Portable Electric cooler/heater for food, what do you use?

[Ron Dickey]

Modern times are here. Using a cooler with a Block of Ice or Dry Ice are becoming a thing of the past.

Those of you who have Portable Electric Coolers/Heaters
What brand do you use?
Would you buy it again?
is it just 12v or does it also have 120v for pre-cooling?
Do you connect it to your trailer system, Keep it in Puller,

 

[Pugwinkle-TNT]

I have a BougeRV 30 which I love. It can either be used as a fridge or a freezer but not both at the same time. It is 12 volt and runs on AC. I would buy it again as it's a very good price and I don't think I really NEED a freezer. I simply put frozen stuff in the fridge before I leave for my trip and I like all the space for fresh food.
I connect it to shore power if it's available. If it's not available I either run it off my van while driving and then plug it into my 500 watt GoLabs power station.

 

[olddawgsrule]

Still believe for short runs, ice in a super insulated cooler is the way to go. Longer runs, purchasing 'good' ice is hard and gets expensive

Have a Costway 70qt chest style frig/freeze unit. can do either but not both single mode. Only run frig mainly because we have no need to freeze, anything. It's large enough for a weeks provisions and if we pack it correctly can keep meat frozen for a few days (packed at the bottom in a freezer bag).

I pre-cool 120v, though don't think it much matters.. Worst usage was in the Southwest (hot) and used 22amps in a 24 hour period. Best recorded was 12amps in the Atlantic Maritimes for a 24hr period.

I have a 60ah LiFePo4 battery and with the frig, lighting and some recharging get ~2.5 days. I'm upping to my 90ah soon to extend the days, yet w don't stay anywhere more than 3 days anyway.. It's in the cabin and separate from the vehicle except I charge mainly by DC/DC. I drive, I'm charging. My ATEM charger will do DC/DC or MPPT solar. Covers all the bases for me.

Would I do it again? Depends on pricing and what's new. Size, compressor (a must) and temperature range. I like chest style, just feel they keep food colder longer and can fit more. I often debate going smaller, this size runs well and fits a bunch of food!

Believe I paid $299 3-4yrs back on sale. https://www.costway.com/product/70-...xhkfLT8vCtk437NoCsKUIKPFf49KfkdBoC9X4QAvD_BwE

Think that hit all your questions.

 

[RBB]

I just got back from an 8 day trip with a new BougeRV 22. Very happy with how it performed. I set the temp for 33deg and mainly kept Milk, OJ, beer and other beverages, as well as meat in the fridge. Did NOT power it overnight, only when driving, and it seemed to hold insulation well enough. (Was not in and out once the power was off).
I would recommend, especially for a sub $200 option!

 

[Laurdersz]

I use a Dometic CFX3 portable electric coolers/heater, and I've been quite happy with it. It's durable, reliable, and offers both cooling and heating functions. The dual-zone model I have can operate on both 12v and 120v power sources, which is convenient for pre-cooling at home or using it in the car while traveling. I typically connect it to my trailer's power system, but it's also compatible with a puller or other power sources.

 

[Tony Latham]

We camp for 2-3 night stretches except for our month-long SW trip that we've been doing that trip for nearly a decade. We're strictly ice-cooler campers. I've toyed with jumping to an electric cooler but it would have to include another 100 watts of solar and doubling the battery capacity. It's not worth it.

For our month-long trip, we take two coolers. One in the galley, one in the bed of the truck. We can be out in the boondocks for 4-5 days before we need food, gas, water, ice, and a shower.

For us, ice makes more sense.

Tony

 

[Ron Dickey]

I am still working on the end of my second build we too when camping in our first trailer used 3 coolers. We pulled the a corolla and would put one with drinks and fist mill in back seat the a bagged ice and would replace that ice at stops along the way. Then we carried 2 in the trailer one with just a block of ice which lasted a long time for first meals only opened for short times. 3rd cooler intended for food at out main camping spot where we would be for 3or more days, This cooler had a block of ice and the frozen food and on top of the food we would place Dry Ice. I held well.

With my new trailer I wanted a plug in saving time on emptying out the coolers of water and putting in new ice. We now will be pulling with a Highlander with factory hitch. We may still put the drink cooler in the back seat. And was unsure if power cooler should be in the SUV or the trailer. I might in the future have solar but not planed in the build.

Thank you each for the information your Have put here it helps us a lot as well as other reading this site.

Ron Dickey
Central Coast, CA

 

[VanIsledave]

We spent considerable time going back and forth trying to decide between using ice or buying a fridge/freezer. In the end. and just before we finished our build, we decided to go with a plug in freezer as we didn't want to always be looking for ice. We'd kind of resigned ourselves to spending a gazillion dollars for a dometic but, coincidentally, saw an ad for a "Bodega" cooler.It was less than half of what we were looking at for a dometic, fit the space in our TD and was a dual zone fridge/freezer. After 14 weeks and thousands of miles camping in our TD it's still working great.

It keeps the cold stuff cold, the frozen stuff frozen and we get ice for our g&t's.

As with anything...your mileage may vary.

Dave

 

[Ron Dickey]

Before I retired I worked for Home Depot. My last Dept. was Appliances, Samsung needs repair more often in our store the repair man came from the next county. LG is better but still has problems, GE sold their product to a worse band but they did build a new building for making them and are still good, Whirlpool has fewer problems.

But most of the coolers used that are electric are of other brands, or a sub of one of the big ones. like bodegacooler.com, K-Box, Wagon, Koolatron, Knox, Dometic(a lot of people have), Costway, Engel, Whynter, Alpicool, ARB, Cooluli, Igloo, GoSun Chill, ICECO, BougeRV , EcoFlow Glacier, IceCo , Stanley, EKOJUCE, Euhomy, Zeny (small cooler warmer), Coleman, and many more.

 

[Happy Clamster]

We use a Euhomy freezer/cooler, that travels in the trailer. Runs off car system when traveling, jackery storage battery when not, recharged by solar panel. Works great, no issues with any of it (other than making darn sure everything is firmly plugged in. )

 

[gearsoup]

I'm looking at the Iceco APL55. It's pricey, but it seems to tick the boxes I want: storage space, removable divider, durable build. I can't see a reason to get a freezer, keeping food cool is really all I want. Frozen goods can go at the bottom, plenty of space for other provisions. If it was just my wife and I, I'd definitely go smaller. With 3 teenagers (in the tent) and my wife and I, this unit should give us what we need. I haven't ordered it yet, so if someone has some solid reasons to look elsewhere, I'm all ears!

 

[DJ Davis]

I got the JP30 a few years back. Happy with it so far.