I guess Coleman is giving up on their Stirling coolers and having a closeout sale. $299 while they last is my understanding.
It ain't quite an Engel. But it ain't quite $695 either.
I bought one 4 days ago and I don't love it but I gotta say I do like it, I like it quite a bit.
It's got 5 modes. 3 fridge modes and 2 freezer modes.
According to the manual:
"Cool-1" Approx 50 degrees
"Cool-2" Approx 43 degrees
"Cool-3" Approx 37 degrees
"Freeze-1" Approx 19 degrees
"Freeze-2" Approx 0 degrees
My fridge thermometer is showing a few degrees higher than what's claimed. My only complaint here is that I wish there was a 33 degree mode, like for when you add a few warm cans at once and you'd like to enjoy a cold coke in an hour or two (it seems a little lame somehow at chilling stuff that isn't prechilled, not enough air circulation maybe). But then again, if it kicked butt in that way it probably couldn't stake it's claim to being at least as efficient as an Engel. I haven't had it long enough yet to report what juice it uses except to say it's very efficient.
A couple of negatives worth mentioning are that the freaking thing is HUGE on the outside and only claims 26 qts capacity. Another somewhat negative is the noise. Cool-1 and 2 are just about silent. On cool-3 it emits a somewhat annoying low pitched hum. The 2 freeze modes get kind of loud. The first couple of days I left it on Cool-3 during the day and turned it down a notch when I wanted to sleep. Then a day or two ago I happened to lay something on the cooler and Cool-3 suddenly sounded almost as quiet as Cool-2. lol The plastic case doesn't feel like it's vibrating in such a way that it would create tons of noise and I'm sure I wasn't blocking any vent holes. Oh well, I'll just add it to my list of as-yet unsolved mysteries.
I like it.
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ers-12685.html to get some technical info about amps used etc.
http://www.coleman.com/coleman/campcoleman/default.asp for a list of locations.