Thermoelectric Coolers?

[Token]

Don't they tell you NOT TO USE ICE in those thermo-electric units..??

I was eyeballing them last winter and the largest Koolatron was under $90 on Amazon. As camping season and summer came around, I watched them climb to over $140 + shipping.. Been recently watch those as well as the Coleman's come back down a bit.. The Koolatron near $100 right now and the Coleman is getting close to $75

Last trip I took this summer where I was trying to keep stuff COLD was over the 4th of July.. I took my old Coleman cooler, put what I wanted in it and then wrapped it up on a quilt. Went the entire weekend camping on about 10lbs of ice with temps hovering around 100.. After day two with the cooler left in the tent, the stuff I was wanting to keep COLD was still frozen solid and I had ice forming in the beer. Beer slushies are always a pleasant surprise.. Been trying to convince myself I need to go electric, but I just can't pull the plug on a $500+ fridge..

$500 would buy a small deep freeze box, a decent power inverter and a couple of deep cycle batteries

Makes me wonder how hard it'd really be to convert a small 110vac dormroom size fridge into 12vdc..

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

Don't they tell you NOT TO USE ICE in those thermo-electric units..??
<SNIP>

Good information to know.
Ice was used for testing, as a rule my friend uses frozen water bottles. Not sure falls into the same class as ice, but still running after a couple years, good or bad.

 

[Token]

I've actually got to where I'll toss in two or three frozen 2 liter bottles of water in the cooler rather than just bagged ice and extra bottled water.. Helps keep things cold and conserves some space by it self converting into usable drinking water in a day or few.

Actually as of yet I haven't had to break into one of the bottles and use it for drinking water, but it will at least be there if needed and not be contaminated by whatever might have been in the cooler water and spilled..

They also get emptied and refilled after each trip.

One other thing I've found that helps a little bit on ice usage is precooling the ice chests.. The night before a trip I'll fill the cooler with either one or two gallon ice jugs and water and close it up. By the next day when the cooler is packed and bagged ice added the cooler has already cooled down so I'm not stopping , draining some water and adding another bag of ice within the first 4 or 5 hours.. Can generally get through the first 24 hours on 1 or 2 bags this way rather than 3 or 6 depending in the ice chest.

 

[Mr. D]

I have heard of the precooling technique as well. Last camping trip I used large ziploc bags for items I didnt want getting soaked.

 

[CRJeepin]

I just picked up a cheap ($75 on Amazon) Coleman TE cooler and thought it worked great over a 3 day camping trip on Labor Day.

The nice thing about the TE cooler is it doesn't (can't!) have all the slush water, so food for our 2 year old didn't get soggy. We used it to keep his veggies, bananas, milk (pasteurized cows milk), and similar stuff cold, and have it separated from the beer cooler that everybody was reaching into all evening.

I ran it all the way up to the campsite (about 3 hours) and then left it plugged in about 4 hours past dinnertime, at which time the outdoor temp had dipped to the low 60's and the cooler was darn chilly. I unplugged it overnight and did the same thing the next 2 days...ran it a few hours after we had our grubby mitts in it and then left it unplugged overnight.

I froze a 1 quart plastic bottle of water and kept it in the cooler in case the TE thing didn't work too well, but it was still about 90% frozen when we got home.

So overall I was pretty happy with it; it's no ARB freezer by any means but for family car camping I thought it did pretty good.

 

[Accrete]

i use a 70 quart YETI for items i want to keep 40 degrees and below on trips of 4 days or less. all it takes is about 6 or so blue ice packs, and pre-freezing the items you will be placing in the cooler. for longer trips the ARB and Engels are great.

 

[ChrisInVT]

I have both a thermoelectric "mini-fridge" and a real mini-fridge. The real minifridge cools better, but not good for a bumpy ride as the compressor isn't too fond of being bumped around. The thermoelectric cooler works great, for what it is. I purchased mine at Wal-Mart for $40, and it's the same dimensions as your normal mini-fridge. I've had it three years now, always set to max cool, running 24/7 with no failure. It's a crappy Haier made in China, and I didn't expect it to last long, but it has.

The key to thermoelectric is that it's not meant for chilling, it's meant for maintaining. If you put something in there that's cold, it'll keep it cold. If you put something in there that's warm, and want it to be cold - you're gunna be waiting a while.

 

[Martinjmpr]

As with many things in the ExPo world....

...the real question is not "which is better?"

The true question for most of us (for whom money is a finite thing) is, "is 'better' worth the significant cost premium or is 'good enough,' well, good enough?"

When I was in Kuwait (where summertime temps can easily hit 125 or 130 degrees f at mid-day, and it only "cools down" to around 105 at night) we had a large commercial-type chest freezer in front of our Mayor's Cell trailer. It was filled with 1l water bottles frozen solid. Truckers heading up into Iraq would pack their coolers full of those frozen water bottles (and gatorade when we could get it) and use that both to keep their ice chests cool, but also to drink. Even on a hot day you could have a frozen bottle last for several hours outside and it would still have a "plug" of ice in the middle keeping it cool.

Now when we go camping we take our old coolers and fill them with small (1 pint) water bottles that we've frozen solid in our chest freezer. Keeps the slush down and also provides cold drinking water when it melts.

I've seen those thermoelectric coolers for a while and have thought about picking one up. Would a fridge be better? Undoubtedly, but if the TE cooler is "good enough" (and if its cooling abilities can be augmented with frozen water bottles) then potentially that can sve me $400 or so which will pay for gas or food to actually go somewhere.

Which is sort of the whole point, isn't it?

 

[Rexsname]

It's the actual "Go" part that concerns me. I used my Coleman Thermoelectric cooler last year at OvEx '10. The cooler was in an airconditioned cab and the truck had a fresh Yellow top Optima battery. I had precooled all the items prior to filling the cooler. It wasn't all that hot there in Amado, maybe 80 or so. When I went to start the truck in the morning........NOTHING! The key wouldn't even go ding ding! NO indicator lights no door ding no nothing!

I know my truck will start now that I'm useing the Engle.

REX

 

[poriggity]

Very interesting discussion so far.. I am trying to decide which way to go for when I get to that part of my build... I look forward to more responses.
Scott

 

[ChrisInVT]

It's the actual "Go" part that concerns me. I used my Coleman Thermoelectric cooler last year at OvEx '10. The cooler was in an airconditioned cab and the truck had a fresh Yellow top Optima battery. I had precooled all the items prior to filling the cooler. It wasn't all that hot there in Amado, maybe 80 or so. When I went to start the truck in the morning........NOTHING! The key wouldn't even go ding ding! NO indicator lights no door ding no nothing!

I know my truck will start now that I'm useing the Engle.

REX

Yeah, a thermoelectric cooler will drain your battery flat if left on overnight like that. Unlike a refrigerator, it's a constant draw.

 

[racingjason]

Yeah, a thermoelectric cooler will drain your battery flat if left on overnight like that. Unlike a refrigerator, it's a constant draw.

And a heavy draw at that! I looked for a while and eventually found a used Engel (old one with the white body and yellow lid). It is not as efficient as a new one but works well. I would rather have an old fridge than a new TE even if I had to use a cooler for a while to save up for one. However, if you are in Alberta and have your heart set on a TE my Dad has a one for you... it once killed the batteries in his Freightliner so he is trying to give it away!

 

[Prybry]

Rules for success on TE coolers...

I've used an Igloo brand Thermo-electric cooler for a number of years and there are a number of rules to follow for successful use...
1) They are best used when moving from point to point everyday... as in trail rides where the truck is running all day and parked to camp at night.
2) When camped un-plug or you won't have a battery left in the morning.
3) Freeze everything you plan on putting in it, if not at least have the stuff cool... don't put warm items in it and expect it to work.
4) Pre-cool the cooler... plug it into a 110v converter the night before the trip.
5) Use frozen water bottles in all four corners, I use a brand of water bottle that is small in diameter and takes up little space... I also use this water as drinking water as it melts
6) Only refill the bottles in the morning before you leave camp, and if you plan on staying put then don't refill until you plan to move (rule #3)
7) Store the items you plan on using first at the top so they a) thawed and ready to use. b) the less you disturb the lower levels the colder it will stay.
8) Organize your meal plan to open the cooler and little as possible.
9) Maximum range is about 5 days even moving every day, typically not an issue since that is about all the food you can fit in anyway.
10) As the food level drops you can suppliment the cold items with zip lock bags of ice cubes.
Bonus 11) Buy and install a cheap indoor/outdoor digital thermometer... install the outdoor unit in the cooler and then you can keep an eye on the temp without opening and checking. works great! you cheap "real" fridge guys might want to steal this idea too. I put master unit on velcro and move it from the truck dash to the camper when needed.

Most of these are common sense that you would use with a standard ice chest.

With these rules I've taken some great trips... and the space savings over a standard hard core cooler or the high cost of the "real" fridge have been over come by my TE cooler.

Some day when the cost comes down on the "real" fridge... until then I can make the TE work...

Prybry

 

[Bogo]

I have an older Coleman TE cooler. Works OK when the outside temperature is 70 and below, but it's fan is now allot noisier than originally. A few years back I wrapped it in a couple layers of bubble foil insulation which helped it allot. As others have mentioned you need to keep them plugged in and pre-cooling stuff going in them really helps. The TE chip will start generating electricity when you unplug it. On mine it generates enough to light the LED in the lighter plug.

30deg temp drop isn't something I would rely on for a remote trip

or keeping perishables safe to eat.

best bet is to do a propane fridge or a eveporative phase fridge that runs on deep cycle battery and solar. You do not want to get food poisoning from meats that have been sitting in "cool" temps. Dont skimp out, make the effort to get something that will work as a fridge/freezer not a powered cooler.

This gives me an idea, i could place a nice size propane tank under the truck and have that run the fridge and grill for very long periods of time. YAY for ingenuity!

The problem with the propane based refrigerators is they need to be level when operated. I haven't parked at a level campsite in ages. Also when run on battery they make the TE coolers look efficient.

I haven't picked up a compressor based refrigerator yet, but I will some day. Look around, Compact Appliance had a sale this weekend. They had $100 off on the EdgeStar 43Qt unit. That brought it down to $400.

 

[kojackJKU]

Well, even though its brand new, Im impressed with my coleman powerchill 40. For ****s and giggles I put 6 warm diet pepsi in the cooler as soon as I got it home from the outdoor heaven....Walmart. 6 hrs later, they are ice cold. its a winner in my book. im going to figure out a insulation jacket for it.