portable coolers or refrigerators

Regular dorm fridge and inverter works for me.

 

Just make sure that the food you put in it is already frozen and the sodas or what ever else is cold before it goes in. I have it kind of easy and when my wife cooks meals for her and the 2 kids during the week she just makes extra and puts it in the freezer for me so when i get ready to leave on sunday its already frozen. Also i leave mine in the truck plugged in on the weekends to keep it cool so the stuff goes in cold and stays cold.

 

I have a mini-fridge in my truck and wife does the same thing just nuke it in the microwave almost as good as home and a hell of lot cheaper plus you know the cook so just don't make her mad and your all good

 

I've been running the same reconditioned 40qt Igloo thermo electric heater/cooler since 1998.

Have replaced the fan on it once,the plug in twice(they melt),the handles long since disintegrated,and the lids warped.

Still cools/heats fine.

If you put the A/C duct blowing cold on the fan of any thermo electric cooler it will freeze stuff.
Matt

 

Once you but a regular dorm fridge you never go back. What do you spend for a cooler? $120? You can buy a good dorm fridge for $180 and it will last forever. Mine is 6 years old and still running strong. Plus you can have a freezer. Many manufacturers are making them with two doors now. They don't use much power either. Mine used 150 watts start up and cruised at 70 watts. It doesn't run 5-10 minutes an hour. I bet it would run off of one of them cigarette lighter 400 watt inverters.

I had a small 12 pack size Igloo that melted one night. I woke up to a smoked filled truck. That was my last 12V cooler.

 

I use the Coleman cooler, which is much better than the other two brands of truck stop coolers I had.
One of those, the power switch burnt out.
The other, it was the fan. And the size was non-standard so I could not find a replacement.

The Coleman has no switch to burn out, and the fan is a standard size that is easy to replace. It also keeps a cooler temp than the other two.
I can stand on it as well, which would have broken the other two.
It is also larger.

One trick for cooler temps in hot weather is to place a 1" sheet of styrofoam under the cooler to insulate it from the floor heat.
Someone mentioned 'when it gets to 100 degrees in the truck...'. If I am in my truck, it never gets that hot. And if the truck is sitting for home time, I take out anything that can't stand the heat.

 

my hubby has no problem with the ones he has got at walmart. the r not much cost last him for 6 mo or more. I fix enough for him to fill it each wk. He eats good. When he was otr for mo's at a time he would take his microwave too. easy way to eat healthy fast to fix, leaves a bit of sleep time cheaper then truckstops

 

I keep telling people this. When you go home, plug it into the house current or add a small battery charger.