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Has anybody any experience with these items? Plug in variety 12v and 240v
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We bought one from Comet when in the UK a few years ago.
It's an own-brand Proline. It works ok as a coolbox and the little noise (from a fan) it makes doesn't matter as it travels in the boot. It's supposed to keep things warm as well but we've never tried it.
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A lot of lorry drivers use them Martin and they are excellent. I always bought mine from Halfords and it kept food cold despite unplugging it overnight.
Pat
Last edited by: pda on Wed 4 Aug 10 at 09:41
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I have one I bought in Germany - quite large. It has a cut out to stop it draining the battery when engine not running. I used it in the Omega a few years back and the battery output was soon below the threshold to keep the machine going, so it wasn't a lot of use for extended periods. Could have been a battery on it' way out though.
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We've used a couple as well... we have the smaller Halfords one which we use for the Diabetic insulin... But we still have the big one which is no use to us now! You can have it if you're close enough (Kiddy)!
Last edited by: hobby on Wed 4 Aug 10 at 09:52
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Be wary of the current consumption if you are using from a socket which is not controlled by the ignition. IIRC mine is rated at 5 Amps. An overnight error may be enough to leave you stranded or worse.
Best used in conjuction with multiple icepacks which have been pre-frozen in the Freezer.
Last edited by: pmh on Wed 4 Aug 10 at 10:52
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I use a powered coolbox in my car, the 12v socket in the boot is not ignition switched so I use one of these. Unfortunately as you can see it has been discontinued by Maplin but something similar must be available somewhere.
www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?moduleno=37962
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I purchased one of the Aldi "special offers" - the box was very large and was (half) priced at £35 IIRC. I used it for my summer holiday drive to Italy.
This 'box was very noisy, not too bad in the car, but I had to unplug it in the hotel room during my overnight stops such was the noise.
After 2 days it stopped working when connected via the 12v lead although it did work when connected via the mains lead. A fuse presumably. A quick read of the instructions revealed that there was a non std. bespoke fuse that needed to be ordered.
I lost interest in the box after that and so cleaned it up and took it back to Aldi upon my return to the UK and they refunded me immediately.
It did keep things cool whilst it worked but it was VERY noisy.
Jacks
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got an Ezetil 30 litre sized from Woolies about 5 years ago for 39 quid. Still going strong, extensively used on the recent trip to northumbria.
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There was a thread in the other place in which these boxes were given more of a mixed reaction:
tinyurl.com/393yfjo
Packing them well with solid lumps of pre-frozen or cooled stuff seems to be a good idea.
The truckers do OK with them, something to do with plenty of grunt in the battery, I imagine.
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I notied the other day that Halfords are knocking them out at 1/2 price at the moment - a 14 litre one was about £25. Rated at 35W, so not sure how much cooling it will do - but that's 3 Amps, so 4 or 5 hours is all a car battery will stand before it potentially won't start the car.
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My car has a cooled glove box :)
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But it keeps my Coke & Pepsi cans chilled.
Didn't dare to try to ice cream though :)
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The CC3 has a cooled glove box, but you have to open a vent to let the cool air in.
The lid of the glove box is double skinned with a large overlapping lip, and the rest is surrounded by dashboard, so it's probably better insulated than you think.
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>> Didn't dare to try ice cream though :)
If it's Carte D'Or (car door) then it'll be fine. Any other brand could prove to be flakey.
Last edited by: VxFan on Wed 4 Aug 10 at 13:54
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I have two, both bought in French supermarkets, both "Gio'Style" brand but different capacities. Of course, if you buy abroad you have to cut off the mains plug and fit a UK one.
They work well, we use them for keeping beer and cheese cold on our month-long caravan excursions (outside the caravan - SWMBO won't allow some French cheeses inside the van!). In fact, in early June it even had ice forming around the inside fan vent because the ambient temperature was so low.
One thing to beware of is that in prolonged use (5 days+) the 12v plug gets pretty damned hot.
Mine both have a switch which will turn them off before the battery feeding them gets too low - so no fear of flattening the battery. The switch even has a sensitivity setting to turn off earlier or later. As it's only a fan blowing air over peltier cells I'd have thought a decent battery should be okay for 3-4 hours though.
One final thought - you could if necessary buy one which is 12v only. Most camping shops sell a mains/12v conversion box made by Coleman which would enable you to run off mains too.
HTH
Terry
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Got one of these at Maplin a few years ago.
tinyurl.com/34o89us
Works OK - and is not noisy.
What Car? recently (Sept 2010 issue) tested electric coolboxes. They decided that the best buy was the Mobicool T26 26 litre coolbox at £62.89 powered by a 12v supply or on the mains. (www.minicoolers.co.uk) The best budget buy was the Halfords Electric Coolbox 14 litre at £34.99. The best one they tested was a Tropicool TC14 14 litre model at £149.99 from www.mobilecoolbox.co.uk.
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Cure for noisy cool boxes.....spray fan shaft with WD40.
Always worked for me.
Pat
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Wow what a lot of replies, thanks. Obviously some not favourable though. What about a 3 way fridge. It's for the works van only. 1.5 litre water bottles are essential to me and I am led to believe that when kept in a warm environment that the chemicals in the plastic bottle do leech into the water.
Regards, Martin
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To be utterly honest it's rubbish the one i have it's a Royal got it from a camping shop with 12v plug.
The trick with it if your going camping is to freeze some meat and on the day your off to put the frozen meat in there with your milk & 3x freezer packs and your fresh meat, Plug it in off i drive and by the time i get to campsite all is nice and cool and the meat is still frozen on a 3hr drive.
Ideally a fridge with a freezer compartment like you get in a caravan.
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Good suggestion Bigtee - I freeze milk or juice to keep a regular box cold. Certainly works for short breaks away.
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A couple of bags of ice emptied onto the beer works fine ! :-)
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That's called thinking outside of the box:)
Pat
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>> That's called thinking outside of the box:)
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>> Pat
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Thats where the food should be, cool boxes are for beer !
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I have a similar one to this made by Elecrolux. www.riverswayleisure.co.uk/acatalog/info_011234.html
It's bit pricey, but it is excellent. Unfortunately, there is no thermostat on 12v and driving to France my Coke cans froze solid. That was a nine hour drive though, and it's fine for about four or five hours.
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Car cold Box - Mike Hannon
