I've used a few Peltier Effect coolers before I went to an Engel refrigerator and haven't looked back since.

I think the Peltier coolers work cool in moderate weather and when the stuff is already cold. What didn't work for me was the 40 degree differntial limit in really hot weather like 90-100 degrees and how long it took to cool things down that were placed in the cooler at ambient tempature. They do draw very little power and could theoretically be left on all day long or better yet, attached to a solar panel and just left turned on all the time, not even plugged into the car electrical system.

I think they would work a lot better if they had much larger element and fans or multiple elments. Of course this would draw more power, and cost more money, but I think it would be worth it, since there's a massively huge price gap between the moderately effective standard Peltier coolers and the super expensive real refrigerators from Engel, etc.

I started to canabalize my three Peltier coolers to make one really nice one, but gave up on that project when I bought the Engel. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />