Dometic PLB40: The 48-Hour Reserve

We have yet to hear someone who is not concerned about the state of their battery when installing a fridge into their off-road or overland vehicles. While the current generation of fridges are pretty energy efficient, they can still eat into the reserve power of your battery over the course of 48 hours. Most people supplement their energy demand with solar panels or outfitting a second battery. Dometic makes the PLB40, which is a great complement to any onboard fridge.

But what if you are not interested, or unable to modify your vehicle to meet that energy draw? Or what if you want a solution that you can take with you, that frees your fridge from the shackles of its permanent vehicle mount?

Well, Dometic knows that these situations arise, and they have come up with a power pack to free the fridge. Featuring a true 40Ah Lithium-iron battery (yes, lithium IRON), the Dometic PLB40 manages to stuff 48 hours-worth of power into a 14lb. brick. Not only is it lightweight, but it is IP44 dust and water rated, uses standard Andersen connectors, has dual USB, is 12 V DC, and can be through charged from a 12V vehicle outlet and still provide power to everything else. Designed to power the Dometic CFX for a weekend or longer, connecting it to a solar panel will allow you to feed power to the battery to keep you off grid for longer. With a setup like that, you’ll keep your portable fridge cold and all your photography gear and electronic gadgets charged up, too.

Available now, it comes in at a cool $849.99. While it may be a little steep at first take, it is hard to argue that its water and dust-proof ratings, weight/size, warranty and convenience make the price worthwhile.

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