Thank you for doing a proper review! All the other reviews of personal chillers just consist of people unboxing, turning it on, and saying "wow it chills!".
Good review. I found one at a local thrift store, and they gave me it for free because they had no way to test it. It only had a car power cable. I tested it today while I drove about 15 miles. I used a couple of room temp bottles of water. At my destination, the bottles were SLIGHTLY colder than before. I was about to toss the fridge. But maybe Tomorrow I'll test it with a chilled bottle and see what happens. I don't mind that it only has a car cable. That's probably the only place I will need it.
I bought this for my wife to keep her skin care product chilled. Works perfect for that since you don't want it colder then 50 degrees. And this was half the price when compared to the mini fridges marketed towards make up and skincare.
We bought a Coleman about 4X that size about 10 years ago.I dug it out from the basement and have been testing it. I was surprised. I t keeps the temp at 29.0 * with ambient at 71* I never expected a 40* drop from ambient! It never cycles off. I’m going to see about the endurance. Thanks👍👍👍
great video, you mentioned that it doesnt have a lot of cooling power my plan was to drill two holes and fill the fridge with as much aquariumtubing possible and connect a pump to it in order to circulate the aquarium water through it in order to cool it. its about 20L I have to cool, in summer its 27 in the room and the aquarium heats up to 25. Do you think it will keep the tank under 23? greetings
I doubt it, a 4 pack of cans is only 1.5 of water, and that's inside the insulated fridge body. I expect that the aquarium would pick up heat faster from the environment than the TEC could get rid of it. It MIGHT just barely be able to keep the Aquarium 4 degrees below ambient. If you insulated the slides, bottom, and back of the aquarium that would help a lot.
It would be better than nothing, but a dorm fridge would work a lot better, and probably use the same amount of power. It runs on 12v, but also has a 120v cord for home use.
Hi Jay, I'm not sure if you can help or not but I'll toss the question out there anyway. I have a similar fridge made for Frigidaire and it worked flawlessly for 2+ years to cool my insulin. I've moved and all I did was unplug, move and plug it back in. The green operation light now flashes and the fridge won't run. It's a simple design but I'm not sure how to fix it. Any ideas?
From a monetary situation it's not worth the time to fix because they are so inexpensive. My best guess would be that either something failed in the power supply, or the TEC module itself has burnt out. (I would suspect it's the power supply.) You could try swapping the power supply out entirely, but I doubt you would find one to fit the exact spot correctly. It is always possible to try and find a bad component in replace it but as I said not worth the time.
@@dearlaserworks I did not measure DC directly, but the power supply had minimal idle draw, so I expect the watt draw in DC will be very similar to AC. Although you will save a little power due to efficiency losses in the switch mode AC-> DC power supply, I would be surprised if the DC draw was any lower than 3 to 3.5 amps. If you are running it off of a battery (as opposed to when the vehicle engine is running) you will be much better served by a compressor based fridge.
@@summetj, My thought was to use it in an RV for a short trip by myself without needing to run the whole fridge. Under $50 was the appeal, but it’s not really cold enough. It’s probably much simpler to just take a plain cooler & some ice. Thanks for your help.
I'm asking because I noticed that It doesn't have a thermostat like normal refrigerators which control the working time of the compressor. and keep it from overheating.
@@محمدالبلوشي-ح6ق The thermal electric junction won't have enough cooling power to accidentally freeze anything It has to run continuously just to maintain some amount of cooling. On the plus side it's a solid state device with no moving parts so its most likely that the fan on the heat sink would fail first.
Jay is there any way you could hack this to cool a little more? It's the perfect size for my workplace where the ambient temperature is sometimes 28-30 degrees Celsius. I don't think it would cool enough.
The only way to have it cool more would be to lower the temperature of the air blowing onto the outside of the Thermo Electric Cooler. [Or just unplug it and use it like a cooler with a frozen ice-pack / blue ice that you bring from a freezer at home/work].
@@summetjThank you. I would be safe to assume that the ice pack in the fridge (while it's running) wouldn't help drop the temperature inside it? Maybe a fridge with a compressor is the thing I'm after. I subbed for the thoroughness and overall great quality of the review.
@@SA-fx4id I don't think that running the TEC would add much cooling over and above an ice pack. Compressor based fridge is the way to go unless you need it to be extremely small.
Soooo do you think this is good for like a good cup of coke or Pepsi like I’m a gamer and just want to put this on my table to have a cold drink is this worth buying?
Thank you for doing a proper review! All the other reviews of personal chillers just consist of people unboxing, turning it on, and saying "wow it chills!".
Good review. I found one at a local thrift store, and they gave me it for free because they had no way to test it. It only had a car power cable. I tested it today while I drove about 15 miles. I used a couple of room temp bottles of water. At my destination, the bottles were SLIGHTLY colder than before. I was about to toss the fridge. But maybe Tomorrow I'll test it with a chilled bottle and see what happens. I don't mind that it only has a car cable. That's probably the only place I will need it.
I bought this for my wife to keep her skin care product chilled. Works perfect for that since you don't want it colder then 50 degrees. And this was half the price when compared to the mini fridges marketed towards make up and skincare.
Now this is a proper review/demonstrational video.
Thank you for the technical and in depth review! I greatly appreciate it!
Thank you for doing that. You helped me to make my decision.
We bought a Coleman about 4X that size about 10 years ago.I dug it out from the basement and have been testing it. I was surprised. I t keeps the temp at 29.0 * with ambient at 71* I never expected a 40* drop from ambient! It never cycles off. I’m going to see about the endurance. Thanks👍👍👍
My dorm fridge use 60 watts and has a freezer compartment and is way bigger. Tec coolers are only good for super cheap bedroom drink coolers
This was really handy. Thanks!
Really awesome video. Thank you sir!
this efficiency compares to a way larger mini dorm fridges, this is not efficient at all, thanks for a great review!
No, no it is not. The only possible benefit is its small size.
great video, you mentioned that it doesnt have a lot of cooling power
my plan was to drill two holes and fill the fridge with as much aquariumtubing possible and connect a pump to it in order to circulate the aquarium water through it in order to cool it.
its about 20L I have to cool, in summer its 27 in the room and the aquarium heats up to 25.
Do you think it will keep the tank under 23?
greetings
I doubt it, a 4 pack of cans is only 1.5 of water, and that's inside the insulated fridge body. I expect that the aquarium would pick up heat faster from the environment than the TEC could get rid of it. It MIGHT just barely be able to keep the Aquarium 4 degrees below ambient. If you insulated the slides, bottom, and back of the aquarium that would help a lot.
If you haven't already, no. These suck. Absolutely worthless.
Thank you so much
probs cold enough to use for insulin on emergency grid system perhaps? 12v/110v?
It would be better than nothing, but a dorm fridge would work a lot better, and probably use the same amount of power. It runs on 12v, but also has a 120v cord for home use.
Great review. Thank you
Hi Jay, I'm not sure if you can help or not but I'll toss the question out there anyway. I have a similar fridge made for Frigidaire and it worked flawlessly for 2+ years to cool my insulin. I've moved and all I did was unplug, move and plug it back in. The green operation light now flashes and the fridge won't run. It's a simple design but I'm not sure how to fix it. Any ideas?
From a monetary situation it's not worth the time to fix because they are so inexpensive. My best guess would be that either something failed in the power supply, or the TEC module itself has burnt out. (I would suspect it's the power supply.) You could try swapping the power supply out entirely, but I doubt you would find one to fit the exact spot correctly. It is always possible to try and find a bad component in replace it but as I said not worth the time.
You think it’s safe for storing bottles of milk for a day? Using it for my 1 year old
If they start out cold, yes it should be able to maintain the temp
Very helpful, thanks. I couldn’t find specs on current draw anywhere else. Have you measured draw using 12VDC?
45 watts at 12v = 45/12 = 3.75 Amps
@@summetj Thanks. I did that math, but was curious if was same power consumption on DC as AC.
@@dearlaserworks I did not measure DC directly, but the power supply had minimal idle draw, so I expect the watt draw in DC will be very similar to AC. Although you will save a little power due to efficiency losses in the switch mode AC-> DC power supply, I would be surprised if the DC draw was any lower than 3 to 3.5 amps. If you are running it off of a battery (as opposed to when the vehicle engine is running) you will be much better served by a compressor based fridge.
@@summetj, My thought was to use it in an RV for a short trip by myself without needing to run the whole fridge. Under $50 was the appeal, but it’s not really cold enough. It’s probably much simpler to just take a plain cooler & some ice. Thanks for your help.
Hi. can I keep it run for 24/7 like a normal kitchen refrigerator??
Yes, you can as long as you don't mind paying for the power it uses.
I'm asking because I noticed that It doesn't have a thermostat like normal refrigerators which control the working time of the compressor. and keep it from overheating.
@@محمدالبلوشي-ح6ق The thermal electric junction won't have enough cooling power to accidentally freeze anything It has to run continuously just to maintain some amount of cooling. On the plus side it's a solid state device with no moving parts so its most likely that the fan on the heat sink would fail first.
This is a great and helpful video
Jay is there any way you could hack this to cool a little more? It's the perfect size for my workplace where the ambient temperature is sometimes 28-30 degrees Celsius. I don't think it would cool enough.
The only way to have it cool more would be to lower the temperature of the air blowing onto the outside of the Thermo Electric Cooler. [Or just unplug it and use it like a cooler with a frozen ice-pack / blue ice that you bring from a freezer at home/work].
@@summetjThank you. I would be safe to assume that the ice pack in the fridge (while it's running) wouldn't help drop the temperature inside it?
Maybe a fridge with a compressor is the thing I'm after.
I subbed for the thoroughness and overall great quality of the review.
@@SA-fx4id I don't think that running the TEC would add much cooling over and above an ice pack. Compressor based fridge is the way to go unless you need it to be extremely small.
Should I buy it from amazon? I’m tempted to
Soooo do you think this is good for like a good cup of coke or Pepsi like I’m a gamer and just want to put this on my table to have a cold drink is this worth buying?
Sure, as long as you pre-cool it in a real fridge before putting it in it will keep it cold for a few hours.
Upto how much temperature we can decrease
Absolute max of 15 deg C below ambient.
@@summetj i cant understand sir
@@summetj its termo electric refrigerator only sir
@@tech_gadgets._ The interior will never be more than 15 deg C lower than the exterior of the fridge.
@@tech_gadgets._ Yes
Excellent review, thank you