Best Electric Coolers for the Car, Tested

The handles of the Igloo retract into the overall shape of the chest, which is a pretty neat feature when you want to squeeze this little box into a tight space. It also has a long DC cord, at 7′ 10.5″ — though no AC cord is included. Coolers with a higher power rating offer better cooling efficiency. If you are using your car as a power source, you do not want to overdraw the battery. The cooler comes with 2 power cords for 12/24V DC and 110V to 240V AC. The company offers a one-year warranty in case anything goes wrong.

Some fridges offer separators or dividers to designate different compartments for the snacks. If at any time you need to separate the contents for different levels of coldness or otherwise, a split compartment is just what you need. These types of coolers also give coolers with warming capabilities an added advantage. According to our testing, over a long enough period of time, a cooler with closed-cell foam will keep things cool for longer. But in the 24- to 48-hour range, we haven’t seen a huge difference between using ¾ inch of closed-cell or open-cell foam in a cooler. With better insulation, a cooler can maintain lower temperatures for longer, thus consuming less ice.

Bear in mind that most of these coolers are available in multiple sizes, so our notes on internal size are more for general storage expectations. The first step is establishing why you need a portable electric cooler. If you just want something to keep sandwiches edible on a road trip, thermoelectric is just fine. If you need to freeze fresh meat after a hunting trip or keep frozen food frozen until you arrive at your destination, you’ll want a compressor cooler. Thermoelectric coolers are the only powered off-grid fridge option that requires no refrigerants.

It has an easy to carry molded-in handle on the side and a slide lock that keeps the lid tightly closed. It has a fan that promotes optimal air circulation and optimal cooling. Ensure that the fan is not obstructed to prevent the cooler from overheating. It comes with an 8-foot power cord that allows you to power it whether you are in the RV, car, or boat. Its door opens from either the left or right side for placement flexibility. These coolers give you the ability to set the temperature and keep it there stably.

igloo electric cooler

It connects easily to your vehicle’s cigarette lighter port to keep your refreshments cool on a road trip. The paper pulp of the Recool composts easily in the backyard, and it performs basically as well as any cheap single-use cooler. (No injuries have been reported.) Yeti has now issued lgloo Cooler a recall. We’ve removed that pick and are continuing to monitor the situation. If you want a backpack cooler, we recommend the Polar Bear Original Nylon Backpack Cooler. So, first, decide on the number of people and snacks that you need to carry and then decide upon the size.

The resulting product is strong and especially rigid feeling, and typically it weighs more than 1.7 pounds per cubic foot with more than 90% of its air cells closed to one another. Closed-cell foam is also water-impermeable—so igloo cooler with wheels it’s an ideal material for, say, surfers’ wetsuits. It has taken us a few years to recommend a wheeled cooler simply because none have seemed built to last longer than a season or two—especially in the handle.