Anker is pushing portability limits with the launch of its giant 58-liter Solix EverFrost 2 dual-zone refrigerator / freezer. It’s portable because it has wheels, a handle, and slots for two batteries. But this thing weighs 64 pounds (29kg) empty and quickly reached 120 pounds when I filled my review unit with drinks and food. It can be recharged from a standard wall socket, 12V car socket, USB-C charger, and from up to 100W of solar from a traditional panel or Anker’s new beach umbrella. 

The 58L (about 61 quarts) model I’ve been testing has far greater capacity than the largest solar fridges I’ve reviewed from EcoFlow (38L) and Bluetti (40L) — both of which allocate precious space to integrated ice makers. As an avid vanlifer and cocktail enthusiast, I’m definitely tempted by the idea of making ice on the road. I never do it, though, because water and electricity are just too valuable when venturing away from civilization. I’d rather bring a fridge that stuffs as much usable capacity into the smallest footprint possible. 

Unfortunately, that’s not what Anker has done.

Instead, Anker allocated that space to two large fan housings in each lid. It’s all part o …

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Teenage Engineering is a design firm as much as it is a musical instrument company. Its devices rarely look or behave anything like what you’d buy from a Korg or a Moog. The best distillation of its identity remains the OP-1, a quirky groovebox that garnered as much attention for its aesthetics as its all-in-one music production features. Effects are accompanied by nonsensical graphics, like a mechanized cow, and it basically forces you to commit to a musical idea by using a virtual “tape” with intentionally limited editing capabilities. 

But all of Teenage Engineering’s instruments are a bit odd and often polarizing in their own way. The OP-Z is a surprisingly capable sequencer, but its screen-free design and array of icons are bewildering. The Game & Watch-inspired Pocket Operators are extremely simple but are basically disposable toys. And the $1,999 OP-1 Field is its own thing entirely, eschewing MIDI sequencing in favor of live recording. 

The company’s latest portable instrument, the $2,299 OP-XY, represents something of a greatest hits tour for Teenage Engineering. It’s a sequencer, like the OP-Z, but it also has the performance-forward live effects of the Poc …

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Access to water is always a concern when heading off the grid in my van — not when I’m home in Amsterdam, a city surrounded by the stuff. That certainty changed recently when government ministers began quietly prodding citizens to stock up on emergency supplies due to an increased risk of armed conflict and other regional unpleasantries. 

One recommendation, of many, is to have three liters (almost one gallon) of water per person per day on hand, or 15 liters per day for my five-person household. That means 105 liters for just one week or 450 liters each month! I don’t have space for that. Who does?

So, I started thinking: why not augment my emergency freshwater stores with a filtration and purification kit that can adapt to all the water sources around me? And since I’m a budding vanlifer and chronic adventurer, let’s make it portable so I can take it anywhere.

I came up with this as a first-time prepper: pairing quick-connect water filters like the $42 LifeStraw sold by Camelbak with Dometic’s portable 11-liter Go water jug ($69.99) and its rechargeable Go Hydration Water Faucet ($99.99). Dirty water goes in and clean water comes out with a double-tap on the fauce …

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