Cubby box cooler efficiency?

[trif]

Hi guys. I was part of the cubby box cooler group buy earlier in the year. Install was straightforward and all appeared to work well.

I have just completed an interstate trip and was underwhelmed with the cooler performance. In fact there appeared to be no or very little difference to cabin ambient temperature.

The switch lights up when turned on and the fan is working as it should (and in the correct direction). I have just pulled out the console to double check and all is positioned as it should and it appears functional. The aluminium thermal vents were not getting cold at all.

Has anyone measured the temperature difference that can be achieved with the cooler? I read somewhere that the thermoelectric units should be able to achieve approximately 15 degrees temperature reduction. How long would you expect to wait to notice an appreciable temperature reduction?

Regards Trif.

[PerthDisco]

Trif

On trip last week to Shark Bay was my first real use of the cubby cooler.

Don't rely on it to cool warm drinks down. It will cool them to a certain degree but not crispy cold.

Before we went off camping I bought 3 coke zeros in plastic bottles. They fit in with a real squeeze (cant fit 4). The night before I got them super cold in the house fridge before loading them in the Disco.

They stayed super cold in the cubby fridge all day much to my pleasure.

So the answer is pre-cool anything and a real tight squeeze is absolute best especially if you have surface contact with the walls of the cubby fridge. Anything floating around in there will really struggle. Fridges like real mass to cool as opposed to air which has no thermal mass.

Another idea would be to add a pre-frozen water bottle or esky brick to give some eutectic performance. This will super charge it.

When mine is working I can feel heat on the outsides of the centre console which is a normal side effect of a correctly working fridge.

[101RRS]

My cubby gets down to 0 degrees. Last week I put a prozen bottle of water in at 5.30 in the morning and took it out at 1 am the next day - was still frozen sold so mine works well. Will cool a warm bottle down in about an hour but works best if items are cold before putting them in.

Also I have found that I can fit in 4x300ml bottles with the coin tray in (without the tray it will take 4x 600ml bottles) and this improves cooling substantially.

Garry

[walc100]

Always been happy with ours drinks need to be cold and will get them very cold and hold them cold over night

[DiscoDavey]

I think the Engel MD14F is worth considering as an option instead of the built in cooler.
Sure they take up more room in the car but they have the advantage of being portable & can get down to freezing temps. My brother has just bought one for his 100 series LC and is very happy with it. It sits behind the passenger seat within easy reach.

It is also cheaper than the RRP of the Lower Centre Console Cooler Box ($900 vs $649)

[komodo]

WAECO mobile solutions

Waeco have a small unit also which is a bit cheaper again (~$500 online)

The TE unit is fine to keep things cool but you've bucklies and none of bringing temp down. Plus they draw a heap of current and the unit in the glove box switches off with ignition. If you've got a dual battery system and a compressor fridge (especially a small one like the above mentioned units from engel and waeco) they'll run with the car off and bring things down - infact you can even freeze things! Great for icecreams on road trips
I have (or rather had till I killed it getting swamped in noolans brook) a CF-80 waeco fridge freezer. I also have access to a smaller 40L engel. We often take the engel as a freezer and an esky and just freeze bottles of water to rotate in the esky twice a day - this gives us freezing cold drinking water and keeps the esky cool and it draws less current than the big fridge - YMMV.

[trif]

I think the Engel MD14F is worth considering as an option instead of the built in cooler.
Sure they take up more room in the car but they have the advantage of being portable & can get down to freezing temps. My brother has just bought one for his 100 series LC and is very happy with it. It sits behind the passenger seat within easy reach.

It is also cheaper than the RRP of the Lower Centre Console Cooler Box ($900 vs $649)

Hi all. Thanks for your input. I'll give mine another go with the drinks already well chilled and see how it performs.

DiscoDavey, with the group buy we obtained the units for approximately AUD$300 including delivery to Australia. The $900 new car option is definitely a bit rich.

Regards Trif.

[DiscoDavey]

...with the group buy we obtained the units for approximately AUD$300 including delivery to Australia. The $900 new car option is definitely a bit rich.
Regards Trif.

Yep - $300 is a steal and at that price I'd put up with having to pre-cool drinks!

[geoz]

I sent Nick an email hoping I could join the group buy after the fact (sorry I missed the whole thing while it went on) but he did not respond so far. Should I try to give him a little nudge? Is he typically very responsive?

I want cool drinks too! (not for 900 bucks though)

[Lotz-A-Landies]

I too fitted one during the sale, it will cool them down from warm but the journey needs to be at least a couple of hours, and they are well chilled. They fit four 375ml cans well with a space above into which I plan to install an insulated plug/lid to hold temp better when the car is off.