REVIEW: Dometic Avalanche 55L Cooler

[Bootleg]

I recently purchased a the [MENTION=212966]Dometic[/MENTION] Avalanche 55L cooler for many reasons but the biggest being their reputation with their fridges and the 7 year warranty as opposed to other manufacturers shorter warranties. The features were pretty standard so nothing that really set them apart from others. Sure, the Dometic was cheaper coming in at $204 on Amazon and that also played a part in the choice.

The first thing I did when I got the package was to read the manufacturers information attached. Nothing really ground breaking but good information none the less. Most notably is the need to pre-cool the cooler prior to packing it and not draining water. Both are pretty common knowledge regarding coolers like this.

Our first outing with the new cooler was to be a 4 day camping trip with the family in Great Smokey Mountains NP which rolled out Friday night and returned Monday. I pre-cooled the cooler with 30lbs of ice starting Thursday afternoon to make sure she was ready and prepped for the coming trip. When I opened the cooler to start loading it Friday afternoon I could see a significant amount of melting from the ice. Given that it was placed into a warm cooler I wasn't alarmed. It was more ice loss than expected but nothing that worried more too much.I packed the cooler with cold/frozen food and cold beer and what was left of the ice, which packed the cooler to the max, and loaded it into the rig.

We didn't touch the cooler until Saturday around 1:00 after getting to camp and getting setup. I was shocked at the amount of ice loss in less than 24 hours. There was very little of ice to speak of remaining but everything was still cold so I was hopeful that we may be okay to get through the weekend. We were 45 minutes round trip to ice so leaving to get more was the last thing I wanted to do. We kept the opening/closing to a minimum and kept it in the shade to try to mitigate additional warming. When I opened it to cook breakfast on Sunday the ice was completely gone and the food was getting warm... and soggy. As as result I decided to head into town and buy more ice. 30lbs of ice later I was hoping I could make it 48 more hours. Keep in mind I did not drain any cold water and kept the kids out to maximize cold retention. When I got home last night and emptied the cooler I was left with a couple of handfuls of ice. 60lbs of ice and 4 days and all I have to show for it was a couple handfuls of ice. I have had better results from a $25 cooler than this. Yes, the temps were 90 degrees during the day and 65 at night but a cooler like this should be able to handle those temps. One thing I did notice which could have an affect is while packed you can run your hand along the seal and the plastic exterior is noticeably cold. There were also cold spots in various other locations on the exterior. This is a pretty clear indication that the cooler is not properly sealed or insulated.

Needless to say I am less than happy with the performance of this cooler. I really expected more from Dometic. Maybe I got a bad example but there is not a lot of information or reviews out there on this cooler. I have initiated the return process through Amazon but it looks like the seller is going to stick me with the return shipping fee and a 20% restocking fee. I may get $120 of my $204 back when said and done. $84 is a pretty steep rental fee for a cooler for 4 days if you ask me. At the end of the day, I am not a happy camper. When I do buy a fridge it won't be a [MENTION=212966]Dometic[/MENTION] .

 

[4runr4eva]

I recently purchased a the [MENTION=212966]Dometic[/MENTION] Avalanche 55L cooler for many reasons but the biggest being their reputation with their fridges and the 7 year warranty as opposed to other manufacturers shorter warranties. The features were pretty standard so nothing that really set them apart from others. Sure, the Dometic was cheaper coming in at $204 on Amazon and that also played a part in the choice.

The first thing I did when I got the package was to read the manufacturers information attached. Nothing really ground breaking but good information none the less. Most notably is the need to pre-cool the cooler prior to packing it and not draining water. Both are pretty common knowledge regarding coolers like this.

Our first outing with the new cooler was to be a 4 day camping trip with the family in Great Smokey Mountains NP which rolled out Friday night and returned Monday. I pre-cooled the cooler with 30lbs of ice starting Thursday afternoon to make sure she was ready and prepped for the coming trip. When I opened the cooler to start loading it Friday afternoon I could see a significant amount of melting from the ice. Given that it was placed into a warm cooler I wasn't alarmed. It was more ice loss than expected but nothing that worried more too much.I packed the cooler with cold/frozen food and cold beer and what was left of the ice, which packed the cooler to the max, and loaded it into the rig.

We didn't touch the cooler until Saturday around 1:00 after getting to camp and getting setup. I was shocked at the amount of ice loss in less than 24 hours. There was very little of ice to speak of remaining but everything was still cold so I was hopeful that we may be okay to get through the weekend. We were 45 minutes round trip to ice so leaving to get more was the last thing I wanted to do. We kept the opening/closing to a minimum and kept it in the shade to try to mitigate additional warming. When I opened it to cook breakfast on Sunday the ice was completely gone and the food was getting warm... and soggy. As as result I decided to head into town and buy more ice. 30lbs of ice later I was hoping I could make it 48 more hours. Keep in mind I did not drain any cold water and kept the kids out to maximize cold retention. When I got home last night and emptied the cooler I was left with a couple of handfuls of ice. 60lbs of ice and 4 days and all I have to show for it was a couple handfuls of ice. I have had better results from a $25 cooler than this. Yes, the temps were 90 degrees during the day and 65 at night but a cooler like this should be able to handle those temps. One thing I did notice which could have an affect is while packed you can run your hand along the seal and the plastic exterior is noticeably cold. There were also cold spots in various other locations on the exterior. This is a pretty clear indication that the cooler is not properly sealed or insulated.

Needless to say I am less than happy with the performance of this cooler. I really expected more from Dometic. Maybe I got a bad example but there is not a lot of information or reviews out there on this cooler. I have initiated the return process through Amazon but it looks like the seller is going to stick me with the return shipping fee and a 20% restocking fee. I may get $120 of my $204 back when said and done. $84 is a pretty steep rental fee for a cooler for 4 days if you ask me. At the end of the day, I am not a happy camper. When I do buy a fridge it won't be a [MENTION=212966]Dometic[/MENTION] .

I think you should move this over to general discussion and not 5th gen specific.

 

[jrandom]

Bummer

Not 5th gen specific, you should have a mod move this to GD so everyone can benefit from your experience.

 

[Bootleg]

Bummer

Not 5th gen specific, you should have a mod move this to GD so everyone can benefit from your experience.

Moved. :sorry:

 

[Hltoppr]

Just go with a good quality fridge (Engel, ARB, National Luna, etc.) and don't look back....

My Engel 39L was purchased in 2004 for a whopping $850...It's been in no less than 6 rigs, done thousands of off road miles, and does daily duty in my 4Runner for groceries and leftovers.

Only issue I've ever had was a blown thermal fuse once....maybe 10 years ago. Easily replaced.

Still running strong, and no soggy mess or food waste.

-H-

 

[4runr4eva]

Moved. :sorry:

Thank OP. You should have listed the cooler as defective during the return process. This way you dont get hit with restocking fee. I generally will only buy through amazon and not third party sellers as well as amazon will not pull this crap. Good Luck. :thumb:

 

[Bootleg]

Quick update:

I asked the seller about the restocking fee and the shipping cost and they were really easy to deal with. They're waving the restocking fee and reimbursing the shipping costs once I provide a receipt.

Just go with a good quality fridge (Engel, ARB, National Luna, etc.) and don't look back....

My Engel 39L was purchased in 2004 for a whopping $850...It's been in no less than 6 rigs, done thousands of off road miles, and does daily duty in my 4Runner for groceries and leftovers.

Only issue I've ever had was a blown thermal fuse once....maybe 10 years ago. Easily replaced.

Still running strong, and no soggy mess or food waste.

-H-

I really want to just bite the bullet and get a fridge but it's not in the budget right now. We have a bunch of summer camps to pay for and lemme tell ya, they aren't cheap. But, buy once,cry once.

 

[SSDuck8]

I hate to hear of your bad experience with Dometic. I have their fridge and love it. It has not given me any issues and performed great. Dometic is on here, you should reach out to them. Im not sure what they could do, however, I know they don't want to have a negative review on any of their products.

 

[Drunner97]

Your first problem was not draining the water. I watched 3 guys (I was the only one with a fridge) with cheaper (not yeti, rtic, dometic) coolers make it 3 1/2 days of ice on the Mojave Road. They drained their water every morning and still had ice on the last day of driving out.

 

[Runn4est]

Your first problem was not draining the water. I watched 3 guys (I was the only one with a fridge) with cheaper (not yeti, rtic, dometic) coolers make it 3 1/2 days of ice on the Mojave Road. They drained their water every morning and still had ice on the last day of driving out.

Directly from YETI: "Once your cooler is in use, we recommend that you do not empty the cold water. The water in your cooler will be almost as cold as the ice and will help insulate the remaining ice. However, it is advised to keep food and meat out of the water."

There are a lot of things that go into keeping the ice. I try to make sure I leave my cooler in my basement the day before I use it, so it is at a cooler temp than my garage. I also refrigerate or freeze all the food/drink that I can prior to stocking it into the cooler. I've never used a dometic, just stating what I have done successfully with my YETI.

 

[Drunner97]

Directly from YETI: "Once your cooler is in use, we recommend that you do not empty the cold water. The water in your cooler will be almost as cold as the ice and will help insulate the remaining ice. However, it is advised to keep food and meat out of the water."

There are a lot of things that go into keeping the ice. I try to make sure I leave my cooler in my basement the day before I use it, so it is at a cooler temp than my garage. I also refrigerate or freeze all the food/drink that I can prior to stocking it into the cooler. I've never used a dometic, just stating what I have done successfully with my YETI.

To each their own. I'm telling you what I've witnessed. We do multi day (3-5 day) trips 3-4 times a year, typically where getting ice is not an option, and draining the water out has kept ice in the coolers until the end of the trip. Forgot to mention there are usually frozen water bottles as well that still contain ice.

I run a fridge because I don't want to deal with ice. Maybe it's time to step up to one instead of trying to call out [MENTION=212966]Dometic[/MENTION] . If your yeti was so great I don't quite understand why you even got a dometic to begin with.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[Runn4est]

To each their own. I'm telling you what I've witnessed. We do multi day (3-5 day) trips 3-4 times a year, typically where getting ice is not an option, and draining the water out has kept ice in the coolers until the end of the trip. Forgot to mention there are usually frozen water bottles as well that still contain ice.

I run a fridge because I don't want to deal with ice. Maybe it's time to step up to one instead of trying to call out [MENTION=212966]Dometic[/MENTION] . If your yeti was so great I don't quite understand why you even got a dometic to begin with.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

I'm not the OP, I still have and use a YETI. I would prefer a fridge, but this cooler was a gift from work so I'll take it for now until a fridge is in the budget.

I'm just providing my personal experience in keeping ice in a cooler. My assumption is that many practices can transcend across brands...

 

[Drunner97]

I'm not the OP, I still have and use a YETI. I would prefer a fridge, but this cooler was a gift from work so I'll take it for now until a fridge is in the budget.

I'm just providing my personal experience in keeping ice in a cooler. My assumption is that many practices can transcend across brands...

My bad. Didn't look if you were OP or not.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

[Bootleg]

To each their own. I'm telling you what I've witnessed. We do multi day (3-5 day) trips 3-4 times a year, typically where getting ice is not an option, and draining the water out has kept ice in the coolers until the end of the trip. Forgot to mention there are usually frozen water bottles as well that still contain ice.

I run a fridge because I don't want to deal with ice. Maybe it's time to step up to one instead of trying to call out [MENTION=212966]Dometic[/MENTION] . If your yeti was so great I don't quite understand why you even got a dometic to begin with.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

I'll also add that the Dometic cooler came with the same instructions not to drain the water that were referred to Runn4est. I tend to think that a manufacturer knows the best practices for using their products since they designed and tested them.

As for "stepping up" to a fridge, I'd love to but it's not in the budget. I stated that earlier in the thread. I also stated why I went with Dometic instead of another brand.

 

[ADK Explorer]

I bought this from Walmart for 100 bucks. It kept my food cold and frozen for 5 days. (Prefroze all meat.) I used frozen water bottles.

 

[4runr4eva]

Quick update:

I asked the seller about the restocking fee and the shipping cost and they were really easy to deal with. They're waving the restocking fee and reimbursing the shipping costs once I provide a receipt.



I really want to just bite the bullet and get a fridge but it's not in the budget right now. We have a bunch of summer camps to pay for and lemme tell ya, they aren't cheap. But, buy once,cry once.

Glad to hear they are not gouging you. I heard if you wrap some dry ice in newspaper and place it on top it will maximize the ice retention of any cooler. Worth a try. Some people say pack the whole cooler with dry ice and the only byproduct is CO2 not water.

https://www.yeti.com/ice-retention.html

 

[Bootleg]

Some people say pack the whole cooler with dry ice and the only byproduct is CO2 not water.

The problem with dry ice is that it will quickly freeze anything it comes in contact with. Maybe it could work but I don't want frozen beer. :beer:

I use dry ice in a cooler to freeze strawberries, blue berries, cherries, etc. because it freezes so quickly that ice crystals don't have time to form and rupture the cell walls which causes soggy fruit when thawed. If you haven't tried it, you should.

 

[4runr4eva]

The problem with dry ice is that it will quickly freeze anything it comes in contact with. Maybe it could work but I don't want frozen beer. :beer:

I use dry ice in a cooler to freeze strawberries, blue berries, cherries, etc. because it freezes so quickly that ice crystals don't have time to form and rupture the cell walls which causes soggy fruit when thawed. If you haven't tried it, you should.

Hence why you wrap it in newspaper so it doesn't make direct contact with beer or whatever else you don't want frozen. I'll have to try the fruit thing though. Very good idea.

 

["krax"]

-Wrap the dry ice in newspaper.
-Place the blocks on the bottom of the cooler and fill in the voids in between blocks with regular ice.
-Place cardboard on top of that to separate everything from the dry ice.
-Pack food and drinks in the leftover space.
-Top off the cooler with ice.
-Vow to save for a fridge for next trip.

There's a fair amount of prep time involved in maxing out a cooler's capability (pre-cool, drive to the store for dry ice, etc.) and that's a huge bonus with fridges. Anything that shaves minutes and hours off of the time it takes to pack/prep for a trip is generally worth it.

 

[schnazzdaddy]

Incase you didn't see the sale on the group buy page, Looks like there is a truck fridge sale going on for the 4th.It may put it in your price range being a fridge doesn't need to be as big as a cooler since there is no ice may be able to go down a size and save a little.