I make vegan artisanal cheeses and live in a city apartment so the 20L Cooluli cooler fit the size and look of the only space I had for a dedicated cheese grotto. I haven't ever seen anyone convert a thermoelectric cooler (rather than a refrigerator) to a cheese cave before, so I went into this knowing it's a DIY modification. And I'm delighted so far!

First of all, the temperature holds fantastically. I need my cheeses aged for a few months between 50-60 degrees. I set the electronic thermostat to 55 and it's holds between 53-55, depending on how often I open that little front door. It's a small space, so opening the door will affect the temp a degree or so pretty quickly.

The thermostat is easy to use - LOVE simple computers! I can hear when it's actively cooling by the sound of the external fan and it rarely has to work - so: far more energy efficient than a refrigerator with a compressor. The external fan's sound is what I consider quiet. I have the set up in our solarium - not my bedroom:)

When my young cheeses are shelved, the internal humidity goes up to 90% and I need it between 70-85% for long term aging, so I found a desiccant used for safes in the electronics section at London Drugs for $15. Brings the humidity right down to 80% which is ideal for this purpose. As the cheeses age, the humidity lowers a bit more. Before I found the desiccant, I just collected those tiny desiccant pouches from supplement bottles, food bags and protein powder containers and those also work well - if you have enough of them! Those can't be reactivated in the oven though. The former can.

Because there is no internal fan in a thermoelectric cooler, I do wipe the floor and walls with a cloth twice a day to collect condensation. Again, this is necessary to control the humidity.

For air flow, I currently just rely on opening that little door two times / day when I affinage the cheese and wipe the humidity. So far so good. The cheeses are aging nicely. If I want more air flow in the future, I would simply drill all the way through the wall next to where the door hinges are because there are no electrical components there and it's just plastic. I doubt I'll need to do more than that (like install a small fan) because cheeses don't want too much air flow - just enough to breathe.

You can see for this purpose, I added a third ventilated shelf by drill-cutting holes in a plastic cutting board and using sticky electric cord clips (used in offices to try to keep your cords organized) down the side. Perfection.

Plus the cherry on top is this little 20L unit's design is retro, attractive and matches my other solarium decor. Would recommend!

This cooler mini fridge is necessary for keeping the lifesaving GastroCrom medication within its specified temperature range of 60° - 80°. For a safety margin, it's good to keep it at 65°-75°.

If you take GastroCrom to control your immune system, please purchase this product, or something like it, to avoid spoiling the medication. You may think it's within range, but it's very easy to go off.

The best use cases are:
-preserving the medicine in summer, if you lack whole-house AC. Window units can drop below the recommended zone, quite easily
-to transport from the store, in high heat smer days, or low heat freezing winter temperatures
-to transport during road trips
-to ensure safe keeping while traveling.

It's also good to install a buffer, to keep the medication from touching the electroplate. I recommend the product Cat Mat with Spikes. It's easy to cut to size, to prevent the medicine boxes from touching the too-cool, or too-warm electroplate

Again, if you take GastroCrom, buy this, and the cat mats. Save yourself months of trouble, from unknowingly taking spoiled immunomodulatory medication. It is worth the money, by far.

What I LOVE about this thing is simple_ IT WORKS! Well, it works GREAT as long as the room's temperature is say below 80°f. Yup, that's right. IF your ambient temperature is around say 68°f to about 74°f, you CAN keep the temperature somewhere around 40°f to 42°f. So this thing WAS working GREAT while the weather was cooler than now. It's now around 75 to 80°f outside, and up on the third floor, where this device lives, it gets to over 80°f. The ONLY air conditioning is in my bedroom, across from the room the device is being used in. There is little to no room in the bedroom to place the device or I would. Anyway, once the room temperature where the device is located gets past 76°f or higher, you are likely to start seeing temps close to 50°f inside the device, which is not ideal for keeping foods SAFE, according to what you are told if asking WHAT IS CONSIDDERED A SAFE TEMP. FOR FOOD REFRIGERATION? You should try keeping the temperature at or below about 40°f, but I personally feel it's 'okay' up to about 46°f. But that's just me.

All of the above makes sense when you consider the information about the device DOES tell us the thing will keep the temp 30-to-35°f BELOW AMBIENT ROOM TEMP. So, 85°f minus 35°f will result in about 50°f.

I can't stress strongly enough how GREAT this thing actually is. I just need to get a REAL refrigerator that uses a "refrigerant" that will keep the cool going, and possibly included a small little freezer! :-)

I will be putting the reimbursement towards just that, which I have already narrowed it down to THREE.

I HIGHLY recommend this for travel in the car or such, especially if you would rather use the thing for keeping food or soups HOT! It works great for that!!!

I use this to proof my sourdough (I'm new at this). I live in a hot place (90F+) so this is perfect to keep the dough cool (that is, control the sourdough temperature). Although it does it, the mini fridge temperature is a little off. It is dependent of the outside temperature. For example, if I set it at 70F, it will go to 66, 67F. So, It won't be exactly at the temperature one sets it. I have also noted that is sweats a little inside the fridge, but to be fair this could be because I change the temperature depending on the stage of the sourdough process.

It cools down quickly but is louder than I would like. With that being said it is sitting in my office near me so it may be that it is approximately 3 feet from me.