Decided to take a chance on this model despite the negative reviews for it. The size was perfect for our use... road trip with a 1.5 year old. It easily stored a gallon of milk, yogurt packs, orange juice, cheese, grapes, snacks, etc. Bought with the AC adapter to provide cooling at night while we stayed in hotels. Worked great as expected, though the construction seemed to be a little flimsy and cheap.On the 4th or 5th day of use the cooler stopped working consistently. Didn't work when plugged into one of our car power ports. Plugged it into another one, and it started working again. Got to the hotel that night, and plugged it into the AC adapter. Again, it just didn't work, though the adapter was indeed supplying power.
I'm not quite sure if our issue was the fan (which seems to be a common problem) or the power plug; despite the cause, this became an extremely expensive non-powered cooler much sooner than I'd expected. Returned to Amazon for a refund, and I'll likely steer away from this brand in the future.
Another issue: if you use the AC adapter, the DC plug which connects to the AC adapter get extremely hot! I actually burned myself on my arm after unplugging it. It's altogether possible that the heat from the AC adapter might have damaged the DC car plug of the cooler, causing the little spring-loaded center pin to not engage fully in a power port. Whatever the case, this is just poor and potentially unsafe design.
Unplugged each night and back in each morning, no problems. When we got into the "hot South" it had a hard time staying below the ambient temp when we were in and out of the car too much. Do you folks East of Kearney NE know that we don't have HUMIDITY out West? Don't know how you all do it! As pioneers, they must have just given up, thinking it would never get better than where they were. So sad. Now don't ya'll move West all at once. This country might tilt further left more than it has this past year or so!
We purchased the A/C adapter and kept the 'fridge' in our destination hotel perfectly. We were quite the sight moving into the Westin for the week.
It was so nice to have a cold drink without the mess of melting ice. Fits nicely on the backseat of the Denali within easy reach of our 6 yr old 'keeper of the treats'. Wouldn't travel far without this again.
BTW I like how it can be a chest or a fridge with the shelf turned. Great feature!
Happy travels...
Buy Koolatron P75 36-Quart Kool Kaddy Electric Cooler/Warmer, Light Grey Now
Bought with Koolatron AC converter. It worked great for one day. The little fan died and it turned into a very expensive ice chest. Bought through Amazon so return was as good as it gets. The fan is about the size you get with a computer only in my case with a very short life. Seems to me this is a common problem with these thermo-units. If only they would spend a few more bucks and install a reliable fan instead of the cheap, feeble fan which is the heart of this design. I like the concept of not having to rely on ice so I will try another koolatron Model-bought through Amazon just in case....Read Best Reviews of Koolatron P75 36-Quart Kool Kaddy Electric Cooler/Warmer, Light Grey Here
Beware of Koolatron 12v refridgerators. Many do not have thermostats. They stay on continuously once plugged in and will quickly discharge your car battery. In cool weather you may wake to find your groceries frozen, and your battery dead. In warm weather you may wake to find nice cold milk, and your battery dead.I am an over-the-road trucker. I speak from experience. If you need a 12v fridge for any kind of overnight use in your car, boat or what have you, make sure it has a thermostat. Alternatively, unplug your fridge at night and cover it with lots of additional insulation. Blankets work. Your milk might not be cold for your morning cereal, but it probably won't be bad, and neither will your battery.
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I bought this for a long trip including camping at Yellowstone as a replacement for your typical coleman cooler which run roughly 50 quarts.Bottom line, it works well but it's too small and smaller than it appears.
The effect size is really small on this unit due to the obvious need to leave some space around the interior fan for air movement. I measure the actual effective capacity as 25 quarts.
Even allowing for ice in a basic 50Q cooler the 25 quart net capacity is much smaller and much too small.
In addition, the top few inches of the cooler will heat up rapidly if you have to leave the cooler unplugged overnight.
I found the fan to be very quiet we didn't have anything touching it obviously.
The unit cools extremely well. Any moisture on the bottom of the cooler will freeze if there is air movement.
We accidentally plugged the heat/cool plug in upside down and warmed everything up rather rapidly. I used a magic marker when we got home to color the black on black arrow silver to help prevent this mistake in the future and held a second family training session ...
We used the following inside ac/dc adapter and were extremely happy with it:
Black & Decker / Vector Travel Mate 6.0 Amp AC/DC Converter (purchased on Amazon).
I would recommend one of the larger Koolatron units and we will be purchasing a replacement for next time:
Koolatron Krusader Cooler not currently available on amazon but this appears to be the product we should have bought.
Koolatron P95 available on amazon and I didn't buy it because the additional capacity is all in the lid area (it's small lower part with a different lid) but since that's the part that heats up quickly I'd put a piece of cardboard/plastic/Baltic birch as a divider and put something I don't really care about pop or bread products as a filler on top of it.
One final comment on this unit. I found the lid really annoying. It wouldn't stay open readily. I eventually drilled a new hole for the lid strap to give it more scope so it would stay open better and now that we are home again I'm going to move it again so the lid opens even further.
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