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Quoted: Yes iceco and won’t ever take a cooler anymore. Battery management is a must and even better if you have a full time solar panel to keep your battery system charged. I’ve got 400 watts of solar on the roof, 200 ah of lithium in the bed, a 30 amp Victron DC/DC charger, and 30 amp Victron MPPT. I haven’t turned my fridge off in over 18 months. Beer and water stay cold 24/7 just waiting for the next adventure. All I do is throw in the groceries and go. |
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Quoted: OK, so I guess you were trying to show that more than one company makes a cooler with an onboard battery. Cool. The one you linked appears to be much more expensive because the battery is sold separately. You can get a Edited to fix the pricing on the sizes of the Anker. I have the Anker SOLIX EverFrost 2 40L Electric Cooler and second battery. I got it from Welbot's with 5% off both items I love it! But It doesn't have separate freezing/fridge area that I am aware of. |
| I have an Engel 45 for use as a freezer and an Engel 17 for use as a drink cooler that I've been running for the last 12 years in my van. I'm about to retire them both and get a dual zone unit. We only use coolers if we are going somewhere that we can take them inside with us like a water park or the ball field. |
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Quoted: I have the Anker SOLIX EverFrost 2 40L Electric Cooler and second battery. I got it from Welbot's with 5% off both items I love it! But It doesn't have separate freezing/fridge area that I am aware of. The larger one (58L?) is dual zone. I ordered the 40L from Wellbots as well. |
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I have an ARB Classic 50qt and an Engel MT27 22qt. They are game changers for car camping. I've owned the ARB for 5 years now, it's been used non-stop. In the summer it lives in the truck, powered off a house battery and a single 100w panel. In the winter it's inside. Use it for drinks year round, and food when traveling. Would I buy it again? No, only because the ARB (and similar Dometic) use the same Secop compressor used in the much cheaper Iceco fridges. I'd buy an Iceco as they are the most established "off-brand" using a Secop compressor. I use the Engel MT27 for work. Bought this model for it's size, and it's been treating me well for over a year of near continuous use. Always having cold food and cold drinks is nice, it's cools off fast when you turn it on. If you're looking for the "best" 12v fridge, Engel is it. For the same money as the ARB and Dometic fridges, you can get an equivalent Engel. Engel's swing motor compressor is incredibly efficient and uses less power. It's a little noisier than the Secop compressor fridges, but it doesn't bother me. You won't get digital controls or Bluetooth with an Engel, but you do get consistent quality and cooling performance. |
i have this one, works amazingly well and will run close to 24 hours on a 270wh portable battery  
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I have two cheapo China ones A 35 qt and. 55qt one Both work great Once you get used to not using ice you will not want to go back Kinda of like YouTube premium. Once you get used to it. Yiu dont wanna see an ad again or use ice again With that said I’ve always wanted to see one cut open to see what - if any - type of insulation they have |
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Quoted: Yeah, just don't plug in both if you have a Dometic. Quoted: Quoted: They almost all come with a dc plug and an ac adapter that turns 120ac into 12v dc Good to know. As I’ve only used the cheaper non dometic ones. Didn’t know you could plug both ac and dc at the same time. Seems like a bad design |
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Quoted: Running an ICECO JP-50 off a Bluetti. It's nice for those week long excursions to the backcountry. I picked ICECO because of their compressor, CS, and it was sort of be t ween the cheaper Amazon models and the super expensive Dometics. |
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I ran one on a boat for 3 seasons. Still have it and it works great. When you look at the form factor, you realize how much space is wasted using ice to keep things cool. You're able to carry/cool so much more. Obvious downsides are weight & electricity but I think the trade off is more than worth it. Cooler Portable battery 
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I use an Iceco powered by a Bluetti 550 that is charged either by shore power or with a 24v converter while traveling. The setup stays in my truck. I always have cold drinks and sandwich supplies at hand. The fridge was large enough to hold all my food and drinks for a five day solo trip across the Georgia Traverse trail. The initial cost can be a bit much , but never having to deal with ice again is worth it. Also, a 48qt cooler now holds 48qt of food and drink not 24qts of ice. Attached File |
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Quoted: Recommendation on what to buy that's an actual fridge with a compressor and has a adjustable thermostat? Something in the 50qt size range. https://engelcoolers.com/products/mt60-acdc-camping-fridge |
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I have a 40L AcoPower Lion cooler. It is about 4 years old. Works great. I have two batteries for it and even a 90W solar panel that can run it and charge the batteries at the same time. No problems. I also have an Explorer Bear 50L 12V cooler. Can run off 100Vac or 12Vdc. Runs good too. Just too good of a deal to pass up. That unit is two years old. No problems. They have worked great as backups when the power goes out. As far as an included battery I got the Lion Cooler for that reason and it works fine, but it is not as good as I thought it would be. A small portable power station is actually better as the dedicated batteries are more expensive per Wh and not as versatile as a small power station. The High Medium and Low voltage settings are there so you do not drain your vehicle battery too low to start it back up. The cooler will shut itself off when your car battery voltage drops to the set point. Better to lose some food that get stuck in the middle of nowhere. On top of that no ice. The rule of thumb is that if you pack 10 pounds of food in the cooler you need 20 pounds of ice to make it last tree days or so. |
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I have an Engel MT 45 that's been running continuously for close to 20 years. It serves primarily as my back porch beer cooler. Old technology, nothing digital and just a knob thermostat on the unit. Does 115AC or 12VDC ETA: Just looked back and I bought it in March 2009, so 16 years. |
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Quoted: We have a 53Qt Cooler/freezer that runs on 12v or 120-240 AC. Bought on Amazon. Has a freezer section or the entire box can be a refrig. Gets cold super fast, we like it. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D8RZZSMQ?tag=arfcom00-20 Love that removable divider since we use it strictly as a refrigerator 95% of the time. I wouldn't buy one without the removable divider. |
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Quoted: Thanks for all of the advice, guys. I really appreciate it. I went ahead and ordered a Boguerv 42qt cooler. It is a cheaper model, but I will give it a shot and if it works for us, I will order something nicer. Thanks again. |
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Quoted: Here's my question. How long does it take to get cold. I haven't ever timed it. I would guess a couple hours to get to temp from a hot start. Once it is at temp it's pretty reliable. Its best to plug it in to power in your house before taking it out to the car and filling it. |
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Quoted: About 15 minutes from mid 60s to 33 on my 41 qt BougeeRV one I keep in my work truck. Quoted: Quoted: Here's my question. How long does it take to get cold. About 15 minutes from mid 60s to 33 on my 41 qt BougeeRV one I keep in my work truck. Now I am thinking.. "I should time mine". LOL |
I have the Euhomy
The remote control from my phone is nice. It's great to not have waterlogged food. Aside from traveling, I like the ability to grocery shop in the summer heat and then be able to put the food into the Euhomy. Set the temp low and the frozen food won't thaw while you make another stop on the way home. |
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Quoted: Now I am thinking.. "I should time mine". LOL Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Here's my question. How long does it take to get cold. About 15 minutes from mid 60s to 33 on my 41 qt BougeeRV one I keep in my work truck. Now I am thinking.. "I should time mine". LOL |
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Bought the Igloo 80L one from Costco for $400. It's pretty great although it's on the larger size and I'd love to get one a bit smaller for camping as this thing takes up a lot of room. Dual zone is pretty nice, can keep beverages colder than food or even use one side as a freezer if needed. Quoted: Here's my question. How long does it take to get cold. Last week it took about an hour and a half to bring 'sitting in the back of a SUV in the Florida sun' beverages down to 37F. Usually when camping I'll keep bottles of water in both 'zones' to store some thermal energy to help with the adjustment of new stuff being put in. A grocery run would usually take about 10-15 minutes of run time before switching back to maintenance cooling. |
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Quoted: Good to know. As I’ve only used the cheaper non dometic ones. Didn’t know you could plug both ac and dc at the same time. Seems like a bad design Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: They almost all come with a dc plug and an ac adapter that turns 120ac into 12v dc Good to know. As I’ve only used the cheaper non dometic ones. Didn’t know you could plug both ac and dc at the same time. Seems like a bad design I’m not sure that is correct. I dont have a domestic, but like any high end 12v fridge freezer, they call out AC priority in their cfx3 manual, and don’t have any warning there either Engels, arbs and dometics have two power ports, dc and ac Priority is ac, like if you plug it in at a campsite either power, or the day before you roll out, or an inverter than runs when your vehicle is on, and they switch to dc when ac is lost All the chinese ones , even higher end ones that I have seen are single power port |
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Quoted: Bought the Igloo 80L one from Costco for $400. It's pretty great although it's on the larger size and I'd love to get one a bit smaller for camping as this thing takes up a lot of room. Dual zone is pretty nice, can keep beverages colder than food or even use one side as a freezer if needed. Last week it took about an hour and a half to bring 'sitting in the back of a SUV in the Florida sun' beverages down to 37F. Usually when camping I'll keep bottles of water in both 'zones' to store some thermal energy to help with the adjustment of new stuff being put in. A grocery run would usually take about 10-15 minutes of run time before switching back to maintenance cooling. Thanks everyone, I might grab one. The frozen bottle and prechill at home is a good idea. Some weeks my nurse GF gets an unscheduled day off, it'd be nice just to grab stuff and go. |
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Quoted: Here's my question. How long does it take to get cold. Not long when empty, 15-30 minutes Anything in it, especially hot, and it will just run nonstop trying to cool it down They work great when you out cold things in it They don’t have enough power to quickly cool things, or freeze things fast |
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Quoted: Bought the Igloo 80L one from Costco for $400. It's pretty great although it's on the larger size and I'd love to get one a bit smaller for camping as this thing takes up a lot of room. Dual zone is pretty nice, can keep beverages colder than food or even use one side as a freezer if needed. Last week it took about an hour and a half to bring 'sitting in the back of a SUV in the Florida sun' beverages down to 37F. Usually when camping I'll keep bottles of water in both 'zones' to store some thermal energy to help with the adjustment of new stuff being put in. A grocery run would usually take about 10-15 minutes of run time before switching back to maintenance cooling. $400?!!! How? Its double that price now? ETA found this one. Not sure how reliable it is....but for the price, it might be a buy. 
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Quoted: Anker makes the Solix C300 DC that’s the same 288 watt hours of battery, and can take a 12V cigarette plug. I snagged one for $120 this past year, and another for $200 with a 60 watt foldable solar panel. Why buy a fridge with a dedicated battery? It just makes it larger than it should be, more expensive proprietary batteries, and less useful. My C300 DC powers either of my fridges great (2-3 days depending on conditions), can use to for a multitude of things (charge phones/tablets, power my Starlink Mini, use as a camp light etc), and doesn’t make a small capacity fridge the size of a large capacity fridge. Also with the 60 watt panel I can run it indefinitely with sunny days. Cloudy days not so much. Quoted: Quoted: I’ve been eyeing one of these lately. My main justification for it would be that I can take it on the road when I’m working and pack healthier alternatives than eating on the run all the time. Anker Solis recently came out with one that can run off of 110, 12 V or internal batteries. It’s a single zone unit, but can go all the way down to freeze the contents if desired.Looks like they come with one battery, but the cooler has room for two. They claim that it will run for almost 3 days on one battery. I figured if you left it plugged into a switched 12 V outlet in your vehicle while you are traveling it could be a pretty good set up. Kind of pricey at $899 though, so I’m still kicking it around. Anker makes the Solix C300 DC that’s the same 288 watt hours of battery, and can take a 12V cigarette plug. I snagged one for $120 this past year, and another for $200 with a 60 watt foldable solar panel. Why buy a fridge with a dedicated battery? It just makes it larger than it should be, more expensive proprietary batteries, and less useful. My C300 DC powers either of my fridges great (2-3 days depending on conditions), can use to for a multitude of things (charge phones/tablets, power my Starlink Mini, use as a camp light etc), and doesn’t make a small capacity fridge the size of a large capacity fridge. Also with the 60 watt panel I can run it indefinitely with sunny days. Cloudy days not so much. I totally get your logic on this one, and normally my train of thought is right there on getting as much usage out of things as possible. However, when it comes to these coolers, at least for me, the “all in one” nature of the cooler and batteries being one unit is one of the biggest draws to that item. If this cooler was never going to leave my vehicle, then I could see running a separate battery such as the one you mentioned. But if I even end up getting one of these things it’s going to do double duty not only as a vehicle-based cooler, but also something I would drag to the beach, take out on the boat or throw in the bed of my side-by-side. I just can’t see dragging a separate battery and dealing with cords in those instances where I’d need the flexibility of running off a battery. I really appreciate seeing other options though. There’s always a chance that there’s something out there that I’m not aware of that could be a better solution. |
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Quoted: I have an alpicool. Works great for one-week or longer camping trips. As others have said, have rechargeable battery for running it when not on your car power or generator. Same. I power mine with a Jackery 500. While driving, the Jackery charges off the car, and solar panels while in camp. |
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Quoted: I'm not sure that is correct. I dont have a domestic, but like any high end 12v fridge freezer, they call out AC priority in their cfx3 manual, and don't have any warning there either Engels, arbs and dometics have two power ports, dc and ac Priority is ac, like if you plug it in at a campsite either power, or the day before you roll out, or an inverter than runs when your vehicle is on, and they switch to dc when ac is lost All the chinese ones , even higher end ones that I have seen are single power port Maybe they've fixed it recently, but there was a bunch of discussion about it on Expedition Portal. I bought my cfx3 last summer and I'm pretty sure it came with the warning. |
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Quoted: I totally get your logic on this one, and normally my train of thought is right there on getting as much usage out of things as possible. However, when it comes to these coolers, at least for me, the “all in one” nature of the cooler and batteries being one unit is one of the biggest draws to that item. If this cooler was never going to leave my vehicle, then I could see running a separate battery such as the one you mentioned. But if I even end up getting one of these things it’s going to do double duty not only as a vehicle-based cooler, but also something I would drag to the beach, take out on the boat or throw in the bed of my side-by-side. I just can’t see dragging a separate battery and dealing with cords in those instances where I’d need the flexibility of running off a battery. I really appreciate seeing other options though. There’s always a chance that there’s something out there that I’m not aware of that could be a better solution. Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I’ve been eyeing one of these lately. My main justification for it would be that I can take it on the road when I’m working and pack healthier alternatives than eating on the run all the time. Anker Solis recently came out with one that can run off of 110, 12 V or internal batteries. It’s a single zone unit, but can go all the way down to freeze the contents if desired.Looks like they come with one battery, but the cooler has room for two. They claim that it will run for almost 3 days on one battery. I figured if you left it plugged into a switched 12 V outlet in your vehicle while you are traveling it could be a pretty good set up. Kind of pricey at $899 though, so I’m still kicking it around. Anker makes the Solix C300 DC that’s the same 288 watt hours of battery, and can take a 12V cigarette plug. I snagged one for $120 this past year, and another for $200 with a 60 watt foldable solar panel. Why buy a fridge with a dedicated battery? It just makes it larger than it should be, more expensive proprietary batteries, and less useful. My C300 DC powers either of my fridges great (2-3 days depending on conditions), can use to for a multitude of things (charge phones/tablets, power my Starlink Mini, use as a camp light etc), and doesn’t make a small capacity fridge the size of a large capacity fridge. Also with the 60 watt panel I can run it indefinitely with sunny days. Cloudy days not so much. I totally get your logic on this one, and normally my train of thought is right there on getting as much usage out of things as possible. However, when it comes to these coolers, at least for me, the “all in one” nature of the cooler and batteries being one unit is one of the biggest draws to that item. If this cooler was never going to leave my vehicle, then I could see running a separate battery such as the one you mentioned. But if I even end up getting one of these things it’s going to do double duty not only as a vehicle-based cooler, but also something I would drag to the beach, take out on the boat or throw in the bed of my side-by-side. I just can’t see dragging a separate battery and dealing with cords in those instances where I’d need the flexibility of running off a battery. I really appreciate seeing other options though. There’s always a chance that there’s something out there that I’m not aware of that could be a better solution. Also, even if I leave it in the back of the SUV all the time, I don't have to worry about another battery rolling around back there. I can break out the external battery and solar panel for a camping trip. |
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Quoted: $400?!!! How? Its double that price now? ETA found this one. Not sure how reliable it is....but for the price, it might be a buy. www.amazon.com/dp/B0CKKK3P67 They were $400 on clearance. This was full price. 
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Yeah, should have clarified. Was their clearance price although it seemed like they had it on sale for a very long time. |
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Quoted: Yeah, should have clarified. Was their clearance price although it seemed like they had it on sale for a very long time. Quoted: Yeah, should have clarified. Was their clearance price although it seemed like they had it on sale for a very long time. $830 current price |
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$800 would be a hard buy for me. I walked past it for a month and a half at the clearance price before biting. If I had to buy another one tomorrow I'd go smaller too. |
| Damn Arfcom spendin my money again. Picked up the BougeRV 30qt Pro. We'll use it for 1-2 day camp trips. A little concerned about the size but the fact I dont need to worry about ice and some stuff (drinks and such) can be kept out until a few hours before needing them i think it should work out. We have a camping trip planned end of the month so I'll find out pretty soon. |
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Quoted: Too big? Def looks/sounds like a pain to move around.... It's certainly large but a lot of the 50L coolers are deceptively close. I'd be much happier if it was about an inch shorter but it certainly dominates storage space. This is the only spot it will fit in the bed of the Tacoma with the tonneau cover:  On a camping trip that means if you need to access it on the road everything needs to come out to shift it forward so that you can open it. It works better in the 4Runner so long as you don't need one of the rear seats:  The only time I've really been close to filling it all the way was a grocery run. It's a lot of space for a camping trip, even for packing for multiple days. I had five days of groceries for six people plus beverages with room to spare. Realistically, the one to two person camping trips can get away with a heck of a lot less and when you are dealing with groups there is usually enough cooler space with everyone else to spread the storage as needed. |