Features:

  • Store snacks and beverages
  • Official Coca-Cola graphics on front door
  • Temperature range: up to 32F degrees below room temperature
  • Thermoelectric cooling
  • Compact design, fits easily on desk or bookshelf
  • Plugs into standard wall socket or 12 volt vehicle plug
Nice Solid-State Fridge, Works Well

This is a Peltier solid-state refrigerator. This means it has no moving parts, save for a fan (more on that later) and it doesn't use a compressor nor any refrigerant. A Peltier device is a flat ceramic solid-state circuit wafer that produces heat or cold on one side depending on the flow of electricity. When producing cold on one side of the ceramic wafer the other produces heat, that is where the fan comes in. This unit has a heatsink attached to the wafer via thermal adhesive compound and the fan blows on the heatsink to dissipate the heat or it would get so hot the contents of the fridge wouldn't get cold. Don't expect this to get as cold as a standard fridge, so it isn't suitable for storing medicine (ie; insulin) that needs refrigeration. But, it is cold enough to keep six cans of soda comfortably cold. The classic CocaCola polar bear decoration is a nice touch. I recommend this is you want something to keep soda cold but you don't have the room for a mini-fridge in your office or bedroom.

Just What I Needed

I really like this fridge, and you will too if you understand and accept its limitations. I bought this to keep canned drinks cold in my office. That's what this was designed for, and it does an admirable job of it. However, it's not going to quickly chill down leftovers, and I wouldn't trust it outside in hot weather or for perishable foods. Pros: *MUCH cheaper than a traditional fridge (especially when you can find it on sale) *Great size for cans *Doesn't take up a ton of space *Conversation piece Cons: *Probably not powerful enough for perishables *Only big enough for cans *no easy way to drain condensation You may also want to be careful with the latch. It's just plastic (like you'd find on a kid's lunchbox or a toy), so don't slam the door or you'll break it.

Completely satisfied!

I was a bit concerned when reading the reviews that the cooling capacity might be feeble and the unit would be noisy. Neither is the case. It cools my Coca-Cola to the point there are ice crystals in the drink when I pop the lid. The fan is so quiet I had to check to be sure it was running. The only thing you might not know if you don’t read the instructions, is that you should wait 5 minutes in the “off” position when switching between “heat” and “cool”.

Excellent 12oz Can Cooler

Before you buy, make sure you read the "most helpful" reviews where very knowledgeable people explain the mechanics behind how this cooler works (this is technically not a refrigerator), so your expectations are properly set. I bought this cooler to keep 6 standard size 12oz La Croix cans cold in my office at work so I didn't have to walk all the way to the break room where the shared fridge is. It does a fantastic job!! I could not be happier for the price. 3 months in and I have had no issues yet. I try to make sure I add a warm can every time I take a cold one out so I never am left waiting.

Quite and compact

I received the koolatron mini cooler with 2 day prime shipping. I turned it on to see how noisy it is because pother reviewers had said that iyt is very noisy. It is not. It has just a low hum from the fan. I intend to use this in my office. It is small and doesn't take up much space at all. I don't drink soda, but I can store some snacks or water in here so that I don't have to go all the way to our break room. I haven't tested the heating option yet, because I don't think I'll use that feature. I also like how it has a car adapter. I watched a YouTube review of this product where a man said you can leave it plugged in while the car is off and it won't drain the battery. This is not true as the instructions says that it will. Just a heads up. All in all, I would recommended this product.

Good looks and performs well

This cooler has worked quietly on the side of my office desk now for almost 3 months. I didn't have a problem with fan noise like other mentioned so I did not replace the fan. As the cooling mechanism is a simple thermoelectric(Peltier) cooler, I was concerned that it would not chill to my liking. I like my canned soda cold. But this cooler has performed admirably. Keep in mind that this is sitting in an office where the temp is maintained in the mid 70F. If this were in my garage(~88-94F), I may not be as cheery. There is no interior fan so efficiency is gained through direct contact. To maximize chill, I stack the cans horizontally with can bottom very close, if not touching, the cooling plate. I'm noticing frost build up on the inside so I'll need to defrost it for the first time.

GREAT Gift Idea

I work for a doctor who is a big Coke Zero fan. I stumbled across this cute mini-fridge one day while browsing on Amazon (which is about as dangerous as browsing at Target) and immediately thought of him. I bought it as one of those "just because" gifts, and he absolutely adores it. He keeps it under his desk and he's always telling me how much he enjoys it. We have a large staff with just a regular-size refrigerator to accommodate everyone, so I know he appreciates not having to dig through everyone's bags and containers every day to find his soda cans. This is a fun gift ... I kinda wish I needed one for myself!

A convenient cooler for keeping drinks handy.

I have only had this item for a few days so I can't testify as to how it holds up in the long run but let me give the facts on it as I see it now. It is small but that's what I was looking for and this suites me. After removing the shelf I find that 4 16.9 ounce bottles of water fit without .1 ounce to spare. I have had them in it now for 2 full days and have just measured their temperature with an IR digital thermometer and found their temperature to be 47 degrees F. This cooler is in a room with an ambient temp of 76 degrees F so although that is just a little short of the advertised 32 degrees below ambient it is close enough for me. The fan noise is very minimal and I only hear it if the room is totally silent otherwise. When the AC kicks on or if the TV is on I cannot detect the sound of the cooler fan. I also measured it's electricity usage and I find that it uses 1.1 kilowatt of energy in 24 hours. For me that's about 12 cents....not bad at all! It is made of plastic and would not hold up to abuse but if you take care of it I see no reason why it won't hold up fine. I think it is well worth the price Amazon has on it but if you are expecting a real refridgerator you better keep looking and expect to pay a lot more for it plus more to operate it. Just to keep a drink or 2 cool and convenient this works well.

Awesome Koolatron!!

I know a lot o people complain about the noise but it really isn't bad. I keep it behind my desk on top of a file cabinet and it's not distraction at all. It is very convenient if you just want to keep your drinks cold. I can keep 6 cans of 12 FL OZ of Seltzer water or 4 cans of Seltzer and 1 bottle of water (16.9 FL OZ). I love it. Definitely recommend it!

Noisy but very effective cooler - but TOTALLY SILENT after an easy fan replacement.

The reviews seem to split on two issues - is it noisy, and does it cool effectively? If half the reviews were right, it seemed perfect for my desk, because I need a way to have drinks (cold soda, or hot coffee with milk) without having to stop for a long trip to the cafeteria. So, I took a chance. First, on cooling: I think some people are confused about how a thermoelectric refrigerator works. "Normal" refrigerators cool food by cooling the air and blowing it around with a fan, or in some cases by cooling all the interior walls. Since the air and walls have a low thermal mass, refrigerators work BEST when they're mostly full of cold items. So, in general you want to keep them full or almost full, and in small ones if possible you want to pre-cool the items before putting them in (unless you have a lot of time available to remove all that heat.) This refrigerator has two zones - a metallic surface from the back to about 2/3 of the front, and a plastic zone at the last 2" near the door. The cooling ONLY occurs through conductivity at the metallic surfaces, so that's where you want to put milk, dairy products, etc. If the refrigerator is full, the food near the front will be cooled by contact with the cold food in the back, and by the cold air between all the cold foods, but it won't get as cold as the food in the back. I think that's what's causing the "this isn't cold enough" reviews - the sodas and milk I put in the back are VERY cold. (I think they designed the fridge for cans to lay on their side, so the back and front wouldn't have different items. But that won't work on anything but 12 ounce cans.) Now, about the noise: Very annoying and loud whine. It uses what looks like a cheap, noisy 80mm square computer case cooling fan, 20mm thick, drawing 0.15A at 12V. There are many much quieter fans out there, but that thickness is hard to find, I just ordered a much quieter 25mm thick one, and I think there's enough clearance that it will work fine. I also ordered noise-suppression screws - the whole thing was less than $10 plus shipping. The important thing is that the replacement fan can't draw more current than the original. Will it work? Stay tuned - I'm going to update after I put it in and, if it does, I'll give the model info and some assembly tips. (If it doesn't work, I'll learn to live with the noise.) Update 3/8/13: I just replaced the fan with a quieter one, and the fridge - which still cools very well - is now totally silent. I'm changing the rating to five stars, based on how cheap and easy it was to do this. I sit about five feet away from it in my office, and I can't hear anything at all now. Before, the noise was a steady whine that I sorta kinda got almost used to, but now that it's totally gone I can tell from its strong absence that it was an ever-present annoyance. Seriously, I have to check the light to make sure this thing's on. So, here's what I did: I bought a Coolink SWiF-801 80mm Quiet Computer Case Fan from QuietPCUSA (online), which sold it for $4.95 plus shipping. (In Amazon, searching for that model brings up a $30 alternative.) There are many other fans and other vendors to choose from, but any you pick should be (1) 80mm square, no more than 25mm thick, (2) DC12V and a MAXIMUM of 0.15A (the one I bought about half that amperage), (3) specifically rated as quiet - this model claims 11 dB, and (4) have reasonable airflow and RPM (this one claims 38 cubic meters/hour at 1500 RPM.) Frankly, you might do better but at five bucks and near-total silence (vs office background) it's hard to justify the effort to try. I'm not a super-DYI guy, but I got a couple of small wire nuts, a small flat-head screwdriver, and borrowed a wire stripper. The back comes out with eight small screws. The fan comes out with four small screws. The new fan's cable had a connector at the end - I cut it off, cut back the outer sleeve and exposed a couple of inches of the wiring. The yellow wire can be ignored, it's for speed control and the Koolatron's original fan - which I removed with a small flat-head screw driver - only has a black and a red wire. I cut off the original fan's wire and very carefully cut into the wiring insulation to expose the thin metal wires inside. Then I pulled on the insulation with my fingernail, exposing about an inch. Did the same with the black and red wires in the new fan, stranded the like-color ends together, bent the exposed wires in half, connected them with the wiring nuts and then screwed the fan back into the back. I'd bought "anti-vibration fan screws" but they aren't suitable for the Koolatron case, so that was three bucks wasted. I cut out four small squares of thin rubber and placed them between the fan and the case, using the screws to make a tiny gasket. (Chances are, that's not necessary, but I'm not taking it all apart to check.) That's it! Just two wires and twelve small screws, about fifteen minutes if you've ever stripped a wire and used a screwdriver. And, man, is it quiet!

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