Back to Dick's Gadget Warehouse! The Sharper Imagine Mini-Fridge.

The Snack Box holds up to 6 cans of soda.The Sharper Image Hot+Cold Snack Box came out a dozen years in 2001. Here’s a description of it from the web: “Perfect for work or travel, Sharper Image's versatile Hot+Cold Snack Box is ready to grab and go! This innovative device features clean, quiet, environmentally friendly electronics to keep cold drinks cold and hot foods hot with the flip of a switch. Drinks and cold foods can be kept cool at 42F. Or keep takeout, hot sandwiches, and other cooked dishes nice and warm at 140F. The hinged door with lock keeps the insulated interior at a constant temperature for as long as it's plugged in. Can stand upright like a mini refrigerator or go on its side like a cooler. Measures OUTSIDE 10-1/2 by 7-4/5 by 11-4/5 inches; INSIDE 10" wide 5 3/4" wide 5 1/4" deep.”  And now back to me: What is missing from the description above is that this Hot+Cold “mini-fridge” uses Thermoelectric or Peltier cooling. It doesn’t use a compressor like a normal refrigerator, which also means it doesn’t cool like one. It’s quieter and cheaper to run than a mini-fridge, but it can only lower the temperature of a can of soda by about 30 to 40 degrees than the surrounding temperature. I tried using it on my boat, but when the boat is locked and sitting in the sun, the interior temps are about 90 to 100 degrees. That means I can have a can of soda chilled to 50 to 70 degrees. Not really a cold beverage. I never used it for holding warm food, but there are warnings all over the box, not to use to store warm food for more than one hour. Hot+Cold is no longer made, but they are dozens of them for sale on Ebay, mostly in the $30 to $40 range. New it sold for $79.95. Checking around the web, it looks like there are other new versions of thermoelectric “ice boxes” still being made.

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