Electric Coolers

[goingquackers]

I just got back from Target and picked up a Colman electric travel cooler. They were on clearance for $29, originally $70. It should come in handy on our road trip next month. They had a good selection of sizes all at half price. If you are looking for one, Target is the place to go.

I was wondering if anyone had any experiences with these devices (good or bad). How cold to they keep drinks?

 

[etwinchester]

I personally didn't like mine. I felt that it didn't keep items cold enough for me. Hopefully they changed something with them to help keep food/drinks colder.

 

[Kaa]

I love mine. We usually set it up at least four hours before leaving (usually overnight though) to begin cooling and stock it with items directly from the refrigerator. If you stock it with hot drinks, it takes a very long time to cool them off.

 

[MrsPete]

They're decent items, but you have to know their limitations. They're good at keeping cold things cold, but they're not good at bringing warm things to cold temperatures. So they'll keep your straight-from-the-fridge drinks cool, but they'll take a loooong time (like two days) to chill your room-temp sodas.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

OUrs said that you need to place something in there--it is designed to "keep" things cold, not to get htem cold.

We freeze a 2-litre bottle of soda water (we don't drink soda--so that was the cheapest thing we can find--simply filling an old soda bottle with water and freezing will do).

We have had our cooler going for 5 days at Wilderness lodge and items were just as cold as the first day and there was still some ice left in the soda bottle.

The instructions provided this tip for us.

 

[pjlla]

Wow.... glad to find this info. I just picked up one of these at Target yesterday also (although I opted for the other brand, not the Coleman). I also picked up the adapter, so we can plug it in at the hotel. Not even really sure if we are going to keep it yet. We really want it for our trip across the Southwest this summer, but not really sure we want to bother packing this thing up and taking it along as luggage (we are flying from NH to New Mexico). But we have three days of 5+ hour car rides and I can imagine it would be helpful to have. Maybe I will look into shipping this to our hotel in NM so it will be there when we arrive. Guess we will decide this week. ........P

 

[MCazer]

At my Tarket in East Setauket, NY, they had the ones that look like a little refrigerator (stainless steel look) for $12.95 and $19.99 for the small and large. I just couldn't think of what to do with them since we stay at OKW and they have refrig.

I have the one that you plug into your cig lighter that looks like a console, it works ok, but doesnot hold much.

Target is having some great sales. I love Target sales!

 

[Mady/Sophiemom]

I really wanted to get one of these for my van. We try to always keep a small cooler of drinks when out.

My cig. lighter does not continue to charge while the vehicle is off. In my old vehicle (buick) it did, and that worked great for cell phones, DVD player etc, and would have worked well with the cooler. But in my Dodge, it doesn't. That is something to keep in mind if you are planning on using it in a vehicle all day.

 

[jjsmom]

We used ours in the room last year at CSR. We used it for soda/water only (fine). i really didn't feel like it was cold enough for milk (we kept that in the reg. cooler on ice). One suggestion, make sure, the fan part has plenty of open space, dont back it up against a wall or dresser.
Have fun

 

[Muushka]

We have had ours for about 6 years now and it still works great.

We freeze Koolaid and milk in the 16oz soda bottles, usually about 6 bottles. They stay frozen for many days and in turn, keep the other stuff nice and cold. When we want to be able to drink the frozen milk or koolaid, we put them in the 'annex cooler', the non-electric one. Works great.

Ours has a shelf that we use to hold the regular food items. And as was mentioned, make sure that fan is clear.

Thanks for the tip, I may just go pick up a new one for when the old one dies!