Well, I did it. I finally pulled the trigger on a portable fridge, so I don’t need to haul around my big Yeti 65 and ice.
After searching endlessly for something a little more affordable, I came across a 54 Quart Portable Fridge/Freezer from Costway. It has a good capacity and it looks remarkably close to some of the other bigger names in the fridge space. Here’s the kicker — it was only a fraction of the price! Not knowing the quality of the fridge, but knowing that a lot of the competition is also Chinese made, I decided to take a chance on it.
After about a week, my fridge was delivered! I opened it up and my first impression was good. Now, I have no other experience with fridges so I cannot compare it to the feel of another fridge. To me, it feels just like a cooler with lopsided weight (the compressor). It’s got a metal lining on one side, with a smaller “fruit” compartment on the other.
More than anything though, how does it work? Well, it comes with both an AC and DC power supply, so I plugged it in the wall and turned it on full blast and set it to 34 degrees. The starting inside temperature was 86 degrees. Within 28 minutes, the fridge hit 34 degrees and shut off. Wow! I was surprised that it actually did better than it was advertised to do. I kept it on for the remainder of the evening and it kicked on and off a few times and ran for maybe 10 minutes at a time. Keep in mind this stayed on Max, versus Eco mode.
I am still awaiting the delivery of my Northstar Group 27F AGM batteries that I just ordered from Amazon, but once I have those wired up (I’ll document that too — I’m really trying to do some clean wiring for this one), this fridge will run daily in my wife’s 5th Gen, and on camping and off road trips in my 4th Gen. Needless to say, this fridge is going to get a workout, so I will be sure to keep updating with my experience, and determine whether or not it was a good buy.
