12 volt mini-fridge for TV?

[Boondocker]

Has anyone tried the little 12volt mini-refrigerators in their tow vehicle? I am wondering if it would be worth having one or not. I can see where it could be handy both towing between sites and out on day trips, on the other hand, you can buy a lot of ice for the price. Do they work well? Do they put to much load on the 12 volt system? Other points? Can they deal with the heat of a closed up truck when the air isnt on?

[overlander63]

Rodney, we have a Coleman 12v cooler that we carry in the TV for drinks and sandwich fixings, it cost a bit under $100, and has saved our bacon (literally) when the fridge in the trailer went south on us. Draw is about 5-7 amps. Also will keep hot food warm by plugging it in backwards.

[Silver Threads]

We have a small one and it works pretty well. It does take a while to cool off though, and also has a setting for keeping things warm.

[HowieE]

The thermoelectric cooler work well in a TV. The one caution I have found that improves the unit is to replace the Lighter Plug end on the cord with a plug from Radio Shack designed to handle the 7 or 8 amp load. The Lighter Plugs tend to overheat and fail in short order. Also the heat generated in the plug due to the resistance reduces the cooling. I have hard wired a receptical on the back of the center console for the cooler and one on the tongue of the trailer for when we are parked.

If you realy want a cold drink what I do is place a small plastic tray in the cooler and put a half a dozen ice cubes in it. The combination of realy drops the temperature and the ice will last quite a while.

[TBRich]

We also have a Coleman 12v cooler...cools or keeps warm...we like it a lot and use it when we are going to be out for a week or longer or when we need extra food stuffs or a place to keep drinks cold. We also have a converter for it and our truck also has a 110 outlet that we can plug it into when we are traveling...and we plug it into the outside plug-in on the AS when we are at electrical camp sites... We plug it in inside the house the day before we pack it up to get it cold, and always put already-cold food in it to ease its job...we've been happy with it...

TB

[loudruff]

We have an ice chest sized Koolatron that we bought a few years ago at CW. We love it. It fits between the seats of the van. We start it off with frozen bottles of water to lower the interior temp. and it keeps things about 40 degrees cooler than the ambient temp. of the surrounding air. Left in a hot truck that leaves some to be desired. But used in an air conditioned truck while running down the road it works great! We have the adapter to allow it run on 110v. so we move it to the AS when we are hooked to electricity. Since our Minuet has a very small refrig. it is great for holding all of the beverages and gallon sized jug of milk. We have found that it is quite a draw on the truck battery, so generally we don't leave it plugged into the 12v. if we are stopped for very long. Unplug it and then replug when we get back on the road. The frozen water keeps it going quite well.