Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Fridge/Freezers and soft coolers for Overlanding

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Fridge/Freezers and soft coolers for Overlanding · The Overland Journal Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: host Scott Brady, and I am here with my co
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: host Matt Swartz. We're going to talk today about fridges
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and soft coolers. We're going to touch a little bit
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: as well on hard coolers, but basically all things related
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: to keeping our food cold or cool when we're out traveling,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: because food is a big deal when it comes to
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: remote travel. It's one of the joys of overlanding is
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: that you can cook these great meals and have all
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: this great food along with us when we're out about
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: So what do you think of this whole fridge thing, Matt.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, you've been a backpacker for a long time,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: so how's this going with like having cold beer at
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: the end of the day.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: I think having a refrigerator on board is like it's
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: a game changer. I mean, it elevates the entire experience.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: It enables so much more in terms of eating yourself
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: and as you mentioned, I mean, having quality food on
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: the trail is like it's just a whole different ballgame.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Twelve ol fridges are fantastic.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: They work so well.
• 1:00
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• 2:12
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• 2:17
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• 2:20
  Speaker 3: They really do work well.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: And it's just like getting at the end of a dusty,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: hot day and like brick breaking out an ice cream
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: cone or having ice for your margarita. I mean, it's funny.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: The fridge thing has always been a point of humor
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: around overlanding because it does seem so excessive to have
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: a refrigerator in your car. That is, that's only an
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: opinion that people hold that don't have one yet or.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: Haven't used one yet.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: There probably are about five lude out there that are
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: like super hardcore and they wrap their meat in like
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: a brown paperback or something like that. For the most part,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: if you've got a fridge in your truck at the
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: end of the day, to have you know, a nice
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: of salmon ready to cook over the fire, to have
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: a cold drink anytime during the day, all of those
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: things are a big deal. The reason why we tend
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: to use twelve volt fridges as opposed to hard sided
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: coolers is that the vehicle is already generating twel volt electricity.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: They are a little heavier, sometimes they can be a
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: lot heavier, but hard sided coolers are heavy as well,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: especially if they're well insulated. But the advantages in the truck,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: we've got twelvelte electricity that we can use to run
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: the compressor. But there are some other considerations around that too,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: So I think we're going to spend some time today
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: going through why do you want to use a twelve
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: volt fridge? And then what are some things that we
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: want to look for, what are some key attributes around
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: twelvevolt fridges when we choose to buy a particular model.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: And then after that we're going to get into soft
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: sided coolers and hard sided coolers a little bit, because
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: they also have their place very much so for remote
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: travel as well. But when it comes to twelve volt fridges,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: not much has changed. In fact, in the test that
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: we just did for Overland Journal, the angle fridge that's
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: in that test looks exactly the same as the angle
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: the first twelve volte fridge I ever saw, which was
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: an angle about twenty years ago. Like it is literally
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: indistinguishable between the two. I'm sure they've done some things
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: to improve it, and on this particular model, it is
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: a dual compartment, so it isn't a dual zone like
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: you can't change the temperature of one one zone to
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: the next. But the way that it separates the two
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: areas of the fridge, one area against the cold plate
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: gets freezing and then the other one ends up, you know,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: being you know, fifteen eighteen twenty degrees warmer than that
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: other section, which puts it right in the refrigeration category.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: So it's pretty pretty interesting how how they've solved a
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: lot of those things. Got it.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, having the two areas being able to freeze items
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: and have refrigerated things is really fantastic. The first my
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: first twelve volte fridge, or the first one I had
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: experienced with, was an ARB fifty literer and it was
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: a single compartment, so I didn't have the ability to
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: I could dial it way down if I wanted to
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: freeze everything, freeze everything straight, which I actually did on
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: one occasion when I was at burning Man. I brought
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: that along. We food prepped for the whole week, and
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: we packed all our meals and vacuum bags and we
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: put them in there and we dialed it all the
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: way down to freezing. It actually worked great for that purpose. Obviously,
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: then you have to take things out, you have to
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: let them sure you can't have cold drinks. Having those
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: two chambers is really kind of a game changer.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: I think it is, and a lot of people choose
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: those now because then you can have frozen meat or
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: pre prepped meals that you want to keep, ice cream,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: et cetera, make ice along the way.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: Which is that just that is very important, I would
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: say so, And it's just such a fun way to
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: travel because oftentimes when we're remote, we can be remote
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: for three, four or five a week or more.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: And so being able to have good quality food over
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: that period of time and not having to just go
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: with canned food or dried food that you can store. Now,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: I think it's important to compliment those things. So you
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: always want to have enough food with you just in
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: case things go wrong, So you're going to end up
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: with pastas and rice and other things that aren't being refrigerated.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: But just the fact that you can for those hot days,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: you can start to feed drinks into the fridge throughout
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: the week, get them cool down, and then just enjoy
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: a cold beverage at the end of the day or
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: even throughout the day when you're out going out hiking,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: to have cold water just makes a huge difference in
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: how much you're enjoying a hot hike.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: I think so, And I think you know, I would
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: I think the fridge goes one step further than just
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: being a luxury because we're kind of talking about that
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: talking about it in that capacity. But and I think
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: you would agree, you know, on these longer trips, like
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: some of our folks in the overlanding space who are
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: full timers, you know, we're traveling continuously. I mean, I
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: think it's you really need to have fresh food. Like
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: we can't be eating dry goods and can goods all
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: the time. It's like it's not great for our body
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: to be subsisting solely on those things. So fresh food
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: is really important for our morale on longer trips and
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: for our health. So I think I would argue that
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: also having these schoolers or fridges in.
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  Speaker 3: This case is like a necessity for longer trips. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: I would agree.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: And also when we're traveling, we never know when we're
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: going to come into an opportunity to get food like that.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: I remember when I was crossing the Silk Road, I
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: did not have a fridge because we were in a
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Suzuki Jimney, very small vehicle. I needed fuel capacity, so
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: I had twenty liter jerry cans as opposed to the
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: space that a fridge would be allocated to. It was
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: very challenging, you know. We had a soft cooler, a
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: very small soft cooler, and we could put some meat in,
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  Speaker 1: but it was amazing how long you could go without
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: actually coming across fresh food. Some of the places that
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: we went in Russia, for example, the only meat that
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: we could find was horse meat, so and it was
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: all frozen, all in big freezers. So that kind of helped.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: You could have this frozen food and it would keep
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: for a couple of days. It would slowly thaw out
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: inside the soft cooler. But you don't know when you're
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: going to be able to find fresh food. So if
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: you can find, you know, veggies and salads and things
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  Speaker 1: like that, then you can put them in the fridge
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  Speaker 1: and then they can keep for a week or so,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: which would never work with a soft cooler. And it
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: is surprising how difficult it is to find ice in
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: most of the developing world, larger towns and that, certainly,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: but sometimes it's even hard to find out where it's at.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: The fact that you've got a fridge, you can go
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: to the fresh market, because most of these people are
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: shopping daily or shopping every other day or so just
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  Speaker 1: for what they need for the next few days. So
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  Speaker 1: if you've got a fridge, you can stock up on
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: all these fresh items that you can get at the
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: local market and then keep them for a week or
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: so when you're in the back country.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Definitely, and also getting back to those dual zone ridge freezers.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: I mean, you can actually make ice in some of
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: these places, that's right, these which opens up a whole
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: range of opportunities like Margarita's, that's.
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: Right, which is very important.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Yes, And in fact, that is the fridge that I
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: ended up using more often recently, which is a dematic
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: CFX fifty five, And it's kind of a hybrid in
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: the sense that it has a very large compartment for
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: storing food at refrigeration temperatures, but then it has two
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: ice trays that sit right on top of where the
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: compressor I remember some apartment is, yeah, yeah, So it's
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: not a complete two zone. It's an extremely lightweight ridge
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: with a lot of interior volume for the exterior volume
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: of it, and then you can still make ice. So
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: if you wanted to put ice in a soft cooler
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: for going out and having a picnic or having drinks
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: in the front of the vehicle, or if you want
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: to have the marguerite at the end of the day.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: I've not tried to like set ice cream bars right
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: on top of that to see if that would work
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: to It probably would, but I don't tend to have
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: ice cream when I'm out traveling, even though I want it,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: but I try to avoid it. Making the ice is
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: pretty key. Now that I've had that option, I don't
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: think I would go with just the pure single zone
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: that couldn't also make ice. So I think there are
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: options out there, like these hybrids, like this dometic, where
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: you can have the capability to make ice, but then
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: you just have this very large refrigeration compartment, so it's
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: a little different.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: Did the ice making capabilities that one work well, E
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: didn't know it was. It does, chamber, Yeah, it does.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: The only thing I would say is that the ice
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: trays are fairly small. There may be five six inches square,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: and there's two of them, So you definitely end up
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: with enough ice at the end of the day for
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: a couple cocktails. But if you stay on top of
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: it throughout the day and you take that ice and
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: you put it into a zip block bag and you
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: put it right on top of where the ice is
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: being made, you can kind of build up a little
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: bit of inventory, which is what I've been doing. So, yeah,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: you don't end up with a ton of ice, but
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: you definitely end up with the capability of making ice.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: I would say in my experience with fridges too, that
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: that seems kind of par for the course, Like none
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: of these have saved for a few maybe have a
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: big enough frozen section to fit like a conventional ice
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: cube tray. Usually you're getting a smaller one that's designed
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: for these types of fridges.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and they're out there, and they've got good lids
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: on them so that they don't spill when you're at
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: angles and rattling around in the back country. So let's
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: talk through about the key attributes that you want to
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: look for in a fridge. It's typical for us to
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: want to have like all the gadgets with them, and
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: I think that those are actually some of the least
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: important things. Some of the most important things are around
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: the efficiency of the fridge. And the efficiency comes from
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: two attributes. It comes from how much power the compressor pulls,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: and then it comes from how well insulated the unit is.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: So you could have a fairly inefficient compressor, but a
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: very well insulated fridge, you would end up with a
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: very efficient unit because the compressor wouldn't have to run
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: very often. So, for example, with the Angle fridges, compressor
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: itself is extremely efficient, also extremely robust. It's a very
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: simple compressor that just kind of runs inside of a cylinder,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: very few moving parts. It's the only one like it
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: for that reason, it's extremely efficient and also very reliable,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: like they've been known to run for.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: Thirty or forty years. Oh wow.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So incredibly reliable units, very low amperage straw And
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: also what's important too is amverage startup. So a lot
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: of times we'll try to plug in our fridges into
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: the factory wiring of like let's say a four runner.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: A four runner factory wiring at the twelve lt socket
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: is not large enough diameter to be able to take
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: the startup amverriage loads of most fridges, so a lot
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: of times they won't even start, they won't even work,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: so you've got to wire in a heavier wire. Whereas
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: the angle, if you're concerned about wire diameter, the angle
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: takes just a couple amps to get fired up, whereas
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: some of the dan Foss style compressors those can take eight, nine, ten,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: twelve amps to start up, and that can be more
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: than what those circuits are designed to take.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: I didn't realize that those could so much power on startup.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: I know, you know obviously like AC appliances like to
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: think about like air conditioner right right, it can it
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: can draw like two to three thousand watts initially on startup, right,
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: and then it comes back down.
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: But I didn't realize the fridges were it's the same.
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: It's the same thing.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: It's it would be like an air conditioning compressor, right,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: So it's that initial motor startup that pulls the most amps.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: So there are units that do a very good job
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: of both. For example, the National Lunas are designed to
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: have very efficient compressors and to have exceptional insulative qualities as.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Well, are you aware of I know with some for instance,
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: like RV air conditioners, you can get these soft startup
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: modules that you can install that they basically like ramp
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: up the power somehow. I don't understand how they work exactly,
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: but they deal with some of those issues of like
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: high startup draw. Do you know if they make anything
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: like that for fridges?
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: That's an interesting idea.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: And yeah, all you would need is some kind of
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: a capacitor because you're just basically storing some capacity after
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: the twelve OL outlet. So it's just sitting there ready
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: to take that quick surge that high average load. That
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: could that could work. I've never I've never tried that
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: or seen people try that. A lot of the vehicles
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: that come from the factory, the wirings just not quite
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: up to the task, which is which is unfortunate.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so when you mentioned the dan Foss, so I
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: remember this because when we were trying to select a
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: refrigerator for our previous r V, the Cortes, you know,
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: we did a lot of reading on this and the
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: dan Foss is one that people mention over and over again.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: Maybe not necessarily for its efficiency, but I think for
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: its longevity for sure, very reliable. The arb fridge as
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: far as the one that we had and maybe they
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: still do use the dan Foss compressor to do but
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: it sounds like and that angle was it an angle
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: or a demetic that you were mentioning?
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: The demetic uses a dan Foss style. The National Luna
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: uses a da dan Foss style. They don't use a
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: dan Foss oem anymore. They use a COVID design.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they use an.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Equivalent one that they have that they've elected. But National
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Luna their primary job is making fridges and as a
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: result they have a wide variety of sizes and capabilities.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: It's funny they actually make I call them like a
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: gamer fridge. So they actually make a few models that
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: they would send for typically send for a test where
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: the insulation is like three or four inches in the sides.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: So it's literally designed to be the most efficient, fastest
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: cooling fridge. Just out of spite props to them, I mean,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: it's their job is to make really great fridges. And
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: there's no doubt that if you needed a fridge in
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia or something in the summertime, you would use
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: a fridge like that. But if you were to put
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: it into a test, it would just walk away. And
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: we have tested some of those national lunas, and they're
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: unbelievably efficient. Once you get them cooled down to temperature,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: they hardly run at all. They just don't need to.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: And they're also injected insulation as well, so every single
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: nook and cranny of the inside of the case is
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: completely covered in this really high performance insulation, whereas a
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: lot of the cheaper fridges they'll just have foam panels
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: that they put inside there and they really don't do
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: a great job of insulating. Yeah, so there's a bunch
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: of different attributes that we've seen because we've done three
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: full tests now of fridges through the years, and we've
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: learned a lot in that process. So one of the
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: things that we want to look at is that efficiency,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: because when you're parked on the beach in Baja for
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: a couple days, and let's say you have a small
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: solar panel or no solar panel at all, you don't
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: want to have to run the engine a lot. You
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: don't want to have to have a really big battery
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: bank because it adds weight and complexity and cost. So
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: having an efficient fridge really helps when you're parked in
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: a single location. Now, if you tend to move every
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: single day and change camps often. Then the efficiency of
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: the fridge is much less important because you're running the
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: engine during the day while you're driving on the trail,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: which is charging up the batteries and also keeping the
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: fridge cold. And a trick around that too, is if
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: you tend to drive every day, when you first get
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: into camp, turn the fridge up a little bit, it's
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: temperature up a little bit, it's thermostat, so that way
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: the fridge doesn't run as often. It just kind of
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: stays cold throughout the night, and then the next day
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: when you start back on the trail again to the
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: lower range of the refrigeration scale, so that way it
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: gets everything super cold during the day and then you
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: don't it doesn't have to run that often at night.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: That's a that makes me think, like someone who's really
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: clever with like Arduino programming or something, I wonder if
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: you could build something that would it would sense the
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: vehicle running, oh, and it would automatically lower the temperature
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: while the vehicle's running to automatically do that so you
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: don't have to worry about changing temperatures.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: That would be extremely clever, And we're starting to see
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: some of that around the apps, So that wouldn't be
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: very difficult.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: For the ones that have apps already.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: For the app designer to include a schedule, or you
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: could do a couple if then little little settings in there.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: If the vehicle voltage is over x.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: Which would be a signal of the of the alternator
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: running correct, then drop the temperature exactly, or even like
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: a time based one like your thermostat at home, you
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: could just say, you know, at nine PM, raise the
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: temperature at five degrees and then at seven am drop
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: it down.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Oh that's a clever idea, and I'm sure somebody will
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: will eventually do something like that because it would really help.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: The apps are getting to be a lot more robust.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: So you can go in there, you can check the voltage,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: you can check the temperature of the unit. And it's
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: also when we talk about that small diameter wiring that's
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: in most of the vehicles. Even if you can get
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: the fridge to work properly with it, you do get
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: a lot of voltage drop because there's so much amfriage
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: going through that small diameter wire that you may see
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: twelve point six volts at the battery and maybe you're
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: twelve point one or twelve or even eleven point eight
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: at the fridge itself, and a lot of times that
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: will trip the low voltage disconnects that are in the fridges,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: which brings me to the next topic, which is, along
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: with efficiency, you want to have some kind of starting
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: battery protection or house battery protection in the fridge. Most
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: of the fridges didn't have that. So for example, an
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Angle of twenty years ago, it would run all the
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: way down to nine volts.
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: I mean it would, It's so efficient. It would just keep.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Running and running and running and running. That little swing
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: style compressor in there. It would just continue to run
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: until it bottomed out the battery like basically down to nine.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Now this is this is a really interesting point because
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: I remember on a couple occasions, so again, in our
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: old RV, we had a two battery AGM solar power
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: system that we installed. Because it was AGM, it was
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: running fairly close to twelve volts. You know, it would
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: be a little bit above that when it was a
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: kind of peak charge and everything. But I remember on
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: a handful of occasions when we were in places like
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: northern California in the winter, we didn't have the sunlight
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: that we needed to really charge. We're running our AARB
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: full time. Sometimes the battery voltage would get low enough
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: that the fridge would actually kick off and stop working.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: And the workaround that I found was that was a
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: two way so it was DC and AC, and if
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: I switched over to AC power, the inverter could invert
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: the twelve volt power that was remaining down to a
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: much lower voltage, still up to one twenty to run
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: the fridge, but it was a less efficient way to
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: run the fridge.
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of parasitic loss in that process for.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: Sure, Right, So that's kind of that's why I've found
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: this interesting because some of these fridges do require a
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: minimum voltage. So are there any concerns around running these
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: fridges in vehicles that just have single starter batteries? Like,
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: would you recommend that most people at want a fridge
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: install a dual battery system.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's a great question. I oftentimes will not install
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: a dual battery system. I will install a high quality
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: starting battery for the vehicle, and then I make sure
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: that I have low voltage disconnects to protect it, so
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: I'll have a low voltage disconnect at the battery, and
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: then I'll also make sure that the low voltage disconnect on.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: The fridge is set properly.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: A lot of them, like a National Luna has three
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: different settings for the low voltage disconnect, so you can
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: always preserve starting power for the engine, which is pretty important.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: I do like having auxiliary battery systems. So like in
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: the Scout camper, I have a Goal zero YETI in
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: there and that's what runs the fridge, and the Goal
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: zero does have not only does the demetic have a
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: low voltage disconnect, but the Goal zero itself has internal
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: protection for the lithium ion battery. There's a bunch of
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: those systems in place to protect that.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: YETI also has a regulated twelve ol output, so I
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: know it can draw down below tow vaults and still
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: out over twelve so that it will still run. Appliances
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: they need a minimum of let's say twelve point one
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: or something.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's super helpful because the higher the voltage
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: within a range. Of course, there's an operating range, but
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: if you're at thirteen volts, the fridge will run so
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: much more efficient than is than if it's at eleven
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: point five. So the less efficient it gets because the
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: voltage drop the more ampridge it consumes. We want to
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: make sure that the battery and that's why something like
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: an AGM or a lithium IM is so helpful, because
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: an AGM will typically have a much higher float viewer
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: to look at an Odyssey battery, it'll float at thirteen
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: point two thirteen point four volts. So it's already going
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: to be more efficient for all of those systems, and
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: the fridge will run more efficiently to begin without it.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: But if you're going to be running a big fridge,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: or you're running in really hot environments, or you're going
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: to be camping for multiple days without solar, then you
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: definitely want to make sure that you have a house
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: battery to support that. I will typically just bring along
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: the solar panel and I don't worry about it. I've
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: got low volt disconnects, plug in solar, and then I'm
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: making plenty of power off of the solar panels. Like
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: I use kind of a semi flexible panelful from Overland Solar.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: I just put it right on the windscreen and it
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: generates plenty of power. Now that I've got the Scout
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: camper one hundred and eighty watt panel up top, So
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: that's plenty of power to run the fridge.
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: I see a lot of questions about this in forums
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: and things like that, people saying like, I'm getting a fridge,
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: can I just plug it into my vehicle?
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: And it's not.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: Just a simple yes or no answer, which as I
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: think kind of what you're getting at here.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely you want to protect that starting voltage, so
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: and the best way to do that you just you
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: get into camp, you unplug the fridge. Just make sure
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: that you're not drawing it down. And some of those
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: factory twelve volt outlets they're already ignition on anyways, so
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: as soon as you turn the car off, it shuts
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: off the power to the to the socket. So it's
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: just making sure that you set it up or what
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: your needs are for sure.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's smart.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: And then after we've taken a look at the efficiency
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: and the electrical componentry and the like the apps for
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: example of how to manage the fridge, then we really
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: want to look at how space efficient the fridges and
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: the overall construction of it. We're going to be lashing
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: down something that may weigh forty or fifty pounds just
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: the fridge itself, but imagine once you load it up
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: full of food, especially a lot of frozen food, you
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: could be pushing eighty pounds or more of weight. The
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: fridge needs to be lashed down properly, so making sure
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: that the fridge that you buy either comes with robust
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: handles or with an accessory or an ability to heavy
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: duty lash down the fridge inside the vehicle. It's super dangerous.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: It starts flying around totally.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: And there are a lot of ready made options for this,
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: and some of them go beyond just slashing it down,
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: Like there are all these fridge slides that you can
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: get where the fridge is physically attached to a slide,
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: and that actually facilitates making it easier to access the
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: fridge too, right like totally pull it out from the
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: bed of your truck or from the rear seat of
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: your truck totally.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: And some of them will even pull out and drop
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: down or tilt down, which really makes it easier. Especially
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: if someone's a little bit shorter. It can be really
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: hard to get in a tall vehicle, can be very
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: hard to get into the food. You end up needing
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: a step or something to get in there. But those
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: drop down slides can really make a big difference talking
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: with people in the community about how they work, how
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: robust it's been, does it rattle because the last thing
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: you want to do is introduce a bunch of unnecessary
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: weight and complexity. With that, making sure that it is
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: lashed down properly is super important. You'll also find that
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: the material that the fridge is made out of makes
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: a big difference as well, and that all results in
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: how it affects the weight of the fridge. So another
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: reason why I use the Demetic in the Scout is
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: because it's the lightest unit with those kinds of quality attributes,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: so it's a high performance fridge, but it's also very
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: light less than forty pounds, so it's fifteen percent or
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: so lighter than most other fridges. And it uses a
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: plastic case for that. That's where the majority of the
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: weight savings comes from, is the plastic construction.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: That kind of it feels like it makes sense for
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: that use case though, because you've got to lash down
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: inside the camper. It's not like it's in the bed
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: of a truck where gear might be banging into it.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: So a plastic case is fine in that case. I
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: think it's I think it's totally fine in that particular instance.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: Whereas something like a National Luna that's made it's skinned
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: in stainless steel, it's dimpled stainless steel. I've used those
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: for decades and they are unbelievably robust. They literally don't
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: seem to care about what's rubbing up against them or whatever,
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: and you can just polish it out. They're clearly designed
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: for the most difficult use case scenarios, whereas any of
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: the plastic fridges are going to get a lot of
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: scuff and visible wear if you've got stuff rubbing up
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: against them.
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, our airb after three full years on the road,
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: was it has They get They get pretty beat, but
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: we also covered it in stickers and stuff, so you know.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, which is like a great way to solve the
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: problem because it's just cosmetic. The angle, for example, it
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: is a steel shell, but it's painted, so it's pretty
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: easy for it to get scratched and scuffed and stuff
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: like that. Now, most of these manufacturers they make transit
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: cases for them, or they make covers for them, and
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: those can oftentimes add to the insulative properties of the unit.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: And it protects the expensive fridge as well. Considering a
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: cover is always a valuable thought as well to the fridge.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: Got it.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going to ask if you've used one,
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: and if you've noticed, does it enhance the insulating considerably
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: or is it just marginal?
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: I think it definitely helps. A great example of that
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: is when you've got direct sun coming in. I've noticed that,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: like if you've got a case on it, like a
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: soft canvas or a fabric case, it's amazing. Like if
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: you've got the case open on the top and it's
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: just baking the top of the fridge, it can be
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: like hot to the touch, whereas if you've got the
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: case over it, outside of the case gets warm, but
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: it's not again, it's not a metal surface. It's just
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: absorbing that. It's amazing. You can put your hand underneath
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: her and it's it's cool. I think it makes a
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: really big difference when it's getting direct sun. But it
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: adds complexity. You've got to unzip the cover. Some of
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: them are a little more clever than that. But there's
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: pros and cons to all of it. But I do
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: think that a cover is a good idea if you're
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: trying to maximize the insulative performance of it or protect
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: the fridge.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: I was going to say to use. Do the covers ever,
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: add some additional like filtration to the intake around the compressor,
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: because I know, like we operate these in really dusty
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: environments often and that could be a consideration, like dust
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: getting in with the car.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: I've not seen that. That's an interesting thing. I've not
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: seen any integrated filters in the covers. That would be
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: really clever, But I know I've not seen that. They
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: normally just have mesh around the intake or around the
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: venting of the fridge. And that's another consideration as well,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: is making sure you don't put blankets and stuff like that.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: We've actually seen trailer manufacturers that will put fridges in
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: unventilated boxes and it's just like, doesn't work. It's going
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: to destroy the fridge.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because they do, they pump out heat from those
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: air compensitor departments considerably. Like I remember, like in our
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: smaller vehicle when we had it, I mean it would
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: it would add heat to the cabin.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's you know, there's the condenser and then there's
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: the evaporator, and the evaporator as a fan going against
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: it needs to clear that heat out in order for
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: it to be as efficient as possible. So making sure
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: that you don't stick blankets and other things around those vents,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: make sure those vents are clear, and that'll greatly improve
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: the efficiency and longevity of the fridge.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: And the manufacturers, from what I remember, they'll usually give
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: you like a recommended clearance minimum that you need to
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: maintain around those events. So that's really important to pay
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: attention to. Yeah, it's super important. Jam these things right
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: up into a corner where they can't get airflow, so yeah.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Or it's easy just like because though the way that
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: they're shaped, it's easy for like a blanket or something
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: to fall off onto the one side of them, or
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: maybe you put the blanket there to keep it from
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: banging up against the side of the vehicle. That becomes
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: a real problem around the efficiency of the fridge. This
• 27:27
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• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Right So, those are the main considerations around that. Let's
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: go through real quick the fridges that we tested which
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: represent kind of the current crop. There are some that
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: we didn't test, like a Snowmaster, for example, but we
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: have tested those units in the past. The first one
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: on the list is the ARB. Now this is their
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: new zero line, very similar in fact, made in the
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: same factory as the Truma, So what we say about
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: the ARB also applies to the Truma and vice versa.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: This is a very large fridge, a lot of interior volume.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: It is a dual zone, so it has a small
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: freezer compartment that can also be disassembled, so that's kind
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: of interesting. You can make it one big refrigeration come
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: apartment by removing the freezer components of it. The freezer
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: components do rob a little bit of interior space, so
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: if you don't really need the freezer, then you can
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: have one giant fridge.
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: And that's basically.
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: It was like an insulated hard plastic divider that slides
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: in right exactly.
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: It just slides between the food baskets. I like that.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: I like the fact that it has a drain at
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: the bottom. Drains are really helpful.
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: Drain is key. I remember that, and you have to.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: It's surprising how much condensation can accumulate in these like
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: if you're keeping vegetables in there that are concealed plastic.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: Or one of your drinks freezes and explodes, so really,
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: you know, it's amazing the amount of stuff that leaks
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: into the bottom of fridge. So it really helps with
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: cleaning and it also helps with draining that out. So
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: that's a consideration. There were some things, so let's go
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: through the pros and the cons. A great volume for
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: large groups or if you've got a family with you,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: A really durable construction overall. I really like the fact
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: that it has stainless steel actually lashing points and lashing
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: accessories that really tie the fridge down nicely. And one
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: of the things that I like most about it was
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: that it has a twelve OL input on both sides
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: of the fridge, because you have to be able to
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: see the monitor to get insights on how the fridge
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: is performing. But sometimes that means you'd have you got
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: to run the wiring around to the front where it
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: can get caught on drawer systems or things like that.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: So you can either run it in the front where
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: the handle is, or you can run it on the
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: opposite side of the fridge. That's I think that that's
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: a really clever solution.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: Overall, it's safe to assume that this one, it looks
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: like it also has a reversible lid, so you can
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: use which side the lid opens from.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's an important consideration as well, and thanks
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: for mentioning that too, Matt. On the con side, it
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: is less space efficient. It has a very thick insulation.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: I would not say that it's super thermal efficient insulation
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: like a National Luna, but it is very thick insulation.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: And then it's also extremely heavy. It was the heaviest unit.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: This and the Trumer were both the heaviest units, and
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: the tests you got to make sure you got the
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: payload for it and just average performs overall. The advantage
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: of ARB is that you've got the company ARB standing
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: behind it. So if you need long term service, or
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: you need warranty, if you need access to parts or
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: to getting the unit repaired, you've got a lot of
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: support behind that of a quality brand.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think that's that's one of those things. I
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: feel like I come back to it all the time.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: You know, people were always struggling to meet that balance
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: of affordability in this year.
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: Because a lot of it's expensive.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: But the thing that's important to remember is if you
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: skimp on price and go with a company that's kind
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: of knocking off something, you don't often have the support
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: in case you have issues down the road. So you
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: can often make more sense to spend more upfront and
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: to have less cost in the long run, especially.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: With something like a fridge, because you can just move
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: it to your next vehicle, and your next vehicle and
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: your next vehicle. Again, investment totally like those angles that
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: will last you a lifetime literally. So the next one
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: that we're going to talk about as the demetic, that's
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: was the total surprise of the test comes in at
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: forty seven pounds for a fifty five liter unit. They
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: have units that go under forty pounds depending upon the size.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: It's also a great performer overall. It's got the best
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: display in the test. It's high up on the unit
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: so it doesn't get obscured. It's up by the lid itself,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: which is really nice. It was it was definitely the
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: editor's choice, and there's a few reasons for that. Again,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: it has that the best display in the test, the
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: best location of a display as well. I really like
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: it up high on the unit. It also has a
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: USB output output right there, so you could charge your phone. Oh,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: it's just really clever to be able to do that,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: charge any other device or GoPro or whatever right there
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: at the top of the unit. And it has the
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: best overall performance, excellent insulative performance. They're clearly using high
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: efficiency insulation in the unit. And then it has a
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: really efficient compressor as well. And then it also is
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: the lightest weight, and we talk about weight a lot
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: on this podcast because it's really important, and it's also
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: one of the most cost effect too. So it's this
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: crazy combination of simplicity, overall performance, overall good user interface
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: with the unit has a good app as well, but
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: there are a few cons. So it doesn't have a
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: full internal freezer. It only has a nice the ice
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: trays on the inside, so if you need that, you
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: need to go with one of their other units. They
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: do have a dual zone system as well. And the
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: plastic exterior is going to get a lot of wear
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: and tear if it's not used in the right way
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: or with the cover. They do make a really nice
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: cover for them. When I use it in the scout
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: because I'm paying attention to every pound, I don't use
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: the cover inside that. But I just haven't had a
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: situation where it got any kind of real, real wear
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: and tear. In that regard, it's just a great value,
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: high performer. We're going to go into the Angle next.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: So the Angle it's old school cool. I mean it
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: is literally was a pun, wasn't it old school? Maybe
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: that should have been the name of the article.
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: We'll use that for the next time. I like.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: So the angles are the Angles are the real deal.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: They have been around forever and they are so well proven,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: made in Japan. They have the lowest startup ampridge. They
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: have the lowest am draw overall in the test. They
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: also have the most space efficiency for the exterior volume,
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: and that's because the insulation's fairly thin, and as a
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: result of that, during the warm up test, it does
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: warm up faster than other fridges. When you have a
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: super efficient compressor, you've got that balance between the two.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: On the con side, the coil configuration definitely favors it
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: being a dual zone, so all of the coils are
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: kind of packed to one side.
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: So if you were to.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: Remove a dual zone component tree, and it's very easy
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: to do, you just slide out that little insulative barrier.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: You end up with one side of the fridge being
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: cooled a lot more than the other side, So keep
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: that in mind. And they do sell just regular refrigeration units,
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: but for this dual zone you want to be mindful
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: of the fact that all the coils are on one side.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: The handles are also not great for lashing down, so
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: you want to get some kind of an aftermarket lashing
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: I think Expedition Exchange sells some that just screw into
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: where the handles go and you end up with really robust,
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: stainless steel lash points. Overall, kind of average cooling and
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: warm up performance right in the middle of it. A
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: very affordable unit overall, extremely reliable. Just the design of
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: it itself lends itself to being extremely reliable because of
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: that Sawafuji compressor. Now let's move on to the National Luna.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: The National Luna has won all of our tests up
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: to this point, and it is not to take anything
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: away from the National Luna in this particular test because
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: they are the most like the land Cruiser. They're like
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: the g Wagon of fridges. There's no question about it.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: The material qualities throughout are exceptional. Everything is designed by
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: people who use these in the field in Africa. They're
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: made in Southern Africa. They use the highest quality components.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: They have an entire team that's dedicated towards making the
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: best possible fridges in the world. What's interesting about this
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: legacy dual zone is that it has some technology inside
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: it that allows it to a portion of freezing and
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: refrigeration capabilities between the two compartments. It can actively cool
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: one side or the other and as a result of
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: that you get some inefficiency in the process. So if
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: you've got the fridge full and it's just running as
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: it should, you don't really notice any of that. But
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: if you were, like, let's say you had nothing in
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: the freezer because you consumed all of that food and
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: now you just have fresh food, you're gonna want to
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: make sure that you make that now just a fridge
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: compartment and not leave it empty, because otherwise it starts
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: directing a lot of the performance towards that.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: Because there's no thermal mass in there to keep correct
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: temperature correct.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: That's something to keep in mind. It's actually it's an
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: advantage and a disadvantage to the unit. So it's just
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: knowing how it's designed. The pros again, super high quality material.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: It's a very attractive fridge overall, this dimpled stainless steel.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: The lid can be mounted in multiple directions. It has
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: very precise and independent compartment controls, which is something that
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: most of the other units can't do as well. And
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: it has the class leading insulative performance. So once you
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: get it to temperature, it takes a long time for
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: it to warm up, which is what you want. You
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: want it to stay cold for as long as possible.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: I really like just looking at the photos that you
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: took of it for the article. I'm really intrigued by
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: the basket set up too, because most of the other
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: cooler fridges whatever they happen to be, the food baskets,
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: it's just one basket straight to the bottom. But this
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: it's actually separated vertically, so it is can lift one
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: out because like one of the things that I always
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: used to struggle with in the airb was sometimes the
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: thing you want is at the bottom. Always at the bottom,
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: you have to pull everything out, and often with these
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: small fridges you have to like jigsaw it all in
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: to get it to fit just right if you're trying
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: to do, you know, four or five days worth of
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: fresh food. So that that design actually seems like I
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: feel like that would save me a ton of time
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: with getting what I need.
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: It does, And if you end up with tall items,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: then you just don't put in the top basket sure,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: and then you can have a bunch of tall items
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: and stuff in there. Like if Matt Scott Mills is,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: if Matt Scott needs his chilled rose.
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's it's very easy to do that.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: I'm calling out map, but there's nothing I love that's
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: right going for it, And yeah, exactly is nothing wrong
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: with the rose. So On the con side, it is
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: a little bit slower to cool because of that technology
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: that they use to apportion the cooling effectiveness, so it
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: is a little slower than some of the previous models
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: or some of the other models in the test. And
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: then it has two latches, two like heavy duty metal latches,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: so every time you open the fridge if you want
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: it to seal properly. This is something that a lot
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: of manufacturers of fridges haven't figured out yet. Most of
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: the cooling losses through the lid or through the seal
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: around the lid.
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: And did you did you gain this insight with that
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: Fleer camera exactly?
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: So we use the Fleer camera and it was actually
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: the reason why we saw performance difference between the ARB
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: and the and the TRAUMA was because of.
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: The lid seal.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: So the ARB lid seal was not as effective as
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: the TRUMA and you could see it on the Flear
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: camera very clearly that there was a lot of cooling
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: loss from the lid and the lid seal. So because
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: of that, National Luny uses two steal clamping clasps and
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: that can take time when you want to open it up,
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: So just keep that in mind. And you know what
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: I do on my national un I just clamp one
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: of them and I don't worry about the fact that
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: I've lost a little bit of efficiency, So it ends
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: up really not being a big deal, but it's something
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: to note. And then the last one is the Truma,
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: which we did talk about the performance and the attributes
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: around the ARB. They're similarly priced as well, they're slightly
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: different in the handle design, so the handle on the
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: Truma actually does kind of come out for lifting, whereas
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: the RB one is just integrated, so the Truma handles
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: would be used for lashing, whereas the ARB has the
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: capability of kind of clamping in a stainless steel mounting bracket.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: The interior baskets are slightly different as well, but they're
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: essentially the same fridge. They perform essentially the same.
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, oh cool, Yeah, that's a lot.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there is a lot to that. I think that
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: the value award, the value award did go to the
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: Angle deservedly, so, so editor's choice was the Demetic and
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: the Value Award was the Angle.
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: I remember it was really fun watching you work through
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: this test in our lab, yeah lab, and just seeing
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: the attention to detail with the data loggers, and I
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: having seen this test go down, I can truly say
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: that you thought very deeply about how to collect the data,
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: and it felt like the data you collected was really valuable.
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: So yeah, thank you.
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: I think this is a really valuable article for folks
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: to find and it is on Expedition Portal too. It
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: is find it there, So if you're in the market
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: for a fridge, it's a great resource to look at.
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: But it doesn't cover everything, so there is more out
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: there too, right.
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: No question.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: Now, there's other fridges that are available, many other different
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: sizes and models from ARB and Dometic and National, Luna
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: and others. But this kind of covers the newer units
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: that are on the market, so we always try to
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: make sure we're testing the newest stuff that's out there.
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: Cool.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: We've done the deep dive on the twelve volt fridges
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: for sure, but there's other ways to keep our food
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: cold that can be a lot less expensive and oftentimes
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: is the perfect solution. So you just did a recent
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: test on soft sided coolers, so let's kind of rip
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: into that.
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So that's going to be in the Spring twenty
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: twenty two issue of Overland Journal. So yeah, which is
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: just now shipping exactly, so if you're a subscriber, you're
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: going to get a first look at that. Yeah, testing
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: soft sided coolers was really fun. So this was you know,
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: what we call best of breed tests, So it wasn't
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: quite as in depth in terms of collecting data and
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: being scientific about it. It was a little bit more
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: just take them out into the field, use them, see
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: how they perform, which we did, and I believe we
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: had six or seven seven units that we took out
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: and they were you know, a variety of different designs.
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: We had some over the shoulder kind of like tote
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: bag style coolers. We had some backpack style coolers, we
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: had some rolltops, a bunch of zippers, so kind of
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: a good selection and from you know, all the leading
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: manufacturers of these types of products. And so yeah, I
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: mean soft sided coolers, like the technology behind them and
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: the materials that they're using for insulation these days is
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: very high quality, so much so that some of these
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: performed almost on par with some hard sided coolers I've used.
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: I mean, certainly, these soft sided coolers are better than
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: any kind.
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: Of bargain hard cooler that you're going to buy.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: Okay, if you're going to go and buy a top
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: notch hard sided cooler, you know, like a Yetti or
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: something like that, that's a different story. But I was
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: really impressed with pretty much everything in the test in
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: terms of its insulating abilities. The only major differences that
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: I saw between them where some are just designed as
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: lighter duty units. They're not really intended for like multiple
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: days of sure keeping ice.
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: They're more of like for day trips. You know.
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: Obviously with anything like this, some of the components there,
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: there is variation there.
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: So some certainly had higher quality components.
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: And mostly when I say that REFERRANKD to zippers, we
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: had one zipper that broke during our test.
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: Most of them held up pretty well.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: So now the question that I have is did you
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: use the backpack coolers as backpacks? I mean it seems
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: like that that's to me, it doesn't make a lot
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: of sense. Yeah, like what was your thought on the backpack,
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: like with the straps and everything.
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: Now, so I think I think it has its place
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: and I see some value in it. For instance, let's
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: say you're going to a destination and you're going to
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: want to have picnic or you know, leave the vehicle
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: to take an extra little journey to somewhere special.
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: Or maybe fishing or something.
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: Sure, fishing, you know, anytime you're going to be moving
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: the cooler longer distance or needing to carry it further.
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: The backpacks are kind of nice because it frees up
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: your hands to carry other gear.
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: Got it, chairs and things like that, chairs.
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: A fishing rod, you know, kind of like you were
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: just talking about, or like setting up camp right, you know,
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: maybe if you're walking one hundred yards from your vehicle
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: to set up a ground tent and various camping gear,
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: like you can throw the cooler over your shoulders and
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: then you've got both hands free to carry a table
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: and a tent and all these other things.
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: When it comes down to the.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: Idea of carrying these things for like a day, like
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: I would never put a backpack style soft cooler on
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: and hike with it for an entire day of hiking
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: on a trip. Sure, that's just not really something that
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: I can envision doing. And also when it comes down
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: to that, I think even with these backpack style carrying systems,
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: none of them were particularly comfortable for a long distance carries,
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: you know, short short duration sure carrying.
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: A full cooler like this all day. I wouldn't want
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: to do that.
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: So the soft sided cooler that I've used, and I
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: haven't tested the other unit, so this is I'm coming
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: from a place of ignorance around it. So I've used
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: this YETI that you guys can see in the background
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: here in the YouTube video. It just has been the
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: soft sided cooler that I've always used. I mean I've
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: used some before that, but this is the one I've
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: used for the last few years. And it does have
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: a shoulder strap, so I'll just kind of throw it
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: over my shoulder like a messenger bag. Then you can
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: kind of swing the fridge back behind you, you know,
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: just above your butt basically, and then I do find
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: that I can keep my hands free. And then what
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: I use I use that strap to put it around
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: the back of the seat in the vehicle so that
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: the cooler doesn't go flying around. It just kind of
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: helps secure it in place, and then the strap is
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: easily removed if you're being more sensitive around that. Yeah,
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: I was just really curious on the on the backpack thing.
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: I can see if you're if you're walking back into
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: a lake or something like that, fishing or you're going
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: and go doing a nice you know, sunset picnic or
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: something like that.
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: I could see why that would be really helpful for sure.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: And like this ice meal that you've got behind you,
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: it's got additional pockets for bringing sam other things, you know,
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: chips or whatever.
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and actually, you know, a lot of the coolers
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: I think, I think it might not every single one.
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: Most of the coolers in this test have these exterior
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: pockets now that are not generally insulated, but oftentimes they
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: are highly water resistant or waterproof, and they give you
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: a great place to stash like your phone or car keys,
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: or like you said, a sandwich, you know, like something small.
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: That you don't want to lose or misplaced. Yeah, cookies
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: or chips or something like that.
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, anything you're not worried about keeping cold, you know.
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: It's it would seem like most of these products are
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: designed to be used in places where water is present,
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: just because of the all of the exterior waterproof zippers.
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, it makes sense for the main compartment to
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: be waterproof because if you have ice or something inside,
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: you don't want it leaking into your vehicle. But very
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: often these these auxiliary pockets on the outside are also
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: waterproof zippers. So I think these are a lot of
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: these are for lakes, they're for boats, They're for going
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: to the beach, you know, they're for going places where
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: you might have some water present.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: So and what I use mine for is because there's
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: not a pass through between the truck and the scout,
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: I will just kind of put a couple of drinks
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: and some snacks in this small, yetty, soft sided cooler
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: and I just keep it inside the truck, and then
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: I can use the ice that the Dometic makes to
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: keep it cold or use ice packs.
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: It's amazing.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: Even just setting ice packs on top of the compartment
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: where the ice is made, it usually gets it extremely
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: cold or sometimes even frozen overnight, and I do like
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: to use ice packs for that. I don't prefer using
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: cubes of ice inside a soft sided cooler because a
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: lot of them do leak if they if they tip over.
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah they can. I actually I was impressed.
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: I didn't really have any experiences with zippers leaking on
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: any of the models we tested, but it can happen.
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: You know, you have to make sure that you really
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: securely pull the zipper all the way to the end
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: of its track.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: That's what's happened with me, is you just you kind
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: of you don't you get a little lazy and right
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: like on the Yeddy for example, it's got to get
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: completely you know, set into this little rubber bushing at
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: the end of it or kind of capture at the
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: end of it.
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and those those beefy waterproof zippers can be you
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: have to exercise some force to really get that last
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: little bit of closure.
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: So you know, that's important to keep in mind. But
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: I like what you said.
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: I mean having food stakehold, but having it easily accessible
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: in a vehicle I think is one of the best
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: use cases for these. So they're a great accessory to
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: a fridge or for shorter trips. You know, if you're
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: someone you know, if you're like a weekend warrior and
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: you're doing two and three day trips at max, these
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: can be a great alternative to refrigerator because a lot
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: of these coolers will hold ice for three days plus. Sure,
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: now there's some nuance to that, you know, like if
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: you leave it in your vehicle with the vehicle closed
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: in the sun and the vehicle gets up to one
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: hundred degrees that's not going to be the case, so
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: there are some like concessions you have to make. You know,
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: maybe you want to be willing to take the cooler
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: out of the vehicle and put it on the shady
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: side of the vehicle if you're going to stay parked
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: for a long period of time. There are some things
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: you have to consider like that.
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that makes sense.
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, But also the ice thing you mentioned too, you know,
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: I think ice packs are a great alternative to cube
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: or block ice because no one likes the wet mess
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: inside the cooler. That's a big argument for a refrigerator
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: instead because you often avoid that.
• 48:18
  Speaker 3: So you don't end up with the soggy sandwiches. Yeah.
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: One interesting thing I learned around that though, when I
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: was doing research with this, I learned that it's actually
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: more efficient to leave the meltwater in cooler or fridge
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: with the ice.
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: That has been a debate for decades of like what's
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: better to pour out the ice water or leave it in.
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's certainly it's a nasty mess when
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: it's in there with food, But if you can figure
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: out a way to keep the food out of that
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: with like, you.
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: Know, maybe one of those elevated wire racks.
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: A lot of these companies have these resource sections on
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: their websites where they talk about getting the most efficient
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: use of your cooler, and across the board they say that, like,
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: leave the meltwater in, it will warm up faster if
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: you're poor that out.
• 49:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Interesting yet because you're removing that cold water, so it's.
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: An extra thermal mass, you know, and it insulates better
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: than the air does inside the cooler.
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: Another thing I'll use the soft sided cooler for is
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: oftentimes you go to the grocery store and you end
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: up with just a few more items and you can
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: fit in your fridge. So it just lets you you
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: put a couple items in the soft sided cooler until
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: you've had a meal or two, and then you feed
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: them back into the the main fridge. It does feel
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: like a pretty nice compliment. Yeah, it can be your
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: overflow space and yeah, yeah.
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: I mean, and if you're taking a cold thing, you know,
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: like let's use ice cream as the example. If you
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: go grocery shopping and you're just you're not you're a
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: little over capacity, putting frozen items in there, it keeps
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: them cold for quite a long time.
• 49:40
  Speaker 3: It really does.
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: Now, did you find that there was one closure type
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: that worked better than the others. Like this ice meal
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: that you've got behind you has a rolltop, it seems
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: like that would be pretty well sealed.
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: The rolltops are are great, and you know, when you
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: think about longevity of products, I mean it's there's less
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: mechanical parts. Zippers do wear out in the long run,
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: even well made zippers. So I think if you're concerned
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: with that, a rolltop design is clever, and they do
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: a great job of being waterproof. You know, it's like
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: a dry bag that you would take in a rap
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: or a kayak. It rolls over and then it buckles,
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: So the buckle hardware is easier to replace if it breaks,
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: easier than a zipper. Like you, if your zipper breaks
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: on one of these, you're sending it back to the manufacturer,
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: and likely it's just going to be replaced, for sure,
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: replacing the zipper.
• 50:25
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: I think you get into some other challenges with a
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: non zipper opening, with how much of an opening you
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: actually get, oh sure, you know, because keeping these efficient
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: requires insulation to fully come together on the closure. I
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: found that some of the most convenient coolers to get
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: into to load and unload where it was. Actually, we
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: had a YETTI in the test and it was in
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: that same category as this one you've got behind us.
• 50:51
  Speaker 3: It was one of the backflip models.
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: Sure, so it zips open and the lid flips completely
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: back and you have like completely unrestricted access. And that
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: was huge for me. I mean, I really appreciated that. Yeah,
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: that was one of the things that I noticed. We
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: tested one of the earlier angle soft sided coolers and
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: it had it had a closure that snapped in place
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: and then a zipper, so you'd unsnap it, you'd open
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: up the zipper, and then the insulation came basically touched
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: underneath the zipper, right. But the inside of the cooler
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: was made of this rubber material that stuck to everything
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: like an enormous amount of resistance, So like if you
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: wanted to feed things in, you needed a third hand,
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: So like you needed two hands to open it up
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: and then another one to drop the stuff in. So
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: if you were just trying to get like a water
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: bottle out of there, it would stick to that to
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: that rubber material, and it just made it very difficult
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: to get things in and out of the fridge or
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: in and out of the cooler for example, Like it
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: did an amazing job of keeping it cold, Like it
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: was very well insulated, but it was just the material
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: choice on the inside, it had.
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: A lot of sticktion to it.
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that made it really difficult to get things in
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: and out without it kind of being held up by
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: the sides of the cooler totally.
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: And I experience that it was interesting. Some of the
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: manufacturer's recommendation was to actually wedge something in the opening.
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: Oh sure, if you're an individual to make it work. Yeah,
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: so they'll say it open. They would have like they'd
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: be like take an analogy and water bottle and just
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: wedge it in and it will.
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: Hold it open.
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: Because you know, some some of the most efficient ones,
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: like you said, the insulation comes right up together and
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: it's almost like a kind of like a taco style opening,
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: So it wants to close together.
• 52:25
  Speaker 3: For sure. You have to use force to hold it
• 52:27
  Speaker 3: open to get things in and out.
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: So you found that the zipper top ones were just
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: like the most easy to interact with.
• 52:34
  Speaker 3: Well, but it seems like very few of them are
• 52:35
  Speaker 3: that necessarily made that way. Yeah.
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the Yeddi specifically all of the zippers were these
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: waterproof zippers that had quite a bit of resistance, except
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: the hydro flask. It had almost like it was like
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: a ziplock bag style. Oh interesting, And that one was
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: actually very easy to open and close, given that it
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: was a waterproof zipper. I would say ultimately the rolltops
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: were a little bit easier to manage. But I see, Yeah,
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: the Eddy in particular just sticks out because it was
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: so easy to load and unload with the full access.
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: You know, that was kind of the favorite. But should
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: I should I kind of walk you through. Yeah, let's
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: do that.
• 53:07
  Speaker 3: Let's talk about what you liked and didn't like, and
• 53:09
  Speaker 3: let's go through that. Yeah.
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: Well, obviously we've been talking about it quite a bit.
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: The opening, I think is one of the crucial parts
• 53:16
  Speaker 2: that you would want to pay attention to when you're
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: selecting one of these. So YETI is the first one
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: in the list, and I think it did the best
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: job of that being easy to access the food inside.
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: It was a backpack style cooler. It's a bit taller
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: than it is wide. It has these nice vertical walls,
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: so using the interior space is easy.
• 53:34
  Speaker 3: Good amount of volume.
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: It was twenty four core capacity, so you could fit
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: quite a lot in there. Not too heavy, you know, it's.
• 53:39
  Speaker 3: Like there's crazy light five pounds. Yeah, yeah, super lights.
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: You're not going to have any issues with vehicle capacity
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: when using stuff like that, Yeah, for sure.
• 53:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: And the yetti was extremely efficient. I mean it held
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: ice for over five days in not desert environment, you know.
• 53:54
  Speaker 3: I was I think, I well, actually, no, that's not true.
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: I had it in Texas, like on the Texas New
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: Mexico border, so the nights would get cold, but the
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: days would be warm, and it held ice really well.
• 54:03
  Speaker 3: It was one of my favorites. It was a little
• 54:05
  Speaker 3: bit more expensive, so sure.
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: And just design wise, the outside's a nice kind of
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: clean profile, has some daisy chains if you want to
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: clip stuff to the outside of it, like a bottle
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: opener or a water bottle or things like that. Yeah,
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: that was that was a great one. I really did
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: enjoy that. The zipper, like I mentioned it is it's
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: one of those zippers that can be a little bit
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: difficult to use. You have to pull on it. I'm
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: going to actually give you like a it looks like
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: a chapstick. It's like a lubricant. Yeah, I saw that
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: so and I have used that and that really does help.
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: And then it's got like a heavy duty rubber tea
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: handle that you can use for some leverage. Yeah yeah,
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: So I think overall design was really good on that one,
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: and I wouldn't be surprised if we see that kind
• 54:42
  Speaker 2: of stick around just because of how well it worked.
• 54:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: Sure, Yeah, So that was the Yetti. We also had
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: a cooler from Pelican, which was kind of cool. They
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: actually have a whole division of products that's like made
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: for biomedical storage and transport. So although coolers might not
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: be like the first thing you think of when you Pelican,
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: that's one of their kind of commercial endeavors which I
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: thought was neat. So this was another backpack style cooler.
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: It's called the day Venture. This is a unique one
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: in the test in that it is there's a limited
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: amount of insulation in it. This wasn't one that I
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: would necessarily recommend using for multi day trips to keep
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: food that has to be cold cold. This is more
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: for like your day trips. I think, you know, your
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: single night overnights. It also had a smaller capacity it
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: has but it has two compartments, which is cool. I
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: was the only one that had two compartments if I
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: remember correctly. So it has a lower section that fits
• 55:33
  Speaker 2: a little more than like a six pack of beverages
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: with a waterproof zipper, and then it has an upper
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: compartment with a rolltop closure.
• 55:39
  Speaker 3: Got it.
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's kind of like this hybrid thing. And
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: the upper compartment wasn't super well insulated. I don't think
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: it's really technically designed as an insulated food compartment. It's
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: the lower part is for ice and hold things in.
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: The upper compartment is more of like a waterproof storage.
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: You could put clothing in it, you could put food
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: in it. I did sure with ice. And then it
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: also has an exterior pocket that you can put things in,
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: but that is not a waterproof exchair of pocket.
• 56:03
  Speaker 3: And I learned that the hard way.
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: I was like walking up a riverbed and I totally
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: ate it when in the water and all the things
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: that were in that pocket got so.
• 56:12
  Speaker 3: Oh it's good to know.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it looks like the perfect kind of like picnic.
• 56:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: I think that would be a good use case. You know,
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: two people, one meal, I think which are perfect. Again,
• 56:22
  Speaker 2: that is a backpack style one. It's tall and skinny.
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: Got some exchair of grab handles. Yeah, that was a
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: good one. The next one in our test was from
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: a company called Canyon Coolers. So they kind of came
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: on the scene when it comes to hard coolers as
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: like a major competitor to you know, like YETI, who
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: was kind of one of the first big premium hard
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: sided coolers. And Canyon was a little different because they
• 56:43
  Speaker 2: did a totally vertical sidewall on the outside, which is
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: actually pretty convenient for loading them in and out of
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: like vehicles where you know, you want to make the
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: most efficient use of space.
• 56:53
  Speaker 3: Sure, it probably nests in nicely with other gear.
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, those tapered designs of coolers, I think, I'm not
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: going to say the poor design, but it seems like
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: it's not the most efficient use of space all the time.
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: And so they were like, we're going to make a
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: cube like when you see they're hard coolers, they're just
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: a cube shape. And so their soft side and cooler
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: that we tested, this Nomad Go is similar. It kind
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: of just looks like a block and this one was
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: extremely well insulated. It had kind of an interesting hybrid
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: closure system kind of like you were describing with the
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: angle it has a zipper and then it has two
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: buckles on the side, so you have a waterproof zipper,
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: and then you buckle the sides down. This one was
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: one of the most difficult ones to get into. It
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: had that slippery grippy not slippery, it's.
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: Like it's like a crazy rubber right. Yeah.
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: The inside of it is really sticks to like plastic things.
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: Sure so.
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: And it had this really thick insulation that comes right
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: up to the top of the closure. So this is
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: one of the ones who are on their website they
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: actually stay try wedging a water bottle in it to
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: hold it open so you can more easily get things
• 57:51
  Speaker 2: in and out. Sure it did have excellent insulation, you know,
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: multiple days is no problem for this cooler.
• 57:57
  Speaker 3: And it's I think from what I remember, among all these.
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: Cooler this this had the thickest side walls, so it
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: actually looks gigantic in size when you're carrying it. But
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: the inside space was not huge.
• 58:09
  Speaker 3: So it's not super space efficient.
• 58:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah no, it wasn't. It's twenty one quartz so yeah, yeah,
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: but it's not nothing. I mean, you can fit a
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: good amount of food in there, no doubt. And I
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: sent this with my roommate down to Indian Creek in Utah,
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: and she took it on some climbing trips, had it
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: in a desert environment, and she had a really good
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: experience with it.
• 58:26
  Speaker 3: Nice.
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: It is a backpack style one, so you can carry
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: it on your shoulders. It's got an exterior waterproof pocket
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: so you can stash things like a phone or keys,
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: or you know, papers, things you don't want to get wet.
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: Is this the one that was kind of a dark gray, Yes,
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: and that looked it was a really nice looking cooler
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: as well.
• 58:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good one and a little bit more affordable.
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: It's like closer to the two hundred dollars price point.
• 58:46
  Speaker 2: I think two hundred and thirty is what it cost.
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: And we've got the Angle, which is the first one
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: we're talking about in this lineup that that was not
• 58:54
  Speaker 2: a backpack style cooler, So this is kind of the
• 58:57
  Speaker 2: sling style, you know, over the shoulder if you need
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: to carry it. Really love this one for like vehicle
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: trips where I'm not needing to take it out where
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: it's just like living on the floor, maybe in the
• 59:06
  Speaker 2: back seat with our food for the day while we're driving.
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: Had a good capacity twenty two quartz crazy light too
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: super light. Yeah, yeah, only three and a half pounds.
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: Same deal with the entry on this one. It's kind
• 59:17
  Speaker 2: of that hybrid. It's got a zipper that's waterproof, and
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: then it's got two buckles on the side, so you
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: kind of zip it shut and then buckle the sides
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: down and it takes its most compact.
• 59:25
  Speaker 3: Form that way.
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: This also had this really interesting vacuum valve on it,
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: which we had. There were two coolers that some one
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: of the ice mual coolers in our test had something similar,
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: and is it for elevation to expansion, So I think
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: that's the best purpose for it. You know, like these coolers,
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: they're all they're like RF welded plastics. So you've got
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: basically like an inner chamber and an outer skin, and
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: there's insulation and air trap between the two. So when
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: you go up in elevation, some of these do puff
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: up a little bit, sure, and they'll like it's kind
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: of funny. And so I found that valve really hand.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: If we were traveling around in the mountains of Colorado,
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 2: which we did a lot last year, if you went
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: up and it was all puffed up and out of shape.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: You could open that valve and let some of that
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: excess air out. Interesting, but the idea of that it
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: is called a vacuum valve. The idea is that you
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: can use a vacuum and suck out the extra air
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: in there. Oh sure, to try and increase the thermal efficiency.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 3: It makes sense. It does make sense. I think nobody
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 3: will probably do it, but it definitely makes sense exactly. Yeah,
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 3: that was That was kind of my takeaway.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: It was like, I'm never going to go to the
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 2: trouble of going and getting my vacuum out of the
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 2: closet to get that extra two percent of efficiency.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 3: Sure, it just didn't feel necessary to me. Yeah. Interesting,
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 3: But for the.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: Gearheads that are really looking for like the maximizerment, sure yeah.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: It came with a bottle opener, it has a exterior pocket,
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 2: it's got some grab handles, a well rounded cooler, and
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 2: two hundred bucks and made by.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: A company that specializes in keeping food hold so it's
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: probably well insulated. Overall, good design as far as that goes.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, And they Angle was another one that had this
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 2: great resource on their website that was it's called like
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: key ice Longer and they give you a whole list
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: of things that you can do with any soft sided
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: cooler or hard cooler for that matter, to get the
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 2: most out of your ice, like reach chilling it before
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 2: you load food into extra ice, and not emptying the
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 2: water out and things like that. So there's some little
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: tricks you can use to get the most out of
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 2: these very cool hydroflask we I kind of mentioned this
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: one before. It's cool that they're making coolers, Yeah, definitely.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 2: I mean they're super popular in the water bottles, yeah,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: the stainless water bottles, so they're cooler. This day Escape
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 2: soft cooler. This is kind of a light duty single
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: day cooler in my opinion. It's really lightweight and only
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: three pounds. The insulation is very light, so it's not
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: going to keep ice for like days and days and days,
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 2: but totally twenty four hours are a little bit longer,
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 2: no problem. This one's a great looking cooler. It's this
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 2: like nice two tone blue, so it's kind of like
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 2: their water bottles, Like it's really designy, you know, sure,
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: and it had this cool feature. It has these kind
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 2: of like molly panelment points. They make a bunch of
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: these waterproof almost like ziplock ag style attached that you
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: can get in various sizes and you can attach them
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 2: to the front or not. And it's a good place
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 2: again for a phone or you know, something that you
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 2: want to keep dry in a wet environment.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 3: So that was kind of neat. And then this looks
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 3: like this one has a zippered closure.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 2: This was a ZIPPERD closure and it was, but not
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 2: a conventional zipper. It didn't have teeth. It was more
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: like a ziplock bag.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 3: Oh.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 2: Interesting, And so this one was out of all the
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: zippered style closures, this was the easiest to manipulate. And
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: I got feedback from a bunch of people that used it.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 2: They were like, yeah, this one was. It was easy
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: to get the zipper open and closed. It's got some
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: grab handles. It has like a mesh pocket on the
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: side for non waterproof storage of extra things like car keys,
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: and as you can see, it's also a backpackstock caller,
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 2: so you can throw it over your shoulders.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 3: See have both your hands free. Do the backpack straps
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 3: come off?
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: They were not removed. Some of them aren't removable. I
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: noticed that that was interesting.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And one other thing I think it's important to
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 2: point out is any any heavy thing that's got backpack
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 2: straps that you're going to carry around for a long time,
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: really you should be looking to see if it has
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 2: a waste belt too, because it's uncomfortable to carry heavy
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: lowads on backpack straps directly on your shoulders. Anything that's
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: designed to be carried for a long time should have
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 2: a pretty robust waist belt and ideally you buckle that
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: cinch it down, and what it will do is transfer
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: the load to your hips instead of your shoulders. Sure,
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: so some of these had waist straps, but they're like
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: just like to keep it from shifting around it afterthought, Yeah,
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: they're not really designed to take the weight off the shoulders.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 3: So that makes sense.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: Kind of like you were saying, like, are these backpack
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: style things really that valuable? And I think they can
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: be helpful. It shouldn't be a thing where you're like
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: I need to have backpacks. Sure, I think the shoulder
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: strap that's removable like on the eddy is good enough.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: You're walking into an all day concert from the parking lot,
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: it's probably helpful for that totally.
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's the hydroflask. We tested a cooler from
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 2: a new company called Orca Or. They've been around for
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 2: a little while, but they're kind of newer to me,
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: I should say, I wasn't familiar with them before this test.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 3: I started in twenty twelve. It looks like I like
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 3: this one a lot. Actually.
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 2: I think it had some really great attention to detail
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 2: in terms of design. It had nice colors. The xterior
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 2: fabric was like really nice, kind of almost textured like
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: woven material.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 3: I like that one. I remember seeing it. It was
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 3: really handsome.
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 2: If you want something that looks good, this is a
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 2: good option. But it was also a good cooler in
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 2: terms of insulation, you know, I think definitely could hold
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: ice for a handful of days, no problem. It did
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 2: have a zipper closure, which again you know, there's like
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 2: a little bit of lubricant that they give you to
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 2: maintain that. It had a really nice grab handle on
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 2: the top that I thought, yeah, I see that. The
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 2: ergonomics of that were nice. It had these kind of
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 2: like molded plastic two pieces. It had magnets in them,
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 2: and so the two handles when it was zipped up,
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 2: they kind of magnetized together, and then you have this
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 2: rounded ard plastic handle to hold, which is a lot
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 2: more comfortable when you're carrying this by the handle. Then
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 2: let's just say a webbing strap that's biting into your hands,
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 2: shaking in your hand Yaff's fully loaded up. It had
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 2: a shoulder strap that was removable. It had a nice,
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: really robust material on the bottom of it that you know,
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 2: gave me a lot of confidence to just put it
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: on the ground anywhere and not worry like rocks or
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 2: anything like that.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: So it looks like a nicely thought out cooler, and
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: it does. It look like it was about the same
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: size as some of the others, because it looks like
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: they don't have a volume for it.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they didn't.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: They they talked about volume in terms of how many
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 2: cans it could hold, so they say it holds eighteen
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: twelve ounce can. So yeah, I mean it's a party comparable.
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 2: It is a party comparable volume to everything else. And again,
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 2: two hundred dollars like pretty good price point at least
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: in this round up. The last one that we've got
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 2: is the ice Mule. It was the Traveler that we tested.
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: So the one next to me is called the Boss.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 3: And actually it didn't say so I think's huge.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 2: It is giant, So we didn't test that one in
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 2: this article. We'll we'll definitely share some information about that
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 2: at a later point. But the Traveler was a really
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: interesting cooler in the mix. It was like I kind
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 2: of had this love hate relationship with it. It came
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 2: down to I thought like the volume was great. You know,
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 2: it actually had quite a bit of volume in twenty
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 2: six quarts yep, and a good form factor. It's this
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 2: nice cube shape, so it's not like an awkward size.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 2: It packs well. It had a really interesting carrying system.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 2: It's kind of like a like a hybrid backpack, like
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 2: if you've ever seen firefighting line packs that kind of
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 2: sit on the lower back, right, It's kind of like that,
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 2: and it's it was weird to set up, like I
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 2: had a hard time figuring it out, but it was
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 2: actually the most comfortable of the backpack style carries because
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 2: it placed it right against your lower back, which was
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 2: just comfortable. It also had a really interesting opening. It
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 2: had these two metal rods in the lip that when
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 2: you unzipped it and pulled them out, they would kind
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 2: of pop into place and hold the opening open for you.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 3: Oh, solve that problem. It did. It's really clever.
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 2: I think it was one of the most kind of
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 2: innovative features that I saw in any of these soft
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 2: sided coolers.
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 3: When it comes to loading and unloading, it just makes
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 3: that way easier.
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 2: It had the lowest quality zipper out of all of
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 2: the products that had a zipper, which actually broke during testing.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember that.
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, which was kind of a bummer. Now, Ice mules
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 2: pretty good when it comes to customer service. I didn't
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 2: warranty it for the purposes of this, but they do
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 2: offer warranties for stuff like that. Yeah, I have no
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 2: doubt they would have replaced that. But also along those lines,
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 2: it had some interesting like proprietary plastic hardware on the closure.
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 2: So it has the zipper and then it has two
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 2: buckles on the sides, but they're weird. They're like complex.
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: It's like a pinch thing and it wasn't It's not
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 2: a traditional buckle. There's like a little plastic ball and
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 2: it kind of clamps onto that.
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 3: Those didn't break.
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 2: But I do worry when I see things like that
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 2: that I've never seen before, when it's something like plastic
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 2: that I think could break, because I don't know where
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 2: you would find a replacement one other from ice meal.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 2: If you break it on the road, you might not
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: be able to replace it until you get back from
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: your trip.
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 3: Oh that makes sense. Yeah.
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: But it looks like a nice looking cooler too. I
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: mean it looks like a simple form factor. It would
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: be a nice compliment and a big, big volume too.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 3: It held a lot.
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 2: I remember I was using this one in Colorado and
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 2: we were up at like eleven thousand feet and we
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 2: had a bunch of drinks I want to ice down,
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 2: but I hadn't picked up ice. So we just found
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 2: a big snow bank that was left over from the winter,
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 2: and I brought a shovel over and it just shoveled
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 2: ice into it until it was fully Yeah, and then
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 2: just stuck the cans in there. That's perfect.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 3: So that's it.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's Those are all the coolers we tested in
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 2: this sided cooler tests.
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was very comprehensive, and it's been fun to
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: see a lot of innovation come into that space.
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 3: I think.
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: I think when the hard sided coolers all kind of
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: took off and they found ways to make a better
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: hard sided cooler than the one you know that we
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: had all been using forever you know, when they finally
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: came out with something that was going to keep ice
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: for longer, it really opened up the whole space, including
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: the soft sided stuff. On the hard sided coolers, you know,
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: I don't think we'll spend a lot of time on
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: that today, but they definitely have their place. It used
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: to be the argument that they were a lot less expensive,
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: but that's not necessarily the case. You can spend You
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: can spend as much money on a hard sided cooler
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: as you can on a fridge, So it's really just
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: about buying the solution that best meets your needs. But
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: there is something about, you know, pulling a cold drink
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: out of a tub full of ice, that's that can
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: be pretty nice when you got a big group of people,
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: And I think that the hard sided coolers are oftentimes
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: just a great compliment in a larger group to having
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: individual fridges.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 3: I like them too.
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 2: They offer a little bit of extra utility, like on
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 2: the well made ones, like you can stand on them
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 2: and sit on them, yep, you know, so like damn
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 2: you've got a little step stool to get up to
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 2: the rack on top of your rig totally where you've
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 2: got an extra seat for someone which is pretty handy.
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 2: Those are two things you often need in the field so.
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: Well, and there's a lot of places where they're really appropriate,
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: like if you don't want to have the additional complexity
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: of the wiring, or the vehicle isn't well set up
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: for that, or it's a vintage vehicle. I think the
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: Defender has like a forty amp alternator, like it just
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: isn't well set up from the factory to take the
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: loads of a fridge or other things like that, like
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: old land cruisers just don't lend themselves well to that.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: Old land rovers and things like that, or like for example,
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: in my sailboat, I use just a standard hard sided
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: YETI cooler because I have access to ice in the
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: marina and it's really easy to drain the water out
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: into the lake. I just have not decided to go
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: with a twelve volt fridge yet because also I don't
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: have to worry about bigger batteries or draining the power
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: down in the boat. You're not generating alternator power from sailing,
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: so you really start paying attention to what consumes power.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 3: So I think it really is for the older vehicles.
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: I think aditional hard sided cooler is a great choice.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I mean we've talked about it in many
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 2: different categories of overland travel, but simple sometimes is better.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 2: You know, the less things you have that can break
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 2: in the field, a less chance there is of something
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 2: going sideways.
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 3: That you didn't plan for.
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 2: And all you got to do for a hard sided
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 2: cooler is put ice in it some sort. You know,
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 2: there's no electronics to fail, there's there's nothing like that.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 2: So and as you mentioned, like design on them has
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 2: gotten really good. You know, a lot of them have
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 2: these built in drain plugs that facilitate emptying. Some of
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 2: them have shelf systems that you can add to allow
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 2: you to you know, easily maybe put dry ice in
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 2: the bottom if you're really trying to extend your your
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 2: food storage time and keep the food off of it
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 2: above so it doesn't freeze. Or you can swap it
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 2: and you can put dry us on top of a
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 2: divider that will allow it to freeze things below it.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 2: And those dividers can also keep your food up out
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 2: of water if using traditional ice. So they've got some
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 2: clever designs, and I've also seen I've seen some pretty
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 2: cool innovation in some of the yetty ones in the
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 2: closure systems too, where you don't have to use all
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 2: this force now to stretch those school elastic things. And
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 2: now they have kind of like cam block designs that
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 2: are super easy to.
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 3: Opening close, but they're really secure.
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: So and YETI now makes this one stainless steel cooler
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: that looks it looks like an old school coalman but
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: like on steroids. So it is like full disclosure. It
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: is expensive, but it is. I mean it's up on
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: the shelf behind us right now, and it is. It's
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: like the most handsome hard sided cooler you've ever seen.
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: It's got a little cover that slides over it so
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: you don't scratch your nine hundred dollars cooler. But it's
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: pretty amazing. I mean, if you want to go fishing
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: with your buddies or whatever. I mean, it's just a
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: really really cool hard sided cooler. And they definitely have
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: their place. Of course, there's a lot more options on
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: the market now that do a good job of cooling.
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: It's keeping things cool, but are less expensive so they
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: can run the whole gamut of cost as well. Because
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: as we always talk about in this podcast, we just
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: don't want people to think that they need to buy
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: a fridge, because it's not the case.
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 3: There's ice available all up.
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: And down Baja, all over the all over North America.
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: You can find ice easily and it can be a
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: lot less expensive than buying a fridge. Making sure that
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: we spend our money on the experience first, as opposed
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: to all these school gadgets.
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you never want to let the gear be the
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 2: reason that you don't go and take the trip. Yeah,
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 2: you know, and you shouldn't need to. I think there
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 2: are options out there. I mean, look, even if you're
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 2: using that ten year old Coleman that doesn't do great, like,
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 2: just it works, go take the trip.
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 3: That's the important thing. So what's your.
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: Favorite, Matt, I mean, the of the units that you've tried,
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: the soft sided ones, Like, what are some of the
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: ones that stand out to use?
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 3: Your favorites?
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, definitely the Yetti It's called the hopper backflip
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 2: was it was a backpack style one with the full
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 2: zipper and the lid that flips all the way open.
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 2: Because it's just it's a great combination of high quality materials,
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 2: great insulation, and easy loading and unloading of food for sure,
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 2: And I think all of those things are important insulation
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 2: being consistent across quite a few of them. I think
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 2: the opening is really the thing that is most important
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 2: to me. So yeah, I really like that one. And
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 2: it's just simple. It doesn't have tons of exterior pockets,
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 2: it doesn't like clever, it just works. I use that
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 2: one a lot in testing with the other ones. But
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 2: I thought myself going back to that one multiple times,
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 2: and when I had multiple choices, wanting that one, is
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 2: that what.
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 3: You use in the ram?
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: So when you're pulling the airstream, you like you load
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: up your food for the day in the truck, what
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: do you use in the ram?
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 3: That's a good question.
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 2: We have to be so conscientious of space, even though
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 2: we have a lot of it, but it is our
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 2: full time home, so we actually we're not We're not
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 2: using a soft sided cooler at all. But we also
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 2: have like almost what I would consider like a full
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 2: size refrigerator and freezer in the ram. Oh in the
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 2: ram or in the airstream or in the airstream excuse me? Yeah,
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 2: often we'll just make lunch and sure, let's true, you
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 2: do have your house behind you. Yeah, yeah, like we
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 2: can always stop if we need sure, But when we're
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 2: being smart about it, Like if we have a big
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 2: driving day, let's say we're trying to do five hundred miles,
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 2: you know, we need to be efficient with stop, so
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 2: we get in before it gets dark and gets set
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 2: up at camp before dark. We will usually just make
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 2: food and we have like a totally collapsible costco insulated
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 2: food shopping bag perfect, and we'll just use that, you know,
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 2: because we're talking about like needing stuff to stay chilled
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 2: for a matter of hours.
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 3: Sure, and usually that's sufficient, but we did.
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 2: We liked I liked the tote style coolers for the
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 2: truck just because you know, if I'm not going to
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 2: be carrying around, I don't need to backpack straps.
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 3: So the angle was a great one for that. We
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 3: used that one quite a lot.
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 2: But like my editor's choice would be the YETI cool Yeah, personally,
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 2: what about you?
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I mean the yetti I don't know
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: if what I think that is probably the hopper style
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: as well that I've been using. I've been I've literally
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: been wearing that thing out. You can see all the
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: use on it because I've it's just kind of my
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: go to now It's it works so well, and then
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: I definitely have the Dometic in the in the scout
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: in most of my vehicles, I've run the National Luna
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: inside the vehicle. That's been my choice for decades now.
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: But they're all really good. That's the nice thing is
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: that they're they're all really well made. Yeah, it's kind
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: of hard to go on exactly exactly, so you're basically
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: buying based upon features or the way you like it
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: looks or whatever. Yeah, how light it is, so those
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: are definitely factors. But it's nice to see lighter weight fridges.
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: Now that's something we have not seen that has come
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: from Dometic. So to have a lighter weight fridge is
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: a big deal.
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 2: And one that just arrived the other day that I'm
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 2: excited to try out came from ghosts On. I'm not
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 2: really sure. My first impression is insulation wise, it seems
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 2: like it's it's going to be less so than most fridges.
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 2: But the interesting thing about this one is it has
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 2: an integrated twelve olt battery. I think it's like an
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 2: eighty seven watt hour battery, so you can charge it up,
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 2: get it cold at home, load it up and throw
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 2: it in your rig and it doesn't need to be
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 2: plugged in. Now, an eighty seven watt hour battery.
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: Is not going to last too long, but maybe it
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: bridges the gap of the overnights so it's charged.
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 3: It charges the eighty.
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: Seven amp hour battery during the day and runs the
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: fridge during the day. Yeah, you shut the car off
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: and then it just runs off that interior battery at night.
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and it's got a reversible lid, and it's got
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 2: some of these features that we think of as you know,
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 2: being kind of important in standard and it also has
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 2: integrated wheels for rolling around easily. Sure, it's kind of
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 2: like a cooler meats fridge, so that'll be interesting to
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 2: test out.
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: Well, this is a fun topic. It's a very cool topic.
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: I got to use it one more time. Totally, having
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: great food in camp is a big deals and these
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: are some excellent solutions to do that. You can read
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: both of these tests in Overland Journal. One of them
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: is available in the Winter twenty twenty one issue, and
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: then the soft sided coolers is in spring of twenty
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: twenty two. When you subscribe to Overland Journal, it obviously
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: makes a huge difference. It's what makes this podcast possible.
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: So we do appreciate everybody's support and allowing for independent
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: journalism to continue. So we appreciate all of you being subscribers. Awesome, Well,
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: thank you Matt for another great discussion. Of course, Scott,
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: thank you right on, and we will talk to you
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: all next time.