Koolatron Electric Portable Cooler Plug in 12V Car Cooler Bag, 26 qt (25 L) Black/Gray Soft-Sided Portable Car Fridge w/DC Power Cord, Adjustable Shoulder Strap, Cord Storage, Road Trip

UPDATE: It's still going after 10 years of heavy use. Indispensable for family travel and blackouts. Still highly recommend.I'm so shocked to see such negative reviews of this product. After six years of heavy use across countless miles, and throughout numerous power outages, our Koolatron is still going strong.We love it so much that I'm considering a larger model for camping. But, I'm not sure if we'll need more than this. The capacity on this 26-Quart model is sufficient to carry all the essentials for our family of six, and our food stays fresh for days.I can barely function without milk for my coffee, and our little ones go through it like crazy. But, even after loading in a full gallon jug, I'm still amazed at how much more this relatively compact model can accommodate. In addition to the requisite milk supply, we usually load it up with fruit, veggies, cheese, yogurt, and condiments, and still have room for extra drinks.To assure that we get the most out of it, we add our cold food straight from the fridge to the cooler on the AC adapter. Once we're ready to go, we move it to the car on its native DC connection, then reconnect it at our destination with the adapter again.While it is not a refrigerator, it is sufficiently powerful to keep food fresh this way for several days. In fact, I can't remember ever needing to throw out spoiled food due to a lack of cooling power.We haven't tested it in extreme heat, but we've been more than pleased with its performance at home during power outages, and in hotels where the temperatures are rarely above 73°. In these instances, 40° below 73° should be about 33°. I don't think it ever gets quite that cold, but it does chill and preserve the food well enough to produce condensation on the containers, and to keep us eating fresh for days on end.We love that this system allows us to eat well and save money on family trips, rather than going broke and making ourselves ill eating 'road food'. It also enables us to conveniently satisfy the whimsical and erratic appetites of our four little ones with healthy food fast and on the cheap. In this way, we feel this cooler has paid for itself many times over.The pockets are a big help too. This is where we pack items such as salt, pepper, sugar, utensils, small cutting boards, napkins, and more.This model is constructed with a strong rigid shell inside (so it doesn't collapse much for storage), but the soft sides yield a little in tight spaces, and make it more comfortable to carry.The shoulder strap is another great feature too, since it frees up our hands to haul other luggage and gear.Even the fabric itself has proven to be very durable, despite years of rough handling.In addition to traveling well (including a drive from Oklahoma to New York with our 1- and 3-year-old daughters in a Jeep Wrangler!), it kept us afloat while we were without power for nine days after Hurricane Sandy. We charged our Stanley J5C09 1000 Peak Amp Jump Starter off of our car, then ran the Koolatron off of it for about 6-8 hours on, and about 2-3 hours off with great success. Despite the lack of power and refrigeration, we had all of our basics and, between the cooler and our gas range, we still ate well nonetheless.It would have been a major hassle to keep ice stocked daily, when all we needed was a tank of gas and a battery pack to make this little powerhouse hum.After so many years of reliable service, we are extremely satisfied with our purchase.This cooler has been a great investment for our family, and I strongly recommend it for travel and emergencies.

I believe that constructed mine inside out it blows cold air on the outside and hot air on the inside the first day I used it was a hot day and it made everything in my lunch pail spoil and I did not realize it until my bag started smelling like a dead skunk with a rotten colon. Also noticed the drink holders in the picture they are too small to even hold a 16 ounce bottle of water the only thing that fits in there is an 8 ounce can of Redbull you will never get a cup of coffee to fit in it also the pockets are extremely small and tight with barely enough room for a cell phone overall bad quality and way too expensive even if it worked properly I would love a full refund and I would love to be able to throw this into the lake I am done with my rant ....sorry I am updating my review to further stress how horrible this thing is I decided to just use it because it carries my lunch enough said butt while sitting in a hot truck all day the sticky tape that was used to keep the side intact melted off and now there is a gaping hole in the side of the cooler I have been trying to return it for the last week and the company 123 store has just been horrible to deal with lots of confusion and pretty much rude customer service reps

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.