Electric Cool boxes

Georgio

Georgio

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Hi all,
I'm thinking of getting one of these 12/240V portable coolers for use when I am motoring or on shore power. I realise that they are quite power hungry and not as powerfull as a decent fixed (compressor) fridge but I really like the idea of having it on as home to cool, filling with a weekends supply of beer/milk etc and being able to bring home again for cleaning/storage.

I have seen them for as little as £50 that seems good value for what it is..

Any comments from the knowlegdeable team here??

cheers, G
 
Ours came from a French hypermarket and I'm sure it was less than £50 including a mains adaptor. Of limited usefulness unless you run the engine a lot or spend much time in marinas. We haven't made much use of ours for those reasons
 
Hi
There are plenty of different ones out there - a local shop here has them for £29.99 including mains adaptor.
The one I would recommend is the Waeco multi-power version which can run off mains/12v or gas. That is more like a proper fridge as it also has a shelf in it for making ice cubes. They are around £140 which is quite a bit more but is significantly colder.
If all you need is a cool box for day trips or overnight, then a cheap one should be fine. I also have one of these for the boot of the car for holidays - a good tip is to put ice packs in (or one of those flexible ice-sheets) to help boost the chill and to keep stuff colder for longer.
Cheers
Rob
 
In my experience a proper well insulated collbox like an Igloo, will work fine for 3-5 days if you are careful and dont leave open for more than a few minutes. I'd leave it somewhere cool and shady it and put a couple of decent ice blocks in it like 2 liters of Frozen water, to be drunk later if necessary. This is how we used to do it on desert safari's and how we currently do it on our boat in the UK summer.
 
Don't touch any of the cheap ones they are cra... there are lots of other solutions out there.

Genie is right partly in terms of icepacks etc, but the cheaper ones don't work after a few hours

Look further, sorry I can't give you directions but comments are from experience
 
They are ok, used to use one for weekends on boat. They do use a lot of power hence only really able to use when plugged in or with engine.

They do not keep things cool for long when switched off - not as good as a freezerbag with icepacks.
 
Bought a cheap one (£39.99) from Halfords a couple of years ago and it is brilliant. It's 12v and has a mains adaptor. We plug it into the mains the "night before", load it up, stick it in the car(plugged into the boot cigar lighter (why does anyone want a cigar lighter in the boot?), transfer it to the boat, swith it on when on marina mains or out with the engine on. Best 40 quid we ever spent.
 
We have a cheap (£30-0dd) one from I-know-not-what-manufacturer but we're very pleased with it. Works off a fag lighter socket only - no 240 volt option but will keep stuff cool for a weekend IF it is (a) loaded with chilled stuff to start with, (b) has a couple of ice packs in it and (c) is kept out of direct sunlight.
 
BOUGHT ONE AT HALFORDS A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO FOR ABOUT £40 USED ABOUT 4 - 5 AMPS PER HOUR. GREAT FOR WEEKENDS AND HOLS. WE SPENT MOST NIGHTS IN MARINAS AND SWITCHED IT OF WHEN SAILING. NOW GOING FURTHER AWAY SO BOUGHT AN ENGELS FRIGDE/FREEZER £450 ONLY USES ABOUT 2 AMPS PER HOUR. YOU GETS WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

STEVE
 
Speaking from hot and sunny Perth I think you will be dissapointed with the electronic fridges. They use what is known as the Peltier effect where a sekicnductor with current flowing through it gets hot one side and cold the other. However there is a lot of heat generated and power wasted. My experience was in mild weather in NZ in a camper van ti hardly got cool at all.
The Engel fridges are brilliant especially as a freezer and use a lot less current. There are Waeco similar but not as effcient and also of recent years a Chinese compressor type (occasioanlly available in Oz) that works well but uses a fair bit of current.

One thing to be wary of is that if you fill the freezer with food and drink it becomes awaefull heavy and not so easy to transfer to the boat. So don't get a big one. I reckon as suggested your best bet is frozen 2litre drink bottles in an insulated box. olewill
 
I agree with William_H - get an Engel or similar compressor fridge. You can use it anywhere as a fridge of freezer.
 
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