hey guys. i bought this thing at a yard sale a few years ago for $5.00. works awesome on long trips to alabama and back. never left it on with the car off for more than about 45 mins though. the a few friends and us are planning a trip to see a double feature at the drive in this weekend and i was thinking about taking it. (no alcohol at the concession stand for obvious reasons)


got me to thinking though. will it kill my battery in the 2-3 hours it will be running with the car off.... no amperage ratings on it, nor can i find any. and i dont have an ammeter. im running an optima deep cycle yellow top. 890CCA if i remember correctly. thanks alot guys!

Jason have you ever load tested your battery?
In reality those coolers etc generally dont pull more than 6amp per hour, however if your battery wont pass a load test...it probably would leave you needing a jumper.
Does anyone have a jumper box you could run it off separately, that would be the best safest solution.
MemorySaveandPowerPack_zps726d8b7c.jpg

link doesnt work but we have a cooler we used when we didnt have a camper like 30 something quart and i tried one time to leave it plugged in the jeep and it was so dead it wouldnt start in about an hour

Igloo Iceless Cooler - Walmart.com

art- i do have a jump box that i keep on me at all times. and the battery is great. ive left the key in/radio on for 20 hours before (accidentally) and came out and the car started right up. i love my optima. my jump box dont have the acc socket on it though, so ill have to either buy a socket from advance or hack my wires.

was looking for a free fix, afterall a bag of ice is about $2.00 lol

A bag of ice is cheaper than being stranded!

Crunching numbers alone says you should be fine by a wide margin, but of course, there are plenty of factors that can leave you out of luck. A valid point is brought up about the ice. If you insist on using this cooler, you can put ice in gallon ziploc baggies.

you can always add a second battery, isolated from the first most times with a continuous duty solenoid.

well, it ran on the rigged up jump box for roughly 2 hours. just enough to polish off the 12 pack i had in there between the 4 of us. then it started beeping and saying low battery. lol