What is the best thermostatic cool box suitable for a family or large group camping trip and ideal for a week’s holiday? Bottles can stand upright, and there is a moveable grid divider, so it is easy to separate bottles or items. The downside to buying online is that you can’t actually get hold of the product to try it out first. Quite frankly, few items are as important in a camp environment as having a top-performing electric cool box. From our experience, it is important to carefully examine the features of a particular product to make sure it will match up to the conditions under which you will be using it. Outwell have taken particular care with antimicrobial coatings on the EcoCool, and in fact it has been treated with a biocidal glass coating inside – this is a special glass which has bug-killing properties and is a real selling point in our view. Hot to trot?

Many people do not consider the importance of a cool box. We all assume that any cool box will be okay. In reality, that is not the case. Like most thermoelectrical cool boxes, there is no built-in area to store your mains or car charger connection. You must keep safe during transport and your trip when not in use. In our opinion, no electric cooler combines greater simplicity, affordability, and efficiency than the Outdoor Revolution Eco Deep Extreme. This is a full-on compressor-based fridge which also has a separate freezer section which can keep ice cream frozen! Yes it’s an expensive cool box, but really delivers the goods in our view. The material the product is made from is often a sign of the quality for Plug-In. Take a look at the product details over at Go Outdoors to get a feel for this.

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Insulation: From our testing, not all electric cool boxes can reliably keep food and drinks sufficiently chilled if it’s warm outside. This can be due to a puny fan or, more often poor insulation. One of the main issues is not always how your cool box will be powered, it is the capacity. How much food can you store in a cool box? Our buyers’ guide explains the capacity and how much food and drinks you can place in each size. Also, detailing the four different types of cool boxes available and if they are suitable for everyday family camping. Hot and cold settings on electrical cool boxes allow you to control the temperatures inside. The cold setting will reduce temperatures inside 18°C below outside ambient temperatures. It works by drawing out warm air from the inside via a fan.

Thermoelectric cool box – these are well insulated coolboxes which use a Peltier cooler (12V or 240V powered usually) and electric fan to drive heat out of the box and keep your food and drink chilled. The best thermoelectric coolboxes can lower the temperature by about 30°C below the ambient temperature which means they can be used all year round in the UK. Downsides are fan noise, but in a tent you’re unlikely to hear it.

That’s why we’ve pulled together this list of key factors for Hi-Gear 28-Litre 12V 240V Cooler below, to help you choose if it’s the right product for you and your budget. First impressions count, and the dazzling blue of the VonShef Electric Cool Box really catches the eye. It’s big and blue and ready to cool for you! Someone should hire me to write the TV jingle…. Ideal for a family of 4 plus, as there is plenty of room for dividing drinks and food. If the cool box is not connected to power, it will remain cool for several hours, which is excellent if you cannot charge it whilst travelling. It has a speedy cooling system when first plugged in, so it is unnecessary to start cooling the night before. The advantage of a compressor fridge (i.e. like one you would use at home in your kitchen) is the speed, controllability and power of the cooling on offer. With the Eco Deep Extreme, you can lower the internal temperature from 25°C to 0°C in just 19 minutes which is exceptional. As mentioned previously, you can then disconnect the power so that the insulation is put to work and your food can remains frozen for several hours without using any more juice. One other great feature of the cool box is how it manages to protect the car’s battery from completely running out of juice; it stops drawing current if it senses that your car battery is about to go kaput! Handy when you’re wild camping miles from anywhere.

We’re really pleased to have scored Hi-Gear 45-Litre 12V 240V Cooler so highly, givimg it 8.3 out of 10, making it well above the average for all Plug-In. Dimensions are reasonably compact at 26.9 (W) x 32.2(D) x 38(H) cm, and we found this an excellent size for a few nights away in our tent. It’s a great option for a mini-break or an afternoon retreat as it is small enough to be easily carried using the ergonomic handle on top. However, it’s probably more of a fridge than a coolbox to take picnicing – just bear this in mind! There are however some methods that you can use to determine a product’s quality without needing to physically have it. The Vango is expensive, but it is worth the higher price for the additional extras. The lid has indents for holding 2L drink bottles in place. The base has 3 circular sections that support the bottom of a bottle providing extra height. However, not all fizzy drink bottles will fit into the circular sections. Although at Camping Secrets we always try to offer value-for-money recommendations on gear, the truth is that sometimes it’s worth buying from a reputable manufacturer – we’ve found that this is especially true for powered items. You may pay slightly more than the cheapest Chinese imports (which can often be built in the same factory!), but you get peace of mind that the company will stand behind their product.Despite being a decent-sized cool box (storage volume measures 63 x 51 x 42cm), the Eco Deep is portable enough to move around when required. Weight is a fairly hefty 17kg, but the presence of a decent folding handle and wheels makes transport simple and efficient.