Costway (EP23499) 55-Quarts Portable Electric Car Cooler Reviews

Received this for use on our boat while we travel the ICW. Seems to work just fine I read in another review to get the Smittybilt transit bag. It fits perfectly and seems to offer a little bit of insulation and some protection from bumps. A word of caution, it does require some heavy wiring between the power source and the unit so be prepared for some installation challenges as the freezer will shut itself off if it is not receiving enough power.

used for over 5 weeks on a trailer on and off road. never missed a beat and still working flawlessly. owned for 4 months but trip certainly put it though its paces. 113 deg to 45 deg outside. fridge was in a small aluminum (vented) box to protect from rain but nothing else. great little fridge.

Bought this product with relatively low expectations. I had researched the Dometic and ARB lines and, while very nice, were way out of my price range. I took a flyer and bought the Costway. Took it on a 5 day overland trip through Big Bend National Park. By overland, I mean serious bouncing around off-road for over 250 miles. The fridge passed with flying colors. It kept all the beer and food right on temperature. I set the protection circuit for High so it wouldn't drain the battery. I was very impressed that, even over 12 hours of sitting without the engine on, this fridge barely used any of my battery to keep the contents cold. One thing to note: the ARB plug WILL work with this fridge. That plug is absolutely necessary for serious offroading as it has a threaded lock to the power receiver. This means the plug doesn't come undone when bouncing around. The compressor is really quiet. I wouldn't sleep next to it. But, it isn't distracting in the cabin when driving or even parked. I do wish it had the ability to transmit it's status via bluetooth to an app like the ARB. But, it's completely understandable it doesn't since it is $400+ less expensive.Is this the best fridge out there? No. Is it going to last 10 years+ like ARBs and Dometics? I doubt it, but not sure. Is it worth the money? Yes. Will I trust it on my 2 week Utah overland trip in May? Absolutely.Here is a bit of advice for anyone planning on using this fridge to overland: get a locking fridge slide (I got the Dometic) as it makes accessing the fridge easier, get the ARB Fridge wiring kit and the ARB power cord.

This frig is better then I expected for 1/2 the price of comperable portable compressor coolers that sip energy. I also own the SS63 ABR which is slightly better made but I paid 3x the cost of this Costway. The removable basket is a good size to easily take to the kitchen to pack before leaving. From my solar controller it looks as if it consumes 3 watts when running and it runs 35% each hour at 65F day time temps. That's on average 1amp per hour. My 100amp solar suitcase charged the battery up in about two hours in the morning in the desert last week February. I tried the Econo and regular settings didn't change the current draw meaningfully. In fact it appeared the Econo setting used 10% more which doesn't make sense. The quality is high enough that I don't think it will fail like some mentioned regarding the latch. Of course if you drop any portable frig from a height it's going to crack the plastic. I found the low voltage shut off setting to be too low. The middle setting was perfect. Didn't let you down in middle of the night but the car battery had no problem starting the car in morning. I think this frig could run for two days on a 100amphr house car battery without charging and still start the car. 2x24hrx1amp=48amphrs <50% discharge.I set the temperature at 31F which kept the bottom 4" of basket food frozen and the beer ice cold on top. As the frozen food was eaten I turned up to 32F so Mike wouldn't freeze.If I could change anything it would be nice if the lid would stay open on its own and maybe some tiedown points. Having said that we just came back from some ugly mining trails and the frig didn't move around much in back of our 2017 Rubicon Wrangler. I used the centre console 12V outlet which has power all the time and it worked without incident. It only takes about 1/2hr to precool the frig. Handi to fire up when grocery shopping. In summary you can't go wrong buying this frig.

Great Product at a Reasonable Price! Very well designed where 3/4 of the internal space is a Freezer, and an excellent one. And the remaining 1/4 of the space is for non freezing uses such as Fruits and Vegetables or Liquid Beverages. And all of this for 35 Watts Power Consumption...AMAZING!!! Love it!!!

I purchased it for my camper van mainly for weekend use. Cools down quickly, is quiet and just overall a great product. The one thing I found is that with my Goal Zero powering the unit, I had to change the battery cut-off setting which is a little switch near the power cord. No issues after that.

Arrived ahead of schedule well packaged. Used it for 2 weeks on the boat with heat in the 90s worked very well. Used about half the energy my old box did and the old one never got very cold. The old one used a small plate with fins and a computer fan. Had lots of kids on the boat and they managed to scramble the computer in the in the new Costway frig but I was able to get it working again. I liked the digital thermometer showing the temperature inside the frig. I could always see how well it was cooling. Time will tell about how long it will keep running.

I had read a previous review that said this couldn't make ice, she had it set at 32 and it just kept things cold. I set it at 32 as she had said but it it froze my veggies and water bottles partly frozen. I turned it and worked better as a refridgerator. I was happy with the performance. I loaded it up and plugged it in at home the night before leaving then plugged it into the car and it did very well. It appears to be well made but time will tell. I am happy with this purchase especially when similar items cost much more. Also want to note I was on some pretty rough trails with this in the back of a 4runner and did not have any issues despite the harsh trail conditions.

I've been running this in my car for a few weeks now, and so far it's working pretty well. I'm going to start with a few complaints I have though: First is that the temperature displayed if off. I bought two thermostats (one is digital and the other is not) and both read the same, which is a few degrees colder than what the unit says. For example, when the fridge says it's 35 degrees, they read at 30-32 usually. This is evident by the fact that all my water bottles that are on the bottom are frozen, even though I have the unit set for 35. For what it's worth, stuff near the top doesn't freeze. For me, this isn't too big a deal since I like knowing they'll keep the fridge colder a little longer in case it turns off or something, which brings me to my next complaint.. The cables are crap. Sorry to be blunt, but they are. They are very loose in not only the car's 12v plugin, but even the 120v adapter the fridge came with. The slightest movement will separate it enough to cut power. And I mean that literally. It only has to separate from the plug only very slightly, probably less than a millimeter, for it to turn off. I had to knot the cables together and use my car inverter instead in order to not have this happen because I've lost my food twice already because of it. I'm about to buy a roll of duct tape and make the connection semi permanent. Anyway.. My last complaint is that, even with an insulating cover on it, the frudge doesn't hold the temperature well. Even at night, if I leave it off for 20-30 minutes the temperature will go up about 10 degrees. I need to get a deep cycle battery since it won't stay on when the car is off. Even so, 10 degrees within half an hour is bad; especially considering that I keep it full, there are a bunch of frozen bottles inside and it has an insulating cover on it. As for the good, it's good at keeping the food cold when it doesn't unplug itself. I have it right next to me and most of the time I don't even notice it running. But I also have the car running with AC, so yeah. Still very quiet though. It isn't too heavy even when loaded and isn't huge, though I can fit enough in it. So no complaints there. I was looking for something with the right size and capacity and this is perfect.

Love this little freezer! Works great. And for the price is a excellent option compared to the others.. Large main freezer compartment. I keep bottled water in part of it to drink as it thaws when one camping. Plenty of room for meat (better to freeze it and thaw as needed for freshness!)