Customer Reviews

Coleman PowerChill Thermoelectric Cooler with Power Supply (40-Quart)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

I bought this cooler to plug-in and sit in the back of one of my Jeeps for road trips and weekend getaways where we want to bring our own food instead of eating out and especially fast food. Recently my wife and I rented a small cabin and we made our meals at home, put the meals in this cooler for the trip and then we used it as a fridge at the cabin (the cabin just had electricity).

I didn't buy this to be a full time fridge so I can't say how many years it will last? So far it works just fine, is quiet and keeps everything cold (including beer!). It's benefit is that no ice is required, and in fact you are not suppose to use ice with it as the moisture from the melting ice may cause the fan to ice up. For those that have said that theirs froze up, they may have put ice in it? I do have another ice cooler to use when I can't plug this one in.

The cigarette lighter power cord is long enough so that you can place it about anywhere in your vehicle. But be sure to also buy the power cord for plugging into a standard electrical outlet when not in your vehicle.

I ordered this cooler at the last moment for our eight day vacation on the road. we kept the cooler plugged in the car when driving and plugged in the hotel room at night. The fact that you do not need to use ice means that the cooler is about half the size that it would need to be with ice and hold the same amount of food and cans. we used it to keep soda cans, water bottles, cream cheese, sliced meat. Nothing got water logged as it would have in a conventional cooler. Vacationing with a family of six I estimate that having the cooler saved us $100/day vs. eating out. Items on the side of the cooler with the fan did get cooler.
The items on our trip stayed very cold and saved us hundreds of dollars on lunches and sodas and water.
I would recommend this cooler to anyone.

This is colemans version of a thermoelectric product. I have purchased 2 these in the past months. They have some sort of defect with the wiring, causing the plugin to over heat and melt. The last one I returned to the place of purchase and the sales rep said that they get at least 1 returned a week and expects a recall on them in the near future. I will never buy this product again......

Update again!!!!!! oct 7th 2011. It made it through another season. very impressed.
Update:
October 23rd 2010. It has made it through another season. Working the same as the first day. I LIKE it.

After reading the reviews I hesitated. I shopped around and found amazons price to be the best. We have now had the PowerChill for two months. I purchased it with the Kooltron power converter.. rather than the coleman. the coleman converter was a lot more money.
We have used it now for a total of 25 days. That is during three trips to the lake. It is plugged into the AC outlet in my Cobalt/evolution popup camper. It has worked great. Two things to consider. First, make sure the converter and 12 volt adapter are up off the floor. The first time we used it water condensation dripped out of the cooler and caused the small fuse in the 12 volt adapter to trip. A quick trip to O'Reilly auto parts and for two bucks we were off and running again. The other thing you will need to watch out for is freeze up. Sometimes (usually at night) the AC in my RV will cause the temp to be too cold..... and i am just to lazy to get up and change it..... Soooo the thermoelectric cooler will freeze up. Not a big problem. You just pop open the cooler and give it 15 minutes to thaw out. Remember though that it only happens when I have the AC in the RV turned down.
So the facts are these. The cooler works great. We plug it in at home a few hours before we leave. We stock it full of perishables and then I just plug it into the cig adapter in the car.

I wanted a reasonable sized cooler that I could plug into my car and also plug into my hotel room when I travel on business. Since I travel with mostly my own food this seemed like a great option. I was pretty sick of melting ice and cooler packs that take up the whole cooler. This cooler has proven to be exactly what I wanted and needed.

This unit is very much like having a dorm fridge that I can plug into the 12 volt accessory plugs in my Avalanche. The cooler actually has more space than the dorm fridge because it doesn't have all the compressor and motor protruding into the cooled space. The issue with the fan is no issue; it runs constantly and consequently fades into background noise with use. Mine runs at 30-34 degrees. As long as I put cool stuff in, it stays really cool. Adding hot items from the store shelves is not a good practice, though, as it does take a while to bring the temperature down. The cooler does not really do well at keeping things cool once the power is off; the body's insulation is minimal. DO NOT even daydream about leaving it plugged in with the vehicle motor off; it pulls some serious amperage, and can --if you're not carrying jumper cables-- quickly turn you into a pedestrian. I use mine chest fashion and simply move it from truck to motel room without hassle, but it can be loaded like a small fridge.

We had our cooler since 2005. We use it to go on trips,shopping,and parties. I am on my 3rd motor,because we use it a lot,so it's normal wear and tear part. A new motor is only $15 and easy to replace. So don't throw your cooler way. Which is cheaper,$15 for a new motor or $100 for a new cooler?

I had bought this product at Wal-Mart last year. It worked great while we where on a camping vacation. We used it for 4 camping trips. This season it does not chill it freeze's up. one of my friend bought one as well and he has the opposite problem. His cooler freeze's everything. This product from what I have read is very unreliable and would not purchase another one. I am looking for a cooler at this time.

Purchased one of these from Walmart early spring of 2010 worked great for the whole summer. Even when the car sat in the hot sun, and got to 100 degrees the cooler was still ice cold. this past fall we went on a trip and I noticed that it wasn't staying cool any longer. It appears the internal fan that blows on the peltier device, which is what causes the thermoelectric cooling, wasn't working any longer. What I may try doing before replacing the unit, is replacing the internal fan with a CPU cooling fan.
I think this might just work. If not we will be buying a new one. It really does work very nicely. I just wish they used a higher quality fan for the internal cooling.

We used this cooler for our camping trip (75 degree weather) and it worked perfectly. I have no problems with it. There was some condensation but that is to be expected. I bought the power cord from Amazon but found it at the big W mart for half the price...