Mobicool W40

[DaveBos]

Think I'm becoming a softee camper...spotted a Mobicool W40 Thermoelectric cool box in Tesco tonight, the half price offer £60 made me buy it.

Anyone have any experience with such cool boxes?

Plan on filling it with ice packs and sausages, milk, butter and milk for next weeks 4 day camping trip, 3'5 hours travel to get there, no leisure battery when I get there unfortunately.

 

[Oldrat]

I dont blame you, that's a really great price.
It's currently £104 on their website

Linky

 

[DaveBos]

Pictures a bit misleading, looks like it has an interior light, which it doesn't

 

[Davenjo]

I have had (albeit cheaper) thermoelectric coolers before and they were pretty useless, not bad at maintaining temperature when used at home plugged into the mains but useless for actually cooling things down. They normally claim to be able to maintain temps down to about 15-20c below the ambient temperature - sounds OK but a closed up van/awning/tent will easily get to 30c+ in even moderate sun hence cooler potentially getting well above 10c. Wouldn't like to think what the drain would be on your battery over 4 days but, with a fan running constantly, I'd expect it to be quite a lot.

Personally I'd look at paying a similar amount for a very well insulated coolbox - bang some 2 litres bottles in your freezer before you go and use them instead of ice-packs - you get to drink the water when it defrosts - when they are fully defrosted and/or the box is getting too warm just buy a bag of ice and stick that in instead of the water bottles. Make sure everything else you put in is as cold as you can before you go - if you don't need meat for the first couple of days, freeze it before you go and let it add to the cooling effect as it slowly thaws, etc..

 

[DaveBos]

Cheers for the info @Davenjo ,
kind of thought it wouldn't meet my expectations. I plan to power it on the drive there and with enough ice packs was hoping it would keep cool for a few days. Can't even leave it in the river tied to a tree with the electrics. Ah well £60 for a plastic storage box, with wheels.

Will do the freezer trick with the sausages.

 

[Davenjo]

@DaveBos , sorry mate, it wasn't until I just reread your original comment that I realised you have already purchased - I wouldn't of been so blunt with my assessment.

Tips re using frozen water bottles instead of ice packs, freezing anything you can, etc. all still relevant and will help. We used normal cool boxes for years camping and only comparatively recently realised that water bottles performed better than ice packs.

 

[Pauly]

I bought a similar unit for our trip to Bala and was quite happy with it, as long as you understand its limitations I think for the money they are quite handy
We kept ours in the walkway between van and awning so bit of fresh air but out of the sun
Main job is to keep a few select items slightly chilled to keep them going for a few days (milk etc) and it did that just fine, ran on mains at home then plugged into 12 volt for the journey and back on mains at site hookup

 

[Davenjo]

I bought a similar unit for our trip to Bala and was quite happy with it, as long as you understand its limitations I think for the money they are quite handy
We kept ours in the walkway between van and awning so bit of fresh air but out of the sun
Main job is to keep a few select items slightly chilled to keep them going for a few days (milk etc) and it did that just fine, ran on mains at home then plugged into 12 volt for the journey and back on mains at site hookup

Work ok on mains but I got the impression there was no hookup involved for his 4 day camp?

 

[DaveBos]

No worries @Davenjo , I appreciate an honest review. Will try the frozen water bottles, as many as I can fit in too reduce the void space.

Yeh, no hookup, was hoping the insulation in the box would keep it chilled for a while.

 

[Pauly]

Good point I didn't spot that
I bought a small solar panel setup on a removable plug so I can keep a bit of juice going to the battery and run it on 12 v while away if there's no hookup

 

[Davenjo]

Good point I didn't spot that
I bought a small solar panel setup on a removable plug so I can keep a bit of juice going to the battery and run it on 12 v while away if there's no hookup

Could you run the cool box direct from a small solar panel during daylight hours rather than via the battery?

 

[DaveBos]

How does that work @Pauly ? Does it trickle charge the van battery?

 

[Colinlp]

We've got a Waeco one, much the same thing, we bought it for our boat but never used it on it but we did take it camping once for a fortnight and it did the job very well, I had it plugged in during the day but unplugged it at night to save the car battery. Never had any issue and it kept the food fresh and the beer cold

 

[Pauly]

Could you run the cool box direct from a small solar panel during daylight hours rather than via the battery?

Technically it's possible, you would still need some form of solar controller to regulate the voltage and the panel would need a high enough output to sustain the fridge but I imagine it would cause issues when the sun goes down and the fridge is still trying to pull power, may be able to get some form of under voltage device to protect it ?
Not something I have ever considered before but you got my sparky brain thinking now if/how etc

 

[Pauly]

How does that work @Pauly ? Does it trickle charge the van battery?

I already have a leisure batt under seat with a CTEK D250 charger so feed my solar into this to keep the battery topped up when away
Technically you could charge the van batt but it's risky powering stuff from it and risking a flat battery

 

[DaveBos]

Think I may have to invest in the leisure battery/DC smart charger thingy, but looks around £300 minimum!!!

 

[Davenjo]

Think I may have to invest in the leisure battery/DC smart charger thingy, but looks around £300 minimum!!!

...don't you just love the way a sneaky bargain turns out leading to many times the initial outlay lol

 

[Colinlp]

A leisure battery isn't a bad idea, it fits nicely under the drivers seat and can power all sorts other than the coolbox, camping lights, chargers etc.

 

[DaveBos]

Or, could I just install a leisure battery under the front seat and charge it with a solar panel and forget about the split charging from the main battery with a CTEK?

 

[Davenjo]

Or, could I just install a leisure battery under the front seat and charge it with a solar panel and forget about the split charging from the main battery with a CTEK?

My 100w solar panel is (finally now I have a working controller!) easily keeping pace with running my compressor fridge, via leisure battery, 24-7