The Best Car Coolers & Refrigerators (Review & Buying Guide) in 2023 | Autance

King of the hill in this list, the very best car refrigerator, is Cooluli’s mini fridge. Not only do you get the car charger power cord, but you can also plug it into a 110V indoor outlet to charge as well. Once it’s charged, you have a twenty-four hour power reserve in eco-mode, meaning you can take this to the beach for the day, take it to work and leave it in the break room, and it’ll still be cold when you get back to it.

You can hold up to six cans in this four-liter capacity, or use the heating option to maintain hot foods from 122 F to 144 F. If you’re up for a bit of late-night snacking, you can fit your drive-thru meal in this for the duration of the ride home, and enjoy it once you get inside. It’s not recommended to charge this via the USB port in your computer (won’t gather enough energy), and put some time in between switching it from hot to cold, and vice versa.

We all know Igloo as the kings of summer, the ones who’ve kept our Coronas cold throughout hot July days. Igloo came close to snagging the top spot with its 28-quart unit. As a heads-up, you will need to buy an indoor adapter if you plan on using this anywhere besides the car. Apart from that, you get a durable built-in 12V cable with excellent durability, and a stabilizer on either end.

The motor is brilliantly quiet. Thanks to the brushless technology, you’ll barely even know that it’s on. If the radio’s on, the noise from your Igloo will get buried beneath the sound. They kept it traditional by putting a handle over the top for easy carrying. It’s about as lightweight as it can get (especially when you factor in that these don’t use ice), and slips right into the spot between your center console and the dash thanks to its ergonomic design.

Wagan’s take on a portable refrigerator leaves nothing to be desired. Twenty-four liters of space, a convenient folding carry handle, and a generous cord that lets you decide where to place this in your car. Wagan’s model also comes with our favorite feature, a hidden operations panel. Flip it up to use the hot or cold setting, and avoid the mistake of flipping a switch while in motion. We found some gent’s horrible story about how he kicked the switch on a different model while driving, and arrived at the beach with six cans of piping hot soda.

But Wagan’s innovative design doesn’t end there. The heating and cooling element is contained in the lid, which allows for faster dispersion to your contents. Heat rises, cold settles, and with Wagan, you don’t have a fan on the bottom that’s fighting against gravity. Last but not least, the range on this unit is fantastic. Anywhere from the freezing point of 32 F, all the way up to 140 F, which is perfect for maintaining hot food to nullify bacterial growth. A solid, inexpensive choice.

It’s a vertical car cooler, one that fits perfectly into those tight corridors in your car. You have to keep it ventilated properly, but the possibilities are still wide open compared to a standard cube-shaped car refrigerator. Apart from the unique design, you also get an adapter to plug into any standard 110V outlet. This lets you put food from the pan into a container, right in your unit, and you’re out the door. You get a heating temperature cap of 135 F, with cooling hitting as low as 40 F to properly refrigerate temp-sensitive food items.

The hull is made of temperature-treated plastic, keeping this 12V cooler nice and lightweight. Mix that with the fact that the heat vent and motor run at such a low, whisper-quiet noise level, and you’ve got the makings of a fantastic car cooler. As a heads up, you might have a little bit of trouble fitting this between the center console and the dash. That’s okay, because you get plenty of cord space to run this just about anywhere in your car.

This lightweight and portable refrigerator/freezer has a temperature range of 0-degrees Fahrenheit to 50-degrees Fahrenheit. It comes with a 12/24V DC connection cord, so you can easily plug it into the auxiliary power outlet in your vehicle. The fridge has a quick-chill function to cool your items quickly, and it can hold a total of 13 12-ounce cans. It’s 12.3 inches by 14.1 inches by 9.3 inches.

The unit has a memory function, which will save your presets when you turn the refrigerator off. It has a soft-touch control panel with a digital temperature display, and it comes with a shoulder strap for portability. It’s simple to set up, it draws very little power, and the items inside, including precooked meals, frozen meat, and ice cream, stay cold.

In our quest to find the best car coolers in existence, we couldn’t ignore some of the more popular brands and see what they brought to the table. Black+Decker didn’t disappoint, and they followed suit with their excellent affordability. Sling this over your shoulder with the included strap to carry it from the house to your car: you’re going to need it, because this weighs just under twenty pounds. It’s a bit heavy, but Black+Decker get the job done.

Your temperature range goes from 40 F, up to 120 F, which is essentially good for keeping food warm, but not in safe level if you plan on driving for more than a few hours. You get a fairly decent 1.6 gallon capacity, lengthy power cable at just over six feet, and an adapter to bring it inside when the day is through and leave it plugged in on the countertop. After using this unit for a bit, we can say they definitely narrowed the temperature range to reduce cost, but for under fifty dollars, it’s a powerful car cooler that’ll last you for years.

This lightweight cooler/warmer chills drinks up to 32-degrees Fahrenheit and warms food up to 150-degrees Fahrenheit using thermoelectric technology. It holds six 12-ounce cans and features a removable shelf, self-locking latch, and an integrated Bluetooth speaker, so you can use it with an iPhone, Android, or other smart device to play music.

The cooler is insulated inside, so it holds temperatures for a while even after you unplug it. It is very versatile and can be used both on the road and at home. It comes with two power cords: an AC cord for wall outlets and a CD cord for the auxiliary outlet in your vehicle. The cooler is also ETL certified for safety and efficiency. Overall, it cools things down fairly quickly, keeps frozen items cold for a good amount of time, draws very little energy, and isn’t too loud.

Koolarton gives you the most interior space for your money. You can store up to forty-eight standard 12 oz cans in here; it’s like having a miniature reach-in fridge, the only problem is finding somewhere to store it. You can take up the passenger floor space, or use the nine-foot cable to run it from the trunk to the cigarette lighter. If you’re looking for something to take to the beach with the whole family, the Voyager is just the ticket.

Apart from the massive size, you also get a broad temperature range for such a large unit. You can refrigerate, not just chill, down to 40 F, with the hot setting going up to 130 F. The latter is good to hold food for a ride home, but isn’t good for transporting hot food for more than a couple of hours. They’re able to keep the costs low thanks to the durable polypropylene construction, just note that scuffs and scrapes will show, but the internal system is built solid as a rock.

Knox makes some of the best car coolers for overnight travel. You’ll get a mostly vertical chest-like design, which gives you up to thirty-four quarts of space to utilize. Knox Gear’s cooler also comes with a removable divider; fill it with drinks, or insert the divider to keep sandwiches from getting crushed. The price is a bit startling, because they could be charging more for this. You get some conveniences that more expensive units often have, like an LED indicator light.

They even include both cords. There are two separate outlets, so you don’t have to rely on adapters and the same cable. If the years went on and one of the cables get damaged, you can still pop an adapter onto the other, which lets this last a lot longer. There’s a locking handle, wide temperature range, and a quiet fan exhaust. There’s so much to this that it’s hard to pack into a few paragraphs: Knox Gear is an excellent product for the money spent, and works well for RV use as well.

Come on, you didn’t think we’d finish this list without Coleman, did you? The Coleman electric cooler comes with some serious power for a fantastic price. It’s built like an actual mini fridge, but still operates with thermoelectric power. You’ll get an eight-foot power cable to stash this in the trunk, and run the cord under the seats to the 12V cigarette lighter adapter. Remove the shelf divider to turn this into a forty-four can capacity cooler for the beach.

Coleman also throws in a one-year warranty, because with thermoelectric coolers, manufacturer defects will show themselves immediately. There’s a wide temperature range, fairly quiet motor operation, and an insane value on the price. If you’re still not sure what you’re looking for in an electric car cooler, keep on reading the buying guide below to get a feel for what you shoujld be looking for.