Brand · Camp Gear
A Dometic fridge is a portable compressor cooler: it plugs into the truck's 12V socket or a wall outlet and holds a set temperature without ice. Dometic also makes plain coolers that run on ice, from a rotomolded chest to soft and backpack coolers. The short version: pick plug or ice first, then size, then one zone or two. Real talk: I'm the camp's ice guy, and a cooler that doesn't need ice is a little like a plumber reading about pipes that fix themselves. (I read the whole thing anyway.)
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On this site, Dometic covers two kinds of cooler: powered coolers (compressor fridges you plug in) and coolers that run on ice. The grid above sorts them by type:
The grid changes as listings come and go, so I'll write about the series and what separates them, not about how many of each are up this week. Most of the specs in the grid come from Amazon listings, and the grid marks those. Weights below come from Dometic's own pages, because listing weights are a coin toss.
A compressor cooler works like the fridge in your kitchen, just smaller and more willing to ride in a truck. Dometic's buying guide puts it simply: once it's plugged in, it works like your home fridge. Here's how the three series in the grid differ.
The CFX5 is the series Dometic calls its performance line. Its page lists sizes from 25 to 95 liters. The two biggest are dual zone (two compartments set to two temperatures), and the 55-liter version comes with a built-in ice maker. The listings in the grid give a lowest setting of -7°F, 12/24V DC power, an AC adapter, battery protection and solar input.
The maker also lists:
The 55-liter ice-maker model weighs 44.44 lb, per Dometic. That's before you put a single hot dog in it.
Renee asked why a cooler needs an app. I said so it can text me when Walt leaves the lid open. She said Walt doesn't read texts. We're both right.
The CFX2 is the simpler series. Dometic's buying guide lists it from 28 to 57 liters, single zone only. The listings in the grid give the same -7°F low setting as the CFX5, plus 12/24V DC, an AC adapter and battery protection, and say there's no built-in battery. If you want one temperature and fewer menus, this is the side of the grid to start on. More on the type is on the compressor fridge page.
The CFF series is the compact end. Dometic's CFF 35 page describes a portable compressor cooler with a double-sided, double-hinged lid and a dimmable LED display. The CFF manual covers sizes from the CFF 12 up to two dual-zone models, and lists a three-level battery monitor that shuts the cooler off at low battery voltage. The CFF 35 weighs 17.2 kg (about 38 lb), per the maker.
The CFF listings in the grid give a lowest setting of -0.4°F, a little warmer than the CFX series. For ice cream at deer camp, that difference doesn't matter. Nobody at Hemlock Run has ever had ice cream left over. Small-car sizes are on the car fridge page.
The Patrol is Dometic's rotomolded ice chest. Its page says it's one-piece rotomolded polyethylene with thick PU insulation, a freezer-style lid seal, a large drain and one-handed rubber latches. The Patrol 55 weighs 33.08 lb empty, per Dometic. The rotomolded cooler page compares chests like it across brands.
The Recon Hardside is the other way to build a hard cooler. Dometic says the shell is injection-molded with welded seams and two inches of insulation, and that this makes it up to 30% lighter than other coolers of the same size. The lid opens from the front or the back and comes off for loading. The 41-liter size weighs 25.08 lb, per the maker.
Rotomolding makes the shell in one piece in a spinning mold. Injection molding presses plastic into a mold, and the Recon's seams are welded. In practice, you're choosing between the heavier one-piece shell and the lighter welded one, at similar sizes.
The Recon ZL soft coolers come in three sizes. Dometic lists 25 mm of insulation, a recycled nylon shell with a TPU coating, a welded leakproof liner and a lid with no zipper. The Unrestricted coolers in the grid carry like a backpack, per their listings. Soft coolers are on the soft cooler page, and carry-on-your-back models on the backpack cooler page.
This is the big split. A compressor cooler needs power the whole trip, and it gives you a steady temperature with no ice in the way. Dometic's buying guide says ice takes up 67% of an ice cooler's storage. That's the maker's number, and it's the main pitch for going powered. (It's also the ice math I've been doing on a napkin since 2008.)
An ice chest needs nothing but ice and a drain plug. If your camp has no power and you won't run the truck, start with the Patrol or the Recon. If you have a 12V socket and a plan for it, start with the fridges. The electric cooler page lays out the trade across brands.
Capacity in the grid is in quarts, converted from Dometic's liters. Here's the thing nobody tells you: a fridge doesn't need room for ice, so a smaller fridge holds what a bigger ice chest holds. Count the food, not the cooler you used to have. Dometic's tip for packing is to fill the gaps and minimize air pockets, so buy the size you'll actually fill.
A single-zone cooler is a fridge or a freezer, one at a time. A dual-zone cooler runs both at once, each with its own setting. Dometic's article calls dual zone the pick for long trips: one side as a fridge, the other as a freezer. For a weekend at camp, one zone usually does it. Freezer-first picks are on the portable freezer page.
Every Dometic compressor listing in the grid gives 12V DC, most give 12/24V, and most include an AC adapter. None names a built-in battery. Dometic's answer for running off the truck is battery protection: the cooler switches off when it senses low voltage from the vehicle battery, per the maker's CFX pages and CFF manual.
Know your setting, too. Battery protection only helps if it's set for how you're running it, so read the manual's battery section before the first trip. If you want a cooler with its own battery, look at the battery powered cooler page.
Weights here are Dometic's own: 17.2 kg for the CFF 35, 25.08 lb for the Recon 41, 33.08 lb for the Patrol 55, 44.44 lb for the CFX5 55IM. Add the food and drinks on top of that. Walt looked at a fridge spec sheet once and said, "So it's a cooler that wants a battery and a bad back." He wasn't wrong about the bad back. Lift it empty, load it in place.
Dometic's own pages and manuals cover this well, so here's the short list:
My one opinion on this page: pre-cool it on the wall outlet at home the night before, not on the truck's battery on the drive up. The reason is the maker's own advice: a few hours of running before you load. Those hours are cheaper from the house than from the truck.
Keep the power cable and plug dry before you switch it on, as the CFF manual says. And don't store spray cans with flammable propellant inside it.
Both brands make portable compressor fridge-freezers, and both turn up in the same searches. ARB's own page for its ZERO 69-liter dual-zone model lists two compartments set separately, a divider you can remove to make one zone, a reversible side-opening lid, Bluetooth control and a 3-year warranty. ARB also sells single-zone ZERO sizes.
Dometic's side of the grid adds the CFX2, CFX5 and CFF series plus ice chests and soft coolers. Dometic's product pages list a 3-year warranty on the models I checked. If you want one brand for both a fridge and an ice chest, that's on Dometic's side. ARB doesn't have a full brand page on this site yet.
Both make compressor fridge-freezers. The main difference is the battery. EcoFlow's Glacier Classic page lists a 298Wh plug-in battery, sold separately in some versions, and dual zones on the larger sizes. The Dometic listings in the grid don't name a built-in battery; they run on 12/24V DC or AC, and Dometic sells separate portable batteries. Pick by how you'll power it at camp.
Both sell 12V compressor fridges in single- and dual-zone sizes. Bodega's listings on this site are almost all powered fridges, running from small to very large, and most list -4°F as the lowest setting. The Dometic CFX2 and CFX5 listings give -7°F, and Dometic's grid adds ice chests and soft coolers. Compare capacity, zones and power options model by model. The Bodega brand page has its lineup.
Both make powered compressor coolers. Anker's EverFrost 2 page lists a removable 288Wh battery, 15 cm wheels with an extendable handle, USB-A and USB-C ports, and two sizes, with dual zone on the larger one. The Dometic listings in the grid don't name a built-in battery. If you want the cooler to be the battery, that's Anker's design. If you'll run off the truck or a separate battery, compare the Dometic sizes.
Here's what I could verify from Dometic's own history page:
The product pages I checked list a 3-year warranty: the Patrol 55, the Recon Hardside 41, the CFX5 55IM and the CFX3 35. Read the terms for your exact model. I couldn't verify where the current coolers are made, so that's left out.
A fridge at camp doesn't end the ice math. It just moves it to the battery. Write both down.
What the maker states is checkable: its CFX5 and CFX3 pages describe compressor cooling, a three-stage battery protection system and a Bluetooth app, and the listings in the grid give a lowest setting of -7°F for the CFX2 and CFX5. Whether one suits you depends on the trip: how much you carry, how you'll power it and whether you need a freezer side. Compare those specs first.
Dometic Group, a company listed on Nasdaq Stockholm since 2015, per its own history page. That page traces the business to 1922, when two Swedish engineers invented absorption cooling, and says Electrolux named its leisure appliances division Dometic by the end of the 1960s. It became a separate company in 2001.
Both are Dometic compressor coolers with an app and three-stage battery protection, per the maker. Dometic's CFX5 page says the CFX5 is up to 5 dB quieter than the CFX3 and lists vacuum insulated panels, a 55-liter version with an ice maker and two dual-zone sizes. The Dometic listings in the grid right now are CFX5 and CFX2 models, not CFX3.
It's one size in Dometic's CFF range of portable compressor fridges. The CFF operating manual covers the CFF 12, 18, 20, 35, 45 and two dual-zone models, and says the 35 and 45 have a lid that opens from either side, a removable wire basket and a three-level battery monitor. Check the grid for the CFF sizes listed this week.
Yes. Dometic's site lists the Patrol, a one-piece rotomolded ice chest, and the Recon Hardside, which it describes as injection-molded with welded seams and two inches of insulation. It also lists the Recon ZL soft coolers and backpack coolers. They run on ice, so the power and zone questions on this page don't apply to them.
The product grid on this page links to Dometic listings on Amazon US, filtered by type. Dometic also sells on its own US site. Before you order, check that the listing names the exact model and size, since Dometic sells several series with similar names.
