That got us thinking though, that we’re looking at every possible item from Hi-Gear so it would be good to narrow our search down even further and only look at Hi-Gear branded products within the Plug-In category. The cost of Hi-Gear Plug-In The cable storage compartment is a reasonable size, so there is no struggle to close the cable cover. Which I always find annoying with other cool boxes. Although at Camping Secrets we always try to offer value-for-money recommendations on gear, the truth is that sometimes it’s worth buying from a reputable manufacturer – we’ve found that this is especially true for powered items. You may pay slightly more than the cheapest Chinese imports (which can often be built in the same factory!), but you get peace of mind that the company will stand behind their product. Price – as you’d expect the price of a product can be an instantly recognisable factor on what sort of quality you can expect. Whoever came up with the phrase “you get what you pay for” pretty much hit the nail on the head. Whilst it’s not always the case and there are many bargains to be had, you can as a general rule, expect the higher priced products to offer better quality than a the cheapest option. We’ll dive into the price of Hi-Gear 45-Litre 12V 240V Cooler in more detail in a moment.

The downside to buying online is that you can’t actually get hold of the product to try it out first.

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As food defrosts, condensation and water will gather in the base, ruining food. So you must remove access water as there is no drainage plug. There is no drainage plug for water collection in the base. It seems to collect more water, but it’s not a major issue. To give that price some context we then looked at all of the products available from Go Outdoors in the Plug-In category. We found 2 items in total. What’s the price of Plug-In? Electric coolboxes use the 12v power from your car to keep things cool. If you’re heading away for a longer journey, perhaps for anything from a few days to a few weeks, then these devices are perfect for you - and larger capacity electric coolboxes are better suited to longer trips.

A removable gridded divider in the middle slides into the grooves on either side. It is solid and will remain in place. However, I often remove it to store more food and keep it cold. It has a hot, cold, eco and max setting like other cool boxes and LED light so you can see at a glance what setting you are on. However, you would expect to have thermostatic control for the price, which it does not. It is a power-thirsty coolbox, so I would not recommend connecting to a car charger. Only use it when you have a connection to a mains power supply. When buying Plug-In, the quality of the product is going to be one of the factors that you really scrutinise before you commit to buying. The Berg 45L cool box is ideal for larger group camping trips. It is bulky for transporting, but it is worth the investment if you can fit it into your vehicle.Raise a toast to the cool bag. These cool camping accessories keep food and drink ice-cold, whatever the weather. Store your beer, burgers and butter in one of these beauties and you’ll be a happy camper. Ideal for a family of 4 plus, as there is plenty of room for dividing drinks and food. If the cool box is not connected to power, it will remain cool for several hours, which is excellent if you cannot charge it whilst travelling. It has a speedy cooling system when first plugged in, so it is unnecessary to start cooling the night before. Quite frankly, few items are as important in a camp environment as having a top-performing electric cool box. From our experience, it is important to carefully examine the features of a particular product to make sure it will match up to the conditions under which you will be using it.

A 20 litre capacity is not going to set the world on fire if you’re planning a long trip, but it’s ample for a night or two away. Hi-Gear make cheap, dependable equipment and we were impressed with the quality of plastic used on this cooler. It looks more expensive than it is! The cheapest cool box in our recommendation is the HI-GEAR 20L Cooler. It is another 12V only system which can cool food and drinks to around the 10°C mark. For the money, it’s excellent value and has a few extra little design touches we like. Insulation: From our testing, not all electric cool boxes can reliably keep food and drinks sufficiently chilled if it’s warm outside. This can be due to a puny fan or, more often poor insulation. The EcoCool offers two cooling modes with a cooling delta of up to 25°C below the outdoors temperature on the MAX setting operation. This means that even on a scorching day, you can still get temperatures close to freezing. In our opinion, no electric cooler combines greater simplicity, affordability, and efficiency than the Outdoor Revolution Eco Deep Extreme. This is a full-on compressor-based fridge which also has a separate freezer section which can keep ice cream frozen! Yes it’s an expensive cool box, but really delivers the goods in our view.

First impressions count, and the dazzling blue of the VonShef Electric Cool Box really catches the eye. It’s big and blue and ready to cool for you! Someone should hire me to write the TV jingle…. The Vango is expensive, but it is worth the higher price for the additional extras. The lid has indents for holding 2L drink bottles in place. The base has 3 circular sections that support the bottom of a bottle providing extra height. However, not all fizzy drink bottles will fit into the circular sections. There’s so much information available online when we’re shopping now, that it’s easy to find lots of detail about products like Hi-Gear 28-Litre 12V 240V Cooler. This is of course really helpful, but there’s almost too much information available, so it’s important to know exactly what you’re looking for.