UKC

Does anyone have any opinions (on UKC? Of course they do!) on whether it is worth going for a 12v powered cool box versus a top quality non-powered one? I'm currently using a cheapy tesco cool box which isn't all that good.

Use will be in a van off a leisure battery, so I'm not too concerned about power draw as I vary rarely stay in one spot for too long.

Does anyone have any specific recommendations?

Assuming you don't mean a proper fridge with a compressor, I've had a couple of the other types (my wife is a sucker for gadgets) and I've never thought they were worth the effort.

Depends on how long you want to keep stuff cool for. If it's only for a few hours then a cool box with ice packs is fine, but if you want to go longer than 24 hours then the powered ones are pretty good. My sister uses hers for camping and while it's not 'fridge cold' it still works well even in summer. They'll also cool down things that aren't cold to start with which cool boxes don't tend to do. Can't give you any details on it's make though. 

I have one, it works but I don't usually bother with it. An ordinary cool box and freezer blocks suffice for up to a couple of days. It has proved useful on longer road trips. Downside - mine has no thermostat so the fan is running all the time - this can get irritating.

Use to use cool boxes for keeping deadbaits in when pike fishing. Tip: separate the inner and outer parts then layer polystyrene around the inner and reassemble. Massive improvement.  And load it with use packs.

I like mine and use it a lot but be careful about leaving it switched on in your car  accidentally overnight. Some may have a cutoff that prevents this but mine hasn't.

I have a Dometic cdf18. Very good indeed.

Depends on what the ambient temperature is, most cool boxes only bring the internal temperature down to about 8 to 10 degrees below ambient which is great at 15 degrees but not so worthwhile at 30 degrees.

Best I have used is a Quechua self inflating one from Decathlon (non powered) with ice packs, very light and a bit squishy so fits in an odd shape space when packing the car.

That's a compressor one.

Thanks for the feedback!

I've found the current cool box is just about manageable for a couple of days when packing with cold stuff and using freezer blocks.

Cool rather than cold is what I'm really aiming for. Enough do keep milk for a few days!

That is a top tip for improving the current design. I'll have a rummage for some polystyrene!

The same, had plenty and they achieve virtually nothing. I've even a Ford accessory one which replaces one of the seats in my Galaxy and it's still worth plugging it in. Frozen water bottles are the answer.

Seems to work ok in conjunction with pre frozen blocks if possible.  If you are going to hot places and wont have a campsite who will freeze blocks for you then you may need a proper fridge or buy food daily.  

We've got a tesco one that runs off the car battery when driving and plugs into the mains at a campsite. Wouldnt be without it.

Classic illustration of Newton's first law of the internet - for each opinion posted, there will be an equal and opposite one posted within a minute or two.

12v cool box in a smallish camper van here.  I freeze a 2litre bottle of water before going.  Pack the box so it hasn't got too much air space.  When I'm driving its on full power and I always arrive with nice chilled food.  I usually get at least 24-48 hrs of chilled food doing this which will see me through a weekend without having to plug it in whilst stationary.  If I need longer I will plug it in through the day but they draw about 4amps.  Over 8hrs day or night that's 32amps on a normal leisure battery of 100ah.  If you work on not getting lower than 50%, you only have 18amps for anything else unless you have a way to replenish.  I have solar and in a sunny climate it's not a problem.

Cheers. Excellent advice there on the amount of draw. Sounds like it might be worth a shot.

We really like ours, we use it a lot. We even bought an adapter to plug it into the wall to use as a drinks fridge if we have BBQs and big family meals etc. 

Do you know what the make and model is?

I have one that I got from Halfords and use for camping in a van. I used to have it plugged in to my leisure battery as we were driving every day for at least 4-5 hours but they are extremely power hungry. I ended up damaging the leisure battery by over draining it. I now plug it in to the main battery and only run it when the engine is running. 

It does a pretty good job. Main things are not to leave too much air space and don't expect it to take things from ambient down to chilled. If you put chilled things in then it will do a pretty good job of keeping them cool

I can't remember. We bought it on a road trip in Sweden. It's probably Klas Ohlsen's own brand or something like that

I had one, it was rubbish. Didn't have the guts to actually cool anything, and drank the battery in my car.

I have an Outwell  12V box from Go Outdoors. I've tested it with a thermometer and it doesn't actually lower the temperature inside like a fridge would so if you put warm stuff in it won't make it get colder.

It does however keep cold stuff cold for longer than a normal box but really needs to be packed out with freezerblocks to work best.

We mainly use it when driving down to France etc for holidays and as an example, will keep frozen meat frozen for 2 days. However once on a campsite somewhere warm it's no better than a normal box since you can't really leave it plugged in when not driving for too long and you need to fill it with frozen stuff (food or freezer blocks) to work well.

Out of interest, are you saying that the gap with between the inner and outer is just air?

I've often wondered about that and have considered making a cool box with Kingspan type insulation.

I wondered why the glovebox/storage cubby thing in the car was smooth and white inside until one day I must have pressed something by mistake because a little blue light was on and it was cold inside.  I let you know if I ever try to use it.