The outwell arrived today and is currently on test. I thought I’d share my initial thoughts and a few pictures for those of you who are still procrastinating on which compressor cool box to go for.
First thing, It was delivered very quickly, great service from Outdoorgear.co.uk based in Bournemouth.
I’m pleased I opted for the 35l version, it’s pretty big, the 50l which i was contemplating would have been too big for my needs.
This is it boxed up on my doorstep which gives a good feel for the size. There is a little packing round it but not too much.
As I said, it’s a decent size, holds a 4l milk carton standing upright easily. Haven’t got a 2l drinks bottle to test but rarely buy them in any case. Plenty of room for a few beers and food to last a weekend (which is mostly how I use my van).
Removable basket to make it easier to get stuff out, drain plug to aid cleaning and a really clever lid which hinges on either side and is completely removable as well
Can be connected to the van using a 12v cigarette socket adaptor which is included. Can be connected to the mains as well. THis is the one bit which is slightly disappointing, to connect to the mains you use an adaptor with a 12v Socket on it which you then connect the 12v connector into. Why they couldn’t have just had a plug that went into the fridge I don’t know. On the plus side, it is all included and I will probably only use the mains connection to pre-chill before loading the van up. It also comes with both a UK and EU plug.
So how does it work? I plugged it in, set it to 3 degrees and timed how long it took to get down there, completely empty. It took 20 mins and then the compressor shut off. It carried on dropping in temp down to 1 degree before slowly creeping up to 4 when the compressor kicked back in. It’s been running for a couple of hours now and the compressor is off much more than it is on. This should mean it won’t eat my leisure battery (which I’ll test next weekend).
So far I’m pretty impressed with it. The 240V connectivity is a minor thing really and given I paid £430 for it and it has a 2 year warranty I can put up with having to use their weird connectivity. It was over £100 cheaper than the Vitifrigo which was the one I had my eye on.
I’ll report back on power consumption after giving it a real world test next weekend when I’ll be using for real on a 4 day trip to the mountains.