Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This cooler works very well when you put pre-chilled items in it. It has no problem keeping cold things cold (at least in the moderate temperatures I've used in it, so far). It works OK with things that are room temperature IF you're willing to wait long enough for it. I used it on a trip where I put leftovers from a restaurant in the cooler and plugged it in overnight at the hotel. In the morning everything was chilled. Cooled, not icy cold, but definitely a safe temp. It was probably about 7 hours, maybe 8. When I got it I experimented with putting 6 cans of beer at room temp. in the cooler and leaving it overnight to see how cold they would be in the morning (not that I was planning to DRINK them in the morning, I just figured that beer would be something that is actually important to serve cold, not warm). For the first test I somehow flipped the switch from "cooler" to "warmer" and didn't notice it. I SHOULD have noticed it because when in "cooler" mode the fan is on, the fan does not run in "warmer" mode. While this test obviously failed the "can it chill room temperature beer test," I did discover a few things. One, the "warmer" mode works really well and will warm up your beer so much that it will explode out of the cans while they are still in the cooler and make a great big mess. Two, it's very easy to accidentally switch into "warmer" mode. Three, whenever it's plugged in and the fan is not on, assume it is in "warmer" mode. Four, hot beer makes a nasty breakfast drink, For the second "can it chill room temperature beer test" I made sure that it was in "cooler" mode, which is easy to do by ensuring you can hear the fan running. The beer was colder in the morning and certainly drinkable. (Did I drink it in the morning, or did I wait until at least noon?) Was it like the icy sensation depicted in beer commercials? No, but it was way better than the aforementioned hot beer. Because keeping beer cold is so enjoyable, I also conducted a test where the 6 cans were started at refrigerator temperature and remained nicely so after a night on the "cooler" setting. Here are some tips to success with this cooler (from my experience, you don't need any tips to make this work well as a warmer). Most importantly, you have to buy an AC to DC adpater like the Wagan 5 Amp AC to 12V DC Power Adapter or similar. It needs to be 5 amps or more. You can NOT use one of those little wall wart style cigarette lighter adapters. You don't need it if you're ONLY going to use it in your car (with the car running!!!). You will find your car battery completely dead and perhaps damaged from over-discharge in the morning if you try to leave it plugged into your vehicle over-night. It does seem to help to pre-chill the cooler for 20-30 minutes before putting stuff in it. I don't think this is completely necessary if you will be putting stuff in that is already cold and leaving it powered on while in transport. If you're going to put in room temperature stuff, then I think pre-chilling is a good idea. The cooling (and I suppose heating) element of the cooler is in the bottom of the storage area. You can easily see it in the product photos. It's the lighter colored area on the inside in the photo where you're looking down into the open cooler from above. It would probably make more sense to have the cooling element on the TOP so that the coldness would come down onto the beer, or food. That wouldn't work so well for warming, but let me remind you how gross it is to drink hot beer. Anyways, that's how it is. To improve the efficiency, I always place a napkin or plastic bag over the top of the beer, or food, to make the cooling area smaller and more isolated. I can't say for certain that this makes a difference, but it probably does help a little. It's also useful to have a napkin around, because by the time you get to finishing that sixth beer, you'll probably have spilled a little on yourself. The manual says not to use ice in conjunction with the cooler. I don't know why not. I haven't done this yet, but I think it's a good idea. On it's own without power, it is still an insulated, "sealed" container (maybe not super good insulation, but better than a paper bag). Put a bowl of ice on the kitchen counter and a bowl of ice your refrigerator. Which melts first? Right. So using ice (or probably better to use Blue Ice or similar) should help to keep things colder in warmer outside temperatures and/or lengthen the effective cooling time of the ice or ice substitute. I don't care what the manual says here. I'm using some ice packs on my next long usage, even if that means I can only fit in 5 cans of beer at a time (actually, it does hold 9 regular cans just fine, but just in case you want to also have some food). MAKE SURE IT'S ON "COOLER" MODE!!! If you don't, it won't work as a cooler, and may in fact actually be on "warmer" mode, which might be bad! Lastly, don't expect miracles from this little thing. Tasking it with cooling a 6 pack from room temperature is not really fair. Liquids can absorb and retain way too much energy before you notice a real change in temperature, especially for drinking. If you can, try to pre-chill your beer in some cold water for a little while, like a stream, or cold water from the tap, or wrapped in wet towels to use evaporative cooling. Then put in the cooler. I can think of very few instances where you would want to use this as a warmer, but in case you do, it can do it, and do it very well. I guess they include that function because it's just as easy to make it work that way once the thermoelectric system is in place. I dunno. I think it's weird (and annoyingly easy to cook your beer). The other biggest complaint I've seen in the other reviews is the noise level. All of the noise comes from the fan. The thermoelectric cooling/heating itself is silent. There is no fan for the "warmer" mode and you would never know it's on until you start hearing your beer cans explode in the middle of the night and wonder what the heck that strange sound is and where it is coming from and why your room smells like a dive bar. The "cooler" mode needs the fan to blow the hot air away from the heat sink. Yes, you can hear it in a hotel room. Yes, it's sorta loud. Is it terribly annoyingly loud? Not really. It's white noise. Really bothering you? Put it in the closet and close the door. I also take advantage of the air discharge from the fan to keep the AC-to-DC adapter cool. Determine where the most air is being blown out and place the little box for the adapter in the air stream. The little adapter box does get warm, especially after several hours and this helps to keep it reasonably cooled off. Also the plug where you connect the adapter to the power cord (the male/female cigarette lighter adapter pieces) gets a little warm, too, so I also place this in the fan discharge area. The only thing that really concerns me is the hinges for the door appear a little weak, but so far so good and I'll just continue to be careful about them. Overall, I'd recommend this product as long as you temper your expectations (get it? "temper?") and follow the tips I noted above. --- Update: FYI, the CLA power cord is just over 6 feet long. Plenty long enough to reach from the front console to the back seat area (but not the rear cargo area of an SUV). Another update: Overall it seems pretty durable. I manage to drop it from about waist height, loaded with food, onto a hard surface. It showed no signs of damage and still works just fine. Of course, food weighs less than beer, so I can't say that the results would have been the same had it been loaded with beer. But really, if you make a habit of dropping your beer, you've got different issues.