Hi all, I've bought myself a vintage pepsi cooler.....one of the 50's ones, and i quite fance the idea of turning it into a 12v thermoelectric one. Not sure if this is even feasible or possible, but for arguments sake if i was to attempt it, what are the things i'd need to consider, and use in the conversion? Gimme your best shots lol
12v coolers are pretty rubbish tbh... unless you drop a couple of hundred on one and get a 2 or 3 way cooler!! I had a 12v cooler several years ago, and that basically kept things slightly cooler than ambient... total waste of time!! You'll be better off getting some bags of ice from the super market
WHS^ We've got a thermoelectric coolbox and it's pretty pointless - we find that just popping a few freezer blocks in it when loading it up works far better.
I've just been on a yacht with a compressor fridge and it kept everything very cold. Not much noise when running, certainly OK to sleep near. Ran at around 3 Amps/12Volts. The compressor goes in separate cupboard, and the element in the insulated fridge. They cost £300+ for the compressor/plate
I bought as 3 way electrolux fridge, but its too big for the space i have available and is now going back on ebay lol. Thought this would be a cooler (pun intended) workaround to kee a few cans of pop cool when camping for a few days at a time.
Our fixed fridge in the van is a compressor one and couldn't recommend it more. Keeps things really cool (even frozen), is very quiet, and as long as you have a decent size leisure battery will keep going for a long weekend. We also had a compressor one in our old van and as well as the leisure battery we had a solar panel on the roof. Left that one running for over two weeks and there was still plenty of power left in the battery. Have actually got a solar panel sat waiting to fit to my T2 after I refurb my westie roof. Both the compressor fridges were second hand ones off eBay and cost less than £100. In both cases I got the guy I was buying them off to put them on a battery a few hours before I went to collect so that I could check they worked OK.
Not worth your effort. The only cooler that will keep things cold longer than it takes a block of ice to melt is a compressor fridge, and those are expensive and the motor takes too much space to be installable in a vintage cool box.
Well I've just been on a Lear Jet, where beautiful Thai ladies brushed dew from Lotus petals onto my Champagne flute with Ostrich feathers...the ensuing evaporation chilled my Bollinger to perfection
You can buy industrial peltier modules that are a bit more efficient than the ones you'd normally get in a cheap cooler. You can choose what currant draw you want, and even put in a thermostat. You'd need to cut a large hole on the top and mount it with heat sinks attached inside and out, and a fan on the outside to take the heat away. By the time you've done that your vintage cooler may not still look "vintage"
