Thermoelectric Coolers?

[olddodgevan]

I have a Koolatron as well. 22 yrs of service. Use mine as backup to fridge in rig. Start with cold products in the cooler and it works very well.
A cooler does just that...keep things cool. A fridge is for food.

 

[kojackJKU]

Exactly. I don't expect to go 20 days with perishable food in my coleman, but I can keep my beer, drinks, and wieners and stuff cold until im ready to use them.

 

[Wainiha]

Just so everyone knows, the danger zone for food is between 40 and 140

All food must be held above or below this zone. Not talking cans and unpeeled fruit or dry goods obviously.

Hot food above 140 needs to be below 40 within 4 hours or there is a chance of spoilage.

Food Safety 101 from Western Culinary, Portland, OR

 

[kojackJKU]

well, had a nice surprise from my coleman today, cracked open another test can of pepsi and it was slush! yummie! and totally unexpected. yeah! works for me.

 

[highdesertranger]

ok I have a little experience on this subject. I am not a weekender I go out for long trips 1-3 months. I am a prospector. I have tried all the options listed in this thread, so in review. obviously we want to stay in the field as long as possible. ice was killing us. with proper planning, don't open that ice chest until day 3, wrap the ice chests in sleeping bags, bury the ice chest and so on we could last a week maybe 10 days(if temps were not to high) before we would have to get more ice. since we are talking remote locations this would always blow a whole day plus the gas. we would end up buying 20-40 dollars worth of ice. something had to change. 1st try rv absorption refrigerators. they worked so so, the hotter the outside temps the worse they performed and used more propane. which would eventually we would run out of, so instead of making an ice run we were making a propane run. now sometime between the rv frig and the dorm frig we tried to supplement with the thermoelectric coolers. my thoughts on thermoelectric, energy hogs we needed more solar so we got more solar but with temps above the 80's they were not safe for food and would take forever to bring sodas or beer down to a cool temp. so we tried dorm refers. again energy hogs and at this time we had 300 watts of solar and 2 marine batts. would not keep up, could go about a week, maybe a little longer with cooler ambient temps. so after all this we are still burning gas to keep food and drinks cool or cold, to run the truck to recharge the batts. then in 2008 I saw one of the 12v refers. I bought one, boy what a revelation ice cold for months just sips power, so I bought another, then I cut back on the solar. in the future I will buy one more for a dedicated freezer. so as a recap for weekenders or trips for a week or were you can resupply easy ice chests are fine. for longer trips nothing and I mean nothing beats the 12v refers. you are not saving anything trying to get around this. if I just would have gone with the 12v refer from the start I would have saved hundreds or thousands of dollars. the choice is yours. highdesertranger

 

[kojackJKU]

as we go for weekends, 3 days max and sometimes with our camper in tow, I feel our little thermoelectric is great for what we do. But I agree, for long durations its not the best choice.

 

[William33]

I think it's worth to bring such a thread back to life. A Thermoelectric Cooler is one of the main things to pack with you for a trip. Especially if you live in a generally hot area. How the heck did I, and the kids manage before? We would take long trips stopping to buy some drink or some ice cream for the kids. Thankfully I finally got the brains to buy a koolatron 29 qt. Voyager cooler. It’s quite a handy little guy, I’ve gotta say. We load that cooler with all the goodies we need, and he is our little fridge for the whole ride. I looked into https://under-the-open-sky.com/best-thermoelectric-coolers/ to see the different top cheap thermoelectric coolers. I am quite set on my choice. I have a review for the cooler in case you're interested:
I didn't spend much too, which is a good thing. Then again not really as cheap stuff is not known for being all that perfect... First, off the capacity ain't that big as I would have wanted. Second, it can get pretty noisy with this little fella. I guess I've had my say. Now, it’s all down to you to decide. I was glad to share.

 

[richardoceros]

For people who want to maximize their cooling power during events at home or at any location where they have an electric plug in, then they might want to consider an electric cooler. just having one for long trips is such a life saver. Some coolers only provide just that, a cooling sensation. However, other coolers also offer warming options as well. That's why I choose my thermoelectric cooler. You can switch between 2 sides.

 

[Happy Joe]

From the Tried That Dept;
The Coleman thermo-electric (TE) cooler that I had for a while (ended up throwing it away because I couldn't GIVE it away).. worked slightly better than a blow molded insulationless CHEAP cooler. TE coolers only cool something like 40 F below ambient (90F -40F=50F; cool NOT COLD drinks and unfrozen (melted) ice cream, and have problems even doing that if they are opened often).
The CHEAP blow molded cooler was better for trips because you can get ICE when needed as you gas up.
When used with ice, while camping the Thermoelectric cooler was a bit better as the CHEAP cooler, however, as mentioned it will drain a battery relatively quickly (overnight), and they dump waste heat into the passenger compartment.

Tried the fridge thing (Energy star) works OK in the vehicle while it is running and if the air conditioning is on, but it, too, dumps waste heat into the passenger compartment significantly reducing comfort levels for any passengers/pets.
Expect refrigerators to drain batteries in times ranging from overnight to 3 days or so (for larger deep discharge batteries) unless the engine is run everyday or other means of recharging the battery is used (tried solar but it is NOT compatible with shady; comfortable, campsites - I normally Base Camp and explore/hike/wheel the surrounding countryside). IMO fridges are best used by road trippers (overlanders?) who drive every day or 2.

I currently use a well insulated high tech, high efficiency cooler (easily keeps ice for 4 to 6 days (including 4-5 day camping trips) if the lid is not opened every half hour. Mine happens to be a Pelican (didn't want rubber band latches) but there are many equivalents. Again on road trips ICE is not a problem because you can refill when you gas up or every 3rd-4th day. While camping you will likely want to do a grocery/beer/munchie run ever week or so; and again ice can be replenished.

BTW block ice still lasts better than cubes...

Enjoy!

 

[xvz12]

I have a Coleman Powerchill, & the current draw is almost 4 amps, continuous. They don't cycle like a fridge, they run all the time. That makes for a pretty significant drain on your battery system. I get by pretty well with ours by throwing a few bottles of ice in it, & also have 200W of Solar panels. I will run it during the day, while the panels are producing, then unplug it when the sun goes down. It's been working fairly well for me...of course, I've never had it out for more than 5 days at a time.

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

Why bring a knife to a gunfight just buy a real fridge and be done with it.

 

[e60ral]

i used to have one, it was a coleman on clearance for $40ish. i used it in the front to keep drinks and snacks cool and in reach while driving on hot days so i didn't have to stop and get them out of the fridge in the back, and IMO that's really the only thing these are good for. it wouldn't have been worth it at full price, at the clearance price i liked cold drinks in arms reach.

my actual real fridge in the back is my favorite accessory since i use it every day (i leave it in the vehicle and keep lunch food and drinks so if i'm at the office or on a project site I've always got something for lunch, so it's not only used on camping trips)

 

[Ducky's Dad]

My wife bought me a big (50-ish quart) Coleman TE a couple of years ago. I thought it was a great idea to keep stuff cool in the house, not in the truck. Put it in the corner of the kitchen, plugged it into AC and started using it to cool bottles of water and similar stuff before loading them into the fridge. Two problems with it:

1. It did not keep things very cool once summer hit, even parked away from windows and doors and on the floor.
2. Constant condensation leaving puddles on the floor of the cooler, such that if I didn't mop it out every day, the thing got moldy.

Now it sits there, unused and forlorn, too bulky even for dry storage. I should just throw it away.

Being a bit of a gear freak, I have truck fridges from ARB, Indel B, and Whynter. I prefer the Indel B.

 

[shade]

Tried the fridge thing (Energy star) works OK in the vehicle while it is running and if the air conditioning is on, but it, too, dumps waste heat into the passenger compartment significantly reducing comfort levels for any passengers/pets.

I don't know what fridge you were using, but that hasn't been the case with my compressor cooled Indel B. It's quiet, power demands are minimal, and the heat it creates in the passenger compartment isn't noticed.

The cold-box-for-food options are well known. Each have their strengths and weaknesses. Pick what works best for your situation, and off you go.