Hi all, we've used a non electric coolbox for years, I wanted to get an electric one this time - not fridge one as we cant afford it unfortunately (budget up to £60).
I've read the reviews, but they havn't narrowed it down on the noise front - I am looking for one that is quiet which you wouldnt overly notice it running at night in the tent and does keep meat / butter cool (if with assistance from bottles of frozen water / ice blocks)
Hi. I think you'll find that almost all Peltier type coolboxes will cool to 20degrees below ambient. (If the figure's wrong I'm sure someone will soon correct me). This means that if the sun is out and the tent is hot inside - and it can easily be 80 degrees c, it will only cool to 60. However, if it goes cool at night you could easily find ice inside in the morning. Our hounds got fed up of eating ice lollies instead of Superchunks!! We invested in a table top fridge, secondhand, for around £40 and find it's excellent. It even has a small ice box to improve the drinks. It's like THIS and costs around £70 new. We also find it much quieter that a coolbox.
We've recently bought a second hand Igloo Kool Mate 40 for £40 - it runs very quietly, and it chilled down to 2C when we tried it. Apparently it'll keep food warm at 68C if you reverse the powerlead too, although that's not something we've needed as of yet.
------------- Tents : Outwell Nevada M, Outbound Oberon 3, Outbound Sierra 1, Pro Action Hike Lite 1.
they are all about the same for noise really some a bit noiser but all have a small fan so all make noise as to keeping cool some go as low as 25c below ambient and i think pete may be getting his f's and c's mixed up unless he's tent really did hit 80dec c!!!!
peltier versions are all noisy the colder they run at the more air that needs to be used cooling the hot side of the device.
the "fridge" type ones (the door opens at the front) could well be thermostatically controlled so avoids the frozen milk scenario and usually run off the mains as well as 12v saving the transformer investment.
the water cooled peltier ones that pretend to be freezers make a hell of a racket
i'v been experimenting with constructing twin and stacked peltier coolers but the extra power and fans these need makes little difference the peltier until a efficiant one is invented is at the peak of its use already.
what we need is miniaturised compressor units to solve the problem