Can you finally bring a fridge to your next camping adventure? That’s the hope behind the Anywhere Fridge, a portable outdoor fridge that uses solar power to keep your food and beverages cold.
While it looks nothing more than a metal ice chest, the appliance comes with removable solar panels at the top that feed power to a battery module inside the machine. There’s no mention of how much electricity the setup can actually generate, but I guess they’re hoping it’s plentiful enough to power the compressor during daylight while trickling enough juice the battery’s way to keep the thing running at night. Will this actually work? I have no idea, but it will be glorious if it does.
The Anywhere Fridge comes in two sizes (80 and 30 quarts), both styled like a conventional freezer that opens from the top (which should help it retain cold air even when opened, saving the compressor from doing extra work). It comes with an easy-to-use control panel that lets you adjust temperature between -8 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit, allowing it serve as either a freezer, a fridge, or even a food warmer. While designed to draw power from the sun, it can also be charged via a regular power outlet, as well as from a car’s cigarette lighter port.
Construction is aircraft-grade aluminum for durability, with a retractable handle and a pair of small wheels facilitating easy transport (you just drag it like a trolley). It’s weather-proof, too, so you can leave it in the backyard as a personal outdoor fridge that chills your beer free of charge (take that, beer-burying eCool). When the container is empty, the entire thing can be collapsed into a flat-packed frame measuring just 5 inches thick.
An Indiegogo campaign is currently running for Anywhere Fridge. Pledges to reserve a unit starts at $199.