Igloo Portable Electric Coolers (18-60QT)

We do a couple of multi day trips per year. While our kids were growing up, we used a Coleman Extreme cooler. It worked well. You would pack it up good and it would hold for days and days. The cooler was big and the sides were thick, but it still held plenty for us. It took up a lot of room in the car and it was a little bulky and I would typically leave it outside in the car, even if we stopped at a hotel or a motel on our journey. I would take it out of the car and sit it on the ground before heading out for the day to drain out the water using the drain spout.

In recent times, as our kids have grown up, we have found ourselves not really wanting to tote that big cooler around and deal with buying ice and draining water. Sometime back, on some trip, we didn’t have a cooler with us because of this, and we had some stuff we bought that we needed to take home, so we bought a super cheap Styrofoam cooler somewhere. The cheapest of the cheap. No shell, no hinges, no latch for the lid, but it was small and easily stashed behind the front seat where it could be easily reached while driving. Even though we had similar sized plastic coolers, we would generally just use that one, because we figure we don’t really care if it didn’t make it home, or if we ended up giving it to someone.

We were about to embark on a several day trip. One of our adult children was going to join us, so we didn’t think that cooler would be enough. We didn’t want to bring the big Coleman extreme, because we were going to need as much room in the car as possible on the return trip. We had been looking at these iceless coolers for awhile, both the thermo electric coolers and the compressor based refrigerators.

I weighed all the pros and cons. I came very very close to buying a compressor based cooler instead of this one, but I finally settled on this one, with the knowledge that everywhere I would be using it, would be less than 75 degrees, either my air conditioned car, or a hotel, or an inn, or a Bed and Breakfast. It was designed to fit perfectly on the floor behind the back seat, and I already had a converter so I would be able to keep it powered in the car and in our rooms. I also got this because it seemed there was less to go wrong with it than a compressor based unit, and because it didn’t have the compressor, there was more usable interior volume for the same size exterior. Also most, not all, of the compressor based units, don’t appear to have handles and are more expensive, at least ones from a known brand. I would not say that having a compressor based cooler is not still in my future at some point, but I didn’t think I needed one for this trip.

With all that said, I just completed my first 4 day trip with this cooler. It worked Perfectly. I plugged it in in the house, the night before our departure. That morning I filled it with cold items from the fridge. A full 12 pack of bottled water, several 6 packs of 8 oz sodas, and some snacks. I was really surprised how much it could hold. Because it has a smaller base, it is taller, and it can make it a little challenging to reach stuff on the bottom when it is full, but it is as big as it can be and still fit behind the seat, and the extra height helps you maintain some of the volume you have to sacrifice to maintain that footprint. Also the fact you don’t have to give up any of the interior volume for ice helps a lot as well.

Because of the fans on top, you also lose the ability to use it as any kind of seat, or to sit anything on top of it while packing your car. Again, small sacrifices for the convenience. We kept it plugged in for the 10-12 hour drive to our destination. It kept everything inside nice and cold. We would turn off the car for maybe an hour at a time at rest areas, or to eat. When the car was off, the power to the cooler was cut automatically, so we didn’t have to worry about it draining the car battery and didn’t need to unplug or turn off the cooler. It maintained the coolness no problem during the time it was not powered. Upon arriving at our destination, we brought it inside our room and plugged it in. Even though the room came with a refrigerator, we didn’t even bother using it. Everything was cold enough in the cooler, there was no reason or need to transfer anything to the refrigerator in the room. Two days later, we moved to a new location, about an hour away. I didn’t even bother plugging it in for that trip, but plugged it in again on arrival. The following morning, we again plugged it in in the car for another 10 hour or so drive.

So all in all, for this type of trip, this worked perfectly for us. Note there was no time here, where the cooler had to be away from power, or exposed to a warm environment, for more than an hour or so. I don’t know how long it could stay cold if you had to leave it in your car while you were on a hike or seeing some sights. I would imagine you could keep some icepacks inside to help it through those times. For this initial trip we made, we knew in advance, we were not going to have those situations, so we didn’t bother to bring any icepacks, and they were indeed not needed.

I particularly remember at one point, a friend of ours was heading out to find a convenience store so they could buy some more ice for their own cooler. They asked as they were leaving if we would like them to pick us up some ice for ours, an offer I likely would have taken them up on before. I was like, no, we are all set, our cooler doesn’t need ice. It was a good feeling.

So, there are definitely times were we have used our Coleman extreme ice chest, where this cooler probably wouldn’t have been a suitable replacement. Like camping at a campsite without power for three days. For trips like we just did though, a road trip where it can be plugged in while driving, with a room with electricity as the final destination, and this cooler works like a champ.

We’ve taken this on two road trips in the last 6 weeks and a total of 8 days on the road. We figured we had nothing to lose if it didn’t work as we could get a refund due to Amazon’s good refund policy. We liked this well made Igloo much better than expected. First of all, it came quickly…a big reason that we chose this cooler as we hadn’t planned well. We owned a Coleman years ago and the cord was so short we had to keep the cooler in the back of the SUV right next to the outlet. . We ordered a cord for this one expecting the same issue, BUT we were pleasantly surprised as the cord that came with it was long enough to set this in our second seat and simply plug into cigarette lighter. Having the convenience of the cooler in the second seat was wonderful!
The unit is very quiet so we could only hear it when we were in idle. It holds more than we expected, too. We used a tall glass container for homemade soup…plus quart of milk and lunch fixings for up to three days and had plenty of room.
We did not take it in with us at the hotel much because it was cold outside most of the trip, but when we were in the southern states, we wheeled it into the hotel room. The wheels were very substantial and the unit worked like a champ. I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes to travel with their own food.
Edit: Six months later now and just wanted to add this was one of our best purchases on Amazon. We leave the unit in our car to use when we run into the city for our Costco fish run. Additionally, we have used the heater mode multiple times when we take hot food to friend dinners. We are pleasantly surprised how hot it keeps the food. Highly recommended!

i run it in my boat off a solar panel

No la probado en viajes largos pero si enfría