Portable Glacier Freezer Can Whip Up Ice Cubes in 12 Minutes and Keeps Your Food Fresh

I want you to imagine you're out on the road, living the mobile life. You may be tailgating at some game. Hanging out by the pool? Wherever you picture yourself doing human things this summer, if there's one new piece of gear you need to be aware of, it's EcoFlow's Glacier. As for those three settings I enumerated, they're all places where this magic black box can prove indispensable.

Now, you may have heard of EcoFlow several times before. Heck, we've covered their gear extensively, mainly because a lot of it can be used for on-road living. From solar panels to batteries and electric generators powered by the sun, all fall under the EcoFlow umbrella. Even portable and solar-powered AC units are part of their arsenal.

As for the Glacier, it's a piece of equipment that comes as the perfect aid for those who want to live off-grid but don't want to sacrifice their gin-tonics, ice-cold colas, and frosty beers. Simply put, it's a portable fridge, freezer, and even an ice maker. Oh, and the time it takes this thing to whip up a batch of ice cubes is enough to have Dometic, another manufacturer of on-road gear, searching for solutions to match the capabilities of EcoFlow's gear. Ah, the beauty of competition. Time to dive in and see what's in store for outdoor living lovers.

To give you a clear idea of the Glacier's capabilities, let me point out a bit about its design. Dry, this bugger weighs a solid 23 kg (51 lb) and is 30.6 in (77 cm) long, 15.2 in (39 cm) wide, and 17.5 in (44 cm) deep. That's without a set of detachable wheels and a carrying handle. If you missed it: the Glacier can be pulled along like a luggage bag.

With dimensions out of the way, let's explore compartmentalization. At the top of the Glacier, two-thirds of it is reserved for the lid of the fridge/freezer. The remaining third belongs to the icemaker, that segment with a see-through top, and the controls for the whole shebang. Once we lift up the lid, the left is for storing drinks and other goods you want to keep cool, and the right bin is for frozen stuff.

However, that's only if you want things to stay that way. In truth, EcoFlow designed the Glacier to achieve whatever you want it to be. Do you see that partition between the two spaces? It can be taken out, and the entire space can be used either as a fridge or freezer. Best of all, if you choose to use the partition, you can program each side to achieve either freezing or cooling. In all, you'll be working with 38 liters (40 quarts) of space.

As for performance, there are plenty of reasons why this piece of equipment got so many "Likes" at CES. Overall, the Glacier can achieve a performance ranging from –13 Fahrenheit (-25 Celsius) to 50 Fahrenheit (10 Celsius). Oh, and it can operate for up to 40 hours with its plug-in battery. That's in a test setting, so these numbers are sure to drop in the real world, but not by much. Still, "direct solar charging" will refuel this bugger with precious juice in around 125 minutes.

Actually, it won't matter how long the Glacier can operate because one of its power sources is the sun. As long as it's shining, you're good to go, charging this trinket's battery and keeping your food and drinks at safe temperatures for consumption. Other sources of power include AC or DC and any of the power stations EcoFlow offers. If you have a portable battery setup from a different brand, you can still use the Glacier with it.

Finally, we arrive at the one feature that just about everyone said, "What!?" that icemaker. Other icemaking systems built into fridges and freezers do exist, mainly the Dometic CFX3. But, to access that ice, folks are complaining that you have to take some of your goods out as the ice tray is found at the bottom of one of the bins. Since the Glacier's ice maker is at the top, you won't be disrupting the temperatures it worked so hard to achieve inside.

Beyond that, one other strong point for the Glacier is the time it takes to give birth to 18 ice cubes. Just 12 minutes is all EcoFlow says we'll be waiting around before enjoying an ice-cold drink. That's around five batches in an hour. More than enough to keep a party of three to four people tipsy all day.

All that remains now is to find out how much one of these costs and to put it to the test. Regarding pricing, pre-orders seem to be going for a solid $1,000 (€900 at current exchange rates), and once those are up, $1,300 (€1,170) is the baseline. As for testing, keep your eyes on autoevolution social media channels because the weather here is starting to warm up, perfect for kicking back and seeing all that the Glacier has to offer.