Powered Cooler

[pstmacteae]

I'm tired of dealing with ice to keep my food, drinks and fish cold!!! So I've been looking at coolers/freezers that plug in to use in my vehicle, boat and camper.

There are a lot of options, sizes, etc....please let me know if you have any experiences, suggestions or advice on what would be good.

Thanks.

 

[Silent Ocelot]

I don't think an electric cooler is necessary but I 've never used one. I've had success with a Cabela's (YETI style) cooler that is pretty good at prolonged ice retention.

 

[Mashbill]

I have a cabelas Polar Cap 45 cooler. Its great.

I'll make ice blocks before a trip - large Tupperware ice blocks. night before trip ... I 'll put in blue ice packs to cool down cooler. in morning , i put the blocks in with cold beer, ice cubes for my bourbon, etc....

I have ice, everything is freezing cold for 5 ... 6 days. I've had water bottles turn to ice in that cooler.

I'll stop by the Lamar Volunteer Fire Dept for the honor system $1 bag of ice when i need to top it all off.

 

[krayfish2]

Here's another vote for the Cabela's cooler. I did a bunch of research and second guessing before getting a cooler. Have a RTIC 45 for the boat. Heavy, strongly built and ice retention is good (much better than a blow molded Coleman or similar brand). The second one I got was an Engel deep blue 35. Light and much better ice retention. Had to get it because the measurements fit the compartment in my raft.

Wanted the Cabela's cooler but it was either too big or too small. Independent test rate it very very high for durability and ice retention.

 

[herbalwizard]

I have a Smittybilt Arctic fridge/freezer. It was originally purchased on a whim for a family trip to the outer banks 4x4 section, so that kids could have ice cream on the beach. It worked great and I never would have thought how much use we'd get out of it over the past 8 years.

 

[DomR]

I got a Yeti as a present, works great, regular store bought ice keeps for about 2 days in normal conditions. BUT the damn thing is a 2 man job to carry when it's fully loaded. And there's not drain plug so you can't bleed out the water, I'm sure that's to help keep the internal temp better but it sure does give it less ease of use at the beach, you end up either lugging water or trying to tip it without getting your drinks/food sandy.

 

[Canoetripper]

I have a Yeti 40 qt. cooler. It does have a drain plug, which is a big help since water weighs 8.33 lbs./gal. It is heavy when fully loaded, but it keeps ice longer than my other more than adequate three.

After all of my years of canoe tripping, I knew I had to get rid of any water that got in over the canoe because of that weight and shifting water. Cut-out Clorox jugs and industrial length sponges. Get all of that water out as soon as possible and as complete as well.

My other coolers are now 40 year old Gotts and a Rubbermaid, which are much better than anything prior to roto-mold coolers, but nowhere near as good as the roto-molds.

I really only do 4 day camping trips near Blakeslee in the Poconos and I have every thing I might need in a <2 mile drive from my primitive cabin. It also helps keeping my coolers on a porch away from sunlight.

 

[Swattie87]

I have a Yeti. The key to any of those style of coolers is to pre-chill them, and pre-chill your intended contents. Most of your ice loss (50% maybe) is the initial chilling of the cooler itself, and its contents, if not already cold. Once everything is cold, the ice loss is much slower after that.

Toss a bag of ice in the cooler the night before using, and when you go to fill it the next morning, drain all the water out, and refill with new ice and your contents. If your contents is beer, or any other liquid, chill it in the fridge overnight, or in the cooler overnight and replace the lost ice as noted. Extends the life of your ice by 50% or more.

When pre-chilled, I can get 3 days easy, up to 4 or 5, if it’s not too hot and you can keep it in the shade. Long enough that I’d likely need to run out from where I was camping for other resupply items as well and could pick up more ice then. Never felt the need for more ice retention time than that. The electric car fridge scene is nuts, and crazy expensive, and you also have to go down the power supply rabbit hole to outfit your vehicle properly to run it, and not risk killing your primary vehicle battery.

 

[Canoetripper]

I totally agree about pre-chilling the coolers. One of my local beer distributors sells 20 lb. blocks of ice, which also really helps ice last.

My food coolers get the blocks since I only open them twice a day. The beverage coolers get the ice cubes.

It really helps that the primitive cabins where I stay in the Poconos are very close to ice selling places like Harmony Beverage.

 

[cuboodle]

I have an iceco 12V/120V refrigerator/freezer I love it! It replaced a YETI 45 not a single regret. I love the fact that on a 10 day trip their is no need to buy ice and deal with water infiltrating items. They use German made compressors and stand behind their products

 

[Bamboozle]

Buying the occasional bag of ice is a minor hassle and an insignificant expense for me so I don't have to spend a small fortune on a clunky Yeti or equivalent or a mini fridge.

However if I was inclined to go the mini fridge route, I'd look at buying a decent inverter and explore AC/DC/propane fridge options.

FWIW - I love my ancient plain old Igloo coolers with an excellent size to capacity ratio, shelves & a drain. You can improve the insulation capabilities dramatically by getting a can of this, drilling a few holes in the cavities in the lid (which is never insulated), and filling the void with spray foam.

Small plastic plugs will take care of the holes you drill.

You'll be amazed at the difference doing that makes in how long ice lasts and you still are WAY below the cost of a Yeti...

 

[pcray1231]

None of these are plug-in suggestions, they're all coolers.

I do not have a plug-in, sorry. So, like others, I'll make comments on regular coolers instead, lol.

- I will not buy a cooler without wheels. It's not the cooler weight I'm worried about, it's all the stuff I put in it. I am done breaking my back to take a cooler camping.

- I will not buy a cooler without a drain plug. Unpacking to get rid of water is a pain, and it incentivizes not filling with enough ice to make it easier. Just no.

- I have had several coolers, mostly Colemans and Igloos, and used fancy ones others bring like Yeti's, Pelican's and the like. I'm not saying there's zero difference in ice retention, but when you get above soft sided stuff and lunch coolers, and into the hard sided sizable camping coolers, they're all similar and pretty good. As Swattie said, most ice is lost on cooling it down. The night before, pack drinks n food first, then fill with ice. Morning of, drain, and stop at a station and top off ice en route to destination, to the point you have to remove some to close the lid. You're good for about 4-5 days, 3-4 if you drain cold water daily, but I usually stop and get an extra bag during my travels at some point.

I believe my current one is a Coleman Xtreme, and I got it in 2018 after divorce since the ex took my old cooler. Works fine. The roto molded stuff is bombproof, and the hinges and stuff are usually made better, but it's crazy expensive and for my purposes, not really any better at what it does.

 

[Swattie87]

As mentioned, once chilled, it’s actually better to not remove the melted water, unless you’re replacing that lost volume of water with new fresh ice. Once the ice is nearly fully melted, you still have another 24 hours or so of cold temp retention from just the cold water.

 

[pcray1231]

Yes, that's true, but when there's food present, even in tupperware or ziplocks, it gets all soaky. Drinks are fine.

It's pretty rare that I'm worried about my stuff getting warm. It's either not long enough of a trip to be concerned with, or not that hard to grab an extra bag or two of ice somewhere during the trip. So I'm generally a drain daily guy, unless I know I'm going to be stretching it.

 

[salmonoid]

I have some Yeti knockoffs that have performed well. Walmart sells the Lifetime brand (I have a 25qt) and I got a couple of different size Titans from Sierra Trading Post recently (20 and 55 qt). All of them were designed to replace some foam filled Coleman coolers that keep things cool enough to transport from a fridge at home to a fridge at a cabin somewhere, but not coolers you wanted to chance long term storage of food in. Threw two whatever the less than half gallon size of orange juice container in the Lifetime cooler Wednesday morning, filled three quarters full with frozen water (I think that's called ice), along with some frozen steak and sausage, lunch meat, cheese, vegetables. etc. 12 hours later, the steaks still had the same freezer ice on them as when I pulled them out in the morning. Granted, it wasn't all that warm on Wednesday but the cooler was in my car all day.

 

[salmo]

I got a Yeti as a present, works great, regular store bought ice keeps for about 2 days in normal conditions. BUT the damn thing is a 2 man job to carry when it's fully loaded. And there's not drain plug so you can't bleed out the water, I'm sure that's to help keep the internal temp better but it sure does give it less ease of use at the beach, you end up either lugging water or trying to tip it without getting your drinks/food sandy.

I have a Yeti also. Once loaded (the cooler that is) it is a two person job to put in the SUV. Actually, I put the cooler in the SUV first and then load it. I generally use freeze packs vs. Ice in mine. Keeps stuff cold 3 days at a time in the summer.

 

[DomR]

I got a Yeti as a present, works great, regular store bought ice keeps for about 2 days in normal conditions. BUT the damn thing is a 2 man job to carry when it's fully loaded. And there's not drain plug so you can't bleed out the water, I'm sure that's to help keep the internal temp better but it sure does give it less ease of use at the beach, you end up either lugging water or trying to tip it without getting your drinks/food sandy.

Error on my part, my Yeti has a drain plug. Typed too fast for my brain. What I meant was my soft side suitcase Yeti with a snap closure doesn't have a drain plug. Works good for daily outings but is a pita to drain and dry, you need to prop open the closure.

Full disclosure both were gifts from my in-laws. I'm too cheap to spring for them. My Colemans and Igloo's serve me just fine. Also, agree with the above, give a choice the cooler will always have wheels.

 

[salmo]

BTW I bought a Fairly large Rubber Maid Cooler at a food store after the summer season about 25 years ago. It was on sale (did I tell you that I am cheap?). It had a water filled, single freeze pack that screwed into the lid. It was great. I did need to fill it with ice. I accompanied me on many a camping/fishing trip over the years and on trips to the Jersey Shore (in New Jersey). After a couple of days I could dig into the water and ice and if I found a beer I felt like it was Christmas. It became like a member of the family. Last year it gave up the ghost (thus the new Yeti). That cooler did not owe me a penny when it passed away. Actually, I'm getting a little misty as I type this.