Full review of the Dometic CFX3 75DZ powered cooler
Today’s review is of the Dometic powered portable cooler, model CFX3 75DZ. For those of us who have suffered with ice chests for years and years, these powered coolers are so much better in so many ways. Dometic recently sent me one of these to try out and, short story, I love it.
What is a powered cooler
A powered cooler is essentially an insulated cooler with a way to keep that cooler cooler. There is a refrigeration mechanism that keeps whatever’s inside it cold, rather than having to use ice or anything like that.
Since these boxes are as well insulated as traditional coolers, and also take the same form factor, they are surprisingly energy efficient. For example, the very large Dometic cooler that I have drew a scant 49 watts at 120 volts on initial cool-down. That’s not a lot of power.
In fact I had it plugged into a Jackery 1500 which displays power consumption and that’s where I got the power consumption reading from. That portable power station also could power this cooler for 19 hours at this rate of consumption, according to the device.
But remember that any refrigeration unit will cycle on and off so the amount of time it would be able to power the device is significantly longer than 19 hours. And that’s assuming that there’s no input - the Jackery, and all portable power stations have a provision to charge as well including charging by solar panels.
Portable powered coolers, in general, are a great replacement for those that require ice.
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Dometic CFX3 75DZ portable powered cooler
Powered coolers come in many sizes and configurations. The Dometic CFX3 75DZ is a very large cooler as portable powered coolers go. Dometic said it can hold 114 cans of your favorite beverage - that’s quite a bit.
The real advantage to this portable cooler is that it has two chambers and you can individually control each chamber. So you could have one that’s a freezer and one that’s a refrigerator, for example.
One of the two chambers could be set to as low as -7°F (-21.7°C). In fact, if you want nothing but a portable freezer you could set both compartments to this frigid temp.
The control panel on this allows you to make a number of changes to the device including the temperature in either of the compartments. But there’s also a setting where you can limit the depth of discharge if you’re operating this on a battery.
What this is for is if you have the cooler plugged into your vehicle and the vehicle is parked, for example. You don’t want the cooler to kill the battery so the cooler will measure incoming voltage and know when to reduce or even kill its incoming power draw so you can start your vehicle when you return. That’s a good thing.
Dometic CFX3 75DZ powered cooler app lets you set temperature in each compartment.
Where this would play-out is for someone who’s a car camper or van lifer. Let’s say this is how you’re keeping your grub cold - you don’t want it killing the battery overnight. Chances are this cooler is so efficient that that wouldn’t happen, but it’s good to know that there’s a safeguard to protect you.
On the subject of power, this can operate either with a supplied household outlet or a 12 volt “cigarette lighter” cord, both of which are included with the cooler.
As for build quality, this cooler really feels well made. The latches, lids, handles and all the pieces have a quality feel to them.
There are also wire baskets inside the cooler including one in the larger of the two compartments with a reconfigurable shelf in it. The baskets make it convenient and easy to layer items in here because you know you’re always going to want whatever’s at the bottom of the cooler, naturally.
I previously had an Alpicool powered cooler that I liked but some of the latches and such felt less well made than the ones on this cooler. That makes sense, this is a more premium product.
Another thing I noticed - even when operating this cooler is remarkably quiet.
There’s an app for that
In addition to the control panel on the cooler, there’s also an app that lets you control the device. You can set temperatures, control the power protection mode and more.
You can also set temperature alarms which would work well with the power conservation. If the cooler goes into conservation mode you would want to know if it is out of safe food range, for example. Incidentally, that would be roughly 40°F for refrigerator temperature and 0°F for the freezer.
Heck, you could even rename your cooler. It’s pretty slick.
Why not an ice chest
You likely have camped with a portable cooler and may even been doing it today. These simple, insulated boxes keep food cold as long as you have some ice or, perhaps, frozen blocks of some sort.
But their disadvantage is, unless you have some sort of ice in the cooler they’re simply an insulated box. So your cheese may get warm. Or, even worse, your yogurt could go bad. Ask me how I know about this kind of thing putting a sailing adventure to an abrupt end. Ew.
Wire baskets in the Dometic CFX3 75DZ powered cooler and two compartments make loading and unloading much easier - plus you know whatever’s at the bottom is what you’ll want.
Where would you use a portable powered cooler?
I love these portable powered coolers and use them in a variety of ways.
For example, when we leave for an adventure if I happen by my favorite butcher shop or favorite German meat market, I can stuff the cooler full of their products and set both compartments to freeze. Now I’ve got an entire large cooler full of things I can buy from destinations we travel to.
Then, as I enjoy the items I can change one of the two compartments to normal refrigerator temperature and thaw out what I want to eat.
As someone who appreciates craft beers, believe it or not, you don’t always want them to be super cold, depending on the brew. So I can go to a craft brewery and set the temperature of one of the compartments to more specifically match the style of beer I’m putting into it.
I also use this on Costco runs, especially if Costco isn’t the only place I’m going. I can have the cooler keep the milk and cheese cold while I run all sorts of other errands. No worrying about things spoiling in the back of the truck.
Of course if your camping situation is such that you need refrigeration, that’s the most obvious use case for these. Instead of your sandwiches getting soggy on the road because the ice melted, you keep everything nice and cold without worrying about ice. Nice.
My conclusions - should you get a powered portable cooler?
Dometic makes a wide variety of these coolers in various sizes. I’m going to guess that most people are likely to get a smaller version than I got. This is really almost a substitution for a refrigerator and would serve that purpose very, very well for van lifers, tent campers and such.
Specifically I wanted this large a cooler for our own potential pickup camper project which I detail here.
If you don’t know we also have a Dometic 12 volt refrigerator in our own RV which I am very pleased with.
The combination of functionality and build quality of this unit along with the convenience of the company’s app for controlling it make for a really well thought-through product that is well made.
While a powered portable cooler is more expensive than just an ice chest there are a lot of reasons why one could make sense. The convenience of not needing ice is the start, but not having to worry about that ice melting and ruining the contents is another.
While we often have our travel trailer we love taking day trips for dinners in beautiful places. In that case having the cooler, this portable induction cook top and our Jackery 1500 along with the Dometic GO portable water jug are what we take with us for sunset dinners on the tailgate, or a picnic table.
Depending on your style of camping, a portable powered cooler can make a lot of sense and be a real convenience and the units built by Dometic are well made and offer good features. We like ours quite a bit.