1. Electric powered cooler
For longer trips, and even short ones, a DC powered portable refrigerator/freezer comes in handy. While the cost of one of these can keep you in ice blocks for many years, the convenience can't be beat. I decided I was done with hoping my ice block would last a 3 day trip, and purchased a Dometic CFX3 35 refrigerator/freezer. It can be configured to be either one, with a temperature setting range of -7ºF to +50ºF. I chose that size, since my main vehicle is a Ford Focus hatchback. Dometic makes them in sizes all the way up to 99L. The 75L and 94L are dual zone, and can be configured to freeze and refrigerate at the same time. The 55L version has a freeze plate for making ice cubes, good for those frozen drinks while camping. Another use, would be to set it as freezer, and use it to freeze ice for an ice chest used to cool food. That way, you can have ice cream and other frozen food, in conjunction with your ice chest for cooling. It can be powered by 120V AC and 12/24V DC, allowing you to pre-chill it at home, before taking it on the road. The power usage, according to the specs, is .98Ah/h, pretty efficient. The battery protection switch can be set to low, medium, or high. It will tun the cooler off at preset voltages to protect your battery. If using a dedicated battery, low is recommended, if using your starter battery, set it to medium or high. The voltage shutoff points are 10.1V, 11.2V, and 11.8V, for L, M, $& H. The settings can be configured from the front panel. It also has WiFi and Bluetooth, so you can set and monitor the temperature from and app on your phone.
It can double as garage fridge or freezer, when not out and about with it. I didn't have room in my fridge for the Thanksgiving turkey, so I just put it in there.
There are other brands of these, with Engel and ARB, the most commonly used by off-roaders.
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2. Portable smoker
For a long time, I've been wanting a smoker for the house, but I didn't want to get a really big, expensive one, since it's just me at home. I did some research on the portable smokers, and ended up with the Green Mountain Grills Davy Crockett model. It runs on both 120V AC and 12V DC, allowing it to be used at home and camping. Power use is 60W avg. It is controlled by the front panel and via an app on your phone, through WiFi. There are temperature probes for the grill temp and food temp, so you can program a smoking profile based on both. For example, you want to smoke at 225ºF until the meat temp is at 125ºF and then raise the grill temp to 400ºF until to meat temp is 135ºF to give it a sear. At the usual smoking temp of 225ºF, it uses about a lb of pellets per hour. A couple of reasons I chose this model, is that the hopper holds 9 lbs of pellets and the interior height is 8”, both are bigger than the other brands. In addition, the competition does not have WiFi. With the extra height, I was able to cook 2 tri-tips at the same time and, on another day, a large chicken.
https://greenmountaingrills.com/product ... rill-wifi/
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- Chicken before.jpg (2.37 MiB) Viewed 887 times
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