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As above really.
Would be good if it can run off the car cigarette lighter as well as a mains hook up in France.
I don't normally bother, but for a 2 week stay I need to keep a few essentials cold.
Budget- £200 absolute max, would prefer sub £140
Any advice?
Depends how much room you have. I went through 3 or 4 electric cool boxes before I just thought arse to it and bought an actual fridge. £70 or thereabouts and plenty big enough for 2 weeks in France. Takes up a fair amount of boot mind. You can go down the full on specialist camping fridges that run off mains, 12v and gas but iirc they were prohibitively expensive. Some of the French sites hire fridges out. Just remember that they have a French plug!
Most campsites in France rent out fridges. Cheaper than buying, bigger than camping coolboxes, less to jam in the car. We're at 2 sites following the TDF in July and doing this at both.
The problem with plugin coolboxes is they aren’t usually that well insulated because they have have the cooler bit. As a result once unplugged they warm up quickly. The problem with good fridges is they are often noisy and being thermostatically controlled will not even be something you get completely used to. A better option may be to go for a really good cool box (some claim to go from -18 to 0 only after a week) and pack it well With properlychilled stuff to start (putting things in frozen eg) and then add a bag of ice every four or five days. Obviously keep it out of direct sun. Minimise opening and closing, and I think the advice to maximise life is to keep it full, and I’ve seen it suggested that a wet towel on top helps.
Thanks for responses so far..
So what really good non-electric coolbox could I buy in budget? Any brands to look out for?
Most 12v fridges only drop a few degrees below ambient, so not much use in a hot tent. I just ordered a Coleman Xtreme 28qt for £60 (inc next day delivery) from Amazon which reviews insist will keep stuff frozen for 3 days. Just bung a new bag of ice in it every couple of days. So they say.
Can't review it yet as i'm waiting in for it but we're taking it to South Wales at the weekend and hope to have a chilled time at Green Man in August.
Our campinggaz electric coolbox does 20 degrees below ambient and it works well. Ours is only ever plugged in in the car so we sometimes help it along with nalgene bottles filled with ice. Always try to keep it full too.
If you could plug it in on the campsite it would be more than sufficient I think. Although it would be audible at night.
Most 12v fridges only drop a few degrees below ambient, so not much use in a hot tent.
15-20 degrees IIRC. So they're fine most of the time and need supplementing with an ice pack during hot days. I've never had a problem with mine.
We've got a 12v peltier cooler/fridge thingy & it works fine - I think the spec is 20 deg. below ambient.
We've had things freezing up in it before. I think it only cost about £60 and then a bit more for the mains adaptor. Just make sure you get a mains adaptor with a high enough current rating & check what fuses are in the fridge/cooler. Ours has a 'normal' plug style fuse, but it's about 50% smaller. When ours blew once, we spent bloody ages traipsing round looking for a replacement - ended up getting a pack in Maplin......oh.
Something like this: https://www.worldofcamping.co.uk/outwell-ecocool-24-ltr-grey-coolbox-12v-230v