When traveling by car or camping, portable refrigeration will safely store the ingredients for meals cooked in your HOTLOGIC®. The most common method is using an ice chest packed with ice. The difficulty is keeping the food cold for several days without having to continually add ice. If you have a power source, then using a portable refrigerator is an option. Let’s look at these solutions for chilling food on-the-go in more detail.
Ice Chest or Cooler Bag
The first solution is using an ice chest or cooler bag to keep food chilled while traveling. In order to keep the ice from melting quickly, the most important feature is good insulation. A common hack is to take a cheap ice chest, drill several holes into the top and add spray foam insulation. YouTube has many videos showing how to improve the insulation for a cheap, plastic cooler. This video insulates the lid and more.
If you select a cooler bag, the manufacturer may specify they can only be used with ice packs. Otherwise, the next item to consider is what ice to use: cubed, block or dry ice. The video below answers that question by testing the different types of ice. SPOILER ALERT! The results show that a combination of dry ice and block ice work best. The dry ice will keep the block ice frozen longer adding 2-3 days of cool temperatures to what either dry or block can do by itself. The downside is that dry ice freezes everything, so it is not a good solution for chilling sodas or fresh vegetables.
Electric Coolers
If electricity is available, you can look for a portable refrigeration option. Be aware that the cheaper devices tend to be ambient coolers. They cool the interior of the appliance down 20-40ºF from the outside temperature. This works okay if it is used in areas where the temperature does not get above 80ºF. Most of these devices will run on either 110V AC for home use or 12V DC for car use.
Portable Refrigerator/Freezer
True portable refrigerator/freezers, which allow you to set the temperature, start around $140 and go up from there. Some have dual zones allowing you to set compartments to be refrigerator/refrigerator, refrigerator/freezer, or freezer/freezer. They come with two cords, one for 12V DC and one for 120V AC. The portable refrigerator/freezer typically use only 40W-60W.
Electricity
You can use a portable, power station to easily power either type of portable refrigeration. See Select a Portable Power Supply for Your HOTLOGIC® for assistance in selecting a power station with the correct capacity for your needs.
Click here for more suggestions of portable refrigerators.
Hot Logic portable refrigeration