Ambiano Electric Travel Cooler
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated for 2025.
This post is an open thread and contains affiliate links.
Half the battle of getting to a party is getting the food to the party. We’ve all been there: we’re going to someplace hot with cold drinks … all while the cold drinks are warming up in the greenhouse heat of the car. Or, we’re going to someplace cold and bringing hot food … all while the hot food is cooling off in the frigid trunk of a car in the middle of winter.
For a number of years now, Aldi has sold a gadget that claims to be able to solve these problems: an electric cooler.
What We Know:
The Ambiano Electric Travel Cooler is an Aldi Find, which means it’s only in stores for a short time. Once it’s sold out, you won’t be able to get it until it comes back, which is probably going to be the next year. Aldi doesn’t ship products online, so if you don’t find it in your local store, you’re out of luck.
Aldi has sold this electric travel cooler under three different house brands. Back in the 2010s it was sold as the Adventuridge Iceless Electric Cooler. Around 2021, it was rebranded the Auto XS Electric Travel Cooler. And then 2025, it was again rebranded, this time as the Ambiano Electric Travel Cooler. Despite the private label name changes, it appears to be a very similar product across the different labels.
In 2025, the travel cooler cost $59.99. That’s the same price it’s cost going back to 2022, and more than the $49.99 it went for in 2021 and earlier. At it’s current price, the cooler is much less than electric coolers I can find on Amazon.
Color options vary from year to year. In 2025, it came in blue or gray.
In recent years, it has come with a 2-year warranty, serviced by a company with an address at h-u-p.com. A visit to that site indicates it’s a German company, but I don’t know much about it beyond that. Aldi’s digital product listing indicates it is made in China.
According to Aldi, the cooler measures 15.2″ wide, 11.6″ high, and 18.9“ deep — enough for thirty-six 12-ounce cans, 10 1-liter bottles, or six 2-liter bottles. It can be used either in the car accessory socket (commonly called the cigarette lighter adapter) or plugged into a standard 2-prong wall outlet, both of which are stored in a cable storage compartment.
Aldi claims that this can cool to 36 degrees Fahrenheit below room temperature or heat up to 131 degrees Fahrenheit. The lid can be propped halfway open with the handle, or the lid can be removed entirely.
What We Don’t Know:
We haven’t reviewed this specific model, so we can’t speak to how well it performs compared to what it claims to do, or how long it lasts. We’ve created this open thread for users to share their experiences.
Do you have experience with this item? Let us know in the comments.
Purchased this week and connected electrically in house to see performance. It took about 10 hours to cool sufficiently my beers. Purchased to keep in my SUV. a bit bigger than I thought. Works well but a bit noisy. It’s a keeper. If not connected it’s still a good travel cooler/ Price is right
Wow 10 hrs to get cold that not good
It pays to put in a couple of good sized ice bricks probably 1 to 2 hours before adding food with cooler switched on. Then put ice bricks on top of food. I had no problems with 30c days in the car for 4hours (engine off) and car in the sun with windows lightly cracked open.
I have had mine for at least 6 years and use it regularly 4hrs X twice weekly.
I purchased and tested this cooler/warmer. Both functions were as documented. Reviews for similar coolers always suggest that you pre-chill everything before loading into the cooler. If you have extra space, it will also help to put in frozen water bottles or frozen ice packs.
When did you get your coolers. I’ve been waiting for two weeks for our store to get them in. Every morning I have been to our store and I the same answer. The supplier has is behind on shipping to our location
A lot of retailers, including Aldi, have been experiencing shipping delays lately. Hopefully you find a cooler soon! https://www.aldireviewer.com/whats-up-with-aldi-find-product-shipping-delays/
Just bought my XS cooler and plugged it in. The fan seems a little noisy, but I won;t give it a thoubs up or down until I have tried it a week. Watch this space.
I have this cooler but the 12v does not plug into my car. Is there an adapter of some kind to make it fit?
They make dc to ac adapters. I have two: a very beefy one and then my every day one for regular use in charging tools. The beefy one is used for long hauls if I need to cook. I do have a larger than I should have battery in my jeep but my alternator keeps up fine as its not a huge jump from the original battery size and this helps in keeping my battery alive during those big hauls. Do not do this unless you know what your alternator can handle lest you go through them like my husband does with his mazda and its mustang batteries lol
Look in the power cord compartment. The DV “cigarette lighter” should be tucked back in there.
Found it. Removed the red cap!!! Now it fits. Thanks Daniel for making me look again.
It did work for us this weekend using the regular plug. Next time we are fully prepared!!!
I decided to return my cooler. There is nothing wrong with it; it seems sturdily built. No complaints. I just realized I wanted fridge that cools, not a cooler that keeps cool. This product does that well enough.
Mine keeps freezing up- I have to unplug and defrost every couple days😳😳🤷♀️
It’s freezing up because there is liquid in the bottom of the cooler like water from melted ice. Remove all the water at the bottom and the icing up will stop. I speak from experience.
Also if the lid is not completely closed icing up will occur due to humidity entering the cabinet.
I own a different brand, but it says it is not designed to be used as a refrigerator. I find that I need to unplug it for about an hour each day if I want to use for a few days in a row.
Just bought the current iteration. Set it on the kitchen counter, plugged in the 120v. Put a room temp bottle of water (approx. 74deg) and a thermometer at the bottom. 6hrs later was chilling to 49deg. I’m gonna let it run all night and see what we get.
I loved mine until 2 weeks ago when it stopped working with the DV plug. I brought it in the house and it works on DC. I found a fuse for it in the storage compartment, but don’t know where it goes. Any ideas?
For the record, I use it to put my cold groceries in after visiting stores a distance away, and for taking both hot and cold dishes to different locations.
Quite possibly the fuse, extras are provided in the cord compartment.
* Instructions are in the manual! *
Most of the time to replace the fuse in a cig lighter plug, there would be a way to unscrew either the tip or the whole case and where you would see the old fuse to insert a different one.
where is the location of the fuse
in the plug itself,in the part that conects to 12v socket
The fuse should go in the accessory plug itself the top should screw off and the fuse should be directly under it. If it’s the glass tube style fuse anyhow
Does this cooler come with a manual?
Yes.
How long does it take to get cooled
Purchased this to keep cooling collars for our dog at dog shows. Used this weekend and it worked great. People who think you it’s like a refrigerator need to research what the product is or you’ll likely be disappointed. It’s not a refrigerator, y’all. We put a large zip lock bag of ice in, then the dog’s ice collars, and another zip lock of ice on top. The ice and collars stayed frozen all day. You can’t put loose ice in it, it has to be ice packs or sealed bags of ice.
It IS a refrigerator… you plug it into either 12v dc socket or a 110v ac socket since it comes with both cords connected in the sliding trapdoor in the lid. It takes a long time to get really cold on 12v, especially if you’re keeping it in a vehicle. Best practice is to start it inside on 110 volt wall plug with cold items from the kitchen fridge in it. It won’t hurt to put pre-frozen cold packs in the bottom to start with – they’ll help keep things cold from the bottom. Once cold, you can operate it in the car on the “ECO” setting and it will lower the power consumption. This is the best deal out there for a traveling/camping REFRIGERATOR – I know this because I have spent dozens of hours researching camping refrigerators. Do yourself a favor and get one before they’re again for a year.
Purchased the 2025 model Ambiano Travel Cooler on 8/24/2025.
This is my first time buying a 12V mini cooler. I plugged it into a 120V AC outlet at home. I turned on the power and rotated the temperature control to a little bit below the “maximum” setting. Then I placed two thermometers inside with no food or cans, just the thermometers: one was a refrigerator/freezer thermometer and the other a standard “bulb” type, wall thermometer. Then I closed the lid. After at least 2 hours, or maybe it was 3 hours, I checked the temperature on the thermometers and they both read about 52 degrees Fahrenheit. The room temperature in my home was about 76 degrees F. So this was about 24 degrees (+/- 4 degrees) BELOW the ambient room temperature. At first this seems to be a rather weak amount of cooling. But remember, this is NOT a refrigerator! It is a different type of cooler. The instructions recommend placing pre-chilled items into the unit. As far as I can tell, these types of units are simply designed to eliminate the need for ice or those “freezer ice blocks”. These are not a refrigerator equivalent. The technology is just to remove the heat energy inside by using a kind of a heat exchanger. (My description). Therefore, if you keep that in mind, and place pre-chilled items inside, for example, in your car or SUV, you should be able to expect your drinks and/or other items to stay cool without the need for ice or freezer packs. The little fan in the unit can only do so much. I also think that it won’t last that long because it is a tiny fan. The warranty is for 2 years, and that’s probably the longest warranty you’ll find in a powered travel cooler. I might try placing pre-chilled items in the unit, along with a few freezer packs, and plugging it into the 12V outlet in my car while on a long road trip. If you expect a lot more than this, then you’ll have to spend $200 or more, or buy an RV with a mini-fridge in it, in which case, you wouldn’t be interested in a budget unit like the Aldi Ambiano. But, for $60, I think it is pretty decent. There are no units on Amazon at this size for anywhere near this great price.
Thanks for the info!
Our 2 units seem to be working properly in our car but when I plugged them in with the 110 plug the fan just barely seemed to turn and there was no cooling effect to speak of. The receptacles work with everything else. Anybody know what might be wrong?
Unfortunately this is a Peltier cooler.
This is great for keeping food hot, or stuff that doesn’t need to stay cold to be food safe.
But I’d suggest anyone looking at these, to also look at compressor fridges, for about $100-200 you can get a compressor fridge/freezer that can have a set temperature, and get down to -4°F for use as a freezer, using about 1/4th of the energy of this cooler… This cooler uses over 60watts the entire time it is on. A compressor fridge will use about 60watts, but only will only run for 10-20mins each hour once it gets down to temperature. Also a compressor fridge can get down to food safe temperature from 70+ degrees in about 30-40min instead of 10hrs