that's just wasting cooling!).

I do this every year when I do my annual Kern trip, ambient tempatures are generally 80 - 90 in the days and I've never had a problem.

Sequoia
Click to expand...

Geoff
Has the dry ice ever damaged the icechest ?? I've used dry ice in a cheap styrofoam cooler to get ice cream out in the desert for a weekend trip, but was worried or had heard of possible damage to the coolers... any issues ?

See Ya !
Curt
 
Xtreme XJ said:
Geoff
Has the dry ice ever damaged the icechest ?? I've used dry ice in a cheap styrofoam cooler to get ice cream out in the desert for a weekend trip, but was worried or had heard of possible damage to the coolers... any issues ?

See Ya !
Curt
Click to expand...


Not that I have noticed, I've done it a few times and the cooler hasn't fallen apart yet :D
 
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