CDF-11

This review is for the Dometic (CDF-11) Portable Freezer/Refrigerator. We've used this little guy almost every day for two months and it's been great. Not a single problem or anything I wish were different. I was very hesitant at first about the cost but I totally got over it because of how easy it's made our life on the road and the fact that when you need to keep perishable foods from spoiling, there just isn't another option than spending the money on a real freezer/fridge. It's worth every penny over the cost of one those thermoelectric cooler things. It's a true freezer/refrigerator--which means it will maintain the temperature you set it to--unlike thermoelectric coolers that only cool to a certain number of degrees (approx 40 F I believe) below ambient temperature. With a thermoelectric cooler, if the interior of your car is an easily reachable 110 degrees F, your food will be about 70 degrees. With this guy it can be 120 in the vehicle and our food is still 38 degrees F or 28 or whatever we've set it too. (I put a little thermometer inside so I know what's going on inside.. the unit's built in digital thermometer is accurate by the way.) All the higher ambient temp does is make the fridge run more often and use more battery/electricity. It's really amazing how very little electricity this thing uses. It uses very few amps and even then it's only for the few minutes per day that it actually runs. Most of the time it just sits there silent using no energy all, so its not putting much drain on your battery. (Plus it will turn itself off before the battery gets too low.) All I have to do is let the van idle for a few minutes every other day or so and the fridge will run indefinitely. It will run at least a few days and sometimes longer before turning itself off if I forget to start the van. It's really well insulated on its own, and I'm surprised at how long it stays cool inside when I turn it off, but If the van will be sitting in the direct sun on a hot day we pile a sleeping bag and/or sleeping pad or whatever else on top of it for added insulation and to shield if from direct sunlight.. this dramatically reduces how much energy it uses, like back to essentially none. You could also do this if you wanted to turn it off and still have your food cold for a long time. FYI, we have two batteries in the van, and at first I used a "smart" second battery isolator to prevent the starting battery from being drained by the fridge just in case. However, the isolator quit working after about a month so I took it out and haven't installed another one yet since the fridge uses so little energy plus it has a built in battery protector that turns the unit off before there's not enough energy to start the vehicle. Is a second battery isolator needed since the unit has a built in battery protector? I don't know. But I do still recommend at least a second battery if you're going to use the fridge long term like we are. I'll probably install a (better) second battery isolator back in the van just in case. You'll need to figure out for yourself the whole isolator or no isolator issue, but for now I'm liking not having an isolator because with the fridge running on both batteries now it really runs forever if I don't drive the van, and the starter also has access to both batteries. The fridge will hold a regular gallon of milk and still have room for other stuff. The unit is very quite. We have it sitting between the front seats and we never notice it running. You can hear it sometimes if the van isn't running but I don't think it would wake anyone up or anything like that. It has a little top self area for small items that don't have to be as cold as the main lower area. It has a little light inside that comes on when you open it. The unit is light enough and small enough that I can easily pick it up and take it inside if we're going to be staying in a cabin for a while. And I bought a little Pyramid Power Supply (aka AC to DC converter) that puts out about 5 amps (60 Watts) so we can run the unit inside the house. If I need to cool it down fast I flip the switch to fast cool down mode and put some cold packs from the freezer in it and it cools down in no time. Once I put almost room temp food in it when it had been off and sitting in the hot sun for days and it took about an hour and half to cool down to about 40 F in fast cool mode, but that was really asking a lot of the unit. From now on I'll pre-cool it with the cold packs, and/or bring it inside and run it off the AC/DC converter to cool it down. It's awesome. I hope this helps.

Compressor fridges are so vastly superior to 12 volt thermoelectric "coolers" it is laughable - but they are pricey, especially at the compact end of the spectrum. This CDF-11 uses a Danfoss compressor design identical to larger portable fridge-freezers, and that component drives the price. That being said, this was the least-expensive 12V compressor fridge-freezer I could find, and after a couple of months I'm very happy with the performance. It is easy to carry with the included strap, uses very little power, very quiet, and will keep food and beverages as cold as you like, all the way down to frozen solid as long as you have a good battery in your vehicle. And though 11 quarts is pretty small, you can fit more than you might think if you are used to using ice or blue ice to keep things cold in a regular cooler. Using all of the volume for your food and drinks instead of ice makes a difference! In exchange for that cost, what you get is storage for about a dozen 12 oz cans if you pack efficiently, made for in-car use, with a main compartment almost the height of the unit, overhung in back by the upper "ceiling" wall which allows securing the unit - a clever capture groove is designed to allow you to belt the cooler down on a passenger seat using a standard seat/shoulder belt, which is then kept in place with the lower groove and the closed lid. You also never need to buy ice, or have a soggy sandwich or nasty milk-water-hot dog juice sloshing around in a cooler. And while coolers are cheap, the cost of ice can really add up over years. I like to really go into the boonies, and not needing to replenish ice is an appreciated convenience. This fridge has me sold and I intend to buy a larger example like an Engel or ARB to use under my camper shell when desert camping. The main section is large enough for taller items, like most 20 oz plastic bottles or a plastic half-gallon milk container, as well. Main section is about 8 3/8" long fore/aft, and 6 1/4" wide by my quick tape-measure check. Under the aft overhang it is 9 1/4 tall; forward of the overhang it's a shade over 11" tall to the bottom of the lid. There is a "dimpled" floor and lid portion that allows you to fit one item nearly 12" tall. Forward of the main section there is a shallower section without cold walls 6 1/4" by about 2 7/8" with a low retainer lip which is a good spot for fruit or small dairy items you might not want quite as cold as your drinks - it will take a pair of 12 oz cans upright with a little room to spare. There is a light which comes on when the door is opened, a nice touch. It WILL run down to true deep-freeze temperatures and I have run it at a setting of 2 degrees F, where it kept ice cream and frozen meals quite solid. I prefer my soft drinks and beers very cold, and for a day outside when the lid is opened fairly frequently, I set it at an indicated 28 or 30 degrees. Consider the indicated temperature approximate, and learn how yours runs - things will not freeze quickly at an internal temperature around freezing, but expect them to if you leave them overnight at this kind of setting. As with any small fridge-freezer, you'll see best performance by pre-cooling items in your home fridge prior to placing them in the portable, which should also be pre-started. I have found I can start the unit in a 75 degree room, empty, and it will work down to my colder than average 30 degree set point in less than 30 minutes. When the compressor is running, it draws about 3-4 amps at 12VDC, which is no problem for virtually any vehicle's alternator. When the vehicle is shut down, the unit will run if the 12 volt plug is continuously powered. The fridge has an adjustable low-battery cutoff so it won't pull your starting battery down to dangerously low levels - it will let your beers get warm first. Bear in mind that it runs like your home fridge - the compressor runs as needed to hold the set temperature, so if you leave it in a closed vehicle in the desert summer for several afternoon hours, you'll pull more power out of your battery than a cooler environment would require. I have allowed it to run in my pickup overnight with no problems. It seems to be fairly well-insulated and the compressor runs much less than half the time in my truck with climate control on a comfortable setting. Complaints? Well, it's expensive for the size, but I understand why. I belt it onto the back seat of my vehicles, so I find the cup holders pretty useless, and would have preferred a longer lid and a larger forward "shelf" section - but you might appreciate the cup holders if you have it on the floor between a pair of bucket seats in a van. The one thing I find irksome is the decision to make it 12 volt only. Most portable fridge/freezers have both 12V and 115VAC capability so you can run them in the home. I'm sure this was a packaging/cost tradeoff but it's a PITA to need a separate 12V power supply to run the thing in the house for pre-cool and convenient loading. That aside, LOVE this fridge!

Works well

Runs without draining my car battery and makes ice, just avoid air inside.

Very quiet and efficient, limited inside space, cools down fast, happy with product