Dometic CoolFun SC30 Thermo-Electric Cool Box, Grey, 12/230 V, 29 Litre

My decision to buy this particular camping fridge was a very considered one, and I’d been thinking about it for some time. For the last 10 years we’ve been using a large 52 Qt (59 litres) Coleman Cool Box Xtreme which in ideal conditions can keep your items cool for 4-5 days. Over the last couple of years though we’ve noticed that we’ve been having to re-stock it with ice much more frequently, which isn’t always convenient. We’re also more and more likely to be camping with electrical hook up these days, so it became a sensible idea to add a powered cool box to our inventory.I’d looked at many such boxes over the last couple of months at Halfords, Go Outdoors etc but generally reviews have been a bit hit and miss and the main complaint is usually regarding the noise they make. This particular 29 litre model had generally favourable reviews, with the positives being more relevant to us than the negatives. It wasn’t the cheapest one that we’d seen, but we gave it a punt.My first impressions when it got delivered weren’t favourable. It was extremely lightweight, and on opening the lid I found that there’s practically no insulation. The walls of the box are just standard plastic, so it relies heavily on being powered to keep cool. What weight there is comes from the lid which houses the cooling mechanism/fan. If you want the lid to stay open while you fill it you’ll find it a little top heavy and it wants to fall over until you put some stuff inside. There was also a further and greater problem when I thought to myself, “where’s the power cables?” They’re actually stuffed into recesses in the rear of the lid. On one side is the 12V adapter for plugging into your car, and on the other side is the 230v cable for plugging it into the mains. However, mine was delivered with a European two-pin plug. Not a great start, and I had to buy an adapter off of Amazon to allow me to use it. If it had have been fitted with a UK three-pin plug then there’s no way the cable could stow away in the lid; it would be too big to fit through the gap.There is an additional issue that someone else pointed out in their review. While drawing power from the 230V mains feed you can adjust the speed of the fan (and therefore increase/decrease the noise generated), however while running off of a 12v feed the cool box runs at full tilt, regardless of what the dial is set to. If you have a 12v socket in your boot you’ll not notice it while driving, but it’s still loud enough to hear when the car is just idling.But, is it any good as a fridge since that’s what it’s sold as? Well, I’ve just come back from a long weekend away with it and it performed very well. To clarify it does comfortably house 2 litre bottles upright, and many of them. At the start of the weekend it was holding 2x 2 litre bottles of water, a 2 litre bottle of Cravendale milk, four 330ml cans, four 500ml bottles, four submarine rolls, several bags of nibbles and cakes. It was pretty full, which revealed two things to consider. The handle (which also acts as the lid’s locking mechanism) isn’t particularly strong plastic and was flexing under a full load. Additionally, when completely full the fan, which creates the noise, isn’t able to circulate the cool air around effectively. Items towards the bottom weren’t as cool as I’d hoped. However, this was perhaps down to me stuffing it full. Once I’d re-thought what was inside the fridge was much better.Throughout the weekend, whether it was on 230v hook up or on the car’s 12v feed, it kept everything cool. Not ice cold, but adequately cool. During the occasions when it wasn’t powered up it maintained enough residual coolness, helped by the items inside being cool themselves. The fridge does generate noise when the fan is on. If you’re on 230v then you can reduce it to a point where it’s barely spinning, keeping everything on tick-over. If you do that everything will remain cool enough, and it shouldn’t disturb your sleep. My wife is a very light sleeper and she was able to cope. When you turn it up to full chat, you’ll really notice how loud it can get. It’s comparable to the sound of a desk fan.Positives::Decent capacity – Enough room for a couple for a week/family for a weekend:Quiet enough on Eco mode to be able to sleep in the same room/tent with it ticking over for the night:Runs strongly on both 230v and 12v:Adjustable speed:Keeps everything cool, if not ice cold:Does easily have room for several 2 litre bottles upright:Cables stow away tidilyNegatives::Did not come with a UK 230v plug. You will need an adapter:Limited insulation so unlikely to maintain temperature for too long when not powered:Handle sags when lifting a full load. If using for a beer cooler it will push it to its limit I’d think:Lid top heavy:Noisy at full power:Will only run at full power when hooked up to 12v:Circulation of cool air effected if fully loadedAt the end of the day I’ve bought it to be a camping fridge, and it’s proved itself to do that job perfectly well. After an inauspicious start where I considered returning it, I’ve found it to be fit for the purpose I intended. I plan to keep it in the back of our estate car to provide a little extra convenience. It’s a good size and I expect to get plenty of use out of it, so time will tell if it’s reliable enough.

Good value & versatile Hot / Cold Function . Mains or car socket .

Comes with a European plug, and no UK adaptor. You will need to buy a separate EU-to-UK adaptor before you can use it at home. Once you have one though, it does work well.Update, a week and a bit later:I originally gave this four stars after I had filled it to the brim with drinks, and left it running overnight on the mains in preparation for a camping trip. By the next morning everything was nice and chilly, so I gave it four stars as it had cooled all the drinks down from room temperature in a few hours. I knocked off one star for the EU plug, as I mentioned in my first review.Since then, I have taken it camping for a week and half. On the morning of departure I transferred the drinks into a passive coolbox, and filled this one with dairy and meat from the fridge. At the campsite, I connected it to the 12V in our caravan, only to discover that it will only run at FULL power on 12V; the Eco mode ONLY works on 240V. This would have drained our leisure battery in no time. As a result, I had to leave it in the boot of the car to run off the car's 12V whilst driving, otherwise it might as well have been a passive box.However, the car got so hot in the sun during the day that the coolbox couldn't really cope and food started spoiling really quickly, not helped by the non-existent insulation on the bottom of the box.In conclusion, I feel that Dometic have concentrated too much on the 240V features of the coolbox, at the expense of 12V performance.For camping off-grid: 2 stars: it uses too much power to run off a leisure battery, and struggles in the high ambient temperatures of a hot car.For use at home or office, or camping when you have 240V hook-up: it peroforms well, so 4 stars, as per my original review.So a 3 star average.

It's big! Too big for my needs but when researching cooler boxes I found that many of the smaller boxes were ineffective, not cooling so much and not insulating enough.It works very well and I have made use of it on driving holidays to Europe, using it in my hotel rooms and to bring back some refridgerated goods. Works off a car battery and mains (European plug).

It comes with a cigarette adapter cable and a separate 240v two pin cable. These cables neatly fold away into a space provided. It is a good size and depth but I never had any big bottles to put into to prove any claims. It kept the milk and butter fresh plus a few bottles of water as well. My only complaint is that once I got home and cleaned it out there was always water coming out of the fan area. Despite shaking it and leaving it two days in a warm room water was still coming out. I eventually turned it on to the heat setting and it dried it out. If not dried properly I am sure mould will grow and ruin an otherwise decent cool box. When running it could never be described as quiet unless you switch it to the eco mode.

I am so relieved I picked this one over others. I keep this fridge in my car and on a recent trip away with work, it was a godsend to fill with all the home comforts I would need day to day at a conference. The capacity is massive but the item itself is easy for me to carry around. The lock handle is smart. I was tempted by other models. but this lived up to my expectations, I was thrilled.

Works really well, we take it away with us in our motorhome. It keeps the drinks really cold. The fan could do with being a bit quieter but it's not too bad.

Works much better than expected . We used it as an additional cool space for our caravan. Its works well on both12v and 240v and is quiet in use , almost inaudible in eco mode. Chilled beer to icecream headache temperature. We had bought a cooler from Argos that was over £50 , when unpacked was poorly finished and only 12v , it also did not cool and was returned and refunded the same day as purchase.