- Countertop refrigerator chills up to 28 12-ounce cans of soda
- Simple, front-access, push-button controls with LED read-out
- Thermoelectric cooling system; adjustable temperature settings
- Self-locking recessed door handle; front viewing window
- Measures 14-3/5 by 14-1/5 by 19-4/5 inches
why i bought it: general purpose drink cooler for beer and sodas
packaging: light weight box, shipping foam on top and bottom, in plastic
whats in the box: the koolatron, 1 car adapter, 1 ac to dc power brick, instructions for use
first thoughts: the fridge is as awesome as pictured, full coke logos on the sides, COKE printed on the glass door, brilliant red plastic casing, awesome front door screen printing,
Instruction Oddities: the koolatron has two operating modes Normal and Mute witch require manual switching, per the directions you must clean the back fan ducts once a month to prevent burnout as there is a large air intake in the back. the internal circulation vents cannot be blocked, therefore its not possible to cool unit with as many cans as pictured. light up buttons as mentioned fail to mention that whats used for the lighting are actually insanely bright blue led's. 6 inch 180 rear clearance required for air circ AND the dc power brick must be ventilated. max cooling potential is listed as 8C but room temperature is a factor.
USE:
plug in the machine and the fans kick on with a nice little roar. In normal operation mode the unit is loud. will take 8 hours to cool to nominal temp in normal mode operation. for my unit this is 11C to 13C as my room can be high in humidity and around 70 to 75. once the unit gets to the designated tempflip the switch in the back to "mute mode" mute mode will hold the temp of the unit as best as possibleoperation in this mode is "whisper quiet". so far for cooling the unit keeps my sodas and beer chilled but not exactly "frosty"
USE ODDITIES:
1, the ac to dc power adapter is about the size of a brick and it gets extremely hot in "normal operation" mode, no really it get hot enough where you cant hold on to it for long so the adapter must be kept off the ground and away from anything that could catch fire, my koolatron lives on a craftsman rolling tool cart, so the adapter basically gets to sit on a steel plate with tons of airspace around it. In Mute mode, the power brick cools down considerably but is very warm to the touch
2, In both mute mode and Normal mode the unit constantly cycles in order to keep the temp down.
3. cant stand up a long neck beer with the shelf installed, so either you have to not use the shelf, or use cans only,or lay the beer on its side.
DO I LIKE:
i think the unit is ok, its got amazing looks but they need to improve the cooling spec as the repetitive cycling is excessive and the ac adapter needs a rework.
also the blue LEDS in the front are annoying at night as they light up the entire room if not coverd
Buy Koolatron KWC-25 Coca-Cola 28-Can-Capacity Portable Fridge with LED Display Now
This is the sweetest lil' fridge ever!!!! i love it! it keeps drink nice and cold (somewhere around 38-42 degrees i would say). the only bad thing about it, and its not really that bad, but, every 3 weeks or so, you have to drain the condensation collecting shelf on the bottom. if you dont.....it fills up and spills! not a big deal though, especially if you drink the cokes you put in there. just wait until you refill it with cokes every couple weeks and then dump it. its a small fridge, so it doesnt come with all the perks of a full size fridge. never-the-less, its a great little addition to a bonus room, game room or even a bedroom.
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First off, I know this is not a true "refrigerator" but a thermo-electric cooler.If all you are using this for is to have ice cold drinks in a near room temperature room, this is perfectly fine.
I bought this fridge specifically to keep drinks cold in my media room.The room temperature is around 74-78 Fahrenheit throughout the day, and this fridge has no problem keeping 28 cans at 37-41 degrees F.It is even able to do this in its whisper quiet mode(low fan speed). The initial cool-down of the 28 cans took a good 8 hours, but afterward it didn't budge from ~40f even after adding a few warm cans, which is great. The walls also do a good job insulating the fridge to my surprise.
The build quality of the frame is pretty decent.The red plastic actually looks pretty nice and not cheap like I thought.It looks much classier and is a more attractive addition than just your standard mini-fridge (thus the price premium). The radiator and fan in the back are enclosed by a another thinner piece of plastic but it seems fine.The four buttons on the front glow a fairly bright blue color as does the LCD...this may be annoying to some people as the only way to shut off the lights is to shut off the entire unit (cooling and all), but this doesn't bother me too much.The first button is the master power on and off.The middle two buttons adjust the set temperature from 2-60 Celsius (about 35-140 Fahrenheit).The last button on the right turns on a small light inside that casts a nice looking glow across the cans...it illuminates the window nicely.The LCD screen reports the temperature inside the fridge at all times unless you adjust the temperature, at which point it shows you what the target temp is.
For the first few days I really loved the fridge, but I woke up one day and the LCD was reporting 54 degrees Celsius (129 Fahrenheit) for the cooler temperature.I opened the fridge and found everything still very cold like normal.It turns out the LCD screen just went crazy.It just kept reporting random temperatures from 30 65 Celsius.I'm guessing it was just a bad temperature sensor as the unit was still cooling fine.I notified Amazon and they immediately shipped me a replacement and scheduled a UPS pickup of my old one at no charge.I couldn't ask for better service than that.Overall, I love the fridge...just a little disappointed that I need to exchange it.Overall, I think it's a great product and makes a great addition to my theater room.
*******************UPDATE 11/23/2012***************
Well about 3 months ago (or about 2 years after purchase) the unit died and no longer turns on.Thankfully I bought a square-trade warranty for it and they refunded me the full purchase price!All of these little refrigerators die at some point it seems, so if you do decide to get it, get the twenty dollar warranty so you are prepared when it does finally break...
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I, just like many people who have reviewed this ahead of me, had the same issue with it malfunctioning/dying after about 10 months.
It suddenly in the middle of the night started to blink on and off and the fan was no longer functioning.
As a previous reviewer mentioned, this item only has a 90 day warranty. So it is not returnable.
Also, while it worked, it was pretty nice, but you had to empty out a lot of water build up at the bottom at least once a week.
Now that it does not work anymore, I guess the only function it will now serve me is as a medicine cabinet I guess...
It is too bad.
I warn those of you who are considering to purchase this, know IT WILL DIE on you in less than a year.
Since it was a newer item 10 months ago, no one had known that it was going to be faulty like this...seems all of us who purchased this item 9 or 10 months ago are having this Fridge death issue.
So those of you who have not purchased this, consider yourself lucky!
This is a strange-looking fridge.Honestly one that I was not that proud to have in my office.But I overlooked that and embraced its kitsch, and used it as a daily-use fridge (24x7).That was 4 months ago.
About 1 month ago, it started to randomly shut off.We all know what happens when should-be-refrigerated things are not refrigerated.It became more and more frequent and now stays on for about 2 minutes at a time.
Look elsewhere for your daily use fridge.
This was pretty difficult to get on, once I finally got it on 'good enough' there were small bubbles I hoped would go away.Went out of town for a week and came back to find that there is now a GIANT bubble going through the whole thing, which means I need to reapply.Not happy, would not recommend.
