When I upgraded the battery bank and solar panel this year, part of the motivation was the ability to use this thing in the boat, plugged in and running without having to worry about draining the bank. To that end, I've used it twice on the boat so far, and while it's certainly better than nothing, it's not really that much better than using a regular cooler with ice. Ice keeps things actually cold, though you have to deal with the melt and keeping things dry. So you sacrifice cold, for convenience. This last time, I got a little smarter and froze a few of the bottles of water ahead of time, so it had a colder air pocket in the cooler to start with. This helps, but again, not the best solution and longer trips negate that gain.
Enter the compressor! In the world of 12v fridge/freezers, there have been pretty handy steps made. There are the name brands, Engel, Dometic, and so forth. They also come with up to, and above, 4-digit price tags. I am certainly not in a position with this particular boat that I want to spend that kind of money, but while they are the cream of the cooling crop, there are alternatives. Instead of the high end compressor that is the defacto standard, they might use cheaper generic ones. They might have less features, and for all I know, they might last 6 months and die. After a binge watch on YouTube from various ones, I came across one that not only was in stock on Amazon, but that I saw a 'real' review from a couple in an RV. They did an unboxing and a regular person's viewpoint on a JoyTutus model. I believe they reviewed a 55 Quart model, but they also offer a smaller one, which I ended up ordering.
It's nothing too fancy but in the couple days I've tested it, it does seem to work well. I won't know exactly what kind of draw it'll have on the boat, but a few review videos I watched give it some promise. There's a vast array of these style coolers from various manufacturers and most of them are likely using the same compressor, so even though the one reviewed was a different unit, the power draw should be the same. The general result was that at average cooling, and in the Eco mode, they pull an average of between .7 and 1 amp per hour of operation. Obviously they would use more while the compressor is on, but the cycling of it is what averages it out lower. I'll get into that more in a moment. First, a few of the few features:
It has a dual compartment set up. Sort of. There's a large main section, which is metal-lined. This would be considered the freezer section, should one turn the knob down that far. Then there's a smaller, isolated section on the side that remains a few degrees cooler than the main compartment. The idea here is that if you have your colder, frozen goodies in the big place, you can still keep things like condiments, or the like in the smaller on without fear of them also freezing. Since I don't plan on actually freezing things much, this will be a good spot for lunch meats and things.
In this picture, you'll also see the LED light feature. Not much, but it certainly would make getting things in the dark easier. There's also the lid chain to prevent the lid from being yanked backwards too far and breaking something. This is something that a lot of the Overlanding crowd would remove. Easy enough, just two screws, but for them they can hear it rattling, I suppose. I don't expect I'll have a need to remove it. You can see the main compartment, and the removable basket that comes out, and even has a divider if you want it. A plus to that is you can take the basket out, load it up, and then just drop it in. Neat.
I'm including this picture just because. The unit is fused quite obviously, and even can handle both a 12v or 24v system. That's also really handy for a boat, since there are plenty of people running 24v systems, especially outside of the States. You also can see a small High-Med-Low switch. Ok ok, so it's more like Med-High-Low, for whatever dumb logic that has. Next to it however, you can see the battery protection chart. This little switch is designed as an automatic cutoff when the input voltage falls below a certain threshold. Obviously if you were running this in your car, you could leave it set to high, and as long as your voltage is over 12.5v, it'll turn on with no problem. And then if you stop, and the voltage drops, it'll pop an E1 error on the screen for low voltage, and turn the fridge off. It might not be the best way to keep your beer cold, but at least you'll still be able to start your car. Note that this switch has nothing to do with the operation. It will cool down in the same amount of time regardless - it is only for shutting down at voltage levels.
One thing that will affect cooling, is the mode. This model does come with a Max and Eco mode. Eco keeps the compressor cycling to a lesser extent, though I imagine it means that the temperatures might creep up an extra degree or two in between on/off cycles. For example, in Max mode, let's say you set it to 30 degrees F. The compressor will run, and get you down to that level. Then it'll turn off, and it might creep back up to 32, maybe 33 or so before it'll kick back on and bring it back down. In Eco mode, it might go up 34-35ish. This is purely a guess right now, as I haven't actually run it in eco mode, but from explanations I've seen this is how I understand it to work.
One thing that will affect cooling, is the mode. This model does come with a Max and Eco mode. Eco keeps the compressor cycling to a lesser extent, though I imagine it means that the temperatures might creep up an extra degree or two in between on/off cycles. For example, in Max mode, let's say you set it to 30 degrees F. The compressor will run, and get you down to that level. Then it'll turn off, and it might creep back up to 32, maybe 33 or so before it'll kick back on and bring it back down. In Eco mode, it might go up 34-35ish. This is purely a guess right now, as I haven't actually run it in eco mode, but from explanations I've seen this is how I understand it to work.
So far I've only tested this in the house, and in the car for a party at a park on Saturday morning. It's performed well so far, and I even had a bottle of water start to freeze on me. Totally my fault, it was right up against the side, and I had the temp set down to 26 degrees or so. The manual says it'll go all the way down to -4 Fahrenheit, though I don't know if it'll actually do that. As long as it can hold about the 30 degree mark, that's plenty for me.
As far as draw goes, lets get back to that. My Koolatron is rated for about 45 watts or so. That means that for my 12v system, that's pulling about 4 amps of juice every hour it's running. Now, on a nice sunny day, the solar panel is putting in well over 10, 12, 13 amps, and I'm in no danger of running low. Plus, with a 50% DoD leaving me with a bank of 200+ usable amps, I have plenty of time I can run it without worry. Don't get me wrong, 50+ amps of battery getting used overnight just to run this cooler isn't something to scoff at, but with decent sun, it'll take a long time before I use more than I can replenish. The Eco mode in the new unit is supposed to use a comparable amount of energy while the compressor is running, and far less when it's cycled off. This means that at worst, I'm the same as I was with the Koolatron but with colder water, and at best, I won't ever have to turn it off.
And if I do have to turn it off? It cools down in very quick order, so pretty much in only an hour or so of running it'll be back down pretty much to temperature, even starting from room temperature or worse. When I first got it, I plugged it in at 84 degrees cooler temp, and was down under 50 in 20 minutes, and pretty much 30s within an hour. The test will come this weekend when I take it up, try to figure out a place to best put it, and then see about leaving it plugged in for the week to see how it does. The low-voltage cutoff is also a nice peace of mind feature. I have my Schu-link wireless monitor to check on the battery while I'm home, anyway.
