Roadpro 12V Hot Pot, 20 oz. Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I bought this hot pot, along with a 4-pack of Melitta Ready, Set Joe kits, for a road trip during which stopping for coffee, tea and hot chocolate was not an option. My executive summary of the product is that it works well (and, for those wondering about product longevity, still works even after multiple uses) and that it can boil water. We're very happy with it.
Read on to find out why I give the product 4 stars instead of 5.
The product description could do a better job of managing customer expectations. While this hot pot will boil water, it does take 35 minutes or so to bring a full 20 ounces of it to a boil. This isn't due to any defect in the product's design. It has everything to do with the fact that a car's 12-volt, direct current electrical system isn't made for high-wattage appliances. My minivan can supply up to 120W per outlet, i.e., up to 10A at 12VDC, which is not very much, and I assume this is fairly standard. In contrast, conventional hot pots draw 3-5 times as much power from household current, which is why they boil water faster.
Other than that, my few gripes about this hot pot are:
1. It comes with a mounting bracket, but no instructions that might give an inkling on how one might use it to attach the hot pot to anything on the inside of your vehicle. We ended up discarding the bracket and placing the hot pot on our center console, which is flat, as well as several other flat surfaces we created. But this requires somebody to watch the hot pot while the vehicle is in motion.
2. The lid and removable drinking cup sit on top of the pot, but don't snap or screw on. So this hot pot is NOT spillproof. See #1 above, and understand that if it tips over while it's in use, somebody might get hurt.
3. The exterior of the pot gets quite hot to the touch during use (although the handle stays nice and cool), so trying to hold it to prevent it from spilling is a bad idea.
4. The inside of the pot quickly builds up scaling from the minerals left behind when water evaporates. There's no way to reach in there with any kind of a brush to clean that out, and the interior surfaces would probably be damaged by such a brush anyway. I recommend filling the pot with white vinegar and soaking it for an hour or so after every trip to keep the scaling under control.
5. Despite what the product description says, don't even think of making soup, hot chocolate or any other prepared food in this hot pot. You will never be able to get the interior clean again if you do. Stick with instant drink and soup mixes, use a mug or bowl and pour the boiling water from the pot into your mug or bowl in order to make these foods.
6. There's no spout, and it's difficult to pour without spilling, so do be careful.
To help put the 20-ounce capacity into perspective:
- 1 standard mug holds about 10 ounces of liquid.
- A typical travel mug holds 12-14 ounces.
- A normal size disposable bowl holds 12 ounces.
- A large size disposable bowl holds 20 ounces.
- A normal size packet of hot chocolate requires 6 ounces of water and gives you about 8 ounces of hot chocolate.
As annoying as these shortcomings may sound, they're minor compared with the comfort and convenience of being able to have real, high-quality coffee (that's what the Ready, Set, Joe kits were for!), tea, cocoa and soup while traveling in places where service stations are few and far between or just nonexistent.

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Roadpro 12-Volt Car Pot is manufactured to store tea, soup, hot chocolate and many more. This car pot is constructed with durable material that ensures durability. It's inner lid closes tightly to prevent spilling and the outer lid can be used as cup. This car pot features safety circuit protection and is powered from the vehicle's cigarette lighter socket.

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