Electric cooler worthwhile?
 

What are peoples' experiences with an electric cooler that plugs into your car, vs the regular soft sided kind? We are traveling around Southern Utah with our kids this summer and will definitely have road food, and are not sure if our hotel rooms will have fridges for overnight, probably some will, some won't. Is it worth the extra expense to have the electric cooler for road and breakfast food? Thanks for thoughts.

Definitely worthwhile.
We've had one for the last 3 of our 8 cross country road trips (6-8000 miles each) and love it. Much better than coolers w/ice. Saves time, mess and does a great job of keeping soda and food cold in the van and hotels.

Don't forget an AC adapter cord for the hotel use.

Gretchen - THANKS for that reminder re the adaptor!

ttt

Just remembered i recently saw the Vector brand travel cooler on sale at target, for something like $19 - $20. Its the smaller one that holds 8 soda cans and a few sandwiches. If you have one in your area you might check it out, or call. Definitely worth it.

And don't forget the AC adapter when you LEAVE your hotel!

I moonlight at a hotel and we're always mailing out various adapters people left behind.

While I've not used those portable coolers, looking at them it appears the refrigeration system in them is minimal. While they might keep contents cool when the ambient air is "room temperature", my guess is that if the vehicle is closed up & in the sun, you may be asking too much for it to maintain a cold internal temp. I'd suggest parking in shade, keeping windows "cracked open".

brook...

I have one that I would be glad to sell to you. Used on one trip. It is the mid-sized one. Easily holds a 12 pack plus snacks and sandwiches, etc. It comes with both DC and AC plugs.

We bought one before a road trip through Canada. It was worth it having cool drinks in the hot summer and allowed us to stock up on some items from local supermarkets for lunches/light dinners in between.
We loaded it up onto a luggage wheelie and brought it into the hotel with us at night. That way the kids avoided the costly mini-fridge in the hotels and knew where to look for drinks etc.

However, one caution: when you stop the car and leave the plug in, you are running the cooler on your car's battery. It's ok for a short while, but you may end up with a dead battery if you leave it plugged in for longer periods or overnight. That's why we hauled the cooler into the hotels and used their electricity to keep everything cool overnight.

I will send you pictures if you want.

We have had the larger one. I can't believe the smaller one would be worth it--just not enough room for the room it takes up, in my opinion.

I live in the Southwestern US and have traveled in this area, in fact, the entire West, using the model sold by Nissan for my Nissan Pathfinder. Interestingly, in Southern Utah, the weather often dips significantly at night and if you somehow are unable to get a fridge overnight, the cooler will hold quite well. I enjoyed having my own special goodies - just remember to unplug it when you stop so it doesn't drain the battery -- that was my greatest challenge!

We've used ours on three long road trips and will miss it greatly when we fly and drive this year. We have the large size which holds plenty of everything. It is not as cold as the fridge in your house. I believe it will maintain 40 degrees below ambient. We keep a small 6 pack cooler with sodas and ice for really cold drinks.
My wife also uses it to store groceries if she is not going home right away from the grocery store.

We bought the larger Vector a few years ago because of medicine that needs refrigeration and it kept it cold enough. We traveled out west in the summer and high heat. By covering the cooler with those window shades (the heavy kind) it kept some of the heat off the cooler. The only problem we encountered was as it got older it got much noisier and we had to plug it in the bathroom and close the door.