Koolatron Compact Kooler
by Koolatron
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List Price: Our Price: $90.75 You Save: $9.24 (9%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $74.99 (click here) Category: Major Appliances See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Koolatron Compact Kooler
Customer Review: Useful to keep drinks and food cool while traveling
Summary: 4 Stars
We bought the Koolatron Kooler a year ago and find it very useful to keep food and drinks cool while traveling.
To use this effectively both the cooler and the items to be placed in it should be cool to begin with. The empty unit will cool about 10 degrees an hour to about 40 degrees lower than the ambient temperature around it, and maintain it's pre-cooled contents at that temperature as long as it powered on. Warm items placed in a warm cooler take much longer to cool, (the manual says up to 12 hours or longer).
We purchased the optional AC power adapter, so the night before we leave on a trip we plug the unit in and pre-cool it. The morning we are leaving we load it with a few soda and water bottles that have been cooled in the refrigerator. We also put in 2-4 plastic food containers that have been chilled in the refrigerator. One or more of those we fill with ice. The more space that is filled with cool/cold items the better the cooling process for everything else (less infiltration of warm air every time the unit is opened, less warm air to cool).
On our trip we then have cool soda and water to drink, and ice to use with the soda in a cup kept in the cup holder. If we add a room temperature soda or bottle of water the presence of the other cool/cold items filling the rest of the unit together with the action of the unit will cool that within an hour or two.
The plastic boxes are mostly for use with "doggie bag" contents from restaurant meals. Assuming an ambient temperature around the unit of 75 degrees, if the other contents were already cooled to the 35 degree temperature produced by the 40 degree cooling capacity of the unit, a room temperature container of food will be below 45-50 degrees within a couple of hours . We usually have dinner left overs for lunch the next day, certainly within two days.
The unit fits nicely in our sedan behind the drivers seat (assuming there is no passenger in the back seat that needs that leg room) and is easily reached from the front passenger seat over the console between the bucket seats.
At night we take the unit into our motel room and plug it in with the optional AC power adapter. The unit cannot be left plugged in to the cigarette lighter in the car for more than 4 hours or it will run the car battery down.
There is an optional battery saver adapter that will shut off the unit if it overtaxes the car battery. (Buying that is the reason I have returned to this item on Amazon a year later.) That will allow us to leave the unit plugged in when we leave the car for an indeterminant period of time that could be more than 3-4 hours. But after 4 hours or so the unit will shut off to protect the car battery and the contents will start to warm. So, if it is in a warm place we still can't be gone much longer than 4-5 hours if we want to keep food edible.
Finally, I keep an ordinary indoor/outdoor thermometer in the unit so that I can tell what the temperature in the unit is and am comfortable that food has not been subjected to temperatures that would make it unsafe to eat. (I think the manufacturer should build that in to the unit.)
Customer Review: Works great
Summary: 4 Stars
Fit perfectly behind the front seat of our Cadillac. Cooler did an excellent job of working for our 3 week vacation. Our only disappointment was the directions not specifying that the blue and red dots on the plugs lining up with the arrow decides whether the cooler runs cold or hot. Also, make sure your food is already hot or cold, and the cooler has been running for at least 30 minutes, before placing in cooler.Customer Review: Works great but noisey
Summary: 4 Stars
There's an outside fan and an inside condenser fan. The inner fan is like a squeeky wheel that can get on your nerves. I think there may be a problem with mine as I can't imagine that it should make that much noise. Other than that, it works great and is very portable.Customer Review: Works great but with design flaw
Summary: 4 Stars
My husband and I are over-the-road truck drivers. We keep this cooler in the top bunk which is the hottest part of the truck yet it still does a great job of keeping things cool. The size is perfect for 1/2 gallon cartons or cans of pop stacked two high. My only gripe is a design flaw which does not protect the fan. There is no reinforcement around the fan (such as styrofoam as in our other cooler) so if something happens to fall against the fan side of the unit, the fan is prevented from spinning thus burning up the motor. Even holding onto on the fan side in order to move the cooler is enough to stop the fan from turning. Other than that, we are very happy with it.Customer Review: Works well
Summary: 4 Stars
I use this for keeping my coffee warm while on the road. I will usually get 3 large containers and keep 2 in the cooler using the heat to keep them hot.
I noticed that the containers are wet along with the holders I put inside to hold the containers in place. Not sure why it does this but it does keep the coffee hot for several hours even if you unplug it after a half hour.
Other than the moister it works like I wanted.