Is this cooler reasonable to use on very long trips during which it will only be on while we are driving? No way to run it overnight as we're camping
1479365
Depends on how long the trip is. I use mine on a regular basis every month on a 250 mile trip. Works great, just wish I'd bought the square one instead of the rectangle one. It's great for sodas and such but the square one will accommodate larger items. Hope this helps. You should buy the adapter, as I did. You can get it pre-cooled or heated before your trip, and plug it in to 110v when available.
1479366
My husband is a truck driver and has it on at least 14 or more hours a day. It is great. I would not own any other brand. Hope this helps you.
1479367
If you are traveling anywhere that will be warm, I'm guessing the food will not be very cold by the next day. If you intend to eat most of the food, then it should be okay.
1479368
Quite honestly, no it is not. After a few hours of left off, it does drop in temperature.
1479369
It holds the cold pretty well if you don't open it many times. I freeze several small or medium water bottles (leave expansion room) and use them for ice. Put my small groceries (lunchmeat, fruit, meat) on top. Holds for 3 days. Koolatron does not hold a lot of stuff, but definitely keeps stuff cool on long trips. I highly recommend it, but also buy the AC adapter to pull it out of car for overnite at hotel or friends house.
1479370
we planned to use it in the car (12 volts) during daytime driving and then plug it in with the AC adapter at night in hotels. We found that the AC adapter was noisy and got scary hot in hotel rooms so we just quit using it that way and anyway the hotel room usually had a fridge. It takes a couple of hours to cool off when used in the car, after that it keeps cold for the rest of the day. It should work for you that way.
1877249
It is extra cost. Around $25 to $30. I already had one from another smaller cooler that I use in the motel when traveling. Do NOT leave plugged into the car overnight as it will run the battery down. You only OPPS once and learn.
1870623
Yes but don't expect to have it on in a warm environment with out throttling also lots of people report high temps you would be best off getting any aftermarket cooler.
718951
The fan appears to run constantly. When using the adapter indoors the same is true so I think it is set up to run all the time and maintain a roughly 40 degree temperature drop from the surroundings. When we travel in the car, we put a couple of frozen water bottles in at the beginning of a trip. These allow us to stop for several hours of sightseeing without having the cooler get warm. WE stopped for as long as 5 hours and everything was still nice and cold when we got back to the car. On a recent 23 day trip out west, we took it into each hotel at night and plugged in the adapter. We probably used hotel refrigerator freezers a half dozen times to refreeze the bottles and when we got home we still had ice in the bottles. The nice thing is that with this cooler, everything stays dry and you don't have to get dripping water all over everything when you want a drink or worry about things falling into the water in the cooler. There is no water in the bottom. However, the cooler does draw significantly so you would not want to leave it on when the engine is not running in the car. We don't have that problem because all our outlets are controlled by the ignition key.
246214
Thanks for the reply, I live in Central Wisconsin and I am planning on putting it on the oil pan of my car and I'm not sure if I should plug it in over night so it's warm by the morning because I'm not sure how long it would take to warm it up but I don't want to cause a fire either by leaving it plugged in over night.
13286
Ours will last 6 to 8 hours. This cooler is nice but does not as well in very humid areas if outside.
1677745
Depends on the outside temperatures. If cold, then it's ok for overnight. When mine stopped working, I put a bag of ice cubes in it and it kept pretty well, so it is well insulated. Hope that helps.
699114
I have the Haier 6-bottle wine cooler. After unpacking it and setting it up on the counter I plugged it in and let it run overnight. The next morning it was right on the money. May have reached temperature much sooner but I was sleeping and don't know.
1845831
First off, cool car! The pump works fine for continuous use. However, I would suggest wiring it with a relay and a toggle switch. When in heavy traffic or idleing for a long time the pump can overheat. Try to mount it in a place where it gets plenty of airflow. Also be careful starting it in extreme cold because the condensation can freeze and cause it to self destruct.
1071275
That's a hard question for me to answer but I can say that as flight crew on over night trips it keeps my food cooler than my other crew members' coolers have. We'll meet in the lobby the next morning and my water bottle will be the only one with condensation. Their water bottles are room temperature even after being in their cooler over night. Mine is always a few degree cooler that crew will ask "how did you keep your's so cold." Now, I think a hot car is something completely different. If you are a Sales Rep for example, in and out of the car, a/c on during drive time etc...I think it'll be ok. If you're a road construction worker w/ his truck parked on the side of the highway all day then I don't recommend. Although, I couldn't name any that would work for that. As flight crew we add ice quite often from the plane and hotels!
62956
Yes it does. It is on a cord that is about 8 feet long, so the cooler can be placed in most places inside of the car. The cord has a blue dot and a red dot on the side, so you can also use this to keep food warm if desired. We have used this cooler on many trips and it works well even in the warm areas of the country, remember that the inside will be about 25 to 35 degrees cooler that outside air, so try not to leave it inside of a hot car. When loading the cooler, it will take about 4 to 6 hours to get to temp, so it is best to pre-cool the night before. There are many 110 to 12v adapters available, but make sure that they have a minimum of 5 watts output, to run this cooler on A/C Power.
191728
I used a car battery on it's own with out using the one in my vehicle when I was camping but the fan seems to draw very little from the battery, after my trip I hooked my smart charger to the battery and it didn't seem to really need much charging and I was running the fan every night for 3 nights.
2038718
We had a 21 day trip and didn't want to tempt fate by leaving it plugged in without the vehicle running. However, if prepped properly before hand, it stays quite cool not plugged in at all. We were in Texas where the temps were 100+ and it stayed cold without being plugged in for several hours. And, yes, it has molded handles on the side. Overall, it was an extremely smart purchase for us and our long trips.
1247381
I've had mine for a month (the blue N120-13GBL with the longer battery) and I haven't needed a cooler -- I've left it on, on battery power, all night cycling through a long podcast playlist and it did fine, no heat problem at all.
1436770
I will handle that for about 5 to 8 hours and not more than that on two batteries. I have a koolatron cooler hooked to mine and it last about 8 hours
549812
I gave this cooler to my husband 2 years ago for Christmas and no problems so far. It stays plugged in 24/7 with no issues he unplugs it when he is not in the truck over a period of time. Every thing stays cold.
1665362
We have left it plugged in to our car for up to 6 hours without losing power for the car. I also have the electrical plug in so I can plug it in overnight at motel rooms. Have never tried it overnight on the car battery. Some cars will shut off the battery after a certain length of time so you would want to check on that before you set out on a trip. Hope that this helps. We have found that if you place a frozen bag of water or ice in the cooler it also helps keep items colder on hot days. I some times double bag it so as to prevent leaks. I don't use the blue ice packs as they take up to much room.