Koolatron Compact Kooler
by Koolatron
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List Price: Our Price: $94.00 You Save: $5.99 (6%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $69.00 (click here) Category: Major Appliances See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Koolatron Compact Kooler
Customer Review: Cooler
Summary: 5 Stars
Love this product it is my second one.The first lasted several years and I used it almost daily.Would recomend this to anyone.Customer Review: great product
Summary: 5 Stars
Works just like it said it would. other reviews helped me choose this over a different one. ThanksCustomer Review: Koolatron Compact Kooler P 20
Summary: 4 Stars
I ordered, as a package, both the P20 Cooler, along with the Koolatron Muti-Purpose Adapter 110VAC to 12VDC, March 10, 1907 I checked to see both item were in stock, both were.
The Cooler arrived promptly on March 16, 2007. However, the 110VAC Adapter was back-ordered. With the Adapter on back-order, there was no way to check the Cooler's function. There was no way to pre-cool the unit, since the recommended time was about 12 hours, and it is not to be powered by vehicle battery for longer than 4 hours without the engine running. Furthermore there was no way to keep the contents cool at night while in the motel room, unless one wanted to let the engine run all night. So for the first 2 months the Cooler was useless!
The Adapter finally arrived on May 10, 2007, a full two months after the original order was placed. (This slow delivery is the reason for the 4-stars.) With the Adapter it was finally possible to test out the unit.
The unit was completely empty, outside air temp. was about 80 degrees. I was impressed by the cool-down time; a little over an hour to reach 40 degrees. Certainly the unit was not pre-cooled enough to fill with food, but the fact that it reached 40 degrees so quickly was encouraging. The adapter is somewhat cumbersome, but is easy enough to use and connect.
I have used the unit on several trips and have found it quite adequate, provided items are cold when they are introduced to it. Warm items take forever to cool down; twelve hours is not usually long enough. While the product may be cool-er it certainly is not cold. Extra frozen ice packs and/or freezer containers filled with frozen water help a great deal. They add extra cold air to the inside of the unit while frozen. Even thawed, they are still maintained at about 40 degrees. They fill up empty space within the unit, a REAL Killer: Each time the unit opens any empty space fills with warm air. This unit, being a top-loader, is a little better than others that are front-loaders. Since cold air tends to sink, more cold air stays in the unit when opened. Front-loaders spill ALL their cold air as soon as the door opens.
The unit is well constructed, and seems to perform quite well within its design capabilities. A few things to remember:
1. The unit is a COLD PRESERVER, NOT a REFRIGERATOR. Put it in cold it will come out warmer but still cold. Put in warm? Well, let's hope it is canned when you put it in.
2. The unit is a small heat-pump, (removing heat from the air to cool the inside of the unit) and it will do just that no matter what the outside air temp. is. This unit cools to 40 degree below the outside air temp. and if it is 32 degrees outside, it will cool to 40 degree BELOW that.
There is no thermostatic control, while it is plugged in, it is cooling.
The unit is insulated, but not real well, so it does no better job keeping cold out, than it does keeping it in. Water still freezes at 32 degrees, F. Transporting the filled unit in a trunk or other unheated space, in cold weather, is not the best idea. If you do, a least unplug it! If you are transporting medication which must be refrigerated, but not frozen, keep the unit in a heated area, so the unit can cool properly.
3. A small indoor/outdoor thermometer is a great idea. They are reasonable in price. They allow you to monitor both inside and outside temp. without opening the lid. Small units can be mounted outside on the top or side with double-stick tape, with the outdoor sensor inside. Ideally this would have been installed by the manufacturer, but it is a simple fix.
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: Great Compact Cooler
Summary: 4 Stars
Before a recent road trip we decided to invest in a portable fridge/cooler, which we could use to help us save money on buying milk and other items for our 2 year old. After researching a number of coolers I decided to go with the Koolatron Compact Cooler based on the other reviews.
Before embarking on our trip, I pre-cooled the cooler as instructed in the owner's manual. One thing to keep in mind is that the cooler does NOT come with an adapter, which will allow you to cool the unit outside of a vehicle. I purchased the 5 Amp AC to 12V DC Power Adapter and had great success pre-cooling the cooler. The adapter never got really hot even after over 12 hours of being plugged in.
I filled the cooler to the max and plugged it in our car. Our road trip lasted over 12 hours and all the items in the cooler remained icy cold. On the trip back home the cooler was empty, so I didn't pre-cool the cooler. However, after making a few stops I had a few items to put in the cooler. After having the cooler plugged in the car for a few hours, without pre-cooling, I felt that the items kept cool enough and eventually became icy cold.
The bottom line here is that you probably want to pre-cool the cooler ahead of time, but if you have something already cold you can get away without having to pre-cool. If you are throwing in some items like cans of soda, which are room temperature you definitely want to pre-cool.
I only had two minor issues with the cooler, which prevented me from awarding it with 5 stars.
1. As previously mentioned, the cooler does not come with an adapter (AC), which will allow you to power the unit outside of a vehicle. The owner's manual specifically mentions that you should pre-cool the unit, but if you were to buy the cooler before reading reviews you would not know this bit of information ahead of time. I think Koolatron would be better off increasing the price of the cooler and including the adapter, since most people are going to need to buy this accessory.
2. The fridge is somewhat noisy or at least the fan is anyway. When you are riding in a car the sound is somewhat negligible, but if you are staying in a hotel overnight the sound of the fan spinning may keep you up. I was able to get around this by plugging in the fridge inside the bathroom and closing the door, which muffled the noise to the point where it was not noticeable.
Despite the two minor issues I mentioned, I am very happy with the purchase and I would make the same decision if I had to do it all over again.