Electric Coolers....?

[TylerN]

We are starting to think about getting ready for a x-canada road trip next year, and have been kicking around the idea of getting one of those 12v electric coolers from Cdn Tire. I believe the brand is "Koolatron" or something like that. I've read the website about them, and obviously their opinion of themselves is great, but I was hoping for some real world feedback from an actual user. We aren't looking to store a huge amount of food in it, just some milk for the baby, some veg & cheese, that sort of thing. My mother in law was looking for ideas for is for Xmas, and we thought this might be the way to go. Good piece of kit? Or should I just keep running the soggy old ice box instead?
(And I do realize there are some really nice fridge freezer options out there, but we are looking in the
-$200 range).

[red90]

Most of them are not very good, IME. There is one that we have that works quite good, but it looks to be discontinued. The cheap ones are thermal electric design. The cheapest ones do a MAXIMUM of 20 C below ambient, which, IME, is not adequate. The one we have does 30 C and that seems to work out fine.

[sailourboy]

I will second that!! Not worth the money.
Cheers
Ted

[red90]

Not sure if the link will work, but this is the one I'm using that works quite well: http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/mobic ... l4MqnarQ-U They used to come on sale for $230, which was not a bad deal compared to a compressor fridge. Unfortunately they seemed to have stopped carrying them.

[TOLON]

There not too bad as long as you put a couple ice blocks on the bottom, we used them for summer camping up to a week and the ice blocks were still party frozen at the end of the trip and the milk stayed cold. Worked better then a reg cooler.They are not going to chill your beer like those fancy fridges as seen on Overland or Expedition Portal etc

[red90]

Not much point if you are putting ice in them. You can get a week from a normal cooler without problem. The idea of the powered cooler is to not take up space with ice and not get everything wet from the melting ice.

[TylerN]

Thanks for the replies guys!

[chrismac]

I've one of the the coolers you've mentioned, you can have it if you liked....worked kinda ok, on my cross Canada trip 2 yrs ago. Kept the milk from going sour :lol: and the fruit ok. Mines free, i would not by one though.

[TylerN]

Hey! That would be fantastic!! What type of beer do you like?

[acg]

The limitation of the cooler is they run 20 to 25-deg F below the ambient temperature. So, if you are using the cooler during the summer at 90-deg ambient, the internal cooler temp is only 70 to 75-deg.

A fridge as opposed to a cooler will offer temps to freezing level. I have an Edgestar 43Q mobile fridge. The distributor will on occasion sell open-box or refurbished units. Here is an example.... $299 for their largest 63 quart model:

http://www.openboxdirect.com/FP630-Spac ... lt,pd.html

Keep an eye on this thread where folks will post updates on the latest open-box offers:

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/t ... 00-shipped

Good luck!