RoadPro RPBH-012 12-Volt Beverage Heater, Black

Works good just a little slow

Bought this for a road trip and it was a life savor! I had a multi day drive through snow storms, and I was able to reheat my coffee/tea as needed to keep my beverages hot during a very cold & snowy drive.It should be noted that BOTH ends of this get extremely hot, so you really have to be careful when unplugging it after your beverage is heated. I *highly* recommend having a small towel ready to wrap this in after use so that the hot ends don’t burn anything they come in contact with. Definitely wrap the ends separately from the cord, as the ends are hot enough to melt the coating on the cord. It would have been nice if this came in a washable bag with insulated pockets/covers for each end. Washable because the end that was in the beverage gets coated with the beverage and needs to be washed later.

We bought a portable water heater from a car, but unfortunately it doesn't have enough power to even heat up a regular mug of water. The water is hot at the top, but everything stays cold at the bottom. We had to return it.

I found this unit to heat up small liquid amounts (between 8 to 12 ounces) reasonably well. I tested it on a cup of water (8 ounces) from the refrigerator that was roughly 37-38 degrees Fahrenheit. After 2 minutes, it was warm. After 4 minutes it was very hot (more than hot enough to drink) but not boiling. Even after leaving it in for a few more minutes, it never reached a boiling point.Yes, you can use it on a larger amount of liquid that is in a large drinking glass, or in a bowl of soup and constantly stir it, but the unit is not designed or intended to be used in this manner. It is designed to hook onto a cup (porcelain/ceramic/glass) containing a plain liquid. More importantly, it is not designed to be used for more than 10 minutes at a time (which would be needed for heating larger volumes of liquids). The longer you use it, the hotter the plug will get (eventually to the point where the barrel plug will overheat and potentially damage the casing or other internal components). It does have a 15-amp fuse inside the barrel plug so hopefully that would blow before any damage or smoking occurs. The 3-foot cord is 18-gauge wire, which “should” safely carry 15 amps for 8-10 minutes. The outer insulation is pretty thick so the cord never felt hot to the touch after 6-7 minutes of use (the barrel plug did).As a few others have stated, this heater pulls a lot of amps. I measured the amps with my clamp meter and it ranged between 13.75 to 14.25 amps, which will put you in the area of 180 watts. I would make sure the 12V accessory port in the vehicle can handle 20 amps (or has a 20-amp fuse). You may be able to squeak by with a 15-amp fused port. A few other reviewers complained that the unit blew the fuse in their vehicle. If it blew right away, they may have had a 10-amp fuse on the port. A 15-amp fuse should not blow, unless it overheats, but a 20-amp fuse gives you more of a cushion. I gave this item four stars and would only recommend it if you intend to use for its intended purpose of heating beverages (up to 12 oz.) and will not use it for more than 8-10 minutes at a time without letting it cool down for 2-3 minutes in between uses.

Works as it should and promtly arrived safe and sound. Works for us. Highly recommend.

If you were hoping for the metal clip hanger shown in their item picture forget about it. I paid double the cost of the other cheaper heaters because I thought that with a metal clip, I could bend it a little to accommodate a cup with thicker walls. Sorry to say has the same plastic clip as all the rest of them and also didn’t have the clear plastic piece on the element to protect your cup. I like my Roadpro oven so I thought I could trust that I would get what the picture showed. Well now I know and whoever reads this does too.By the numbers: Heated an 8 oz. mug of room temp tap water to 140F in about 5 minutes. My Jackery power station display said it was using a steady 138 watts.Both the plug and handle were only warm, not hot to the touch. Probably because it was a short duration and maybe also because the Jackery output stays pretty close to 12v. But I’m only heating water for instant coffee and 140 is hot enough for me.PS...Just for a test, I tried this heater with a different, cheaper battery pack that has a 12v DC output, and the heater wouldn’t work. The red indicator light on the immersion heater would flash briefly and then go off when I would plug it in. I knew the heater wasn’t defective because it worked just fine with the Jackery. I plugged a voltage meter into the DC out on the battery pack and found that it was putting out 16v through the DC adapter instead of 12v. I guess this heater has some type of protection when it detects higher voltage...good thing. So check the voltage output of your power source if this heater doesn’t seem to be working.