Look! Yet another "the fridges are too expensive!!" thread 
or - day trip fridge
I already own an Engel fridge, and yes, I'm totally on board with the "fridge beats a cooler any day!" idea. I love that thing, and have repeatedly said there's no way I'd ever go back to a regular cooler again, if for no other reason than just not having to visit the gas station to buy ice every time I go out, lol. I love that I can pack up the night before a trail run, and just get in and go the next morning.
However, a new wrinkle has been induced in that plan - I picked up a compact SUV for easy trail work and day trips. A 2002 Suzuki Vitara 4 door, to be exact. My Engel is a MT60 model, and it's a monster compared to the available cargo space in the Suzuki. With the rear seats up, it basically takes up about 90% of the available cargo space. Plus, the capacity of this one is a whole lot more than I realistically need for a non overnight trip by myself or with one other person.
The Suzuki really is a day trip vehicle to me, I have zero intentions of using it for a week long camping trip, or even a weekend. MAYBE a single night, but even then, I'd be much more likely to take a different, larger, vehicle if that was the plan. So I don't need to be able to keep several days worth of food and water cold. I'm thinking something like the Engel MT27 would be plenty of capacity for this. So I looked at the smaller Engels, and found they're not all that inexpensive either. Nor are the Edgestars. After buying the Engel, coughing up another $500+ for a second fridge is a bit hard to justify.
I contemplated picking up a thermoelectric cooler, since battery draw would be less of a concern as I won't be running it on battery alone overnight. But since I live and play in the southwest desert, I'm concerned about them not being able to keep up at the temps go into the 100F+ range. But I only have experience with the WalMart type cheap stuff. Do the better brands do any better? Is there even such a thing as a better brand of thermoelectric?
I'm also wondering if I would just be better off to buy a small ice cooler, and invest in a decent amount of the reusable ice cubes instead? Or maybe even a bit larger, cheap, thermoelectric, and use the reusable ice cubes in that as well to help it out a bit?
or - day trip fridgeI already own an Engel fridge, and yes, I'm totally on board with the "fridge beats a cooler any day!" idea. I love that thing, and have repeatedly said there's no way I'd ever go back to a regular cooler again, if for no other reason than just not having to visit the gas station to buy ice every time I go out, lol. I love that I can pack up the night before a trail run, and just get in and go the next morning.
However, a new wrinkle has been induced in that plan - I picked up a compact SUV for easy trail work and day trips. A 2002 Suzuki Vitara 4 door, to be exact. My Engel is a MT60 model, and it's a monster compared to the available cargo space in the Suzuki. With the rear seats up, it basically takes up about 90% of the available cargo space. Plus, the capacity of this one is a whole lot more than I realistically need for a non overnight trip by myself or with one other person.
The Suzuki really is a day trip vehicle to me, I have zero intentions of using it for a week long camping trip, or even a weekend. MAYBE a single night, but even then, I'd be much more likely to take a different, larger, vehicle if that was the plan. So I don't need to be able to keep several days worth of food and water cold. I'm thinking something like the Engel MT27 would be plenty of capacity for this. So I looked at the smaller Engels, and found they're not all that inexpensive either. Nor are the Edgestars. After buying the Engel, coughing up another $500+ for a second fridge is a bit hard to justify.
I contemplated picking up a thermoelectric cooler, since battery draw would be less of a concern as I won't be running it on battery alone overnight. But since I live and play in the southwest desert, I'm concerned about them not being able to keep up at the temps go into the 100F+ range. But I only have experience with the WalMart type cheap stuff. Do the better brands do any better? Is there even such a thing as a better brand of thermoelectric?
I'm also wondering if I would just be better off to buy a small ice cooler, and invest in a decent amount of the reusable ice cubes instead? Or maybe even a bit larger, cheap, thermoelectric, and use the reusable ice cubes in that as well to help it out a bit?
Last edited:
