Aussies have long touted the benefits of going to the beach or picnic, carrying an Esky.
And we love camping and trekking with its powered counterpart, such as the Engel, Bushman or Waeco fridge/freezers.
Now a new name has entered the Camping Fridge/Freezer fray: EcoFlow.
Yes, we know them from their power station prowess.
We have reviewed several of their products on DRN, like the River2 here.
The EcoFlow Glacier does fit in their line-up of battery-focused products: it comes with a rechargeable battery as an option!
That makes the Glacier independent of your vehicle to keep contents cool or frosty.
Ideal for refreshment on the beach!
Furthermore, the Glacier has an in-built icemaker! More on that later.
Lastly: what an amazingly cool looking esky! Great design and sturdy.
And fully transportable with wheels and handle.
Let’s Look Again at the Features
1. Ice Maker
This is the first outstanding feature, distinguishing the Glacier from any competition.
It can produce 18 ice “blocks” (actually round ones) in 12 minutes.
How cool is that?
2. Powering the Glacier in 5 Ways
One of the many ways is from the internal battery – another outstanding feature.
Plus, you have a choice of external power stations.
The normal 240V AC and DC 12V/24V inputs are there, as is solar.
These various options are handy when out and about.
3. Fridge or Freezer or Both?
Normally, most camping offerings have a fridge and a smaller freezer compartment.
That’s it.
But what if you just want to tout only drinks to your gathering?
Or you need to transport only frozen stuff?
Well, with the Glacier you have that option.
There’s an insulated divider between the compartments that you can lift up, and neatly tuck away into the lid.
Automatically, the unit recognises and applies one temperature to the whole 38 litre compartment.
You have to set it to the desired freezing or cooling temperature, of course.
4. Transportation
The Glacier is big and heavy. 23kg. The battery adds another 1.9kg .
Load it up with 60 cans of drinks and it is a beast to move.
You need 2 persons to be able to lift and carry it.
Hence, the wheels and handle.
Even so, trudging through beach sand is not easy.
Btw, the wheels and handle are normally an optional extra but included in the purchase price in Australia.
The dimensions of the Glacier are 776 x 385 x 445mm.
That’s quite large, given its modest 38 litre capacity.
This is of course due to the ice maker and battery compartments.
It you have it in a permanent place, you can dismantle the wheels and carry handles.
5. The App
EcoFlow has a very well-designed app for all its products.
It’s not really necessary for the operations of the Glacier but it’s nice to remotely check on and operate the unit through the app.
Let’s Check out the Battery in Detail
The battery is an optional feature.
And at $399 that’s probably a good thing.
I’m glad I got to experience the benefits of going “cordless”.
When your vehicle is stationary or you are away from any power source, the battery will keep your Glacier fridge contents at the right temperature for up to 40 hours.
Less when things need to be frozen.
A thoughtful feature is that this battery has a USB-C port to charge it, and you can plug in your mobile devices to recharge those.
Whilst it is an option, you need to consider that this battery is needed if you want to make ice while running on a car battery.
The same applies to run the Glacier on solar. The solar panels will only charge the battery and cannot directly run the Glacier.
Installation
After hooking up the Glacier to AC power and letting the app automatically discover the new unit, there were 2 firmware upgrades suggested.
The app makes it very easy.
I set the temps for the dual zones at +4 and -18.
Within half an hour the unit came up with the magic numbers.
However, my trusty wireless thermometer indicated the freezer only being down to -7 degrees.
It also didn’t feel like minus 18.
My FLIR unit also confirmed this.
So, let’s wait some more.
After about 2 hours on mains power the freezer compartment finally got down to about minus 17.
Close enough but a bit slower than advertised on the display.
EcoFlow states that the Glacier can cool down faster than the competition. From 30 degrees down to zero in 15 minutes.
That’s about right, but the journey down to the proper freezing level takes a lot longer…
More Testing
I unplugged the unit overnight to see how good the insulation works.
After 7 hours the compartments had room temperatures again.
Granted, I expect the result would be better if it had been filled with food or drinks so we’ll test that too to see how much of a power outage it can sustain before defrosting.
Next, I decided to plug it into AC port of the EcoFlow River2 power station.
How long did it take to reach the set temps and how long can the River2 keep the unit powered?
Well, it said that it had reached the set temps within half an hour but in actuality my thermometers showed the freezer temp at only -7.6 degrees.
Again, it did take quite a bit longer to reach -17.
Then I used the DC port to cool it down from room temperature.
Basically, the same results: within an hour all the temps were where they needed to be and about 9 hours later the River2 had stopped streaming electrons…
A reasonable result.
BTW, it’s curious to note that the AC outlet on the River2 is inverted.
That makes plugging in a Watt meter very awkward: the unit must be tilted to accommodate the meter, and the display is upside down…
Not designed by an Aussie, I think.
The River2 is rated at 256Wh Capacity (20Ah) and is slightly cheaper than the internal battery for the Glacier. It’s an alternative for the higher rated (298Wh) bespoke battery.
Testing the Internal Battery
EcoFlow claims that with the internal battery you can run the Glacier for up to 40 hours for fridge goods.
How does it work out in real life?
The EcoFlow battery arrived separately a few weeks later and ready to be tested straightaway.
It had 28% battery charge when it came, which was enough to cool the fridge and freezer compartments down from room temp to the set values and keep it so for several hours.
Next was a more proper testing of the battery by charging it via AC whilst inserted in the Glacier.
Charging was at a rate of 190W and took 2.5 hours to complete.
The Glacier started to cool down quickly.
You can see that the Glacier indicates different temps (and much lower!) than my thermometers.
It started out also about 5 degrees lower than the room temp.
At the 1-hour mark, the temps were sufficiently low but not yet the real set values.
The battery charge had reached 41% by now.
The battery reached 100% after 2.5 hours with the temps in the happy zone.
How many hours would the battery be able to keep the (empty) fridge going in dual zone?
I calculated it would be around 13 hours in normal mode (I switched over to Eco mode for the last 20%)
So, we tested it, and the result was about 16 hours.
Not bad. In full Eco mode it would be a bit longer for the dual zones.
How long would the Glacier be able to keep the temps within 5 degrees of the ideal temps after the battery has run out?
In other words: how long before the goods would start spoiling?
Well, after 24 hours the battery was down to 1% and the temps were up a few degrees to the point I needed to switch power back on.
So, in essence, with the battery you can sustain an outage of about 24 hours.
Not bad.
Ice Making
Making ice “cubes” (rounds) is very simple.
Open the compartment, fill with potable water, up to the min or max levels indicated.
Press the Make Ice button on the unit or on the App and 18 minutes later you’ll have ice rounds for your drinks.
Repeat when you need more, it’ll go a bit faster for subsequent rounds.
And you can select big ones or smaller rounds.
Noise levels when making ice are slightly elevated: 55dB versus normal noise levels around 40dB, measured from 1m distance.
When all done, make sure you drain the remaining water.
This is a fiddly job as the big wheels are in the way and the little cover doesn’t hinge back far enough.
Glacial Problems for the Glacier
The EcoFlow Glacier has been out now for a while, initially lauded for all the innovative features.
Then, a niggling problem arose which often “bricked” the unit into a solid frozen block.
The cause? A thermistor, that regulates the temperature, fails.
And because it is not user-replaceable, that whole big unit needs to be sent back…
An item that costs less than a buck had been creating a big headache for EcoFlow.
Of course, they’ll do the right thing and send you another one.
And these days, that will be one of the newer series where the factory has put in a higher quality thermistor.
I was not so lucky, but hey, we are a test and review site here at DRN.
So, we don’t mind as much if things go awry, and we can test how well the customer service works.
On the other hand, reporting on this doesn’t bring us joy.
Here we have a great product that should have a useful life expectancy of at least 5 years, if not 10.
If you do your research, you might find reviews that have a mixture of good experiences with the Glacier but also quite a few folks that had to return the unit because of the thermistor failing.
I’m told that the current batch sold to customers have the thermistor issue fixed.
So, the previous problem should not be a concern any longer.
Preliminary Conclusion
I love the design and the practicality of the EcoFlow Glacier.
It has an awesome presence and would be the envy of party goers at the beach.
And I love the App that serves all the EcoFlow units.
Well designed, great functionality and graphic appeal.
At the RRP of AUD1299 it’s an investment that should last many years.
The Glacier is designed for outback trekking and camping trips and other outdoor activities.
It will be an awesome product in that environment.
Another usage for the Glacier, for when it is not used on the road, could be when power outages hit at home.
With the many ways of charging the unit, you can transfer the most essential or valuable goods, like meat or dairy, to the Glacier.
If you also have a power station, you’ll be good for much longer.
Do your own research and find out if the Glacier is what you need/want.
A helpful resource is also the EcoFlow Community Forum
Warranty is 1 year or 2 years with registration.
Given the previous issues with the Glacier, I feel the warranty should be extended for at least another year to improve customer confidence.
After all, the EcoFlow River2 carries a 5 year warranty…
We thank EcoFlow for providing this innovative unit.
