KoolatronPortable Cooler - Electric Lunch Cooler for Car, Camping, Travel, 12 V Insulated Hard Sided Refrigerator for Vehicle, Boat, Truck, Warming & Cooling, Cools Drinks,Food for Road Trip, 45 qt

My hubby is an OTR truck driver and needed something to keep lunch meat, mayo, yogurt, egg-whites, butter, fruit, and leftovers cold. I bought this for him as a stop-gap measure to the mini-frig we will get for him once he settles into his new career. This works well but, you have to keep an eye on the external temps for optimum results. It keeps things cool only to about 40 degrees below ambient temperature. At times the truck can reach 110-120 degrees inside in the summer, so that would bring the cooler's internal temp down to around 70-80, far too hot for many refrigerated items.So, we place an giant cup of ice inside the cooler close to the fan to help with cooling, refreshing the ice cup about once a day from the ice station at any truck-stop. We also have some of those gel packs made for coolers that we freeze at home/motel and we keep them in the cooler next to the walls. Even when these have thawed gel packs stay very cold and help greatly with keeping that internal temp way down. We also try to fill it up when the cooler has cooled down (takes about an hour) and then we fill it with stuff that's already cold. When adding warm items such as soft drinks I try to do only 4 or 5 drinks at a time, and then I try to put warm things in it only at night so it doesn't put more strain on the cooler.This may seem a lot of work but it really takes only a couple of minutes a day and the end result is that it stays ice cold and we have never had an issue with spoiled food. I doubt he'll have to do this during the winter months.He and I love this cooler, as it beats buying ice (he gets ice for free when reusing the cup purchased from the truck-stop) every day, and worrying about dealing with a lot of water. Recommend for cross-country trips, camping, RV's, and truckers.

After owning 2 Coleman full sized 12v coolers in the past, I figured I'd try this unit to see if the space was more useable. The Colemans always treated me well but I found that depending on what and how you put stuff in them, it would be difficult to find room to stack things on top without crushing them. This Koolatron just returned from a 3 week road trip across the country with my two kids and was used the entire time, both in the suv and hotel rooms. It's quiet, so quiet that I often had to look at the fan to make sure it was actually on. It truly keeps the contents around 40 degrees below outside air temp (tested it with a thermometer). The best part, and the reason I wont go back to the colemans, is the extra height. You can load it up with bottled water, beer bottles, milk etc. and still have more than enough room to lay the included plastic tray on top to hold lunch meat, eggs or whatever, without being crushed by the lid. Excellent design! WARNING though... do NOT buy the Koolatron 120v to 12v adapter. Luckily I bought the whole set up a week before our trip and test ran it one evening. The adapter was squealing and very hot to the touch. I ended up buying a bulkier and oversized converter which worked very well.

I’m an OTR truck driver and it worked great…at first. A month later, after I restocked it with steaks, chicken and everything I needed not to spend a fortune at truck stops, it stopped cooling! I was driving and heard a weird noise, I thought it was my truck but no, it was the cooler. The noise stops so I think I’m in the good. Wrong! When I shut down I inspected it and only the fan is working, not cold at all! I wasted money on this cooler, and even more on my food.

I'm updating my first review (below). The replacement arrived. STILL in only the retail box despite Amazon's rep PROMISING it would be packed in an outer box also.This one didn't have a broken off latch. BUT we learned that Koolatron's latch is not yet a latch until you take off the plates screwed in to hold the latch in place and put take one piece off the bottom and into the lid's latch holder. Kooltron doesn't mention this, but this was no different on the first cooler either. It's just that the part that has to be moved was broken during its shipment.So cooler #1 is going back to Amazon. And both Amazon and Koolatron get poor marks. No one who isn't married to a mechanical design engineer would have been able to get a working latch. (The latch design is poor/shoddy and should be rethought by Koolatron. But unless you see this unit in a store, you would never know to look at the latch....)-------We just received this from Amazon. And for the first time, Amazon really dropped the ball. The unit arrived in the box that the manufacturer made, designed to go on a retail shelf. Amazon should have put THIS box in one of their own, with at least a smidgen of packaging. As a result, the latch on the lid is broken. (I should add that the latch is a flimsy little plastic piece.) A shame that there will be so much wasted time and effort just because of what? Laziness? Stupidity?If you order this, write a note and insist on additional packaging.I was able to call Amazon and they claim that the replacement is on its way soon and that it will be properly packaged.The cooler, BTW, looks great except for the cheap flimsy little latch. I didn't know it from the blurb on Amazon, but the cooler has a removable tray that fits in it about half-way up. It's plenty room to put a plate of food or a take-out box etc.I've given it three stars so far. The design was not great for the latch. However, we haven't used the cooler yet so my next review will review the cooler itself in more detail.

I liked this product because it could take a lot of stuff and keep everything cool. We put bottles of water, ginger ale along with chocolate bars and shacks.We also used it as a place to store frozen items on the way back from our trip and not open the lid for 4 days , although the items were no longer frozen they were still cold.Frozen homemade bread, cookies and biscuits. It allowed us to cut them into slices and refreeze them.

Ordered this product and haven’t had the chance to try it and see if it works but was less than impressed as it showed up looking used. With marks and scrapes even the decal was wrinkled like it wasn’t applied with any consideration.

I just got it today. It came in a brown box, that was all taped up like you got it at the supermarket and pu the cooler inside it for shipping.Price point is good, but with this quality, i rather build one myself.The cables don't seem strong at all. And the quality on the finishings are somewhere else but not on the product. The screws are loose and it is taking forever to cool. The divisor that comes with it had fingerprints of grease, so it was either used before and returned or even poor quality control.Definitely will return the product.

I used this item FOR my BOAT to keep things cool but unfortunately it did not get very cold when plugged in so therefore that's why the very low score and considering the cost l was not very happy.

I have only used this as a fridge and asLong as you give the fan room it is really good at cooling and keeping things refrigerated.My main concern is the 12v adaptor which seems to get very hot when using it for a few days on a campsite and plugged into the electric hook up. I end up unplugging it to allow the adapter to cool down (meanwhile this cooler becomes a cool box).