RE: thermo-electric coolers

[griffsmom]

 
DH is thinking about getting a thermo-electric cooler for camping.  This past weekend, we saw gsm x2 and G-whiz s Igloo, which looked pretty nice.  
 
 Anyone else out there using thermo-eletric coolers and have any recommendations--good or bad?

[AustinBoston]

 griffsmom
We ve had one for a couple years.  A few observations:
 
 * They are not cold enough in warm weather.  At best, they stay 45 degrees F cooler than the outside air.  That means at 95F, they keep your food at 50F.  Not good.  At more normal temps, it works better.
 
 * Ours is intermittently noisy.  I have disassembled the fan housing to try to identify and fix it, but have been unable to find the source.  It sounds like a piece of paper in the fan.
 
 * If you leave it plugged in your car overnight, it will kill your battery.  Don t ask how I learned that lesson.[]  Twice.[:@]  Corollary: They are not really usable when dry camping.
 
 We have decided to switch to a Coleman Extreme cooler instead of the themo-electric.
 
 Austin

[oldmoose]

 griffsmom
Lori, we ve had one for over 10 years and love it. I agree with AustinBoston about warm temps. In warm weather it doesn t work well. We will probably be taking ours to SLO, but it also depends on how many meals we re cooking. Based on what I m cooking, it ll probably go. I also have 2 of the Coleman Extreme coolers and I really like them. I noticed that you had one also and kept your ice in it.

[jaycocamprs]

 griffsmom
They work ok for travel. But once the temps go up like Austin & Bill said, they just don t keep things cold enough, and in cool weather things will freeze. But if you just want something to keep stuff cool in the car till you can get it in the fridge (can t access the fridge with the top down), then it should work good.

[tlhdoc]

 griffsmom
We use one when traveling and staying in a hotel.  They work pretty good as long as the temperature is moderate and not hot.

[garym053]

 griffsmom
I had a Thermos brand a few years ago and it didn t last a year before it died, but I agree with the others about not cold enough when warm, killing your car (or camper, in my case) battery if you leave it plugged in overnight. When it died, I decided that ice was cheaper and easier to maintain cold temps. AND that s coming from GADGETMAN!

[tomh]

 griffsmom
Using a Thermo Electric Cooler is similar to using the Coleman Extreme cooler.  It is recommended that you keep some frozen food in it or make sure that you pre-chill the items that you put in it.  The cooler will keep things colder longer if you do this.  We usually keep a couple of frozen 1 lb packages of ground beef in ours.
 
 

[SkipP]

 griffsmom
Like Austin, we ve had our s for a few years now. Generally, when we re going to be out and about during the day and we know that it s gonna get warm, we move the cooler inside so the A/C can help keep the cooler inside it s cooling range. A little fussy but it works. We do like the fact that labels don t soak off in the slush because it s dry inside.
 
 If the items that you put in the thermo-electric cooler aren t " pre-chilled" , the thing is almost useless. It does a good job of maintaining temperature but cooling down  is not it s strong suit.
 
 All-in-all, we ve been pleased with ours and as long as you understand it s limitations, it works well.

[whitestar505]

 griffsmom
I have one. Had it for a few years now. I agree with everything said on this thread about them. It will kill your battery which I can not understand for not keeping the food/drink cold. It will only keep it at best cool. Have not decided if we are going to use it this year plugin to our trailer plug . More than likely will kill that battery. Maybe!

[griffsmom]

 griffsmom
Thanks for the great info, everyone.  DH has decided that " ice cold"  wins out over the hassle of dealing with ice.  You ve saved us $ on something that we would probably not have been happy with!

[The Overmans]

 griffsmom
Wife and I have a coleman.   Like everyone has said it doesn t work that great with hot summer weather.  However, we took ours inside the PU and placed on table by bed and pluged it in.  The PU AC keeps the PU cool and and allowed the cooler to work very well.  Kind of like a second refrigerator.  On extended weekend, stuffed it full of water, and juicey juices for the kids.  Kept them very cold.[]

[Viking99]

 griffsmom
We have one and love it. What we do when the temps are going to be warm is put in some of that " blue ice"  To help keep it cold. Never had a problem with ours and it has been very quiet. We usually keep it in the camper when we ago.

[gsm x2]

 griffsmom
Yep, they have their limitations, but we still consider this to be one of our camping purchases because we aren t dealing with ice, ice water, and lack of space because ice takes up so much of it
 
 A few helpful hints on how to deal with it s limitations:
 [ul]

• Prepack the food the nght before and plug it in at home to get everything cool
• Keep the perishables in the refrigerator and save the cooler for things like soda, beer, eggs, and butter
• Keep it inside on really hot hot days
• Unplug it when going to bed on cold nights.[/ul]
   
   We ve had it for two years.  Love it.  I do have to add that we purchased two Colemans first and sent them both back due to excessive fan noise.  The Igloo runs very quiet.
   
   gsm x2

[Sprintcar39]

 griffsmom
We love our eletric cooler, but we have now retired it. We bought a small freezer and will be taking it with us on long campouts. I saw someone with a freezer outside their popup and thought it was the craziest thing I have ever saw until we saw the guy get him a big glass of ice. We went over and talked to the guy about the freezer and blah blah blah he ended up being a distant cousin of mine, so now the freezer idea is not tooo bad. Ohhhh our freezer is the smallest one at Best Buy. I forgot what size it is, but me and the wife can pick it up and put it in the back of my truck with no problems.

[griffsmom]

 griffsmom
Update:  DH couldn t stand there being a toy that we didn t have for the camper, so despite our misgivings about the thermo-electriccooler, he went and bought one anyway![&:][][8D]  We used it at our May rally trip a week ago, and it performed pretty well.  Of course, it wasn t very warm outside and it rained most of one day of the trip.  I did remember to unplug it at night like Scott said, but it still froze my lemons!  
 
 Anyway, I m glad we have it and it *was* nice not having to deal with ice and water getting into some of our preishables.  Thanks for everyone s input! []