@AaronLeeJohnson@alacrity@Lynnerizer Fortnite has been an incredibly valuable containment facility ever since it stopped being a zombie game during development, and quarantined all the squeakers out of the lobbies of real games.
@retro603
Second try at leaving a comment since my cat just swiped the phone out of my hand just before hitting say it a minute ago. How ironic… He’s not happy about ME playing MY GAME! You know, life needs to stop when kitty wants lovens!
Yeah you’ve got that right! His parents created a monster without even knowing! It’s heartbreaking to know that kids are feeling those out of control feelings that go along with addiction, of any kind. I’d like to say that I’d nip it in the bud but easier said than done, especially when it’s not even my child! At least it’s not drugs, alcohol or something worse.
They used to say pot was the gateway to other, more worse drugs. Is gaming now thought to be the new gateway…?
@Lynnerizer@retro603 boxes - the gateway to catnip and cheese and wasting away in a sunbeam … That doesn’t sound too bad. To borrow from 2025’s Hank Hill, I could be retiring like a nepo-baby.
@Kyeh@melliott mine from the Meh-rathon arrived today. I have to say I’m surprised: the bag is not a “bag” but a semi-hard styrofoam box with a shoulder strap.
The Peltier effect is helped along by a fan, so while not a heat pump, it’s more than just a Peltier pad. (It’s like a convection reverse oven… or if you set it to Hot, convection EZ bake)
This is a fairly sturdy box, not a bag (the walls are soft but it doesn’t collapse)
The environment was a back porch. Temperature climbed from 85 to 90 in the shade.
Items cooled were two room temperature glass bottles of water, a room temperature can of soda, a cold soda from the fridge, two cold glass bottles of water, and a room thermometer.
The thermometer in the box dropped to 30 below ambient in possibly under 15 minutes (having cold drinks inside probably helped) – so around 55 degrees. The cold drinks still felt cold. The warm drinks still felt warm.
After 30~40 more minutes, the bag remained 30 below ambient (though in this case ambient raised to 90; the internal was 60). The cold water was still cool, but no longer cold. The warm water became cool to drink. This is similar to Peltier cooler a friend has (which is about twice the size and has sturdier walls), and it cools much faster than a Peltier mini-fridge. Cold drinks will stay chilled but not cold.
I’ve turned the fan off and await to see how well the insulation holds (probably 20~30 minutes to reach ambient).
My biggest gripe is that this isn’t collapsible. I was hoping for a mid-point between small fridge with compressor that’s too big and small Peltier fridge that’s also too big (when not used).
20 minutes have passed while being off and it’s at 10 degrees below ambient. Though I haven’t tested it recently, this is about as good as a regular insulated tote bag. And those things collapse.
Also pretty power-hungry, as a Peltier junction maxes out at about 15% of the efficiency of a standard vapor-compression refrigeration system. Don’t leave it running in your car with the engine off.
@blaadnort 12V 5A suggests this will pull 60W. And it will do so all the time. I was thinking this might be a cool way to keep things cool while traveling, but 60W might be a bit much for a motorcyle alternator. And there’s definitely a big risk of draining the battery of your vehicle when stopped. I’m a big fan of Technology Connections and he has a great video explaining why these are a bad idea:
@blaadnort@einrad Agree these are not power-efficient. Don’t see a spec on the actual power draw of the cooler, but the 5A adapter is just a standard off-the-shelf 12V adapter. So probably oversized just because it’s a typical size for that type. I.e., it’s probably not consuming 60W
@blaadnort@einrad@pmarin there’s also a fan circulating air from the room, so that’s what I’m assuming is the revolutionary method (pulling air across the Peltier to cool – almost like a convection oven pulls air across heated coils to circulate)
It took 15 minutes to drop 30 degrees below room temperature; let’s see how this looks in another 30 minutes.
@blaadnort@pakopako@pmarin Fans are also nothing new with TEC cooling. A peltier element works best when the hot air gets dispersed quickly. 15 minutes to reach target temp sounds pretty good.
Would be nice to have some power reading from a kill-a-watt or something like it. I suspect that there’s a 5A peltier element with a heat sink and a computer fan in there.
@einrad Having an electric cooler on the back of a motorcycle is nice, I’ve done that before to try and keep water bottles cold on hot days, and it does an OK job. It is not super high wattage, I don’t recall the specs on mine but 60w is barely more than a single headlight bulb.
@einrad@Froggy I have that same cooler that I seem to remember getting either from Woot or Meh. The bearing on the fan motor started going out not long after and I replaced it with a PC fan.
@Froggy@kuoh Thanks for confirming my intended purpose. I ended up buying one and I’ll report back here on actual power consumption when I have it. If it’s not too much of a power draw, it might come with me on hot summer days
The interesting part of the Technology Connections video starts at 4m39s. The main take away points are 1) Peltier coolers only cool about 30°F (16°C) below ambient - if it’s 80°F (27°C) outside, then the cooler will only get down to 50°F (10°C) at best and that’s not food safe.
2) Peltier junctions are very inefficient compared to compressor/heat-pump refrigeration and therefore pull their full current draw the whole time they’re on.
I had a hard plastic version of something like this awhile back and have been meaning to get a replacement. I use cooler bags in the car for Cold groceries or hot takeout. This would be a nice easy to boost that. Like I said, I’ve had something similar before so I have appropriate expectations. We’ll see.
Specs
Product: HALO Thermoelectric 15L Hybrid Cooler and Heater Bag
Model: E316843154000
Condition: New
What’s Included?
Warranty
90 days
Estimated Delivery
Friday, Jul 25 - Monday, Jul 28
Not as good as Halo 1.
@yakkoTDI You forgot the link. Go get more coffee.
Halo 1
@alacrity Fortnite continues to be a mistake.
@AaronLeeJohnson @alacrity
My grandson doesn’t seem to think so, he can’t get enough of it!
@AaronLeeJohnson @alacrity @Lynnerizer Fortnite has been an incredibly valuable containment facility ever since it stopped being a zombie game during development, and quarantined all the squeakers out of the lobbies of real games.
@Lynnerizer you proved his point… Children are addicted to nonsense instead of games with a story or any educational value at all
@retro603
How ironic… He’s not happy about ME playing MY GAME! You know, life needs to stop when kitty wants lovens! 
Second try at leaving a comment since my cat just swiped the phone out of my hand just before hitting say it a minute ago.
Yeah you’ve got that right! His parents created a monster without even knowing! It’s heartbreaking to know that kids are feeling those out of control feelings that go along with addiction, of any kind. I’d like to say that I’d nip it in the bud but easier said than done, especially when it’s not even my child!
At least it’s not drugs, alcohol or something worse. 
They used to say pot was the gateway to other, more worse drugs. Is gaming now thought to be the new gateway…?
@Lynnerizer @retro603 boxes - the gateway to catnip and cheese and wasting away in a sunbeam … That doesn’t sound too bad. To borrow from 2025’s Hank Hill, I could be retiring like a nepo-baby.
@pakopako @retro603
Ahh… That sunbeam has got my name on it!
That was emphatically proven to not be true long ago. Why do people still bring this up, let alone still believe it?
No. Not even close.
I love this item but not the color. Halo jokes aside, green black would be way nicer looking.
reviews at q v c
https://www.qvc.com/halo-thermoelectric-hybrid-cooler-heater-bag-15l-capacity.product.E316843.html
I have lots of things that say keeps got things hot and cold things cold, but none of them have hot wires!
“AI” Garbage.
@DrunkCat Such excellent creative writing. Keep it up and maybe you can win them back.
@DrunkCat
/showme drunk cat garbage
@yakkoTDI lol okay mr. “incorrect fact”. bot some more
How hot and how cold?
@melliott There’s some discussion about that in a previous sale’s thread:
https://meh.com/forum/topics/halo-thermoelectric-15l-hybrid-cooler-and-heater-bag
@Kyeh @melliott mine from the Meh-rathon arrived today. I have to say I’m surprised: the bag is not a “bag” but a semi-hard styrofoam box with a shoulder strap.
The Peltier effect is helped along by a fan, so while not a heat pump, it’s more than just a Peltier pad. (It’s like a convection reverse oven… or if you set it to Hot, convection EZ bake)
@Kyeh @melliott …small amount of testing…
The thermometer in the box dropped to 30 below ambient in possibly under 15 minutes (having cold drinks inside probably helped) – so around 55 degrees. The cold drinks still felt cold. The warm drinks still felt warm.
After 30~40 more minutes, the bag remained 30 below ambient (though in this case ambient raised to 90; the internal was 60). The cold water was still cool, but no longer cold. The warm water became cool to drink. This is similar to Peltier cooler a friend has (which is about twice the size and has sturdier walls), and it cools much faster than a Peltier mini-fridge. Cold drinks will stay chilled but not cold.
I’ve turned the fan off and await to see how well the insulation holds (probably 20~30 minutes to reach ambient).
My biggest gripe is that this isn’t collapsible. I was hoping for a mid-point between small fridge with compressor that’s too big and small Peltier fridge that’s also too big (when not used).
20 minutes have passed while being off and it’s at 10 degrees below ambient. Though I haven’t tested it recently, this is about as good as a regular insulated tote bag. And those things collapse.
Ahyup… a Peltier junction, which was invented in 1834, so, sure, …if by “innovative” one means “almost 200 years ago”.
Also pretty power-hungry, as a Peltier junction maxes out at about 15% of the efficiency of a standard vapor-compression refrigeration system. Don’t leave it running in your car with the engine off.
@blaadnort I remember the TV show Petticoat Junction, but I’m not familiar with Peltier Junction
@blaadnort 12V 5A suggests this will pull 60W. And it will do so all the time. I was thinking this might be a cool way to keep things cool while traveling, but 60W might be a bit much for a motorcyle alternator. And there’s definitely a big risk of draining the battery of your vehicle when stopped. I’m a big fan of Technology Connections and he has a great video explaining why these are a bad idea:
@blaadnort @einrad Agree these are not power-efficient. Don’t see a spec on the actual power draw of the cooler, but the 5A adapter is just a standard off-the-shelf 12V adapter. So probably oversized just because it’s a typical size for that type. I.e., it’s probably not consuming 60W
@blaadnort @einrad @pmarin there’s also a fan circulating air from the room, so that’s what I’m assuming is the revolutionary method (pulling air across the Peltier to cool – almost like a convection oven pulls air across heated coils to circulate)
It took 15 minutes to drop 30 degrees below room temperature; let’s see how this looks in another 30 minutes.
@blaadnort @pakopako @pmarin Fans are also nothing new with TEC cooling. A peltier element works best when the hot air gets dispersed quickly. 15 minutes to reach target temp sounds pretty good.
Would be nice to have some power reading from a kill-a-watt or something like it. I suspect that there’s a 5A peltier element with a heat sink and a computer fan in there.
@einrad Having an electric cooler on the back of a motorcycle is nice, I’ve done that before to try and keep water bottles cold on hot days, and it does an OK job. It is not super high wattage, I don’t recall the specs on mine but 60w is barely more than a single headlight bulb.
@einrad @Froggy I have that same cooler that I seem to remember getting either from Woot or Meh. The bearing on the fan motor started going out not long after and I replaced it with a PC fan.
KuoH
@Froggy @kuoh Thanks for confirming my intended purpose. I ended up buying one and I’ll report back here on actual power consumption when I have it. If it’s not too much of a power draw, it might come with me on hot summer days
The interesting part of the Technology Connections video starts at 4m39s. The main take away points are 1) Peltier coolers only cool about 30°F (16°C) below ambient - if it’s 80°F (27°C) outside, then the cooler will only get down to 50°F (10°C) at best and that’s not food safe.
2) Peltier junctions are very inefficient compared to compressor/heat-pump refrigeration and therefore pull their full current draw the whole time they’re on.
Does it have batteries or does it only work plugged in
@user97857549 plugged in.
Do. Not. Want.
I had a hard plastic version of something like this awhile back and have been meaning to get a replacement. I use cooler bags in the car for Cold groceries or hot takeout. This would be a nice easy to boost that. Like I said, I’ve had something similar before so I have appropriate expectations. We’ll see.
/showme magical misanthropic spider
@sinimsdp this is NOT a soft bag. (That is, it won’t collapse for storage)
It has semi-hard Styrofoam walls and handlebars.