Recon Hardside Cooler

This thing is amazing! The optional plastic tray fit perfect inside the cooler on the top. This is the one that comes with the other 2 sizes. Cup holder does not fit this model. It does come with a water spout you can screw on in place of the drain plug or you can also use the included adapter to work with either the new 360 faucet or the old Dometic go faucet. I don't believe the larger 2 models come with this. That old faucet worked, but the button sucked when it got wet. The new 360 model rotates and has a high and low actual button to press to turn on and off. Oh, and finally USBC charging. Old one had crappy old usb micro. The top of the 16L cooler has magnets in multiple places that the faucet will stick to. The 11L you had to use a metal plate that came with adhesive. Long story short, I am replacing my couple year old Dometic go 11l with faucet with this and the 360 faucet. With the addition of the plastic tray, it is also a great cooler. Or you can pack dry items In it for travel and then use it at camp for cold drinking water. 16L is a little over 4 gallons of ice cold water that will stay for days. The latches are nice and it can open from either side. The lid can come completely off if desired. Speaking of the lid, it has a recessed flat, non slip surface that is great for stacking items on for transport or using as a workstation while camping or floating. The lid as well as the cooler have slits for tie down straps and the lid is recessed for the strap as not to effect the stacking capability. The carry straps have nice handles with magnets. They also can be removed with the Velcro on the straps. Either with the straps on or off, these areas can also be used for strapping down. I don't believe the cutting board divider fits this model...only the larger ones. Tote does not fit - only the larger model and it fits them well. The large Recon ice packs fit nicely with 2 in the bottom. The smaller ice packs fit too. What else? Nice non-slip rubber feet. Slick surfaces that should be easy to keep clean-not like the rough surfaces of cheap coolers that hold dirt in. The lid has a nice rubber seal. Ok, that's more detail than I saw anywhere else on the web.

As a guy who has done my fair share of tailgates and camping trips, I've tried more coolers than I can count. This Dometic Recon Cooler is in a league of its own. It's built like a tank – I can toss it in the back of the truck, stack gear on it, and it shrugs it off. The seals are tight, the latches feel solid, and the insulation is no joke. Even in the brutal Mansfield, Texas heat, my drinks stayed ice-cold for a couple of days. There's even a handy drain plug so I'm not flipping the whole thing over in the driveway. Is it cheap? Nope. But quality rarely is. If you want a cooler that works as hard as you do and won't let you down, this is the one.

This thing is a beast. Insulation works magic, looks good and lightweight. You can fit a lot of stuff inside.

The earliest refrigerators had no electricity and no environmentally damaging freon involved. They were, essentially, highly efficient chests in which one would place ice in order to keep their perishables cold. Hence: icebox, an archaic term that still gets a bit of play today. As a concept, the idea was sound. An efficient box. Ice inside. Stuff stays cold. But, imagine: the earliest ice boxes thrown far into the future, into the age of big tech. Same concept. New technologies. What kind of icebox could you build then? It turns out, you don't have to wonder. Dometic has done it with grace and style. Their icebox (and no: they don't call it that) is a thing of beauty. Materials have been thoughtfully injection molded into a form those early icebox designers couldn't have even imagined. The model I have is the 41 litre medium version, in a butter yellow color they call "Glow." The photos I've included show it from both angles in the back of my Lexus 450h. I wanted you to see it this way because, in some ways, that 41 litre is intended to be an on-the-road food prep and serving station. The lid either flips up or comes off (you choose) and the inside is stylishly compartmentalized in a way you can alter and control. The lid itself is designed in such a way as to be a table or a seat. An inner divider doubles as a cutting board. I mean, I don't think 41 liter Dometic Recon Cooler was designed for tailgaiting, but it would rock it, no doubt. What IS it designed for? Anything you want that involves keeping things cold for a long time. Not endlessly, of course. But substantially. And as long as you keep replenishing the ice that has melted, it will do it endlessly. My first test involved tucking a frozen bottle of water in there to see how long it would stay cold in the fiercely hot interior of my Phoenix-in-July garage. After the ice melted, the bottle leaked, which was a gift, as I got to check out the function of the built in drain. (It worked.) I am completely delighted with this fancy high tech icebox. Every detail has been carefully thought of and thought through and you feel it with every use, from the well made handles that make it easy to carry, but tuck away when not in use, to the very stackable design, and even the warm yellow color. All the things. It's everything it should be. And more.

Everything about this cooler is well thought out and engineered. It has a premium feel and look to it. Very well insulated and keep food cold for far longer than basic coolers I have used in the past. Large size with plenty of room to store everything I need for a multi-day camping trip. The lid, hinges and drain valve all feel robust and that they will stand up to many years of use. I've had no issue with leaks and all the seals are tight. While this cooler is on the more expensive side compared to other coolers, you are getting what you pay for.. a very high quality and highly functional cooler with excellent build quality.

I was recently offered this Dometic Recon Cooler to try. I went with the medium-sized 41 liter version in the Silt color so it would match some of my other Dometic products. I'm going to start by saying I'm a fan of Dometic products. I've been using a pair of their 12v fridge/freezers for OVER ten years without any issues. Over the last several years, Dometic has moved into offering items for the off-grid camping crowd. This Recon Cooler is part of that product line. This thing is built. It's big, heavy-ish and strong. No problem using this cooler as a seat or table. The majority of the top surface has a non-slip rubber work area. The bottom has well-attached, robust rubber feet. Features I really like are the handles that fold flat into the sides when not in use. The handles are not spring loaded so they won't snap back on your fingers or anything. The included divider doubles as a cutting board. There's a clear plastic tray that's perfect for protecting a loaf of bread. If you've ever pulled a sopping wet bag of bread out of a cooler before, you'll appreciate this feature. The latch system is awesome. The latches are easy to disengage/engage and double as hinges depending on which side you decide to open from. I like them a lot better than the rubber hook clasps that some other coolers use. The advertising says the latches can be used as bottle openers, but I wasn't able to figure out how to use them for that. The drain port is easy to unscrew and open. The magnetic feature for keeping the plug at hand is really clever. The cooler includes a couple special accessory ports that accept branded accessories such as cup holders (not included). The cooler worked well at keeping my test load cold for well over a day. Draining the Recon afterwards was simple. The Silt color closely matches the look and style of my old Dometic CFX-28 fridge/freezer (see photos.) I'm pretty happy with the Recon. It's a worthy addition to my travel, camping and picnic collection without having to worry about having 12v available all the time. I considered taking a star off for the mystery bottle opener feature, but everything else about the Recon is five star.

I am definitely a cooler snob. I own a number of big name (think Big Foot) coolers. One with wheels and one large soft cooler with a magnet closure. I also used to own a larger cooler from them that I lost in a divorce. I wasn’t that sad about it because it was so heavy before filling and it was darn near impossible to move after. I was super excited to get to try this new entry, the Recon cooler, from Dometic because they are known to make great things and they are sold as being a much lighter alternative to the current injection molded coolers so many are making these days. If you are like me and aren’t that familiar with Dometic, don’t let that dissuade you. This is a well established brand in the outdoor space. They cater to the RV community and are well known for their high end refrigerated coolers. They decided to go after the more established cooler brands by making a more versatile lighter weight cooler that would become part of a stackable system. They definitely added some big improvements with this cooler. It gives you more storage at the same size and weight than its competitors. The top can open from either side or be removed completely. It comes with a divider and a storage basket. The drain cap is magnetized so it sticks to the cooler so it doesn’t get lost. It has built in bottle openers. It has spots to tie down and lock it up. Dometic has thought of everything here. The other win is the soft rubber top which is slightly sunken in and is designed to allow you to stack other coolers or gear on top without moving. All genius as far as I am concerned. I haven’t had a chance to pack this up for a roadtrip yet but I will update when I do. However, it appears to keep things icy cold for the first day I had it in use and Dometic claims it will keep ice for 8 days. More than I will ever need. Dometic also makes a bunch of very cool accessories. You can easily turn this into a water station for instance with their water spout attachment. $425 isn’t cheap by any means but it is basically the same price as the aforementioned brand and gives you a whole lot more. I am very excited to have this cooler in my outdoor arsenal. I strongly recommend this cooler and will update with my future adventures.

Well-built cooler. I like the color and robust construction. It is a premium cooler priced like a refrigerator. Good for an off-roading truck accessory, where it's better to look good than feel good. So far, the cooler seems to be keeping things cool as long as I need. I've not done a time duration comparison test with a comparable cooler to date, but once I do, I'll update this review accordingly.