TREFAN 12V Electric Cooler - 31QT/29L Iceless Fridge, Portable Thermoelectric Cooler for Car, Travel & Camping

Bought this after wanting this for a long time. I bought this size because I often stop at butcher shops and buy large quantities of frozen meat. The instructions say that if you use ice, keep it in the bag. I have not used ice yet because I wanted to test the function. I have plugged it in for over an hour before loading it, as instructed. Then loaded frozen and refrigerated items.What I have found is that even in mild days, when the car is parked and the motor doesn't run, the contents do not stay cold. (The ice chest is not in the sun.) My plan is to go hiking and bring my lunch and beverages, that I prefer cold, and they are lukewarm after the car has been turned off. On the other hand, I have driven > 8 hours with frozen on the bottom, refrigerated on the top, and dense foods stay mostly frozen, and less dense (like fish and fruit) defrosted almost completely.Having the chest with few items vs. full did make a difference in how much change in temperature there was. Unfortunately, my traditional chest does better at keeping food at temperature without ice with the same contents.I don't have an ice maker, so I will purchase a bag and try again, but the purchase doesn't make sense when you have a motor on a long drive, but for picnicking it does. Hopefully my cheese and fresh berries will still be good at lunch time in the forest.

We road trip and used to bring frozen water bottles & re-freeze in hotels overnight. Many do not have freezers so this is the perfect solution! Don't have to unpack it, just leave it all in the cooler & plug it in at the hotel! Carry it back to the car & plug it in & ready to go! Holds drinks & food so we've got all we need for the day! Only downfall - we'll know more on summer road trips - is that it contributes to warmer air in the car as works to keep the cooler cold.

We've had some pretty brutally hot days as of late, so I've been able to really put this thing through its paces. First and foremost, if you've left it out in a hot car, and try to power it on and cool stuff down from inside, it's gonna take a few hours for it to get decent enough inside. The best case I found for it is to plug it in before you leave on Cool, and then flip it over to Eco mode and run it from your car's battery. On another brutally hot (107 degrees Fahrenheit) day, using this protocol, it kept everything inside nice and cool even in a hot car. The cable that connects the cooler to the car battery is long enough that, even in the massive boat of an SUV that the family drives, it was able to reach from the back seat to the car battery port. This has already seen some usage in grocery runs, and it's held up very well for that.Don't expect any miracles, like I said; this won't cool off for a while if it's already hot and in a hot environment. If you bring it out while it's cool, though, it'll hold up to the heat. Now, as far as heating, this does do that, which it should be able to heat things quite well, as heating is way easier than cooling. It's just that we aren't in the weather for testing heating right now.

Looks like this Cooler is going to be very nice and useful.

This is a nice big cooler and it's sturdy. The heat/cool unit on top is actually not too intrusive into the body of the cooler.I'm not sure how capacitive cooling works - but I can tell you that it works to a point. In general, it kept our food cool, but not cold, two hours after it was last plugged in. The cooling is hampered by the fact that you're not supposed to use ice in the cooler - which would really make the cooling effect last longer.However - what I didn't realize when I ordered it is that it has a heat function as well - and man, that function works great! It kept our food hot between home and grandma's just working off our car's 12V cigarette lighter plug. You can also power it from your home's AC outlet as there are cables for both.Note that this cooler doesn't have a battery, so you're not charging it - it only runs when it's plugged into something. I would pair it with an inexpensive 300W power station if you need it for a tailgate or other places where you may not have power.5 stars to start, but 1 star removed for not being able to use ice in conjunction with the capacitive cooling.

This cooler looks nice, but I am not sure how effective it is...I tested it by placing 18 cans of Coke (at room temp) into the cooler and plugging it in. I added a thermometer to gauge the temperature. After an hour, there was almost no change in the temp. After more than four hours, the temp had seemingly settled around 60'. This isn't cold enough for me. It might work better at maintaining temperature as opposed to cooling things off, but I haven't tested that yet.The cooler also has a heater function, but I cannot see ever needing that feature. The handle locks the cooler if placed in one spot, but there is a design flaw. The plugs are in the way preventing the handle from completely folding down.This will still serve me well when on the boat or on a longer road trip, but I don't think it is as cool as the idea sounded.

The cooler does what the name implies, it keeps food and drinks cool, but I wouldn't say it gets super cold. In the summer heat, I was really looking for something to keep the contents nice and frigid. I imagine in the cooler months this will cool a bit better, when it doesn't have to compete against the blistering sun, and you can always add ice for some added cooling. The heating feature works great, though, which is a completely new feature that I haven't had on any other cooler that will be great in the colder months. Perfect for transporting hot plates to parties and such. A pretty good cooler, with a unique heating system that I quite enjoy, and not at a bad price either.

For having no compressor I was impressed with how cold this cooler got. It certainly won’t freeze or anything, but is absolutely ideal for drinks inside of an air conditioned vehicle. The tall size also makes it fit well inside of a car in the floor. Just be sure to position the handle right as it will lock it shut.