Coleman 40 Quart Portable Thermoelectric Cooler
$148.07
- Versatile hot/cold thermoelectric cooler keeps food items at an optimal temperature
- Keeps contents up to 40 degrees colder or warmer than the surroundings
- 8-foot power cord allows you to the power the cooler with a car or boat outlet
- Door opens from either the left or right side to offer added placement flexibility
- 40-quart capacity holds up to 44 cans
Specification: Coleman 40 Quart Portable Thermoelectric Cooler
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5 reviews for Coleman 40 Quart Portable Thermoelectric Cooler
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S HEPNER –
Engineer here – These thermoelectric coolers work perfectly, AS LONG AS YOU KNOW A FEW IMPORTANT THINGS. Save yourself alot of money (and weight) and buy these over a compressor based unit if you’re willing to follow some best practices.
First – Prechill your cooler, and any food or drinks you may place in here for a few hours. Thermoelectrics are not great at removing heat quickly compared to compressor units, if you place a bunch of warm objects in here, you won’t get the cooling you think you should. In order to pre-chill the unit, purchase the optional AC wall adaptor before you use it in your car.
Second – This unit cools about 35-40 degrees F below AMBIENT temperature. If you place this in your trunk in the middle of the summer (where your trunk is 100+ degrees), this unit will only cool to 60F. If you bring an infrared thermometer with you, you can scope out placement for this unit and get the desired fridge (40F) or Freezer (10F) temps you’re looking for. you also need to make sure the heat exchanger on the outside of the unit has some “breathing room”. I’ve found in the summer time, that I can place it on my middle back seats, with the heat exchanger side sitting inbetween the driver and passenger front seats, and if I point my A/C vent directly at it, I can achieve temps as low as 15F inside the cooler. You can basically make small adjustments to your vents to raise or lower temps at that point (once again, having a cheap 15-20 dollar infrared thermometer makes this possible/easy).
Third – Realize these units use about 3-4 more electricity than their equivalent compressor based counterparts. This means you can probably run one for about an hour or two off your car battery before it’s dead, but that’s it!!! If you plan on using something like this long term at home/office, or especially if you plan on using it off-grid a lot, you may be better off with a compressor based unit so you don’t run out of/use too much electricity. This unit hooked up to the AC wall adaptor will pull 72 watts of power continuously, if you leave it running 24/7 at a standard rate of .12cents per kWh, it’ll cost you 6 dollars a month to keep it plugged in. I only use this unit on trips where I’m in our car a lot.
Alternatives – If you need something that uses less power for off-grid or long term use, and you don’t mind the extra 10-15 lbs worth of weight, I recommend that you get a compressor based unit instead. They are pricey, but I did find a Massimo 50qt unit at costco for only 300 bucks (so only twice the price of this thing). Compressor based units also generally involve auto-shutoff battery saving features, and better temperature control that you don’t need an infrared gun to monitor ;-).
Bonus tip – Amazonbasics sells some Large rectangular ice packs that fit on the shelf mounts PERFECTLY. I purchased some of those to create a mini-freezer within this cooler. Worked great on a 12 hour long road trip. Frozen food only got up to 15F, and the refrigerated side stayed around 30-35F for the whole trip. Makes this unit quite versatile.
Have fun!!
FLYING SKWERL- TRAVELING ADVENTURES (TRUCKER/MOTOCAMPING/KAYAKING/OUTDOOR ENTHUSIAST –
I had one of these before, and it lasted over 8 years and well over 40 football tailgate sessions and 3 trips across country before giving it up. To those who have it burn out too soon, it is extremely important to allow plenty of room for air flow around the fans (inside and outside). DO NOT PUT ICE IN IT! Water will cause it to ice up faster and, if it gets in the fan, you will kill the motor. If you want to supplement the cooling, use Imitation Ice packets.
Leave room for air to circulate around the fans. If the outside fan gets blocked, the heat exchanger will burn out in short order. If the inside fan gets blocked, it will not be able to cool efficiently and may ice up easier.
These are nice coolers and will last you a long time as long as you take care of them.
Chico –
After reading most of reviews and see that common problem is the blowing fuse and overheating connector I decided to go for it and see if I can find a solution since the overall product is perfect.
To solve the overheating problem and fuse blowing I cut the cable from 8 feet to 4 feet which brought the connector temp down from 110 to 95 so I cut the cable again another 18 inches and as you can see on the pictures the temp is down to 85 degrees.
The temp was check every 30 minutes after each modification was made.
FLYING SKWERL- TRAVELING ADVENTURES (TRUCKER/MOTOCAMPING/KAYAKING/OUTDOOR ENTHUSIAST –
Love it, but the plastic connector melted. So I place an inline fuse and used a direct connection to the battery, at the cb dash connection. I also cut down the length of the cord to cut down the amount of resistance in the line. I also uses a 2 wire quick disconnect so that I am able to unplug it while not in my truck for home time. Used shrink wrap at new connections. I figured out that the cord was to long and causing a higher power draw through it which caused the over heating/ melt down. Just an engineering over site, wanting to give a person ability to place it away from power source. Stopped the melt downs and over heating of the cord. Can keep milk for a week or more, consistent temp, it is dependent on the ambient temperature. I would buy one again. Bought in December 2017 still going strong. 3/2019
Julio C. Vega –
It cools fine, but the major drawback is that it runs constantly: Unlike an actual refridgerator, this one keeps running even after it’s gotten cold enough. As such, you have to be very careful when/if leaving it hooked up to a car or RV battery, as it will drain a 100 amp hour battery to below 90% in about 3 hours (since it draws about 4 amps). Many batteries will shut down if they go below 80%, which will happen with 100 amp hour battery in about 6 hours with this unit. So, IF you buy this, I highly recommend getting a DC timer as well in order to be able to shut it on/off regularly to conserve battery rather than having it running continuously.