12V Cooler Recommendations

Pennywise

Pennywise

Well-known member
Joined
May 5, 2021
Messages
431
Reaction score
542
Ready to pull the trigger and get away from ice. I have a ton of battery capacity & solar in the RV so I don't think I need a battery back up on the cooler. What are the good and bad brands?
 
We have a number of cheap Chinese scamazon ones running in camp. I've had one for years that's been bouncing around in the back of the Jeep for dozens of 5 day+ adventures for 6 years now.

Dometic is definitely king shit, but the $200 ones seem to hold up just fine. It will run for over a day on the battery in the Jeep without pulling the battery down enough to cause starting issues.

Biggest drawbacks?

The cheap ones don't have accurate temp settings. It will absolutely keep things cold to a specific temperature, but the temp on the screen is not reality in the cooler. I use an RV fridge thermometer to determine what setting actually equates to 33* food.

Tossing your wobble pops in there, then cracking an ICDB 5 minutes later? Nope. Not gonna happen. It works like a fridge, so at least an hour before the mountains turn blue.

The battery management is good, but the plugs have voltage drop, so it will shut off earlier than necessary if running in a car. I compare the voltage on the screen to actual battery voltage, then make a decision on where to set the shutoff sensitivity.
 
what about just getting an Ice Maker ? I was thinking about the cooler but now have been thinking about an ice maker - I love ice in my drinks but at $75 bucks a bag out there now - it adds up fast !
 
Poule43 said:
what about just getting an Ice Maker ? I was thinking about the cooler but now have been thinking about an ice maker - I love ice in my drinks but at $75 bucks a bag out there now - it adds up fast !
Click to expand...
I have a regular countertop ice maker for cocktails. For my ice chest in the buggy I freeze water bottles and use them as ice blocks. I haven’t purchased a bag of ice in 7 years.
 
I have three kids and wife pulling drinks out to drink in the desert, would love to have a big one that just helps keep ice from melting, all I have in the cooler is Beer and Seltzers as well. I can live with putting ice in the buggy Ice Chest and for cocktails. The $12 a 16lb bag is getting out of hand.
 
Poule43 said:
what about just getting an Ice Maker ? I was thinking about the cooler but now have been thinking about an ice maker - I love ice in my drinks but at $75 bucks a bag out there now - it adds up fast !
Click to expand...
We did a Dumont trip, buggy round up, and there were zero vendors and no ice trucks. It was a 35 min drive back to town. My fault for lack of planning and assuming Dumont was like Glamis. I'll start keeping more ice in the freezer for Dumont trips. I'm thinking the 12V cooler takes care of keeping the camp drinks cold all weekend.

I do like the frozen water bottle idea for the car cooler. I'll be doing that one for sure, toss them in the freezer at night and they'll be ready to go in the morning.
 
I have one of the cheaper ones. I think it's made by Bouge rv. I've had it on several 1-2 day trips and it does its job. I don't plug it into the car but through a Bluetti battery pack and it doesn't suck much juice. Leave it on regular mode to cool it, then eco mode to keep it cold. No issue.
 
I have the Iceco VL60 Dual zone that I hook up to my Blueti battery bank and 200w solar setup! It's awesome!
I do still bring a cooler for beer and put that on ice! Everything else in the cooler/fridge!
 
i have this works great gets cold fast and the icecream is like a brick.the nice thing about it is that the temp is consistent the propane fridge freezes the salad and fruit at night and gets warm during the day the electric is definitaly the way to go. i run it off a pretty big jackery with the starlink about 2 hrs a day on the generator and all is good i also have a norcold 10 plus years old it works great just not worht the money and its to heavy to move around https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZTX8FCS?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_3&th=1
 
Last edited:
I have a iceco love it also just bought a recpro 12v refrigerator for the new stacker
 
Jersey_Jeff73 said:
i have this works great gets cold fast and the icecream is like a brick.the nice thing about it is that the temp is consistent the propane fridge freezes the salad and fruit at night and gets warm during the day the electric is definitaly the way to go. i run it off a pretty big jackery with the starlink about 2 hrs a day on the generator and all is good i also have a norcold 10 plus years old it works great just not worht the money and its to heavy to move around https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZTX8FCS?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_3&th=1
Click to expand...
I have a smaller model. My only fault found is that when run on 12V off of my car, I would get an error message occasionally saying the unit detected under voltage, then it stopped all cooling. Not great when I was driving across country and would go 400 miles between fuel stops.
 
Fireballsocal said:
I have a smaller model. My only fault found is that when run on 12V off of my car, I would get an error message occasionally saying the unit detected under voltage, then it stopped all cooling. Not great when I was driving across country and would go 400 miles between fuel stops.
Click to expand...
The connections have some voltage drop to them. I set the battery management to Low and it’s stayed on all the way until my Jeep is a bit slower to crank, which is perfect IMO.
 
Fireballsocal said:
I have a smaller model. My only fault found is that when run on 12V off of my car, I would get an error message occasionally saying the unit detected under voltage, then it stopped all cooling. Not great when I was driving across country and would go 400 miles between fuel stops.
Click to expand...
hmmm i pretty much keep it plugged into the jackery with the 12v adapter, i know it has 3 setting for the low voltage cut out i drove back to nj full of meat from remeys 3 days in the trailer on the jackery no problem
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top