It's a thermoelectric cooler. It does not have a traditional compressor. If I remember correctly it will get rough 20* cooler than the outside. It will not freeze stuff or really even cool stuff like you probably would want it to. That is the reason the price is so low. A real refrigerator/cooler like that would be at least $400.
I know this is from Wikipedia but food for thought:
Thermoelectric junctions are generally only around 5-10% as efficient as the ideal refrigerator (Carnot cycle), compared with 40-60% achieved by conventional compression cycle systems (reverse Rankine systems like a compressor).
I have a Coleman like that, It was about $55.00(Walmart) 4 years ago, It works well, But it isnt a refrig. it will keep things about 20-30 deg. cooler than the temp outside.
Ive been happy with ours and for the cost you cant beat what it does, Ours will heat as well, If you reverse the plug, Has AC/DC hookups http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4810828
IIRC mine was cheaper, But this looks a little different, Like the fan unit sticks out more than our.
Good luck
I have one of those, mine's older with a "Koolatron" label, but it looks exactly like that. I bought it in '97 when we were taking a long cross-country journey (6 weeks), most of it camping, and I didn't want to hassle with buying ice. This was before the better ARB/Engel/whoever fridges were popular.
It sucked. Keeps a delta-T of about 40 degrees maximum, after running for 2-3 days solid. I could NEVER turn it off. A few times in Arizona we had to buy ice anyway, just to keep stuff from spoiling. The cheap latch snapped off after only a few weeks.
I don't think I've used it since we got back from the trip. I probably never will.
Have to agree with the above, with the added thought that if you get one large enough to act as a regular icebox, for <$100 it will make your bagged ice last for days and days longer than it would have otherwise. A coleman one made me happy for a long time in this way. I could go out for 5 days on one 10lb bag of ice.
But you still have bagged ice, water everywhere, ziplocks needed up the wazoo.....
