Summary:
Judy starts with explaining some of the benefits of having cooled storage in a personal vehicle like keeping drinks chilled for kids after a hot game of baseball, storing cold temperature groceries on the way home to keep from spoiling, holding takeout food on the way home from the restaurant, storing champagne for celebration, and stowing away cold picnic items for a trip to the beach. From there, she starts listing some vehicles with cooled storage options (which include the Honda Odyssey, Ford Flex, Lincoln Nautilus (or MKT), Cadillac Escalade, Mercedes-Maybach S-Class, Volvo XC90 Excellence, Rolls Royce Phantom, and Bentley Mulsanne). She talks about what these vehicles have to offer in terms of cooled storage and examples of what their possible uses are.
She then gives a list of ”need to know” things about cars’ cooled storage. She informs readers that refrigerated consoles will only work while the car is running and can only stay cold for so long after its shut off. She talks about how easy it is to forget items in the cooled storage leaving food to fill the vehicle with a rotten stench while not in use. She also informs that console refrigerators can help new mothers with keeping breastmilk at a safe temperature and can also be useful for medications that need to be stored at a low temperature. Cooled storage is typically placed in the center of the car for easy access to all passengers during a ride.
Analysis:
This article lists a hefty amount of uses for various kinds of cooled storage in vehicles. Most of the cooled storage options are placed in the center of the car for use during the ride. This results in a smaller space that can either hold a reasonable amount of drinks or just a couple grocery items.
They also typically run off the air conditioning while the car is on and cannot run independently of that. Antell mentions using it for cold temperature groceries on the way home from the store, but that can only apply to a few items leaving the rest to warm up. If you’re someone who travels to multiple grocery stores to get all of your items or also shops for a large household, you’d want a sizable cooled storage option that can keep temperature while you make all of your stops.
Some cooled storage available has the power to also freeze items, but again, it is only effective while the car is on and for a short time after. You also only have a singular smaller-sized space, so there is no option available to freeze some items and refrigerate others.
Cooled storage is a useful addition to vehicles, but I’m surprised there isn’t any available that have their own backup power source (like the portable refrigerators). Cooled storage options address having a beverage on your ride but not traveling with food or groceries. They also don’t address wanting to freeze some items and cool others. Even if it was made to only address beverages, vehicles like the Maybach S-Class that promote using cooled storage to hold champagne dont have a temperature control option as different cold temperatures can effect the taste.
Source:
Publisher: A Girls Guide to Cars
Author: Judy Antell
Date: May 24, 2022
