Railfan Technology > Portable cooler for railfan use.

Home Depot is selling a small thermoelectric cooler/heater that runs on either house current or from the cigar lighter in your vehicle. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Koolatron-Coca-Cola-Personal-Fridge-KWC-4/202040431

The thing is shaped like a midget refrigerator and is Coca-Cola red. It is priced at @30 dollars which is about 20 dollars less than the usual selling price.

Military veterans can get 10% off by asking for the military veteran's discount. You have to ask for the discount and be prepared to offer proof of service.

The cooler will hold 6, 12 oz beverage cans laying on their sides. It will hold 4, 12 oz bottles standing up. A removable shelf is provided so one could store 4, 12 oz cans below and a sandwich above the shelf.

I measured the performance of the one I bought and it achieved a temperature of 42 F in a 70 F room after about an hour. I do not plan on using the heating function so I did not test for warming.

The unit must be operated in a vertical orientation as there is a fan which exhausts through the back side and the vent must not
be obstructed.

It draws about 3.5 amps from the cigar lighter and can cause a dead automobile battery if left on overnight.

It uses a "Peltier" (PELL-tea-A) device which moves heat in one direction to another depending on the polarity of the current.

I'm bringing this to the attention of TO readers as the thing is on sale, works fine and, in my view, represents a very good value.

Recently, I cooked up my own thermoelectic cooler and paid @32 dollars just for the Peltier device and fan from an electronic surplus house.

For the "out for a day of railfanning" enthusiast, this cooler may be useful.

Be Well,

Tim Colbert K3HX

Celebrating 50 years in amateur radio.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/14 07:51 by K3HX.

Sorry, I'd rather have a couple of cooler packs in a hard cooler with my day of snacks than something that may run down my battery and have to wait 2-3 hours for a tow truck to find out where I am (Somewhere in the desert!) and charge me 50 bucks to connect a couple of wires from his battery to my battery and say "start it". LOL! That's just me though.

Railtrekker has a point.

If you are going to leave the thing run for many hours with the engine off, the auto
battery may pack it in.

On the other hand, if you drive to a location, spend a hour or 2 there, then go to another
location and so on, the thermoelectric cooler does away with the mess of ice and the
nusiance of cold packs.

Once the contents have been cooled, the device can be shut off and it will keep the cans
cooler than if they were left outside. One could also use it in conjunction with cold
packs to extend their capacity.

As it will run on house current as well, could make a useful addition to the home office
providing beverages whilst viewing TO.

Be Well,

Tim Colbert K3HX

Celebrating 50 years in amateur radio.

I'd love to have a plug-in cooler, no worries about it draining my battery. The idea of not having to pack ice appeals to me and I've often wondered if such a product existed.

chico

Could you keep it running on a sunny day with a portable solar unit? Seems an elegant solution-the brighter the summer day, the more you need your drinks , the harder the cooler runs. Wonder how big a panel you'd need.

Well ... 3 amps times 12 volts is 36 watts of power.

You can order a 100 watt (rated) solar cell panel from Home Depot measuring about 22 inches by 40 inches and connect that to your cooler/heater. It has an efficiency of about 17 percent (it converts about 17 percent of the solar radiation into electrons), which is typical for "affordable" solar cells. When you look at the specs, they say it actually will produce 5 amps of current at 12 volts which means 60 watts actually produced, not 100 (unless possibly you are sitting on a tall rock at Boron at noon and holding the panel perfectly aimmed at the sun). Oh, it costs $149 plus shipping. By the way, the panel weighs 20 pounds.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/14 08:43 by Labiche.