Just one correction that I'd like to clarify; In the video I referred to the Coleman Chiller as having a compressor and it in fact has a solid state thermoelectric cooler with a fan.

Quick tip for the cheap cooler. It is insulated in every direction except for the lid. You lose a lot of thru the lid. If you drill a small hole in the underside lid you can inject the foam insulation that is found in cans. I did this to all of my coolers and it made a big difference. Happy Trails.

I don't know if I love or hate your content. On the one hand, they are amazingly thorough and informative; on the other hand, I keep buying things you suggest.

I just spent 15 minutes watching a guy basically talk about fridges to put in your car... and I loved it!!! 😂😂

As someone who has a Dometic CFX75 and a 55qt Lifetime cooler, I much prefer the Lifetime cooler for 1/15th of the price. With the Dometic, I have to spend another $500 on a power supply. In addition, if the fridge goes down on your trip, you're done. With the Lifetime, I can drive into town and replenish. I was just on a 5 day trip in Death Valley and the Lifetime still had ice up to the last day before we dumped it all. Here is a tip, putting frozen water bottles in your chest will do double duty as a beverage and keeping your food cold. I never have to worry about the reliability of my ice chest especially off road when it's getting shaken to hell especially on washboard roads.

Pro tip on the chillers: put a frozen 1/2 gallon jug of water in there and it will stay at 39-41 for days while it is running. You do lose some space but that has worked out well for me. I would love that fridge, one day I will get one!

1 pro point which you did not mention to the ice filled cooler. Emergency water supply, for radiator, cleaning, even drinking if not contaminated.

Great insight on those three! We're trying to keep it simple and inexpensive. We like using a 30 quart Igloo Marine with three 1-quart freezer bags of solid ice. We then add food and two 1-gallon bags of ice cubes on top. We keep it covered with a blanket. We don't carry drinks in it (we drink water, tea, coffee, red wine and bourbon) and limit the amount of perishable foods we bring (mostly dairy & meat). That setup lasts 4 days. A lot of foods we refrigerate at home doesn't need to be chilled (pickles, olives, mustard, hot sauce, zucchini, bell peppers, onions, cabbage, etc.).

Hello - I've been an avid Canoe camper for over 20 years. Sorry, but large water bottles frozen solid outlast ice cubes by a country mile or more. It's especially useful if you're way out there and have no access to new ice. I've had a large all white cooler that's stayed cold for almost 10 days out in nature with large frozen water bottles and I also had two large spaghetti sauce containers that started out frozen. To get the water bottles frozen right, it's important to remove a bit of the water in the large water bottles and even, if you have time, fill them up 1/5th of the capacity, freeze it and the, fill it up the next 1/5th then freeze that again until they are almost full. It takes a while, but prevents you from having bulging bottles from the water expansion during freezing.

For a cooler I would recommend getting one with handles and a drain to drain the water easily.

There is a fourth option. The Coleman "Extreme" series and many Igloo models have such incredible and thick insulation, they keep food frozen for five days. To me, this is a game changer. I think the best, least expensive, and most effective and efficient combo is one of these very efficient ice chests and a portable ice maker, and these ice makers are not very expensive. I put that ice in a flat, thin, plastic container and the food does not get water logged. The ice maker does not use very many watts and you only use it every four or five days. This is what use in my home made camper.

just an observation but I noticed lemonade when in the Rubbermaid buuuuuut the Ale went in the Dometic………..just saying it's about priorities! LOL

Great vid.. I just purchased the 50 quart ARB fridge/freezer and just got back from a week long baseball tournament with my son and I could not be happier with its performance.. by far my favorite purchase yet. Keep up the good work.

I have the arb fridge freezer and I love it, won’t ever go back to a ice chest or a chiller and I own all three. Great video brad👍

I knew absolutely NOTHING about these devices, the pros and cons and etc before watching your video. You have taught me so much. Thanks so much for your help. So appreciated. Now I can make a better decision. Thanks again and God Bless!❤️

I’m amazed the cheap cooler did so well. These types of comparison videos are fabulous.

The size of the Dometic actually worked slightly in my favor. I used to use a 50L cooler which took up a fair amount of space. I got lucky enough to find a Dometic CFX28 (the smallest in the range) on sale for $280 so I jumped on that deal. The dometic is a little bit shorter than the cooler. Even though it's only 28L internally I can put about as much stuff in it as I did the cooler because of no ice taking up space. Well worth the investment.

Very informative and professionally done as always! I was also thinking about the chiller but now I know it will not be suitable for what I need. Your honesty in your reviews is everything! I believe vendors that truly believe in their product should be knocking down your door to do a review. Brad, I hope you love doing all your videos because it is crystal clear a lot of us love what you do and appreciate all the hard work you put in. Thank you!!

I use the Coleman chiller. There are a couple of things you can do to improve efficiency. First, orient it with the element up so it cools the warmest air inside and let thermodynamics take care of the food below. Second, freeze what you can before packing it. These two things help me keep food safe in there for nearly a week, even when I have to unplug it over night.

Great vid thanks! I learned long ago when gold dredging a week long using the marine ice chest had to send someone in for ice, so years later I purchased the Cabelas Polar 100, and bought an ice maker, most my camping after that was near water, worked great using creek water for the ice, now have the Dometic CFX3 95DZ, what a game changer! OH and for power a few years ago I built a solar generator 400 amp hr 4 Battleborn Lithium LiFePO4 batteries 3,000 watt pure sine wave outback charge controller and 4 sunpower flex 170 panels, runs fantastic.

Trick i use many do not capitalize on. i have a floor freezer, which typically is never full, but large enough to place a cooler in it. before trips with the ice chest i add water to the cooler typically 2-4 inches depending on trip length vs. volume of food/drinks being taken. this works extremely well over the cubes and much more efficient. pack the cooler as needed then just fill in the voids with cubes.... great trick as long as you have the independent floor freezer.

Something I think you should of mentioned is the 40 liter fridge is nearly as big as a 50-60 liter ice chest and that balances out capacity. This means the biggest factor is time it is going to be used. If you going for day trips or weekend events (1-2 d days camping) the fridge isn't worth to money to you and the ice chest will work fine, on the other hand if you are going for long trips with 2+ days out on the trail then yeah, the fridge is the hands down winner. Of course if you want the fridge for the cool factor that is also fine lol, just remember that if you don't need it you might want to spend that 650 somewhere else on your rig.

A lot of cheap ice chests don’t have thermal insulation on the cover. There is a mod you can do that involves making small openings on the inside and filling the space with an expanding foam spray can.

Every video I watch I fall more and more in love with this channel. I'm learning so much!!

We run an ARB 50L fridge/freezer. It comes in handy during emergency situations (e.g. power outages), or when we are on expeditions without regular access to ice. It's nice to have a tightly-controlled environment for those traveling with us that need to keep medications (e.g. insulin or ABX) at guaranteed temperatures.

One feature on the new Dometic CFX models you forgot to mention is the USB port. I didn’t think I’d use it much but I use it all the time. It’s a god send. I chose the Dometic for its dimensions. It’s shorter and more narrow than the other brands I considered. And it’s so quiet. I absolutely love mine.

Thanks for talking about safe cooling temperatures for perishables. When I was in Hospital Corps School (early 70's!) they hammered into us the importance of safe storage of food a LOT so our guys wouldn't get sick!

Thanks for this. This helped me to understand better the difference between a chiller and a refrigerator. I'm going camping in a few months and now I understand why the chiller's not the best choice for me.

Nice video... I own the Dometic 64 quart Duel Zone Fridge Freezer and love it. I can run it on 12 volt or 110 volt. For that past 7 months I've been running it on 12 volt and that 12 volt comes from my solar system battery bank. I love this Dometic unit.

If you drill some small holes in the lid of the rubber maid cooler and fill it with great stuff foam it will work a lot better and it's a cheap and affective upgrade

Excellent review! I'm an occasional urban vanlifer who frequently lives, works, sleeps and eats out of my small van. My desire to vanlife is about living cheap and healthy and not having to rent hotels, drive back or leave where because it's late or dark. I have a 100 watt 12v solar panel on my van roof, a 1200 watt inverter , Apicool Freezer and an 800 watt electric skillet pan in the back counter. I've been able to do it semi-sustainably for up to a month in Florida without any added auxiliary battery (my starter battery is 90AH Led Acid), fuel or ice. Because it's an Urban setting, I never need to store meat for more than 3 days. I find this ApiCool freezer on coldest running only from 10am to 5pm keeps raw meat fresh and safe overnight! Being in Florida 10am to 5pm produces about 4amps/hour from my 100 watt panels which keeps my battery from depleting. And if any question a 15 minute run of the engine gets my battery back to 12v. To be safe, i also charge a jumper device which i've tested but never needed to use for an emergency. I'm thinking of eventually upgrading my starter battery to a dual purpose 200AH. Anyways, i too am planning to test out the Coleman Powerchill fridge and while i agree it would be cutting it very close, I'm not sure cold, raw meat sealed over very cold sodas and beer cans would spoil overnight.. my thinking is it won't. Also I've heard seasoning meats with spice can help further preserve them.

i used to be an OTR truck driver. I had a 40qt coleman chiller that i used for lunchmeat or pre-made already cooked meals. It worked perfectly for the 1+ years that i had it.

Excellent and informative review, this helped me a lot, thanks. Another pro for the fridge/freezer, you can use it to temporarily store food if you are defrosting a domestic freezer at home.

Oh man! I have used that thermo electric cooler and it just don't cool enough for anything, now I bought a ARB fridge way back in 2011, and after continuous use, it's still working great..the investment is high up front, but it pays for itself overtime. And it's running right now..lol. Ice cold drinks. By the way, it will freeze even when it's out in 100 degree heat and the sun is beating down on it. I'm thinking your fridge is the same way..this is the way to go..

Love that you talked about power draw and the effect on battery systems. Amp hours and Watt hours are my life lately! Nice detail.

Great comparison. We wheel our TJ for 4-5 days sometimes and use both a cooler and a thermocooler. Both work great in their own way. Make sure the thermocooler is plugged into an outlet that turns off with the engine and no worries. They ride inside the vehicle (not outdoor temperature) and its cooler in the evening when we camp, Another great tip is to buy a 24 pack of 500ml bottled water and freeze them at home first. They are approx. $5 and will keep both the cooler and thermocooler very cold/dry for extended durations. You do not need to pack drinking water and you can refreeze what you do not drink. Happy wheeling!

I've been using a Ice chest since it's cheap and I can't justify a cooler/fridge. Something to take note of though is that I freeze a 1gal water jug and few sports drinks, and use those as my ice. I've noticed that my ice chest stays colder longer(compared to just using ice), and you don't get everything all soggy and wet. This method has worked very well for 4 day long trips in the middle of summer.

Hey Brad, great review on the coolers. I’ve been using that same Coleman model for 4 years now and even with living in a more northern climate in Alberta we’ve still encountered many of the same cons you mentioned, primarily the amp draw and having to unplug it over night. So, 2 weeks ago I broke down and purchased the Dometic CFX50W 😁 so I expect I will sleep 😴 better at night knowing my food will be cold in the morning and my battery won’t be dead. 👍👍

We bought a thermoelectric cooler with fan a few years ago in Canada for $100. All AC/DC plugs are in the top of the cooler which allows us to use ice if we want with no worries about the water issue. It has served our needs and we are very happy with it.

One trick I learned many years ago was to wrap an old sleeping bag around an ice chest. Keeps the ice in there for a couple of days longer. Just make sure you don't use a sleeping bag you plan on using that trip because sometimes it gets wet when driving around.

Thx. Great video. Glad to hear how the chiller vs the refrigerator handled under the solar setup.

I just did a whole bunch of investigating on the Dometic....... I want one :)

I had a number of fly-drive holidays in Florida with my brother and after picking up the car, the first purchase was a cheap polystyrene cooler. Used free ice from the motels we used as we drove around. Nice cold drinks at a rest stop. Suited us perfectly, lasted the trip and we gave it (and other supplies) to the guys manning the rental returns compounds. A wide-brimmed sun-hat always went down well with them.

I've had a Dometic fridge for my overland trips for a couple years now and I love it! I run a dual battery system in my Jeep and never need to worry about it even on longer trips. It's fantastic!

I got the ARB to use in semi and Jeep love it don’t have chase down ice any more 👍

I use a dometic cfx-50 for a family of four. I used to have to unpack the cooler, empty the ice/water, and repack in the AM. I now have taken all the hastle out of a cooler in the vehicle. I use it for vacations and kids sporting events. I mix my own Gatorade on site using gallon water jugs chilled to 32 degrees. This thing is fantastic. Never once has it run my stock battery too low to start. Battery cutoff works great! Yes $800 but the convenience and savings in food spoilage is worth it. Have you ever thrown away water logged food? Never again!

Purchased the new model Dometic CFF 45 model a couple of weeks ago and have not turned it off, with a 3 year warranty... I'll be testing that out, I've been on one camping trip in 35 degree heat, works a treat with no problems , very quiet and I'm very impressed so far, we'll see how she goes as my fridge will be running all of the time not just on camping trips.

I'm an over-the-road trucker & have used 3 of the Coleman coolers. Every single one has had the exact same problem. The plug on the end of the cord gets super hot, to the extent it melts the plastic, softens the fuse spring, burns out fuses, even melts the solder points inside the plug & has even burned out 2 of the trucks 12v power outlets.

Brad great video and comparison. Excellent point many forget, is the amount of cooler volume taken up by ice. Dometic is a good choice for a refrigerator, several friends have run them for a year or two, without issues. Off topic, but great choice in beers shown, highly recommend Stone Brewery Liberty Station in San Diego.

You should look into Engel fridge/freezers as here in Australia we use them in the transport industry for our line haul trucks and of course the 4wd in the outback

Fantastic comparison review of these different cold storage options man. I used a Coleman electric cooler for years but eventually switched to an ice chest once I started packing lots of raw meat and fresh veggies. It just doesn’t keep cold enough in warm weather and real food will go bad. In cool weather it freezes the contents because of the 40° below ambient design. With ice chests, anything buried in the ice will be at 32° all the time, even if much has melted into water, so waterproof your meat containers and bury them. It will be 36-37° on top of the ice and nearer the lid it will be warmer but still safe for things like non leafy produce. That refrigerator looks awesome! I may have to start saving for one now ✌️

I bought a Dometic fridge at a benefit for a buddy of mine who eventually lost his battle with cancer. I just glanced at it when I walked by it and assumed it was a cheap truck stop cooler like I've owned before. But it being a good cause I ran it up to $525 and was thrilled to contribute. But after I bought it the guy who donated it came up to me and asked if I knew what I'd bought and told me it was about $800 or so retail. So in the end I thought I'd been very happily generous to the family of a guy I thought so highly of but I actually got a heck of a deal on something I thought would always be out of my price range. The semi I own now came from the factory with a built in fridge so it's now just for camping trips but I'll always think of my buddy when I use it and I've even named it Daryl. By the way Brad your channel is one of my favorites and I can't tell you how much I respect your serviced to our country and all you do for us Jeep fanatics now. Keep it up!

Love to see a dual battery install, with a guide on how to tie in a solar panel charging the house battery.

Great video! I've often wondered how those Igloo 12v coolers performed. Now I know. Thanks!

I’m an OTR driver and found your video very informative.

I use a RTIC 5day cooler. I pack in 2 dry bags to keep things I dont want waterlogged. To replenish Ice I got a Tabletop Ice Maker to plug into my inverter or Jackery works well for me and everyone loves having access to ice for cocktails.

Great comparison video. I guess I'll stick to my Igloo cooler which has served me well for a couple of years now. Cross country and overnight trips (short camping excursions) are what I need for the cooler to handle. Eight hundred bucks for the Dometic is out of my price range.

great review! Thank you so much for including the info on running off the goal zero!!!

Great video Brad, since I invest lots of $$$ in my fishing and camping equipment, I just use the igloo coolers. I go on 5 day beach fishing trips so what I do is line all my coolers with insulation top and bottom, secondly I fill each cooler with dry-ice blocks, third medium frozen water bottles on top of dry ice. Then pack one cooler with perishables, second cooler with drinks and third cooler with only ice. If I catch fish I will clean and fillet my fish then store in one gallon zip bags. I will eventually get the ARB. But for now my system has worked great. I have had ice for 7 days.

I bought a Della 75L about a year ago. We lived an hour from the closest Costco/Sams Club and the insulated bags weren't cutting it. I found the Della online for a screaming deal and got the last one available. Its probably one of the best investments i have ever made. I have run it in my FJ on a 3 day road trip, plugged in the whole time and it never killed my battery.

Excellent Beer Selection

Nice video, and info I was looking for...I really wanted to find out the current draw for the Dometic and now I know...Thanks!

I have dometic 65 quarts model. Fridge and freezer combo. Using daily for few years. Works amazing.

Thermoelectric coolers (2nd review) are good when the temperature is under 60 (especially 50F). They are easiest to fix as they don't have moveable parts. The secret about keeping them cold is using gel icepacks. Make sure the bottom and sides is covered with gel packs. Than your food goes in the middle. Than the ice gel packs goes on the top. This one will stay on regardless and it is necessary to keep it on to keep it the items from loosing it cold. The 12v freezer (last review) is the best that they ever could be for a camper cooler system. But you get what you pay for. I've been using the thermoelectric cooler since living off the grid. So I had it 5 plus years. Than I decided to get a small 1.7 cu compressor dorm refrigerator that was like a freezer. It was under a $100. I could not afford a 12v compressor, so this was the next best thing. With that I got a 2,000 watts inverter. Even with the inverter, it still came out cheaper. But I had to upgrade my wires to accommodate the inverter. But still I was good on this extra burden, because the cooler was useless in hot summer weather. Anyway, it worked well for about two years. Than, bam! The compressor went out. But it happened after changing my batteries from 12v AGM to 4 6v Flooded Acid Batteries (Golf cart). There is something about Golf Cart batteries that trouble me since I don't have a lot of experience using them. But that is for another post. At the end, I got another refrigerator that was bigger. It has a separate freezer. But the refrigerator itself isn't nearly as cold as the prior one. But I needed something, so I got it. However, after a few months of searching, I finally came across a set of 12v compressors that are more economical than the big brands. So by June I should have one. What I learned from this. Save your money and meet your goals that you want to set for yourself. Do not rush, otherwise you will pay at the end.

You sold me on the Dometic .. but that price! You get what you pay for but cold drinks aren’t worth that for me. If I start eating really good on long road trips (no ramen or MREs) then it would be the way to go though. Great vid. Just subbed.

Great comparison! The Dometic and solar setup seem like an excellent choice. 🍻

So happy to see you packing Stone Brewing cans. I live in Australia and Stone Brewing is easily my favourite American beer.

Coleman Powerchill is an energy drain!! I have been towed out of a campground because I plugged the brand new Powerchill into my Tahoe overnight, drained my new battery to beyond dead, even the tow truck driver couldn't believe it. I've since learned to freeze a few Fiji water bottles, or half gallon sizes (carton or plastic) and topped with an emergency blanket, and I can go days without plugging in. If we are in an rv, I'll leave the frozen stuff and still have it topped with emergency blanket, then plug it in ONLY when the gas generator is on.

The Coleman does not have a compressor. It uses a little peltier unit.

I only came here because frig was in the title. I think you meant fridge. Mom used to say "frig you" when she was mad.

First time on channel, excellent video. Saw interesting idea on a van camping video. The woman had small DC fridge that she Only used to freeze blue ice packs ( she had 12), then kept 6 in a standard cooler, with her food, and 6 being frozen at all times. Looked like a smart idea. Also, recently bought Thermos 36 cube " ice sheets" ( Tractor Supply, 4.99, 17" x 11"), which are reusable ice packs to lay On Top of stuff being cooled, since cold flows downward ".

Agree. We also have all 3. The coleman thermo electric cooler / chiller, we freeze blue ice packs in the dometic daily and rotate them in the colemen chiller to keep it at or below 35°F. The traditional cooler we keep snack in with blue ice to eat / drink will driving

Awesome review but I definitely like the fridge. I have an ARB fridge 50qt and I love it even considering the price and I think it truly is much more adaptable to what you need.

That Coleman chiller does not have a compressor. It is a Thermoelectric Cooler Peltier which is a solid state device

As a new member to your channel all I have to say is thank you so much for your knowledge and testing of the gear like this so people won't make the mistake of buying something that's going to let them down.

The best 'homemade option' is to freeze 4L plastic ice-cream pails. They last far longer, they stack, the cooler stays dry, and, they provide a stable flat surface on top. I used to use frozen 2L pop bottles, but, for an equivalent weight of ice, they melt faster and do not stack as efficiently and their irregular shape is less space efficient. If you take frozen meat, chilli, pasta sauce, stews, curry etc in the 1.6L ice-cream containers this easily lasts for a long weekend in my cheap boat sized cooler, and makes for more convenient meal prep. Icecubes are the option that melts fastest, ok for drink cans, but everything else will sit in water.

I would like to see how they keep the temps with no power. I know this is a year old

Thanks for serving!!

I've owned all three style coolers and still have the cheap coleman cooler for car day trips or family bar b q's. I sold the 12v plugin thermo electric (peltier) style cooler since it was a power hog, drawing around 4.5A all the time and its cooling would vary depending on ambient temperature. Impossible to keep plugged in when the vehicle is off for any period of time. I guess it was OK while the vehicle was running as long as it wasn't too hot (did not cool enough) or too cold (would freeze the contents). I bought an Engel MT40 marine version $900 craigslist and it's awesome. Compressor running draws around 2.5A and idling around 0.4A to 0.5A and because you don't need ice or cooling blocks in there it's capacity is much greater. The sawafuji swing motor in the Engel has one moving part, so very reliable and efficient. On the 1-5 setting I have it on 2.5 and it's plenty cold. It will freeze too if needed. I can leave it plugged in and not worry about dead batteries. It also runs from 12V, 24V DC or 110V AC and auto switches.

Thank you Chief for the great info and help validating my decisions. Going camping in a couple weeks with a Yeti 400, Boulder 100w panels and a Costway fridge from Amazon. I know it's not the Dometic but your pockets are deeper.

The old adage "you get what you pay for" stays pretty true in most cases. And doing your homework.

All you have to do is buy a 7 day cooler, build a insulated box to put it in and you pack it with ice your good for 2 weeks ice cold.

I have the Coleman 12V Cooler, it works but certainly not for perishable items like you mention. If its 100 degrees the cooler isn't going to do anything, so...if you want cold stuff buy a cooler and use ice or the refrigerator. Now, according to Coleman you can use the 12V cooler as a standard ice chest, I do NOT think it would work that way very well since once the ice started melting you'd have water running out of the fan area. Yes, the 12V coolers/refrigerators are expensive, however, you buy that thing once and it'll be with you the rest of your life and you never have to mess with buying ice. Since the refrigerator/freezer uses very little power once it is at temperature you could go several days on a battery, and extend that by starting the vehicle or charging the battery in other ways...indefinitely if you use solar panels. I was going to buy one of the 12V refrigerator/freezers several years ago and I'm glad I didn't just because I wouldn't use it, I haven't used a cooler in 10+ years so it would just sit in the garage LOL.... Now, the 12V Coleman cooler, saved a lot of food for me several years ago. The refrigerator in our house quit working suddenly, no warning at all, just up and died. Luckily I noticed it soon enough and was able to save everything in it. That poor little coleman cooler was packed but it saved all my food and did so for about a week until our new refrigerator was delivered....that little cooler paid for itself in just that one emergency. Sure I used it camping too, but just that 1 refrigerator failure and that cooler came to the rescue...course it was in the house so it easily maintained a temperature well suited to keep the milk from going bad I believe the 110V adapter was like $20 or $30 on top of the cost of the cooler, but several hundred dollars in food was saved for about $100 in a cooler investment which has been used off and on for several years between camping, hunting, etc. Yes it consumes quite a bit more power though because it runs all the time.

Sooo informative. I actually demoed the Coleman chiller while boondocking in Sd back in 2014 and I returned it. Nice presentation.

great video. Thank you for the infos.. I've been looking for the right one for camping, the domestic is definitely not it. Too big for my car. I enjoyed your video. Subscribed. Hope to see more preview on camping gears.

Great review!

I use three large ice chests. One for drinks, two for food. I go in to get a drink way more often than for food, so I wanted to eliminate cold air losses for the food as a result the frequent accessing. I've done 5-day trips using this method with no problem.

Taking my iceco vl60 dual zone fridge and be able to have ice cream in Death Valley is a win win for me

Thanks for the good info! Do you know of any power units that can easily be run with a solar panel?

it doesn't use compressor it uses Peltier

I have also been interested in that fridge/freezer combo. I have a chiller, good in hotel room for drinks. I have a small rotomolded cooler, very good on ice use. I have enough coolers to outfit a small army. I pick them up at auctions, use for parties and such. If they get left behind or damaged I don't care. I do think Dometic is proud of their slide. Nice videos

running the dometic with 12v will extend your battery a bit longer as you avoid the inverter losses.. If you place frozen items in the dometic before you turn it on, will also help with battery consumption.

What about the simple cheap ice chest pared with a portable ice cube machine ? I've seen these portable ice cube makers that are 12 volt and have noticed many offroad rvs going this route. What are your thoughts ? It would be definitely be much cheaper than the domestic or similar refrigerator. Yet still very effective at storing perishable foods.

Thanks for the review. Very helpful. You have "dometic" spelled "domeStic" in the description btw :) I'm guessing spell check did that for you LOL!

I use a Large Coleman wheeled Ice cooler. I precool the night before. I freeze 5 litre bottles and fill untill half full and pack Ice in the voids. I have a homemade grate where I stack my food on and it keeps the food cool for a week easy. The larger the bottle, the better. My first plan was to drink the bottles as they defrosted, that didn't happen, lol

Picked up the dometic 75 as a floor model at jeep show. Had never been turned on ! They only turn on the big 95 so got the 75 for 850 tx inc! Love it freezer / fridge is the long term way to go. solar charger recommended if not running rig for more than 48 hrs on duel batt. set up. (I call it the casket it's so big ,but love it!)

When I know I’m not going to use my chiller For a while... after cleaning ,I end up scrunching a bunch of newspaper in it so the smell cannot start

"AMP HOUR" is not the correct way to give the power consumption. The amp draw is "?" 5 or 6 or what ever but not amp hour. That is a good way to state the power that a battery can deliver but not the current draw for a device.

Some people will inject form installation into the lid of the cooler which helps a lot. The sides have installation but the top has none! Good video.

Good information. Thanks. I have an Pelican 45 and a Cordova 88. Great coolers but we need a freezer to transport frozen and perishables while pulling our rv. Nothing worse than melted fudge bars. The Dometic fridge in our rv can run on propane while being towed, but the manual states that it must be level while in operation. I don't like towing with the propane on and the rv is certainly not level while towing in the mountains. Time to upgrade!