Customer Reviews

Koolatron 12V Travel Cooler - D25, Black

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I will preface this review with this caveat: Auto coolers are not refrigerators. They will keep cold things cold, with help.

My husband drives a truck for 12-16 hours per day. He never stops, so I pack his lunch every day. He carries water, energy drinks, veggies, sandwiches, sometimes pizza, etc. He used a Rubbermaid cooler for a long time, but it was too small. He needed a larger cooler that would fit between the seats of the truck and have more space.

This cooler is HUGE. They make two smaller ones, but since I like to load it up with big ice packs, it's a good size. It'll never actually be full unless we take a trip with it, though. 2 liter bottles stand up in it and I'm guessing that six of them would fit. I load it up with 2 1.5 liter water bottles, a couple of 16 oz lowcarb Monster drinks, plus a sandwich, cherry tomatoes fruit and other snacks and the cooler is still about half full even with the two large blue ice bags.

The Koolatron does the job nicely. It will not cool warm things down well and if left on its own, cold things will start to warm up after 8-10 hours, so I put 2 large blue ice bags in the cooler every morning and they come back at night still partially frozen. Any leftover drinks are still cold.

I also purchased the power inverter so that I could plug in the cooler first thing when I get up. I then load the cooler and the ice bags right before he leaves. That helps considerably.

Is the cooler keeping things at 40*? Doubtful, but it's keeping them cold enough that drinks are refreshing and his food does't spoil. He keeps the AC on in the truck all the time, so the cooler doesn't have to work too hard.

A soft sided cooler like this isn't as effective as a hardsided cooler, so there's a bit of a tradeoff, but it's the largest one I could find that would fit where it needed to go (between the seats of a Peterbilt Daycab after removing the drink holders) and it's lightweight. The shoulder strap makes it easy to carry. By the time I load it down with a couple liters of water, drinks, ice and use the bungee on top for his paperwork, it weighs about 30 pounds or so. A hard cooler would be impossible.

The outside pockets are handy, you can even put ice in the drink holder (which will only hold a cup the diameter of a soda can). There's a mesh pocket in the back that's also very handy.

Overall, we're very pleased with this cooler, but unlike the another reviewer, our expectations were more realistic.

Great cooler, just remember to chill your products, and a blue chill block (couple of bucks at wally world etc) helps also. Put a weeks worth of sandwich fixin's in and the stuff was still cold a week later. Easy to transport, and just the right size for one person.

I purchased this cooler along with it's electric adapter. I love it. I've used it in work to keep my lunch cold (the adapter allows you to plug it into an outlet) and it's just like putting my lunch in a refrigerator. You can also plug it into you car's cigarette lighter (which we did on a trip) and that works great also.

I got this cooler in Late Jan 2011. I took it on a cross country trip even through West Tx, NM and AZ. This cooler kept our items cool and we made sandwiches along the way. I just got back from a trip where I did not have a refrigerator in the hotel room. I took mine in with cream for coffee, cheese and beefstick for late night sandwiches. I plugged it in (with the optional powerpack) and everything was still cold. I added a room temperature soda can on day two and by the time I got home the soda can was cold. I also had cold packs in this refrigerator and they were cold enough to ease sore muscles.
I also put all my items in this cooler cold and add an ice pack.

Update,
I just got back from a trip where I was driving all day. I packed my cold items in the cooler and put a pillow of ice on top. The ice pillows I refreeze each night when I am in a hotel that has a freezer. Most days I was driving 10-12 hours. I place the cooler in the back of my SUV and plug it in. I place light colored fabric on top to reduce the solar effect. Most of the driving days were 95-100 degrees. My food arrived cold and some of it was still frozen as I brought frozen food with me to eat at night and the ice pillows were still partially frozen. I will be going to Fl in a couple weeks and will be taking my cooler with me. It is doing a great job for me.

This cooler is poorly made... the first time we ordered it, screws were missing from the fan mechanism. The replacement that Amazon sent us the second time had a bad zipper and broken zipper pull. Just a bad product with sub-par quality control... DO NOT BUY this cooler! You will spend more time and effort returning than it is worth!

Cooler was gift for parents that travel by car a lot. They said cooler worked great on trip from WI to VA. Only thing that would be nice to include is power cord converter For house. Sort of expensive to buy separate.

Nothing would get cold and it will kill your battery if you leave it plugged up with the engine off! Bad buy, would not recommend to anyone. And item is horribly made as well!

I bought this cooler for my husband to take to work for his lunch and snacks. He had been using a regular cooler where he would have to use ice to keep things cold but it would melt and make all his food soggy. He drives trucks for an oilfield so he works long hours in some pretty hot temps, not all the trucks have acs. It shipped really fast even though I used the free super saver shipping and let me tell you my husband is beside himself with how excited he is to have this cooler! Not only does it keep his food cold it looks cool and has all these little pockets and compartments for him to put other stuff in or on it as well. He was pretty happy to report the pocket on the side with the drink holders also keeps things cold so ya he's very happy with it. Haven't tried the warmer yet tho. Makes a great gift and was a good buy! Definetly recommend!

I bought this cooler last summer and so far it's been worth the money. I bought it because I often do my grocery shopping on my lunch break, and I always worried about keeping the refrigerated items cold while on my 45 minute commute home. This product has been great. We've also used it on road trips to keep snacks and baby food cold without having to worry about messy bags of ice and ice packs. It should be noted that this cooler is meant to keep already cold items cold. It really won't cool items that are warm. Also, it would be nice if it came with a power converter so that you can plug it into a regular wall outlet. That way you can take it from the car to a hotel room without worrying about the food spoiling overnight. I know you can buy a converter, but it would have been nice if it has been part of the package. Overall, I feel this product has filled our needs and is a good product.

This is a good product and does keep items cold. My only issue is that it's bigger than I wanted.